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!