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.

Our REAL first day

Since yesterday was so crazy, we decided to make today our REAL first day of 4th grade. We had an amazing day! In meeting, we read, My Teacher is a Monster, shared something we enjoyed from yesterday and then played Coseeki. We had Art and then set up our ipads when we returned to the room! However, we weren't able to use them because we couldn't download/install the apps we needed-bummer! Oh well, we'll try again tomorrow! :) Instead, we reflected on things we do that might "bug" others and created a list of things a great classmate is, does, says and is not. Next, we organized our binders and finished with our supplies. Phew! The storm hit right before heading to lunch so after we ate, we came back to the room for indoor recess. After cleaning up, we read two more books, How to Catch a Star and Nadia: The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still. Then, students had a chance to check out some of the books we have in our classroom and Epic! Next, we used post-it notes to answer some questions about what we want our classroom to be like and what we and I need to do to help us get there. Finally, we completed our day with some math activities that taught us about each other.

Technology glitches and solar eclipse

Today was crazy! We rushed around trying to change our passwords this morning so that we could get our ipads set up and begin using them, however, their old passwords had never been wiped out. So, Mrs. Parker-Jones and Mrs. Bargar (tech teachers) went child by child to input their information. After gym, we went down and picked up our ipads! Woohoo! We came back to the class only to find that the wifi we're supposed to set our ipads to, wasn't available. Bummer! So, we powered them down and decided we'll try again tomorrow! After a quick meeting, we went out to recess before lunch since we couldn't go at our normal time due to the solar eclipse. After lunch, we read a couple books and then learned about eclipses by reading an informational article, before going out to view the solar eclipse. We also streamed the eclipse through NASA's website, while we worked, which is good because the clouds were in our way for a lot of the eclipse. We did get to see some of it though!! Once we returned to the room, we familiarized ourselves with our classroom and tidied up some of our supplies.