Bittersweet

Today was very bittersweet for us...we had a fun day of out-of-the-ordinaries and our holiday celebration, but it was my last day so...

We worked on our morning choice activities and i-time and then after a musical rehearsal, we came back for an Hour of Code! We discussed and discovered what "code" and "coding" are and then had a blast during our hour! We also discovered that this was one area where they were so much better than me! :) Then, to continue with theme, we got into groups and read lots of picture books, found the theme of each book and then found some common themes in the books. They did an AWESOME job with theme, which is a tough concept, especially for kiddos! I hope that I didn't really ruin picture books for them, but opened their eyes to how beautiful and amazing these books truly are. Almost the entire class ate lunch with me in the room today and then had indoor recess. They wanted to continue coding during quiet time but needed to complete their M4T assessment. After, it was celebration time! We completed a STEM challenge to build an igloo with 100 bricks of ice (marshmallows) and 50 beam (toothpicks). With it feeling so cold with all of that ice, they need some hot cocoa! So, I brought in my Keurig and made them all hot chocolate! Luckily, the presents I bought them were delivered at 2:30 so we were able to do a modified book game with choosing books and stealing?! Every student got a book though! It might not have been their first choice (there were some popular books!) but I hope that everyone got something they'll enjoy. Our day concluded with mandatory hugs for the teacher! :)

Recess!

So, the kids have been staying in with me for lunch and recess this week since I won't see them until after the new year, after Friday. However, today, I told them that I had some work I had to do, out of the classroom, and that they'd have to choose to stay in for lunch or recess but I couldn't do both. They chose lunch. Big mistake! They were freezing! I took some pictures of them once inside because they were using rugs and the yoga mat to cover up! It was a sight! Some even tried to warm up using Lucky's heat lamp! :)

It was a crazy Thursday! We had a school community meeting at 9:25 and then went to the media center for a buddy book introduction with Mrs. Dornburgh and then we made blankets for patients at the James during our mindset special (small things make a big difference!). Once we finally returned to our room, we read two more books for understanding theme: The Heart and the Bottle and Red: A Crayon's Story. They are so mad at me because they think I've ruined picture books for them because they say they're all sad...I said that they are finally understanding the deeper meaning of these books and how they are bigger than just entertainment. We read independently and then got our December StoryWorks to peruse and read for entertainment-they'll be working more with it next week. After quiet time, in Math Workshop, we learned about line plots and how to make and read and analyze them. They feel pretty special too, because after this year, this will no longer be a 4th grade standard, so they are the last 4th graders to learn it! They discovered that it wasn't as easy as they thought. We'll keep practicing tomorrow. Finally, as with all other crazy Thursdays, we ended our day with rehearsal. The musical is next week!

Brrr!

Wow-it got cold! Hope you are able to stay warm this evening!

After morning choice and i-time, we practiced our musical in Music and in our morning meeting, we shared what brings us joy and played a game called, The Wright Family with a little prize today! In read aloud, we read, The Woman Who Named Things and Chopsticks and dug deep to identify and understand the theme of each. After reading independently, we worked with our StoryWorks paired text for "Christian the Lion" to find the common theme of the two texts. In Writer's Workshop, we looked in our writer's notebooks at previous story ideas to see if we could develop any of them for opinion writing. We also created a list of topics we feel strongly about so we have some ideas for when we write opinions. Unfortunately, because of the earlier rain, we had indoor recess. After quiet time, in Math Chaos-I mean, Workshop :)-some took the Unit 3 Post test, some took the Unit 4 Post test, some took the Unit 5 Pre-test and others practiced equivalent fractions and comparing/ordering fractions so they can test tomorrow or Thursday. After the chaos, we worked with Ohio Studies Weekly, an informational magazine to help learn about Ohio. Today, we read and learned about the early people of Ohio and completed a crossword puzzle. We practiced skimming the information and using the headings to help us answer questions.

Enjoying each other!

We had a good day today. I am cherishing the last few days I have with them before I leave for my surgery. I know it doesn't seem like I'll be gone long but when you tack on winter break, it's going to be 3 1/2 weeks until I see them again! I'm going to go through withdrawal! :) So, since I don't have any lunch time duties this week, they have the option to eat lunch and stay in for recess with me.

In Art, Mrs. Bowers shared that she's having some difficulty because some are not finishing and then she's just not able to get around to everyone. I shared this understanding with them as fractions (because, why not?!) and each student is 1/30. If there are 60 minutes in an hour, each student gets 2 minutes every hour of my time. Now, some need more than 2 minutes and others need less but as we learned earlier in the year, "Fair is every student getting what they need in order to be successful." I think understanding it from this perspective helped them to realize that even though I'd like to devote all my time to each of them, I have to prioritize and help them as needed. In meeting, we shared one thing from our weekend and played category challenge with pets. In read aloud, we are working on digging deeper in our understanding and identifying theme, so we are reading picture books this week to understand theme and author's message/purpose more. Today, we read, Snappsy the Alligator and Faithful Elephants. Hopefully, your child can tell you the themes of these books. We spent a large chunk reading independently and in writer's workshop, we created some boxes and bullets to gather ideas for topics for opinion writing. After quiet time, in Math Workshop, we began by looking at fraction of sets and then split up into 2 groups to continue our understanding so some kiddos worked with Ms. Hanlin in math today. We ended our day working on our brochures.

Better

Today was definitely better than yesterday! We began our crazy Thursday withOUT morning choice. Today, we began by cleaning and organizing our binders and our tubs. Then, they moved on to ST Math for i-time. I also opened the warm fuzzy store for the first time this year. Ask your kiddos if they bought anything! After our mindset special, we finished the fantasy chapter and read a tiny bit of girl fiction and found out that Trip is a girl in this chapter! This should be fun! We read independently and then in Reader's Workshop, used the text features we discussed yesterday to answer questions about the story and the author's craft. In Writer's Workshop, we looked at the writing checklist for opinion writing and searched for the differences between 3rd and 4th grade. Knowing the expectations and differences help a lot when learning and writing. Unfortunately, it was indoor recess due to the rain and after quiet time, we went over a couple questions students had with their Math 4 Today and then picked up where we left off yesterday in Math Workshop. I saw a lot of light bulbs today as they FINALLY grasped the understanding of equivalent fractions! Our day ended with musical rehearsal.

Insanity

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results... we haven't earned a potato head piece in quite a while. We are talking too much and it's not just that it's loud and chaotic but our work is suffering! If needed, we're going to be spending some recess time working next week and I absolutely hate taking recess time away because I think it is precious and well needed, however, we are not using our class time wisely...

After a very noisy start to the morning and a good music rehearsal, Mrs. Wyskiver came in for our first guidance lesson of the year. We focused on grit and resiliency. It was fun and I participated in the challenge too! We also watched a video with some special kiddos singing the song, "Stronger." Then, in our meeting, we tried to change our "R" about having a sub during my surgery by asking questions to her ahead of time. They came up with some pretty good questions, like: What is your teaching style?" How do you do rewards? Consequences? Do you stay on task/schedule? What is your favorite subject to teach? Then, we thought it might be good to share some things about us too, so we are going to each share one thing we want her to know about us! After saying the Pledge of Allegiance, we read a tiny bit from Nightmare at the Book Fair. We are still in the midst of the Fantasy chapter and now Trip has a sidekick! We read independently and discussed non-fiction text features and how they help readers using the story in our StoryWorks for Reader's Workshop. In Writer's Workshop, we went over the details from the debate both for and against the idea of "Is it good to be bored sometimes?" After our discussion, they wrote their opinion. In Math Workshop, we continued with equivalent fractions using name collection boxes and clocks or focused on the whole. In Science, we continued working on our landform brochures for weathering and erosion.

E + R = O revisited

So, they all confessed as soon as they saw me that their talking and behavior was not ideal yesterday. I asked why and their response was that some feel that they can do whatever they want with a sub there. This led our discussion to them complaining about me being absent and about hating subs. I totally get it. I didn't want to be out yesterday and get poked and prodded and all of that. This then led to a reminder about E + R = O. We cannot change the events that happen (a sub in the classroom for them or my pre-surgery testing), however, we have complete control over our response. After we discussed this from yesterday, I shared with them about our out-of-the-ordinaries for today which was STAR testing. Again, with the complaining. Again, with the, we cannot change the events that happen (taking STAR or giving STAR), but we can change our response! This is the adjusting and adapting part of the R-factor. So, what ended up happening is a lot of kids took their time and did their best work on the STAR assessments which is going to give me a lot of good data to help guide and personalize my instruction. This new response made the outcome much better!

Other than STAR testing, we finished some work up from yesterday in Reading as well as completed some background information for opinion writing using a StoryWorks article on if it's good for kids to be bored sometimes and looking at BOTH sides of the argument. In Math Workshop, we had a gallery walk looking at the posters we made yesterday about sharing sub sandwiches. We had an excellent discussion about this too! Our day concluded by going to the media center and continuing to learn about research with Mrs. Dornburgh.

Is it Thursday?!

So yesterday felt like Halloween again and today feels like a crazy Thursday! Oh well, we're rolling with it! :)

We finally finished our 60 letters/cards for #OhioKindnessWeek for the Ohio Department of Education for the Children's Hospitals of Ohio! We also continued to practice our signatures and cursive writing. We had music rehearsal during specials and then went to the MakerSpace for a STEM challenge with Mrs. Kalb's class-Flying Turkeys! So much fun creating our turkeys and trying to slingshot/catapult them over the fence so they don't end up on the dinner table! Then, in meeting, I shared a "poem" with them that I made of some of the things I am thankful for about them. We had some time to finish our small moment stories if not finished, our Wonder turkeys if not finished and read independently. After lunch and recess, we practiced multiplication during quiet time and then went to the media center for a "Friendsgiving!" vertical team activity. We had a friendship mix snack, charades, origami turkeys, coloring pages, handprint wreath, back to back drawing, Jeepers Peepers game (like Headbanz) and other challenges and activities to complete with our friends! #blessed

Is it Halloween again?

Oh my goodness! They were super chatty today and it was like it was Halloween again! They must be excited for our 2-day week! (Me too! :))

We began our day with learning how to sign our names in cursive! They aren't very good so they should keep practicing! ;) After Art, in our meeting, we had a WONDERful discussion about the movie and differences from the book. In Nightmare at the Book Fair, Trip left the animal world and woke up in a Fantasy. This chapter really encompasses what the author is trying to do with over emphasizing what all he does. He makes it longer, uses tough vocabulary and lots of words to say what could be said in just a few, includes a quest, good vs. evil and lots of other fun and fantastical stuff! We read independently and in Writer's Workshop, we made Wonder turkeys, sharing who has shown us kindness and how we spread that kindness and #choosekind. We practiced multiplication during quiet time and then in Math Workshop, those that had been working on the cooking project, snuck away to secretly make their recipe for the rest of the class while we reviewed and practiced equivalent fractions and played Uncover with our fraction kits. We ended our day finishing our early people of Ohio illustrations or interviews and our weathering and erosion brochures.

Typical

Our day began with morning choice and i-time where most of us finished our word sort with short and long vowels. After gym, in meeting, with the movie Wonder coming out, we shared what we thought was the worst book to movie we've seen. The BFG and A Dog's Purpose were two of the biggest. Then, we played a few rounds of Coseeki. After saying the Pledge of Allegiance, we began the Animal Fiction chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair where Trip is a cat! We read independently, finished our inference kidblog activity, published our small moment story and wrote letters/cards to Children's Hospital as part of #OHKindnessWeek! It was a bit warmer recess today and after quiet time, we continued our work with finding equivalent fractions using unifix cubes and tangrams. Again, it's easy to find equivalent fractions using fraction strips because that is how we learned it but applying that understanding to different situations--unifix cubes, tangrams, unusually cut cakes, etc.--is more challenging. We also had some time to play Cover Up. We ended our day with Social Studies where we continued reading about the prehistoric people of Ohio and either illustrating or creating an "interview" with/of prehistoric people.

right on schedule! (for once)

I wrote our schedule on the board today and made sure that we stuck to it! We got everything accomplished! Hooray! :)

Our crazy Thursday began with morning choice and i-time followed by our morning meeting where we shared what we are looking forward to for Thanksgiving and played a little "Would you rather?" Thanksgiving edition. We're about half and half for gravy on mashed potatoes or not. Then, we did a word study lesson on vowels-short and long. I thought this would be easy and mostly review but it wasn't so I'm glad we did it! After our mindset special, we finished the historical fiction chapter after Trip walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong, in Nightmare at the Book Fair. We also read the second intermission-Easy Reader-which was a lot like Dr. Seuss, about Reed McReedy. We read independently and then went over our inference work with informational text. We also got a kidblog assignment to read a literary text and completed a question about them. Some of us got started on this or even finished it while others continued publishing our small moment stories. After a very cold recess, in math workshop, we kept working with fractions by completing a problem about an unusual baker. Some really struggled with this understanding. Sometimes, even though we understand the basic idea, we have trouble applying our thinking to different situations. So, please, if cooking or coming across fractions at home, see if they can apply their understanding. (Uh-oh, this recipe calls for 1/2 cup but I only have a 1/4 cup...what can I do?) Our day concluded with musical rehearsal.

Kuleana

One kiddo said, as we were dismissing, "Why do we have so many rules?!" (I had just shared to stay on the right side of the hallway and wait until the 5th graders left, and to not cut through the office... Anyway, as I headed home, I started thinking about this. Do we have too many rules? Driving, on the right side of the road, I realized, "No. We have just the right amount of rules because the rules we have serve a purpose." So, in our meeting, we read a few books, Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen being one of them and watched a video with a book being read aloud, What If Everybody Did That? The creator of the video started it with the word, Kuleana-which is a Hawaiian word meaning Responsibility and Self-Discipline. I promised to only 'create' rules when there is a specific purpose and they promised to follow rules because they know there is a specific purpose for the rules. Ask your kiddo about Kuleana.

We've also been working on fractions in Math and making inferences in Reading. In Writing, we're trying to get our small moment stories published but it's taking some kiddos FOREVER! In Science, we are continuing our work on our weathering and erosion landform brochures and we are at about 40,000 years ago in Ohio's History... :)

ACTIVE participation

I think I mentioned this phrase many, many times today... it's getting really frustrating that some-even after 12 weeks already-aren't actively participating in their education. I don't know what to do to get some of them "off the bench" but hopefully, soon, we'll be playing with an entire team.

We continued our subtraction with Exploding Dots during i-time and then after gym, in meeting, we shared about our weekend and played a few rounds of "Would you rather?" In Nightmare at the Book Fair, Trip somehow ended up on the Apollo 11 headed for the moon! (We're reading the Historical Fiction chapter.) We read silently and then Mrs. Bargar came in to teach us how to evaluate websites. We are not very good at this...we think too much is true just because it looks nice on the web. Ask your kiddo about the tree octopus!! All but 2 groups thought this was real! We've got some work to do with this before researching begins. We had lunch and recess and during quiet time this week, instead of completing our M4T, we are taking an end of the first trimester check-in. Then, in math workshop, we made fraction kits. Our day ended with sharing our timelines and continuing with our study of Ohio's history.

Brrrrrr...

So, this was me on recess duty on Friday. I HATE to be cold! However, it seems that the kiddos don't really care as there were students wearing SHORTS! or with only sweatshirts and not coats! Unfortunately for me, we go outside for recess as long as it is 20 degrees so make sure your kiddo dresses or prepares for the weather!

In i-time, we learned subtraction with Exploding Dots! We did some annihilations and un-explosions with Tods (anti-dots).
http://gdaymath.com/lessons/explodingdots/4-3-subtraction/  I'm trying everything I can to get some of these kiddos to understand place and value enough to manipulate numbers to add, subtract, multiply and divide and for some, I think this might be the way! Please, please have your kiddo show you!

After music, we came back and in meeting, read, H is for Honor, and used fortune tellers to learn about Veterans Day. In Nightmare at the Book Fair, we completed the Mystery chapter and also the Reference intermission. We are really understanding the different genres of literature and are intrigued at maybe finding some new books to read. Friday was also the end of the first trimester so we submitted our ___ "book" challenge information so far. We usually have these on our ipads at school but since they submitted it on Canvas, you can see your child's progress now too! Have them share it with you! We read independently and got caught up on our Reader's Workshop work and small moment story. After our frigid recess, we completed our Math 4 Today assessment and if the majority of the class gets 8, 9 or 10/10, there will be a surprise for them Monday morning. In Math Workshop, we kept working with understanding fractions. We ended our day working on our landform brochures.

Late

We had an orchestra concert last night so I wasn't able to post a blog. Here's what we did yesterday and today...

Wednesday:
We worked on our morning choice activities and with exploding dots-addition, during i-time. Then, after Art, in our meeting, we completed a listening activity called, The Wright Family. In Nightmare at the Book Fair, the aliens were on Earth to meet with the leaders of the US to give a solution for our damage of the Earth with pollution and using up of fossil fuels, in the Science Fiction chapter. We also began the Humor chapter by farting. (I call this the 10 year old boy humor chapter.) We read independently and worked on understanding the characters and their choices in, The Good Deed in StoryWorks. We also continued to draft, revise, edit and publish our small moment stories. In math, we worked on understanding and representing fractions. We ended our day with an AWESOME MakerSpace where they used their creative minds to create toys!

Thursday:
This morning, we had a school community meeting where we discussed Making a Difference, honored Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Wolfe-2 Air Force veterans that are also teachers at ADE and heard from our 5th graders on Capstone. When we returned to the room, we secured our understanding of Exploding Dots with addition and in meeting shared how we help to make a difference. We ended our day discussing BCD and what we can do instead of it. (Ask your kiddo!) In Nightmare at the Book Fair, we finished up the Humor chapter with Captain Obvious and his side kicks saying immature and inappropriate words-just for fun. Boogers and snot! :) We read independently and continued our reader's workshop and writer's workshop work. After going over our Math 4 Today, we jumped in with fractions and continued working in one of three groups: cooking project, addition/subtraction of fractions or equivalent fractions/understanding fractions. Our day ended with musical rehearsal.

Pen Pals and Exploding Dots

We had a package this morning from our pen pal, Ian! (He was the kiddo with the same syndrome that Auggie had in Wonder.) Each child received a letter! And he wants to Skype with us and send us some videos! They were super excited to get mail and are already writing back.

During i-time today, I shared Exploding Dots as a strategy for addition. Some of our kids already learned this as an extension but I tried it with the kiddos that are still having trouble with adding and subtracting large numbers. (We'll be moving on to subtraction later in the week.) Here are the links to videos that explain what it is but see if your child can show you...
http://gdaymath.com/lessons/explodingdots/1-4-1-leftarrow-10-machine/
http://gdaymath.com/lessons/explodingdots/3-2-addition/

After gym and reading our letters from Ian, we finished the chapter on Sports Fiction in Nightmare at the Book Fair. We also read the Adventure chapter and began the Science Fiction chapter too. As we read, we are documenting the characteristics of each genre of literature. However, the author, humorously puts every possible characteristic into the chapters so they are fun to read. We read independently and then worked with vocabulary for/and read a new story in StoryWorks. We also continued working on our small moments stories: drafting, revising, editing and some began publishing. In Math Workshop, we split up into 3 groups: equivalent fractions, addition and subtraction of fractions and a project to help secure our understanding of fractions. Finally, we brought out our secondary sources (textbooks) and learned a bit about Ohio and Ohio's history. Did you know we are considered Ohioans? (Alejandro thought that was very interesting!)

New beginnings

Since we ended our read aloud of The Wild Robot yesterday, we began a new book today! We also began a new unit in Math Workshop so today felt like we started some new things. 

Our day began with morning choice and i-time, followed by Music. In meeting, we shared what we did/do when the power goes out (because if you live over where I live, this happened for a couple of hours last night!). We then began our new book, Nightmare at the Book Fair by Dan Gutman. This book is an exaggerated look into the different genres of literature through a kid that is actually IN each different genre! Today, he was stuck in Horror and Sports Fiction... We read independently and then completed a comprehension quiz on The Curse of Winter and kept on drafting, revising and editing our small moment narratives. After lunch and recess, we completed our Math 4 Today assessment and then moved on to fractions. First of all, this group has a great base of knowledge about fractions! Then, some took a pre-test over adding and subtracting fractions before working with sharing pizzas. We all shared pizzas equally among children and had to work to figure out how much each kiddo got. Beware-we were all hungry for pizza after this so they might be asking! After discussing and sharing our strategies, we moved on to Science. We have a great understanding of what weathering and erosion is so now we are applying it to make brochures for specific landforms sharing this information. 

Goodbye, Nick and Lauren!

Today, we said goodbye to our Academy EDU students, Nick and Lauren. We loved having them be a part of our team, our class. They shared that they really loved being here too! I think they'll both make great teachers!

It was also a crazy Thursday, so, of course, we had a crazy schedule. We began with a vertical team 3-act math task about Bucky the Beaver, Wisconsin's mascot. Then, we had our mindset special and when we returned, we took a few minutes to enjoy a treat from Miss Lauren and said our goodbyes. We also finished, The Wild Robot and have heard that there's a sequel so we HAD to go to Peter Brown's blog to find out when it is coming out! We read independently and kept drafting and revising and editing our small moments narratives. After lunch and recess and some quiet time, we went over our Math 4 Today and then moved on to Science where we showed weathering and erosion with chocolate chip cookies! Yum! We ended our day with music rehearsal.

Not as bad as expected

Well, yesterday and today weren't as bad as expected and I'm sure part of it is because we prepared ahead of time. Kudos to us!

Yesterday, we flip-flopped our schedule so we could spend more time on math practice. We did some Halloween practice with prime numbers, factors and multiplication using candy and then practiced multi-digit multiplication and division using ghosts! We also had some logic puzzles we worked on. After lunch and recess, we read The Wild Robot and then read independently, worked on understanding the setting of The Curse of Winter and continued drafting and revising our narratives. We ended our day with a pretty cool guest speaker, Mr. Tim Kight, teaching us about and reinforcing our understanding of R-factor. Ask your kiddo!

Today, after meeting and Mr. Nick and Miss Lauren left, we made them books since tomorrow is their last day with us. Then, in The Wild Robot, Roz has decided to leave the island... We read independently and then practiced our fluency with reading the drama, The Curse of Winter. Lunch was good and recess was indoor and then after quiet time, we learned 3 games and played with partners while a small group of kiddos did a "Whopper" of a math problem :) which ended in us enjoying some candy afterwards. We ended our day FINISHING our timelines. (It feels like we've been working on these FOREVER!)

Prescription

We have worked with Plus/Delta charts previously but today, we added the Prescription column. We were very talkative and unfocused today (not a surprise with tomorrow being Halloween). We discussed that they will need to use extra self-discipline this week with Halloween and the excitement that brings, however, if we have some strategies in place, it might help to make the next days better. They came up with some great ideas that we will be implementing tomorrow.

We completed our morning choice and i-time activities before heading to Music. After returning from Music, in meeting, we shared our favorite candy we get while trick-or-treating (or just favorite candy) and played a Halloween version of "Just Like Me!" We said the Pledge and then came to the climax in The Wild Robot! It was intense and we didn't want to stop reading today! We read independently and then in Reader's Workshop, continued working on understanding the setting of The Curse of Winter in StoryWorks. In Writer's Workshop, we continued drafting and revising our small moment stories. Lunch was noisy and recess was freezing! After quiet time, we discussed some of the biggest misconceptions from our math assessment that we took/began taking last week. After discussing and practicing how to solve these problems, we got our tests back to fix our mistakes. (After grading these, we still need another day to work on these...) This took us the entire afternoon.

Average Wednesday

Today was a typical day. We began with our morning choices and i-time. After gym, Mr. Nick and Miss Lauren led our meeting where we shared what we are going to be for Halloween and told someone from the opposite gender something about us that they didn't know and then lined up in order of our birthday month and day (thankfully not year!) and said the Pledge of Allegiance. In The Wild Robot, Roz experienced winter and "hibernation" and helped some animals with staying warm in the bitter cold by building and teaching them how to build a fire. Next, we read independently and made some more booksnaps. We practiced our fluency by reading the drama from StoryWorks, The Curse of Winter, from Greek Mythology about Persephone and why we have winter. In Writing, we made notes, cards, letters and origami for our Adopt-a-class in Houston. In Math Workshop, either took our Unit 2 post-test and Unit 3 pre-test, practiced multiplication and division or worked with me to help with understanding multiplication and division. We ended our day working on our timelines we are making about our lives, using primary sources.

Oh Snap!

Today, we had a fun time in reading, trying something new. We practice reading closely which means paying extra attention to what we're reading but with BookSnaps, it was like close reading 2.0! We took pictures of the page and manipulated the photo to convey our thinking. We then uploaded them to a padlet so we could all see them. Here's the padlet for you to check out:
https://padlet.com/heather_lambrig/BookSnaps

During i-time this week (and for homework), kiddos should be updating their __ "book" challenge spreadsheets. For each book they read, they need to upload a picture of the cover along with a little something about the book and place this on the correct genre sheet. They should also be updating the table and graph for their total number of books. This will be due every trimester and we are on week 10 so in about 2 weeks, they'll need to submit this assignment. I don't want them to get overwhelmed so help remind them to work on this, please! We had Music and in meeting, we shared what we will be doing to actively participate in the "game" this week. Some shared ideas were: not wait until the last minute, stay on task, sit away from ___ (insert distraction), persevere-persist-ask questions when not understanding...we played "Laughing Bandana" and said the Pledge of Allegiance to close out meeting. In The Wild Robot, the beavers built Roz a new foot, they found out what would happen when pressing Roz's power button and Brightbill migrated south for the upcoming winter leaving Roz alone on the island. We discussed how things are getting more tense and suspenseful which is the rising action and the author's way of letting us know that something exciting (the climax) will be coming. We read independently and worked on our booksnaps for the rest of the morning. After lunch, a blustery recess spent inside and outside and quiet time, we worked together on a division problem and then spent the rest of the time practicing division, multiples, factors and prime numbers. We finished up our day working on our timelines using primary sources.

Get in the game!

So, we had a reality check today when 16 kiddos didn't have their homework after a week to work on it... I used the analogy of being players in a game. The game is 4th grade and we are their coaches. As coaches, we can give them tools but they need to play. Right now, too many are sitting on the bench! After this talk, we spent a LOT of time practicing multiplication. This isn't something that they can figure out or that takes a lot of thought. It takes practice, like a drill. We practiced a "play" over and over and over so that we can be ready for the big game. Hopefully, my words resonated with them...

My oldest had to have some fillings this morning so I was out but our sub worked with them on understanding (trying to) Greek Mythology, practicing fluency with reading our drama in StoryWorks and editing with fixing celebrity tweets. We had indoor recess today, thankfully, since most of the class was working on their multiplication homework from last week. Then, in Math Workshop, we practiced and practiced multiplication after doing some examples together. Some, a very small few, were able to do some extension activities where I really stretched their brains! In Science, we watched a video on weathering and erosion and then completed some fun activities to accompany the video. A couple kids were even playing "landform karaoke!"

Travel

Today had kind of a travel theme without meaning to... our morning question was, "Where to Wednesday...where would you go if you could go anywhere?" Then, in meeting, we shared our destinations. After meeting, Mr. Dave (our amazing custodian that retired at the end of school last year), came in to share his pictures and videos from his Alaska cruise from over the summer. I asked the kiddos to pay attention to the landscape and figure out why I got excited about Alaska fitting in with our work in Science with weathering and erosion. Next, we read independently and visited the library followed by continuing to draft our small moment stories. We had lunch, recess and quiet time followed by a Number Talk which even confused me today! :) Then, in Math Workshop, we worked more with division and then tried to play a division game but the most kiddos didn't persevere through the difficult directions to get to the game. We need to continue to work on our independence when faced with problems in math... We ended the day with a STEM project that goes along with The Wild Robot--making paper airplanes/gliders and testing their flight time and distance.

When it rains...

In my family, it seems, that when it rains, it pours... I'm sorry that I was out yesterday but my youngest has whooping cough. Seriously?! I know. Anyway, they had a good day with the substitute and hopefully, were able to tell you about their day.

Today, we worked on a word study focus in morning choice/i-time and then after Music, our Academy EDU students from the ILC, Miss Lauren and Mr. Nick, led our meeting. We began with a song and mimicking sounds and then played a game where we had to guess the number on our back using only yes and no questions. In The Wild Robot, Brightbill "ran"away from Roz, Roz was attacked by bears and lost her foot and Mother Bear carried Roz and Brightbill back in a parade... a lot happened today! We are curious if Roz is learning to have emotions...can she? Next, we read independently and made sure we had read our StoryWorks article from yesterday and completed the vocabulary work. And in Writer's Workshop, we FINALLY got to start drafting our stories! We've been working for weeks preparing to write and they were super excited to write. After our Number Talk, we completed some problems about water bottles in vending machines and showed out thinking on posters so we could complete a gallery walk-looking at each other's strategies. After discussion, we had a few minutes left to work on our primary source timeline of our lives.

Acceptance.

I've decided that we just have to accept that Thursdays are going to be crazy and we will get done what we get done.

We had morning choice and i-time and unfortunately, most are not using morning choice or i-time successfully right now. So, we'll brainstorm some ideas to allow all to be successful during this time to better themselves. After i-time, we had a great meeting. We greeted 2 friends that we hadn't talked to yet and then shared our favorite fall treats: some of you, I hear, make some really good pumpkin cookies!! :) We played, "Flub it," and then said the Pledge of Allegiance. We still had some time before heading to our mindset special so we finished up our timelines/story maps so we are pretty much ready to draft! After special, in The Wild Robot, the deer helped Roz to build a garden and a lot of the forest animals helped out! (In a really funny way, too!) We read independently and wrote about our reading and then discussed fluency and how to best read fluently. We even practiced some-maybe your kiddo can share with you tonight or this weekend. After writing in our planners, lunch, recess and quiet time, we did a Mystery Science exploration for "Will a mountain be there forever?" with sugar cubes! Our day ended with music rehearsal.

Good day

Today was good. We completed our morning choice activities and i-time. Then, we had our best music rehearsal yet (according to Mrs. Root)! After special, Mrs. Andrews came in to give us the NNAT2, an ability test that all 4th graders in the district are taking this year. Some students had already taken this test so they went and worked with Miss Hanlin (they were measuring the cafeteria...) After, we discussed mind movies or visualizations and how they help us to understand the text. We practiced while reading, The Wild Robot. Today, Roz went to the beavers to help her build a home for her and Brightbill. So far, every animal she's met has begun by calling her a monster and by the end of their encounter, calls her friendly and by her name... is this a pattern? Then, we read independently and in Writer's Workshop, we had one more step to plan our narratives-create a timeline or story map to make sure we have the beginning, middle and end. We had lunch, recess and quiet time and then, in Science, we tried to think about how the Grand Canyon was formed. We looked at the Grand Canyon on Google Earth too. Then, we read books and discovered some interesting facts about the Grand Canyon, volcanoes, islands and lots of other ideas related to landforms and the processes that shape Earth. In Math Workshop, we began with our differentiated dice activities to learn about factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers and then discovered some more ideas about division. We also took some of our ideas and made them a little more efficient. Ask your kiddo to show you how they are dividing.

Roz

We began our day with our morning choice and i-time activities. Today was Art and then, in meeting, we shared something that people don't know about us and followed that by, "Just Like Me!" and the Pledge. In The Wild Robot, Roz, went looking for a goose to help her with her new gosling friend. She happened upon an old gray goose named, Loudwing. He was quite the character! We completed a padlet about experiencing emotions since robots don't have emotions-which is good because the animals still call her a monster. (Check out our padlet here: https://padlet.com/heather_lambrig/TheWildRobot) Mrs. Firestone came in for a lesson with using digital literacy responsibly. We discussed some of the features of Epic! and other online/digital literacy resources and how they can distract us and how we can "fix" those/our distractions. They did a wonderful job identifying the distractors AND coming up with solutions! Most of the solutions could be to "Press Pause" and "Get your mind right!" but we need a little extra self-discipline with digital learning as it's so easy to just click here and there. After reading independently, we moved on to Writer's Workshop where we came up with ideas for ways to SHOW a character's internal traits instead of telling our reading what the character is like. (They are so ready to begin writing but not yet!) After lunch and recess (have they shared about composting yet??) and quiet time, we completed a Number Talk and another 5 minute multiplication test where the majority of the class went up in the number of facts they completed correctly! Then, we looked at division with multiples of 10 and using base-10 blocks to help us with this understanding. We also spent some time on our differentiated factor, multiple, prime and composite dice activities. Finally, we ended our day with a fun website I happened upon called SwitchZoo where we made new animals with the perfect adaptations for our needs. (We related this to Roz and how she is adapting to her environment.)

My teacher is missing!

So, I was out this morning for a rheumatologist appointment. (There's a lot you have to do to prepare for a surgery when you have Rheumatoid Arthritis!) Anyway, I left them a writing assignment to complete about where I could possibly be! They LOVED this! One kiddo even hung his up on our Pinterest/Instagram/Snapchat board... (I think it looks more like a Wanted poster!)

They also worked on understanding the author's craft in their StoryWorks story and read, If You Want To See a Whale, which focused on having patience-something they/we can all use a reminder of! 

Social Studies was a little bit of a hodge podge. We went over our landform work that we did last week and then learned a bit about Ohio using our Ohio Dailies. Finally, we learned about primary and secondary sources and were introduced to a timeline project where we will be using primary and secondary sources for our timelines of our lives. In Math, we focused on division using skittles! I love edible math! Each group of 7 kiddos divided 200+ skittles among themselves. It wasn't all about the answer either, it was the process of division that we were focusing on. Then, we split into two groups to focus on factors, multiples, multiplication, prime and composite numbers. 

A-mazing!

Today was absolutely amazing! We didn't have music (there wasn't a sub for Mrs. Root) so we were able to complete all of our work without "cramming" it in to our day! (According to Aaron!)

We worked on our spelling choice activities and in meeting, we began by reading the book, I Am Peace and ended with a guided meditation. (Check us out on Twitter and Facebook!) They really seemed to enjoy it so I think we might do these meditations again sometime! Then, we shared where/when we are at peace. We also played Popl and practiced multiples of 4 and 7. Next, we needed a little brain break so we did some GoNoodle! (Again, check us out on Twitter and Facebook!) In The Wild Robot, Roz decided to introduce herself to the animals and that did not go so well. They were all scared of her, however, when Fink, the fox, needed her to help him get all the porcupine quills out of his face, she was there for him. I wonder if others will open up to her too? We read independently for almost 30 minutes~excellent stamina! In StoryWorks, we looked at Freddie, the main character from our fiction story, and used textual evidence to prove our thinking. Then, we got out our Lego StoryStarter kits and tried to create our character, from our seed or small moment story, showing both external and internal character traits. This was a struggle...how do you show internal traits?? After writing our assignments down, we went to lunch and OUTDOOR recess. For quiet time, we completed our M4T Assessment and when finished, Mrs. Firestone came in to lead a 3 Act Task with fidget spinners! We ended our day finishing up anything we needed to finish and clean up.

Conferences...

Sorry if I'm late or do not get to a blog post this week. I've got conferences on three different days and professional development on two days, so again, sorry! :)

This morning, students completed their morning procedures and after, for i-time, we are working on spelling, specifically with high frequency words. After gym, we met briefly to discuss our next, very awesome thing. We skyped with Megan Brown, a girl that has a cranio-facial difference, like Auggie from Wonder! It was so, so cool!! Ask your kiddo because they need to share their experience with you. Then, we returned to the room and read, It's a Book, about a donkey and gorilla and their different ideas on "reading." It reminds me a lot of our classroom right now and using Epic! We also read a bit more from our new read aloud book, The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown. We are reading this book for the Global Read Aloud and will be connecting with other classes in the district to discuss. Next, we read independently and then read the fiction story in StoryWorks, Freddie in the Shade. We used textual evidence to determine some character traits that Freddie has.

As they continued working, Mrs. Bowers (the substitute, not Art teacher) arrived and I headed out to my professional development class. I learned about using bibliotherapy with biographies (picture books to teach strategies for life skills so students can connect) and 3-act math tasks (another way to hook kiddos and get them thinking big about topics) as well as some other things. (I'm a life long learner! :)) Mrs. Bowers worked with them on practicing addition/subtraction or multiplication/division with a fun activity and then some STEM activities: Can you fit yourself through an index card? How many drops of water can fit on a penny? Can you unstack 100 cups in 3 minutes? Hopefully, they had a good afternoon!

A morning in the life of a 4th grader...

I wanted to do a day in the life but today was just too crazy so here's a snippet into our morning... :)

Check in for lunch.

Read the morning message.

Hang up your things and get yourself, "Ready to Learn."

Answer the morning question.

 Work on morning choice activities.

Our day was completely out of the ordinary: special at a different time, lunch/recess at a different time and over to Darby Creek all afternoon for a culture celebration so this morning, we used our little bit of time together to "get'er done," and get caught up on work. Make sure to ask your kids about the culture celebration because it was wonderful!

Crazy, crazy, day

Just when I thought our Thursdays weren't getting so bad... today was our craziest yet! We had our first vertical team get together this morning and had an amazing time practicing perseverance and origami. Then, we had our mindset special and once we returned, we worked on preparing for conferences and then finished Wonder! They clapped and cheered! :) In Math Workshop, we did some multiplication wrestling (ask them about our tag team matches!) and then practiced and practiced. Our day ended with music rehearsal. Crazy!

The basics

Our day began as usual with our morning procedures followed by i-time and gym. Mr. Nick and Miss Lauren hung out with the kids during gym today to try and get to know them better. In morning meeting, we shared our favorite sports to either play or watch and then played category challenge with sports as the category. Sarah won with 19!! (although jumping, catching and throwing aren't true sports...) Mr. Nick came in next with 17! We finished up with the Pledge of Allegiance. Before reading Wonder, we discussed that although we love reading digitally using Epic!, we need a balance of paper books too because the selection at the library and in our classroom is much better when it comes to quality of literature, then Epic! So, we read, The Children Who Loved Books to show how exciting paper books can be too. In Wonder, there was a big turning point! Auggie and Jack were cornered and bullied by a couple of 7th graders-Auggie especially. But, guess what?! Amos, Miles and Henry (Julian's best buds) came to his defense!! They "guarded" him and made sure he was safe. We should finish the book tomorrow or Friday and we're a little sad for it to end. After reading independently, we worked more with main idea and then worked to develop our characters in Writer's Workshop. We first used Auggie as our example and identified both external and internal characteristics for him. After lunch, recess and quiet time, we continued our work with timelines and practiced making one of some events from my life. We began our math workshop with a 5-minute basic multiplication facts test. After we found out how many we knew, we set a goal for ourselves for next week when we'll take it again. Ask your kiddo why it's important to know these facts. Then, we practiced to secure our understanding of multi-digit multiplication. We've discussed two different strategies: partial products and area model. Most kids like the area model best, I think.

Assessment Day

I was at school today but not in the classroom. I was right outside assessing students on reading and Mrs. Bowers (not the Art teacher!) was our substitute. Our morning question was, "Tell Me a Story Tuesday: Add 3 words to the story to keep it going." I put... Once upon a time, Mrs. L was absent... I think the kiddos weren't very happy with me because here's what they added:

They didn't stay mad for long. :) After morning procedures including morning choice, they went to music. While there, we got two new students!! Academy EDU students from the ILC, that is. There is a class for Juniors and Seniors that are interested in being teachers. They spend 3 days a week for 6 weeks (about an hour each day) in an elementary school then do the same in a middle school and again in a high school. Mr. Nick and Miss Lauren introduced themselves to the kiddos during meeting today and the students are already big fans! :) In read aloud, Mrs. Bowers read, Flight School about a penguin trying to fly. (I never have subs read our chapter book...) I noticed that our students are very good at talking about perseverance and growth mindset, however, when they were actually faced with a problem in math workshop, they did not apply these terms. Hopefully, their discussion today helped. They then read independently and then did some more work with main idea using a Guinness World Record and in Writer's Workshop focused on character traits. They had Social Studies after quiet time and worked on reading and creating timelines. In Math Workshop, Miss Hanlin taught them a couple of strategies for multiplication of multi-digit numbers and continued the work we began the day before.

another manic Monday??

I'm thinking this is the new norm for me! The class was ok-not great-but ok, but I was the one feeling chaotic. It doesn't help that my youngest injured her knee at softball and when she went to Sports Med today to get it checked out, has a sleeve fracture of her patella! Ugh!

Most of the class went to their younger buddy class for morning choice while the others had their choice of what to do. After music, in meeting, we shared about our weekend and then played a little bit of Just Like Me! followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. In Wonder, Auggie headed to the 5th grade Nature Retreat which he was very nervous about and so were we! Fortunately, so far, things are good. Next, we read independently, visited the library and conferenced with me. In Reader's Workshop, we practiced main idea by sorting cards and creating a title of the groups. In Writer's Workshop, we picked the small moment we want to write about and made sure we knew the beginning, middle and end, characters and setting. It was a sweltering recess (yes, I have recess duty and I very much recess...) and then after quiet time and cooling off, we completed a Number Talk and then I became the least liked person ever because I gave them "hard math!" (According to them.) However, they figured out what they needed to in order to be successful and even got to the point where they knew how to solve a problem like 26,987 x 7! It wasn't as hard as they thought and a LOT of kids gave up and stood in their own way when it came to trying to solve the problem. We ended our day with a collaboration and teamwork activity called, "Saving Sam." How did your kiddo do?

Buddies

Our day began with more than 1/2 of the kiddos heading down to kindergarten, first and second grade. We are introducing another choice for morning work next week: Leadership. So, I asked K-2 teachers if they needed any leaders and the answer was a resounding, "Yes!" I asked our kiddos and 20 of them volunteered! So, next week, they will begin going down to their buddies and helping them/mentoring them! I don't know who is more excited~the teachers, the 4th graders or their buddies... :)

In morning meeting, we shared our least favorite chore to do at home and played a few rounds of "Would You Rather?" In Wonder, Miranda shared her perspective. At first, we wondered why one of Via's friends, that she doesn't really talk to anymore was a section in the book, but after reading, it was clear that Auggie (and Via) has just another person in his corner. We read independently, visited the library and/or conferenced with me and then, continuing with our main idea/supporting details of informational text learning, we read an article on Newsela and commented on a post in Kidblog stating main idea and supporting details. (If you follow your child's blog, you can read and see how your kiddo did.) This took a lot longer than I had planned so we worked up until it was time for lunch. After lunch, recess and quiet time when we took our M4T assessment, we did a Number Talk (mental math strategies for solving basic operations) on subtraction with adding up and then completed a fun and yummy math lesson on representing multiplication. Hopefully, your child's made it home to share with you. We ended our day reviewing maps and globes and looking at Google Earth to secure our understanding of continents, oceans, our country, latitude and longitude.

Smile... :)

I love school picture day! The kids all look so beautiful/handsome!

This crazy Thursday didn't seem as crazy, even with adding getting our pictures taken to our day. We had an odds and ends kind of meeting. We read, Little Oh, a book about an origami doll. It was good but the real reason for reading it was because next Thursday, we're going to have our first get together with our vertical team and are all reading this book and then doing some origami! Then, our student council nominees read their "speeches" and we voted. In Wonder, Auggie and the family went to Via's play and were surprised to see Via as the lead role! (She was supposed to be the understudy.) Then, after our pictures, we created our own precepts: principles to live by. We only had time, then, to read independently and the library was unfortunately closed. After a sweltering recess and quiet time, I gave the Unit 1 post-tests back to the kids. We still need practice with rounding, subtraction and 10x more... so, as we work on multiplication and division, in our next unit, we'll continue to work on those skills. Please don't over worry about your child's score. We'll get there! Then, we started on multiplication and WHAT it is. They all wanted to give me the answer, however, I was focused on WHAT multiplication is. So, we looked at 8 x 3 and came up with 7 different ways to represent it. We also tried to do some on our own and then tried some application of basic facts in relation to donuts. :) Keep your kiddo practicing those facts! We ended our day with a Quizizz that Kyler made with basic facts.

SMART goals

Today, we set our first goals of the year! We read the book, There, and then discussed what There could be. Then, we talked about SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound) goals and what each letter stands for and wrote our first daily/weekly goal. We will continue to work on goal-setting and keeping our goals SMART.

We also had our first safety drill today. They did awesome and we earned a potato head piece for our excellent and safe procedure! (We also earned a potato head piece for our transition from i-time to special!)

In Wonder, Auggie found out about Via's play and there was a huge fight between mom, Via and Auggie, however, it was all overshadowed by the fact that Daisy (their dog) was very sick and didn't make it. It was a tough few chapters to read and listen to. After reading, we watched videos by the author, director of the upcoming movie and one of the actors, describing their personal precepts and what they mean to them. We read independently and/or visited the library and then in Writer's Workshop, we got into small groups and read small moment stories with the eyes of writers/authors to find what we need to make sure we do when we write our own narratives. After quiet time, we went over our M4T and then Aubrey shared her Roman Numerals project. In Math Workshop, we: finished our Unit 1 post-test, finished our Unit 2 pre-test, completed multiplication fact practice activities and/or worked on using the Sieve of Eratosthenes to find all the prime numbers to 100. We completed our day by working on our maps and globes booklet. They had a better understanding this time around!

Aaarrrggghh!

Today was Talk Like a Pirate Day! We read, Pirates Don't Change Diapers and then found our pirate names (I'm Red Boot Bess) and then Dante taught us how to fold paper to make pirate hats! (pics on Twitter and Facebook)

Another crazy thing was that we released a monarch butterfly! Mrs. Bowers, our Art teacher, somehow has all of these monarch chrysalis' that she brings in. Well, it was time to release one and we had Art first thing this morning so we were the lucky ones! I was a little weirded out at first but I overcame my discomfort and between Kyler and I, we got it out and it flew away! It was gorgeous! (video and pics on Facebook)

Other than those crazy out-of-the-ordinaries, our day was pretty normal. We worked on our morning choice activity and then after Art and releasing the butterfly, we did our pirate activities for morning meeting. In Wonder, we came back to August and today, he discussed having to get hearing aids. However, since he doesn't have much outer ear, he needed a headband to keep them in his ears. He really didn't want to wear them because he already felt different enough but once the doctor turned them on... wow! He described it as hearing brightly. We also have a kiddo that wears hearing aids and he chose to share with us a little bit about his experience with them. Thanks, Caleb! Next, we read independently or visited the library and then continued our work with main idea and supporting details using the Infographic in StoryWorks. We almost made it outside for recess but it began coming down while we were eating lunch. Unfortunately, we needed some reminders for indoor recess behaviors that are above and below the line. (It was only our 2nd indoor recess, though!) In Math Workshop, we: took our Unit 1 post-test, took the Unit 2 pre-test or worked on different activities for practicing our basic multiplication facts. It was a lot less chaotic~which means, we're getting the hang of it! We ended our day in the Media Center with Mrs. Dornburgh teaching us how to find some of the new features of the library, like Series books, Graphic Novels and Fiction.

🎶...manic Monday...🎶

🎶It's just another manic Monday...🎶 I'm aging myself but this song comes to mind today...

We got new morning choices for this week and learned of a new opportunity for morning choice--leadership. This is one that kiddos are able to sign up for, so, did your kiddo? After gym, in our meeting, we shared a little about our weekend and then played "Popl," a counting game before saying the Pledge. After adding marbles to our kindness jar, we read Wonder and more from Justin's point of view. Justin really enjoys being around Via's family and their overprotectiveness and loads of love and really wishes he had that at his own home. Then, we learned about our new challenge for the year. Have your children show you their ___ "book" challenge on Canvas. Their work is housed on their ipad but they can give you the general idea of the challenge. We read independently, visited the library or conferenced with me and read the Infographic in StoryWorks before moving on to Writer's Workshop. Today, we discussed small moments and how the small moments that happen in our lives can lead to amazing stories. We read, Fireflies! as a mentor text and read how R.J. Palacio used a small moment as inspiration for writing Wonder. We brainstormed some of our own small moments as inspiration. After lunch, recess and some quiet time, some students that worked on researching Roman Numerals last week, shared their creations. Then, came the chaos of Math Workshop. Robby didn't think it was chaos--which is good that it didn't seem chaotic--but when you have 30 kids doing 5 different things at the same time, it feels chaotic to me! It will get better. Some took the Unit 1 post-test, some took the Unit 2 pre-test, some practiced subtraction, others were working on independent math... Finally, we completed our day with what I thought would be a Maps and Globes review but ended up having to teach what country we live in and what it looks like on a map! We'll work more with this tomorrow!

Dot Day

Today is International Dot Day! We "read" The Dot by Peter Reynolds and then we made our own "marks." We discussed precepts (from Wonder) and what we mean when we say our mark-what we leave behind. We made sure to sign our "marks" before hanging them around the room.

We finished up our last day at this morning choice and then went to Music. In our meeting, we shared our interest in safety patrol and then talked about student council and those interested took forms to fill out. Our election will be next Thursday. Then, we did our Dot Day activities and then started the section in Wonder from Justin's perspective (Via's boyfriend). We read independently, finished up our main idea StoryWorks paper and then did some free writing. After lunch and recess, in quiet time, we completed our M4T assessment and then the chaos of math workshop began. I think that every person needed me at the same time today... It was very stressful. I explained that with independence, they need to use common sense and some WWLD (What would Lambright do?) to decide if they can answer their own questions. For example, they don't need to ask me if they should go on to the next thing or if they should sharpen their pencil. :) In Math, some were taking their post-test, others were practicing, some were on Canvas, some were finishing their Roman Numerals project, others were trying to teach me about using different bases (other than our typical base-10 system)... We ended our day with our first celebration~Electronic party!

Wink ;)

A lot of our kids do not know how to wink! Today, I asked them to come give me a wink once they read the entire morning text message and although most, if not all, came out, a lot of them didn't know how to wink! At least they are reading the text message!

Today is crazy Thursday so we had our morning meeting before special. We shared what we ate for breakfast and then read, Juice Box Bully, a book about not being a bystander when it comes to bullying and how to stand up for others. Then, we played category challenge with the category of colors. Kyler won with 15! After our mindset special, we finished up Jack's section in Wonder. Julian has completely turned all the boys against Jack so he's feeling ostracized. Luckily, he and August have made up so he has Auggie and Summer to help him out. After read aloud, we read independently/visited the library, completed some main idea/supporting details work in StoryWorks and wrote using our 5 senses in Writer's Workshop. We made it outside for recess and then during quiet time, one of our kiddos fell and hit his head and ended up heading for stitches so, quiet time wasn't so quiet and relaxing. However, after settling down, we went over our M4T (Math 4 Today) and then worked on applying the skills/concepts we've been learning through real world problems. Some kiddos finished up their work with Ms. Hanlin, some finished their projects on Roman Numerals and others worked with me to better solidify their subtraction understanding. At the end of math, students "signed up" for when they would like to take their unit test. Here's what they feel:

No worries if they try to take it tomorrow and decide they need more practice or still aren't ready on Tuesday. The goal is for them to understand the information-no matter how long it takes. 

There were some auditions at the end of the day so that's kind of how we ended our day. It was very chaotic!

Call me butter...

First of all, I think I'm hilarious! Unfortunately, not all of the kids think so. :) I said today, "Call me butter, 'cause I'm on a roll!" One student said that now in addition to "Uncle Joe" jokes, there are "Mrs. Lambright" jokes. No worries, though because if they make me laugh, I'm happy!

I put a morning text message up on the screen every morning. Today, the last text said to come give me an "H" after they had read it to let me know they had read it. Only 2 kiddos came to me~Alex and Caleb! So, they received a special pencil and eraser. Maybe tomorrow, more will read their morning message... We answered our morning question and worked on our morning choice (the collaboration group worked with play-doh to make pastries, the problem-solving group played Set Game, most of the computer group played ST Math, the artistic expression group is doing different artsy things--some designing fashion, others made more 5-point stars or colored in the coloring books, and the game time group played Operation, Sorry and some other board games). After Art, in meeting, we shared what we like to do when we feel ____. I filled in the blank with anxious or chaotic. Others have a different word for the feeling when they get nervous, worried, scared, out of control... then, I shared my tub of fidget TOOLS (notice I didn't say toys!). Students used these all day to try them out so they can see what they like for those times they feel _____. In Wonder, we are still reading from Jack's point of view and today, Jack really redeemed himself as a true friend to August. Ask your kiddo why. Next, we read independently, visited the library and/or conferenced with me. In Reader's Workshop, we discussed the non-fiction story and two articles we read last week: how they are similar and different and then found the main idea of each. In our writer's notebooks, we made a list of things we wonder about. After lunch, recess and quiet time, we reviewed subtraction with regrouping using base-10 blocks and then practiced and practiced some more. Some others worked on a roman numerals project or with Miss Hanlin on different bases-not our base 10 system of numbers.

STAR assessments

We took the Reading and Math STAR assessments today. These are computer assessments given multiple times throughout the year to monitor student understanding and to be sure that progress is being made. They are more for me than anything and are just another piece of the puzzle.

In our morning meeting, we shared our favorite color and then played, "Who am I?" Disney edition. In Wonder, Jack is still clueless as to why August is mad at him. He also describes an incident he had with August when he was younger. The kiddos haven't decided if they like Jack yet or not... Then, we took the STAR assessment in Reading, read independently, visited the library or finished our letter to Ian and did some free writing in our newly mod podged personalized notebooks. After lunch and recess, we took the Math STAR assessment and then had some quiet time before Math Workshop. In Math, we practiced subtraction with regrouping by playing a game and/or just practicing problems using base-10 blocks.

Patriot Day

It's so hard to discuss Patriot Day with kiddos that weren't alive even during the events of September 11. However, we watched a kid-friendly video that explained that Patriot Day is about one country coming together to help those in need and to celebrate our nation. Then, we made 5-point stars and hung them around the room! (I tweeted some pics but will post more on Facebook later.) Did you know that George Washington's original plan for the US flag had 6-point stars because those are easier to make but Betsy Ross showed him how to fold and cut to make 5-point stars and now there are 5-point stars on the flag! We also had a school community meeting this morning to discuss Patriot Day as well as our school focus of "Press Pause" and "Get your mind right!"

In the classroom, students are working on a semi-assigned morning choice this week. They filled out a survey on google forms with their preference and then I placed them based on their choices. After all of the out-of-the-ordinaries this morning, we also read, We're All Wonders, by RJ Palacio-a children's book about accepting differences. We introduced our kindness jar which will be filled with marbles-1 per act of kindness that is witnessed by me or each other. In Wonder, we continued reading from Summer's point of view and Auggie told Summer about what he overheard Jack say and although she promised Auggie she wouldn't tell, she did give Jack a hint. We had a few minutes to read independently, visit the library or continue writing our letters to Ian. Oh, and we earned our final potato head piece after Music! Now we need to decide on a celebration... After lunch and recess, we had quiet time to settle and prepare for the afternoon and then switched things up with our schedule for Science and then Math Workshop. In Science, we drew pictures of scientists doing science. The majority of the pictures were men, resembling Albert Einstein, in a lab coat blowing something up. We discussed how we are ALL scientists! In Math, we split up as usual and some were working with Ms. Hanlin, some worked on the 1.2 pre-test (addition and subtraction with regrouping), some learned addition and subtraction with regrouping with me, some started an independent project with roman numerals and everyone practiced addition and subtraction at some point.

Doing great

We are doing great things here! It's even a crazy schedule day and we're on top of things. I see wonderful things in our future!

As always, our day began with our morning procedures, answering our morning question and working on our morning choice work. We also used this longer morning time to get caught up on things like our writing, StoryWorks vocabulary and t-shirt idea for Wonder. In meeting, we tried out some secret handshakes and shared one thing we could tell our parents that we'll be learning in 4th grade since last night was curriculum night. Then, we played Coseeki. I think they discussed their "why?" in their Mindset special today, but you'll have to ask. Lucky came out to read with us during read aloud and in Wonder, Via shared that she feels kind of forgotten about because of Auggie and it doesn't feel very good when she actually needs her mom for some friend issues. During Reader's Workshop, we read independently or visited the library and worked on our StoryWorks story and vocabulary. In Writer's Workshop, we continued working on our letters to Ian that we began yesterday. After lunch and recess, we completed our Math 4 Today practice during quiet time and then went over our practice problems. Then, in Math Workshop, we practiced rounding to the nearest and then moved on to either patterns or pre-testing addition and subtraction. We ended our day working on our Ohio placemats.

Awesome!

Today was just an awesome day! We followed our schedule and were even ahead of schedule! :) We earned a potato head piece for gym and walking in the hallway, too!

We completed our morning procedures, answered our morning question and then got to work on our morning choice activity. After gym, in our morning meeting, we learned about an "H" greeting, shared what we had for dinner last night and then played "laughing handkerchief" before saying the Pledge and getting ready for read aloud. Before reading, we "met" our WONDERful pen pal, Ian! Like Auggie, he also has a cranio-facial abnormality. In Wonder, we began seeing Auggie through Via's eyes (his sister). We read independently or visited the library and then continued reading/working with StoryWorks and the vocabulary used in the non-fiction story. In Writer's Workshop, we finished (hopefully!), our Important Paragraphs and began our letters to Ian. After lunch and recess and a little quiet time, we got to work on a complicated math problem about juice pouches that just made some ask why does this person have so many anyway?! Then, we completed an exit slip over place and value and expanded form and then began working on rounding. Finally, we ended our day working on our Ohio placemats.

We're getting there...

We stayed pretty true to our schedule today! I felt rushed and so did the kiddos but we did it... it will take a little bit of time to feel less rushed as we transition but we'll keep getting better. We're still chatting during transitions so once we get that taken care of, some won't feel so behind. After completing our morning procedures, students had morning choice. What choice did your kiddo make? Today was Music and unfortunately, we were too chatty in the hallway to earn a potato head piece. I love that they like each other but there's a time and place for being chatty. In meeting, we learned different ways to say hello and then shared about our weekend, followed a few rounds of "Would you rather?" and then we said the Pledge of Allegiance. In Wonder, it was Halloween-Auggie's favorite because everyone wears masks and looks weird! However, he was crushed when he overheard his friend, Jack, saying mean things about him...I wonder how this is going to pan out... We read independently and some FINALLY got to go to the library! Then, we re-read or listened to the non-fiction story in StoryWorks and completed a vocabulary worksheet about the story. The story is actually about the Louisiana flood of 2016-very fitting with what is going on in Houston right now. (**By the way, we were matched with a 3rd grade classroom in Houston! I'll send an email home once we get more information about their needs.) Then, in Writer's Workshop, we completed our Important Paragraphs. After writing in our planners, we headed down to lunch and recess. Once inside, we had a bit of quiet time and then had a place value engineering challenge in Math Workshop. After practicing how to airplay and share our creations, we ordered big numbers in small groups and then buddied up with another group to order even more numbers. Our day ended by discussing what we know about Ohio, what we want to learn about Ohio and working to learn Ohio's state symbols with a coloring activity.

Always behind...

All day, I felt like we were a few minutes behind...our morning choice was Game Time so we played games after completing our morning procedures. After we returned from Art, in meeting, we shared our "worries." Some had worries about spiders and storms...we read, Wilma Jean, the Worry Machine and then organized our worries into things we can and can't control and what they can "give" to me. Then, in Wonder, the students in Auggie's school, finally got "used" to his face and he started to feel a little more ordinary. We read independently and then got our first StoryWorks magazine! They love these and so do I! We got comfortable with understanding the magazine and read our first story, the non-fiction piece about the 2016 flood. I also showed them how to access the stories online to see extras and have some stories read to them. In Writer's Workshop, we continued working on our Important paragraphs about ourselves. Lunch and a chilly recess was next and then after quiet time, we worked on our first Math 4 Today assessment. Each day, we work on a few math problems from all aspects of math-not just what we are currently working on. Then, on Fridays, we take a mini-assessment to make sure we are keeping up all math skills. In Math Workshop, we continued to practice and worked on patterns. We ended our day with our final day working with our Rubik's Cubes. (I'm so close to completing mine!!)

First substitute

Unfortunately, we had to have our first substitute this morning BUT at least it was Ms. Kneip-a Kindergarten teacher at ADE who happened to be a substitute in our building a lot last year, so most of them knew her! :) I have Rheumatoid Arthritis as well as Osteoarthritis in my knees... I will be having a partial knee replacement over winter break (actually, I'll have to miss a few days before) and I had my appointment today to get everything set up and scheduled. It's hard to believe but I should be able to come back the same day as the kids! Anyway, while I was out, their morning choice was collaboration so they built with legos. It's Thursday and every Thursday is a crazy schedule so they had Writer's Workshop in two parts but continued working on their Important Paragraphs. Keeping with the kindness theme, Ms. Kneip read, The Invisibly Boy, for read aloud. They read independently and then responded to their reading and then I returned during Writer's Workshop part 2. After lunch and recess, we came in and had quiet time and in Math Workshop, we split up into groups and worked on math skills: places of numbers, values of numbers, expanded form, standard form and 10x bigger. I think they have a much better understanding than they showed previously. Sometimes, you just need a little extra practice. We ended our day finishing up with Rubik's Cubes. I'm making progress on mine!

First Fire Drill

As the days continue and we get more and more into our routine, things are so much less chaotic and so much smoother! We began our day with the morning choice activity of technology time, after completing our morning procedures and answering our morning question. Then, Mrs. Wyskiver, our new guidance counselor, came in to introduce herself and guidance to us. Next, we went to gym and after gym, Mr. Burkhart met me out at our safety for our first fire drill which we earned a potato head piece for! Once back inside, we had our meeting where we shared our favorite healthy snack-we are a fruit loving bunch!-and then met the "Fidget Family." Our mornings haven't been flowing as nicely as I'd like and we realized we haven't said the Pledge of Allegiance at all yet this year. So, we made sure to end our meeting with the Pledge. I noticed that some didn't seem to feel comfortable or know what to do, so we talked about what the words of the Pledge mean and why we say it each day. Next, we transitioned into read aloud. We have so much good discussion with this book! I have the most amazing class of human beings~thank you!! In Wonder, Auggie had to conquer lunch...but he made a new friend! Afterwards, we discussed what close reading looks like and why we should read closely. Then, we practiced close reading while reading independently which lead to an easier time writing about our reading after. We started Writer's Workshop with reading The Important Book. The way this book is written lends itself to paragraph writing so we made that connection and will be writing Important Paragraphs about us. Today, we began brainstorming all of the important things about us. We wrote in our planners and then got ready and went to lunch and recess. After recess and quiet time, we began Math Workshop. Today, we were split up into 3 groups based on our pre-tests. Your kiddo either worked on patterns, place and value or reading, writing and comparing numbers. We ended our day with working on our Rubik's Cube STEM project and focused on the math of the cube...why a cube?

Good and productive

Today was a good and productive day! We began with Problem-Solving as our morning choice activity after completing our morning procedures. Then, we discussed i-time: what that is and what it will look like. Ask your kiddo what the i in i-time means. After brainstorming some skills to learn and practice, we headed down to music where Mrs. Root talked to us about parts in our show. Once we returned to our room, and put up another potato head piece!, we had our morning meeting where we shared what was marvelous in our lives right now and decided/discussed/identified what "Ready to Learn" looks like and means. Then, in Wonder, Auggie began his first day of school and Julian, the bully, made another ugly appearance. We also watched the movie trailer and got ideas for our t-shirt designs. We read independently and I conferenced with some about what they were reading and then we wrote a little about our reading. (This is in their binder in the Reading section.) Next, in Writer's Workshop, we distinguished what K-3 sentences look like and identified similarities and differences. We also wrote a paragraph-a collection of sentences on the same topic. After writing in our planners, we had a glorious lunch and outdoor recess! We came in and relaxed with quiet time and then completed our first Number Talk of the year. Next, we headed outside for a lesson on 10x bigger and musical numbers fun and then came in when they were complaining about being "too hot." :) Finally, we looked at some videos of octopi or octopuses that can solve puzzles and did-tried-some solving ourselves with our Rubik's cubes.

First Community Meeting

We are really trying to get into a routine but there's just so many out of the ordinaries! We began our day signing up for jobs for the week. Did your kiddo get a job? Then, we answered our morning question--today was Marvelous Monday. Did anyone point out what was marvelous about your child? Instead of coming in and completing morning WORK, we are going to have morning CHOICE. Each week, they will choose what they want to work on to warm their brains up. This week, we are spending one day each on the different choices. Today was artistic expression: color, draw, paint, etc. And then we went to Art! After special, we began our meeting by greeting each other and sharing a little about our weekend. Then, we went to our first school community meeting. Mr. H talked with us about E + R = O, taking care of OURSELVES, OUR SCHOOL and EACH OTHER, choosing "Above the Line" behaviors and what all of this looks like. After our school meeting, we came back to finish our class meeting. We read, The OK Book and Thanks for the Feedback, I think. Both had really great messages! After some discussion, we moved onto our read aloud, Wonder. We are working to be a Certified Kind Classroom this year by completing activities while reading Wonder. Our first activity is to design a t-shirt visualizing what kindness and inclusion mean. Has your child discussed anything about Auggie with you? This is an AMAZING book and is a movie coming out this year too! Next, we read independently and then discussed choosing "Just Right" books and how most of them are probably still reading "Easy" books... Then, we got all signed up for Kidblog. Homework is to write a blog post about themselves AFTER reading some examples of blogs (found in Canvas.) We made it through lunch and recess without rain! After quiet time (which I heard at least 3 kiddos say was their "favorite part of the day"), we began our Math Workshop by taking a pre-test and working on Math4Today. Finally, and probably the only thing you'll hear about, we began our You Can Do The Cube, Rubik's Cube STEM challenge.

Woohoo! We made it!

We made it through the first week of 4th grade! We began our day with yet another technology glitch. :( However, the kids made the best of it and made it work! Our morning question was what they thought was fantastic about this week and most said the eclipse, of course. After gym, we set up our Read Aloud "Notebooks" and continued reading Wonder. Auggie met some of his future classmates and we jotted down some first impressions we had as well as some predictions for what's to come. We read independently and then discussed what reading is and partnered up to take pictures of what reading looks like. In Writer's Workshop, we discussed why we write and talked about boundaries and writing with and without boundaries. We even had some time to write! After lunch and recess, we had some quiet time and then began our Math Workshop. We watched some growth mindset videos about making mistakes and not rushing and then completed some real world problems. We also made a venn diagram comparing and contrasting math independently and with a partner. We ended our day by writing in our planners and passing some papers out. (We need to find a better time/way to do this part...)

We used our ipads!!

Students are getting more and more into a routine. However, every Thursday is going to be a little different this year. We are working in vertical learning teams, meaning in addition to having a 4th grade team, we also have a team that consists of a 3rd, 4th and 5th grade class (our team is with Mrs. O'Dea and Mrs. Alexander.) So, each Thursday, the vertical team gets together for special only there won't be Art, Music or Gym. The 3 grades will be together learning/perfecting a growth mindset. Today, they got into their pods! (Here is the website Mrs. Root created to lay out their learning:  http://positvemindset.weebly.com/). Our special is also at a different time so our schedule is a little off too. In our morning meeting, we watched a video of the book, It's Not Fair and then we discussed boo boos that we have had. (Stay with me, it'll make sense in a minute.) After each student shared their boo boo story, I gave them a bandaid. For some, I "fixed" their boo boo by putting the bandaid on their actual spot. For mostly everyone though, I put the bandaid on their hand. We discussed that yes, every student received a bandaid and yes, some bandaids "helped" the ouie but others did nothing for them. This, along with the book, lead to our understanding of fairness~"Fair isn't every student getting the same thing. Fair is every student getting what they need in order to be successful." Just as some wear glasses or have an insulin pump or a hearing aid-we all get what we need and they need to trust that I will be sure to meet their needs this year. After special, in Wonder, Auggie (the main character), has made the decision to attend school for 5th grade after being homeschooled. Then, we noticed our apps were downloading on our ipads!!! So, we switched gears a bit and completed an All About Me activity using Pages. Lunch and recess was good and then, after quiet time, we discussed a bit about ourselves as mathematicians and then completed an activity called Four 4's. After Math Workshop, we finished our Mission Statement and watched a video on growth mindset. We ended our day by reading A Whistle for Willie.

Getting into a routine

We started to get into a routine today! In meeting, we shared how we learn best, after completing a learning survey. Today was Music and then once we returned, we read Black Dog, which had an amazing message and began Wonder. After reading together, I told them they were going to play a dice game. I had them get into groups of 5 and gave them dice and told them to begin playing. They were confused and frustrated and kept asking how? I just smiled and told them to play. After a bit, they started making up their own rules and playing. Finally, I stopped the madness and asked how they felt and why... they discovered that rules are necessary! This lead us to our class rule, "Every student shall be safe and able to learn." They brainstormed what this looks like and they wrote examples and we took pictures to show it as well. Next, we completed a reading inventory and then had time to read independently-most chose to read digitally using Epic! Next, we wrote a little about our strengths and weaknesses, successes and struggles as learners. After lunch, we went out for our first outside recess at our normal time! What did your kiddo do at recess today? When we came in from recess, we had quiet time for about 10 minutes. During this time, we settled ourselves down so we could be ready to learn. For Math Workshop, we practiced collaboration and problem-solving as well as some math skills and what resources we can use when stuck, through playing the Dot Game with a partner. After Math, we began writing our class mission statement but first, did some research as to what a mission statement is and looked at some statements from popular companies. We completed the Who?, What?, Why? and How? and then began to narrow down our options.