I spent the day, well most of it, out in the hall reading with kiddos. I am so impressed! I believe EVERY student is at or above grade level with their reading ability. Even more exciting is that most, if not all, were able to truly understand the deeper meaning and inferences in the books! This means more to me than anything because they are TRUE READERS!
We didn't have a sub for gym yet again, so I took them outside to play and enjoy the weather. This is becoming a pattern for us... :) Also, since today was the first day the students did the teaching in Math, I participated for that part.
Mrs. Baron was our sub and she read a few books with them--After the Fall about Humpty Dumpty and two books during Social Studies about immigration and culture--One Green Apple and The Name Jar. They also wrote using a Guinness World Record prompt, got a new StoryWorks magazine and had some fun with application of math skills with comics and more Guinness World Records.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
We did it!
We earned our final potato head piece! The end of the day was a little shaky on keeping it but we did it! We'll decide on our celebration soon.
After some word study fun and Music, we learned how we will be earning field day and then completed a survey about our feelings about ourselves and school. In The City of Ember, Lina showed the instructions to Doon and he agrees they are important so he's going to sneak Lina in to the pipeworks to look for a door... We took the Star Reading Assessment--this was our 3rd and final time to complete this. The assessments, again, are just one piece of the puzzle and let me know where your child is in their learning and how much they've grown as a reader this year. Once finished, they read and did some free writing. Lunch was loud :( and recess was absolutely gorgeous! After quiet time, we worked on our lesson plans for the math we'll be teaching this week. Have your kiddo practice with you! We ended the day taking the Star Math Assessment just to get it over with! :)
After some word study fun and Music, we learned how we will be earning field day and then completed a survey about our feelings about ourselves and school. In The City of Ember, Lina showed the instructions to Doon and he agrees they are important so he's going to sneak Lina in to the pipeworks to look for a door... We took the Star Reading Assessment--this was our 3rd and final time to complete this. The assessments, again, are just one piece of the puzzle and let me know where your child is in their learning and how much they've grown as a reader this year. Once finished, they read and did some free writing. Lunch was loud :( and recess was absolutely gorgeous! After quiet time, we worked on our lesson plans for the math we'll be teaching this week. Have your kiddo practice with you! We ended the day taking the Star Math Assessment just to get it over with! :)
Monday, April 30, 2018
Whoops! Oh well.
From looking at the dates, I wasn't very good at updating my blog. I'm sorry. I'm getting back into the swing of things with getting to teach everything again. I'm also super busy outside of school with my charity.
Hopefully, your kiddos filled you in on the fun we had last week making games in Math and then playing them while they got to score each other on them as well. We also made dictionary entries for our own names/selves, wrote to some pretty creepy prompts, read and learned about storing and transferring energy using dominos and chain reactions.
Today, we had some word play fun for word study where we tried to find words that began and ended with the same letter. Dante was the winner with this! In The City of Ember, Lina tried to show Lizzie the instructions but she didn't seem to think they were very important...she's made a plan to show them to Doon tomorrow. In Reader's Workshop, we are beginning the Any Book Book Club where we each read a just right book for us and will be able to discuss in a book club type atmosphere. Students are to pick a just right book by Wednesday. In Writing, they are free writing, however, we discussed the non-negotiables of writing as a 4th grader: capitals for proper nouns and the beginning of sentences, ending punctuation, paragraphs and holes on the left! In Math, I taught them the traditional method of multiplication (the way we learned it!) and then they practiced. However, that wasn't the goal of my lesson. I asked them what I did and they explained HOW I taught them: new skill, examples, explanation, practice time, etc. So, they will be planning lessons and teaching math this week! They think this is pretty easy but then I asked them to look at how they would be teaching us a new skill and if they would enjoy learning it this way... back to the drawing board! :) What is your kiddo going to teach the rest of the class?? Then, in Science, we had some discovery time with energy balls. This was so cool! This sparked our discussion on how electricity work. Ask your child-so cool!
Hopefully, your kiddos filled you in on the fun we had last week making games in Math and then playing them while they got to score each other on them as well. We also made dictionary entries for our own names/selves, wrote to some pretty creepy prompts, read and learned about storing and transferring energy using dominos and chain reactions.
Today, we had some word play fun for word study where we tried to find words that began and ended with the same letter. Dante was the winner with this! In The City of Ember, Lina tried to show Lizzie the instructions but she didn't seem to think they were very important...she's made a plan to show them to Doon tomorrow. In Reader's Workshop, we are beginning the Any Book Book Club where we each read a just right book for us and will be able to discuss in a book club type atmosphere. Students are to pick a just right book by Wednesday. In Writing, they are free writing, however, we discussed the non-negotiables of writing as a 4th grader: capitals for proper nouns and the beginning of sentences, ending punctuation, paragraphs and holes on the left! In Math, I taught them the traditional method of multiplication (the way we learned it!) and then they practiced. However, that wasn't the goal of my lesson. I asked them what I did and they explained HOW I taught them: new skill, examples, explanation, practice time, etc. So, they will be planning lessons and teaching math this week! They think this is pretty easy but then I asked them to look at how they would be teaching us a new skill and if they would enjoy learning it this way... back to the drawing board! :) What is your kiddo going to teach the rest of the class?? Then, in Science, we had some discovery time with energy balls. This was so cool! This sparked our discussion on how electricity work. Ask your child-so cool!
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Mystery Science
In Word Study, we worked with recognizing and understanding dictionary entries. It took some cognitive flexing for them to make sense of the directions but they did. There was a sub in music so they watched a movie and weren't too happy about it. :( In our meeting, we shared our favorite games and then decided to play a few rounds of Apples to Apples. Then, in The City of Ember, we learned more about Doon and the Pipeworks. They read independently and then Mrs. Hider did some more teaching of author's craft as they read, Bad Seed. She also had them write to a really creepy prompt~I wouldn't even read them! Students were crazy during recess I guess... however, some continued to play Apples to Apples. In Math Workshop, we continued to work on our games and we finished up the day with Mystery Science investigating transfer of energy and stored energy with dominos. Very cool!
Monday, April 23, 2018
Clean up?
So, seriously, our room looked like an explosion of trash happened. Students would literally just drop their wrapper on the floor and not even pick it up. We had paper, goldfish, water bottles, pencils, legos, etc. all over the place and nobody seemed to notice. Ugh. So, we cleaned and then we stopped and we looked around. This is what the room should look like when I say, "Clean up and get ready for ____." So, tomorrow, we're going to use our Mr. Potato Head that so desperately needs some attention, to help. Every time the room is clean, they get a piece. Let's see how long this takes...
We are working with dictionary terms in Word Study this week not necessarily for using the actual paper dictionary but even our ipads. They need to know what they are looking at when looking up what words mean. After Art, in meeting, we shared about our weekend in 4 words or less and then played, Just Like Me! In The City of Ember, Lina enjoyed her first day as messenger but her curiosity did get her into a bit of trouble while at the Gathering Hall, waiting on the Mayor. After reading independently, Mrs. Hider shared about author's craft and why author's make the choices they make. Then, they worked in their StoryWorks with the fiction story about a pretty amazing dog! In Writer's Workshop, they followed a prompt and wrote about receiving a special ring! (However, it frustrated me when they asked if they needed to write in paragraphs...DUH!) After lunch and recess-we made it before the rain!-we worked on creating our math games which took us til the end of the day.
We are working with dictionary terms in Word Study this week not necessarily for using the actual paper dictionary but even our ipads. They need to know what they are looking at when looking up what words mean. After Art, in meeting, we shared about our weekend in 4 words or less and then played, Just Like Me! In The City of Ember, Lina enjoyed her first day as messenger but her curiosity did get her into a bit of trouble while at the Gathering Hall, waiting on the Mayor. After reading independently, Mrs. Hider shared about author's craft and why author's make the choices they make. Then, they worked in their StoryWorks with the fiction story about a pretty amazing dog! In Writer's Workshop, they followed a prompt and wrote about receiving a special ring! (However, it frustrated me when they asked if they needed to write in paragraphs...DUH!) After lunch and recess-we made it before the rain!-we worked on creating our math games which took us til the end of the day.
Friday, April 20, 2018
Fabulous!
It was a great day to have a great day, so we did! We made it all week without our iPads and nobody seemed to even care today! We read more, wrote more and thought more...we flexed and grew our cognitive muscles! Woohoo!
In Word Study, we created word searches yesterday with our high frequency words so today, we switched with a partner and solved. Right after gym, we had a tornado drill. Then, in meeting, we made buckets. These are just visual representations of our feelings. Yesterday, Mrs. Hider read, How Full is Your Bucket? which taught us about adding drops to our bucket (compliments and kindness) or emptying our bucket (put downs, negativity...). After we decorated our buckets, we hung them around the room and will be filling out drops to put in to each other's buckets. In The City of Ember, we followed Lina home and met her Granny and little sister, Poppy. We read independently and then played parts of speech Jeopardy! Man, these kids are way too competitive! It is sometimes very rude... so, after discussing better sportsmanship, we finished out our morning with some Mad Libs to practice using parts of speech! We had lunch and recess and then came in and browsed at the Book Fair. We took our M4T assessment and then went out for some extra recess and then worked on creating our own math games until the end of the day.
In Word Study, we created word searches yesterday with our high frequency words so today, we switched with a partner and solved. Right after gym, we had a tornado drill. Then, in meeting, we made buckets. These are just visual representations of our feelings. Yesterday, Mrs. Hider read, How Full is Your Bucket? which taught us about adding drops to our bucket (compliments and kindness) or emptying our bucket (put downs, negativity...). After we decorated our buckets, we hung them around the room and will be filling out drops to put in to each other's buckets. In The City of Ember, we followed Lina home and met her Granny and little sister, Poppy. We read independently and then played parts of speech Jeopardy! Man, these kids are way too competitive! It is sometimes very rude... so, after discussing better sportsmanship, we finished out our morning with some Mad Libs to practice using parts of speech! We had lunch and recess and then came in and browsed at the Book Fair. We took our M4T assessment and then went out for some extra recess and then worked on creating our own math games until the end of the day.
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Days 3 and 4
We have almost made it a full week without our ipads and we are still, so much more engaged and participating! They, too, are realizing they're able to survive. :)
Yesterday, after Music, we had our final Guidance lesson with Mrs. Wyskiver about bullying and appropriateness with social media. Then, we had Story Time from Space! where a real astronaut on the International Space Station read a book to us! It was very cool! Then, we began our new read aloud, The City of Ember and were introduced to Lina and Doon and Ember. We read independently and then played a game in Writer's Workshop for verbs and adverbs. After lunch and recess, we went over our M4T and then finished up with our Skittle Math. We took a brief break to go watch Mrs. Lairson's 1st grade students' play and then came back to finish our math.
I was out this morning but they finished their informational report presentations! This afternoon, in Math Workshop, we discussed what games have and what we need to do to make successful games. Then, we played some math games so we could get ideas of what we wanted our games to be like. We completed our day discussing the different people in Ohio (in the 1800s) as well as different religions and the evolution of school.
Yesterday, after Music, we had our final Guidance lesson with Mrs. Wyskiver about bullying and appropriateness with social media. Then, we had Story Time from Space! where a real astronaut on the International Space Station read a book to us! It was very cool! Then, we began our new read aloud, The City of Ember and were introduced to Lina and Doon and Ember. We read independently and then played a game in Writer's Workshop for verbs and adverbs. After lunch and recess, we went over our M4T and then finished up with our Skittle Math. We took a brief break to go watch Mrs. Lairson's 1st grade students' play and then came back to finish our math.
I was out this morning but they finished their informational report presentations! This afternoon, in Math Workshop, we discussed what games have and what we need to do to make successful games. Then, we played some math games so we could get ideas of what we wanted our games to be like. We completed our day discussing the different people in Ohio (in the 1800s) as well as different religions and the evolution of school.
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