I spent the day, well most of it, out in the hall reading with kiddos. I am so impressed! I believe EVERY student is at or above grade level with their reading ability. Even more exciting is that most, if not all, were able to truly understand the deeper meaning and inferences in the books! This means more to me than anything because they are TRUE READERS!
We didn't have a sub for gym yet again, so I took them outside to play and enjoy the weather. This is becoming a pattern for us... :) Also, since today was the first day the students did the teaching in Math, I participated for that part.
Mrs. Baron was our sub and she read a few books with them--After the Fall about Humpty Dumpty and two books during Social Studies about immigration and culture--One Green Apple and The Name Jar. They also wrote using a Guinness World Record prompt, got a new StoryWorks magazine and had some fun with application of math skills with comics and more Guinness World Records.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
We did it!
We earned our final potato head piece! The end of the day was a little shaky on keeping it but we did it! We'll decide on our celebration soon.
After some word study fun and Music, we learned how we will be earning field day and then completed a survey about our feelings about ourselves and school. In The City of Ember, Lina showed the instructions to Doon and he agrees they are important so he's going to sneak Lina in to the pipeworks to look for a door... We took the Star Reading Assessment--this was our 3rd and final time to complete this. The assessments, again, are just one piece of the puzzle and let me know where your child is in their learning and how much they've grown as a reader this year. Once finished, they read and did some free writing. Lunch was loud :( and recess was absolutely gorgeous! After quiet time, we worked on our lesson plans for the math we'll be teaching this week. Have your kiddo practice with you! We ended the day taking the Star Math Assessment just to get it over with! :)
After some word study fun and Music, we learned how we will be earning field day and then completed a survey about our feelings about ourselves and school. In The City of Ember, Lina showed the instructions to Doon and he agrees they are important so he's going to sneak Lina in to the pipeworks to look for a door... We took the Star Reading Assessment--this was our 3rd and final time to complete this. The assessments, again, are just one piece of the puzzle and let me know where your child is in their learning and how much they've grown as a reader this year. Once finished, they read and did some free writing. Lunch was loud :( and recess was absolutely gorgeous! After quiet time, we worked on our lesson plans for the math we'll be teaching this week. Have your kiddo practice with you! We ended the day taking the Star Math Assessment just to get it over with! :)
Monday, April 30, 2018
Whoops! Oh well.
From looking at the dates, I wasn't very good at updating my blog. I'm sorry. I'm getting back into the swing of things with getting to teach everything again. I'm also super busy outside of school with my charity.
Hopefully, your kiddos filled you in on the fun we had last week making games in Math and then playing them while they got to score each other on them as well. We also made dictionary entries for our own names/selves, wrote to some pretty creepy prompts, read and learned about storing and transferring energy using dominos and chain reactions.
Today, we had some word play fun for word study where we tried to find words that began and ended with the same letter. Dante was the winner with this! In The City of Ember, Lina tried to show Lizzie the instructions but she didn't seem to think they were very important...she's made a plan to show them to Doon tomorrow. In Reader's Workshop, we are beginning the Any Book Book Club where we each read a just right book for us and will be able to discuss in a book club type atmosphere. Students are to pick a just right book by Wednesday. In Writing, they are free writing, however, we discussed the non-negotiables of writing as a 4th grader: capitals for proper nouns and the beginning of sentences, ending punctuation, paragraphs and holes on the left! In Math, I taught them the traditional method of multiplication (the way we learned it!) and then they practiced. However, that wasn't the goal of my lesson. I asked them what I did and they explained HOW I taught them: new skill, examples, explanation, practice time, etc. So, they will be planning lessons and teaching math this week! They think this is pretty easy but then I asked them to look at how they would be teaching us a new skill and if they would enjoy learning it this way... back to the drawing board! :) What is your kiddo going to teach the rest of the class?? Then, in Science, we had some discovery time with energy balls. This was so cool! This sparked our discussion on how electricity work. Ask your child-so cool!
Hopefully, your kiddos filled you in on the fun we had last week making games in Math and then playing them while they got to score each other on them as well. We also made dictionary entries for our own names/selves, wrote to some pretty creepy prompts, read and learned about storing and transferring energy using dominos and chain reactions.
Today, we had some word play fun for word study where we tried to find words that began and ended with the same letter. Dante was the winner with this! In The City of Ember, Lina tried to show Lizzie the instructions but she didn't seem to think they were very important...she's made a plan to show them to Doon tomorrow. In Reader's Workshop, we are beginning the Any Book Book Club where we each read a just right book for us and will be able to discuss in a book club type atmosphere. Students are to pick a just right book by Wednesday. In Writing, they are free writing, however, we discussed the non-negotiables of writing as a 4th grader: capitals for proper nouns and the beginning of sentences, ending punctuation, paragraphs and holes on the left! In Math, I taught them the traditional method of multiplication (the way we learned it!) and then they practiced. However, that wasn't the goal of my lesson. I asked them what I did and they explained HOW I taught them: new skill, examples, explanation, practice time, etc. So, they will be planning lessons and teaching math this week! They think this is pretty easy but then I asked them to look at how they would be teaching us a new skill and if they would enjoy learning it this way... back to the drawing board! :) What is your kiddo going to teach the rest of the class?? Then, in Science, we had some discovery time with energy balls. This was so cool! This sparked our discussion on how electricity work. Ask your child-so cool!
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Mystery Science
In Word Study, we worked with recognizing and understanding dictionary entries. It took some cognitive flexing for them to make sense of the directions but they did. There was a sub in music so they watched a movie and weren't too happy about it. :( In our meeting, we shared our favorite games and then decided to play a few rounds of Apples to Apples. Then, in The City of Ember, we learned more about Doon and the Pipeworks. They read independently and then Mrs. Hider did some more teaching of author's craft as they read, Bad Seed. She also had them write to a really creepy prompt~I wouldn't even read them! Students were crazy during recess I guess... however, some continued to play Apples to Apples. In Math Workshop, we continued to work on our games and we finished up the day with Mystery Science investigating transfer of energy and stored energy with dominos. Very cool!
Monday, April 23, 2018
Clean up?
So, seriously, our room looked like an explosion of trash happened. Students would literally just drop their wrapper on the floor and not even pick it up. We had paper, goldfish, water bottles, pencils, legos, etc. all over the place and nobody seemed to notice. Ugh. So, we cleaned and then we stopped and we looked around. This is what the room should look like when I say, "Clean up and get ready for ____." So, tomorrow, we're going to use our Mr. Potato Head that so desperately needs some attention, to help. Every time the room is clean, they get a piece. Let's see how long this takes...
We are working with dictionary terms in Word Study this week not necessarily for using the actual paper dictionary but even our ipads. They need to know what they are looking at when looking up what words mean. After Art, in meeting, we shared about our weekend in 4 words or less and then played, Just Like Me! In The City of Ember, Lina enjoyed her first day as messenger but her curiosity did get her into a bit of trouble while at the Gathering Hall, waiting on the Mayor. After reading independently, Mrs. Hider shared about author's craft and why author's make the choices they make. Then, they worked in their StoryWorks with the fiction story about a pretty amazing dog! In Writer's Workshop, they followed a prompt and wrote about receiving a special ring! (However, it frustrated me when they asked if they needed to write in paragraphs...DUH!) After lunch and recess-we made it before the rain!-we worked on creating our math games which took us til the end of the day.
We are working with dictionary terms in Word Study this week not necessarily for using the actual paper dictionary but even our ipads. They need to know what they are looking at when looking up what words mean. After Art, in meeting, we shared about our weekend in 4 words or less and then played, Just Like Me! In The City of Ember, Lina enjoyed her first day as messenger but her curiosity did get her into a bit of trouble while at the Gathering Hall, waiting on the Mayor. After reading independently, Mrs. Hider shared about author's craft and why author's make the choices they make. Then, they worked in their StoryWorks with the fiction story about a pretty amazing dog! In Writer's Workshop, they followed a prompt and wrote about receiving a special ring! (However, it frustrated me when they asked if they needed to write in paragraphs...DUH!) After lunch and recess-we made it before the rain!-we worked on creating our math games which took us til the end of the day.
Friday, April 20, 2018
Fabulous!
It was a great day to have a great day, so we did! We made it all week without our iPads and nobody seemed to even care today! We read more, wrote more and thought more...we flexed and grew our cognitive muscles! Woohoo!
In Word Study, we created word searches yesterday with our high frequency words so today, we switched with a partner and solved. Right after gym, we had a tornado drill. Then, in meeting, we made buckets. These are just visual representations of our feelings. Yesterday, Mrs. Hider read, How Full is Your Bucket? which taught us about adding drops to our bucket (compliments and kindness) or emptying our bucket (put downs, negativity...). After we decorated our buckets, we hung them around the room and will be filling out drops to put in to each other's buckets. In The City of Ember, we followed Lina home and met her Granny and little sister, Poppy. We read independently and then played parts of speech Jeopardy! Man, these kids are way too competitive! It is sometimes very rude... so, after discussing better sportsmanship, we finished out our morning with some Mad Libs to practice using parts of speech! We had lunch and recess and then came in and browsed at the Book Fair. We took our M4T assessment and then went out for some extra recess and then worked on creating our own math games until the end of the day.
In Word Study, we created word searches yesterday with our high frequency words so today, we switched with a partner and solved. Right after gym, we had a tornado drill. Then, in meeting, we made buckets. These are just visual representations of our feelings. Yesterday, Mrs. Hider read, How Full is Your Bucket? which taught us about adding drops to our bucket (compliments and kindness) or emptying our bucket (put downs, negativity...). After we decorated our buckets, we hung them around the room and will be filling out drops to put in to each other's buckets. In The City of Ember, we followed Lina home and met her Granny and little sister, Poppy. We read independently and then played parts of speech Jeopardy! Man, these kids are way too competitive! It is sometimes very rude... so, after discussing better sportsmanship, we finished out our morning with some Mad Libs to practice using parts of speech! We had lunch and recess and then came in and browsed at the Book Fair. We took our M4T assessment and then went out for some extra recess and then worked on creating our own math games until the end of the day.
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Days 3 and 4
We have almost made it a full week without our ipads and we are still, so much more engaged and participating! They, too, are realizing they're able to survive. :)
Yesterday, after Music, we had our final Guidance lesson with Mrs. Wyskiver about bullying and appropriateness with social media. Then, we had Story Time from Space! where a real astronaut on the International Space Station read a book to us! It was very cool! Then, we began our new read aloud, The City of Ember and were introduced to Lina and Doon and Ember. We read independently and then played a game in Writer's Workshop for verbs and adverbs. After lunch and recess, we went over our M4T and then finished up with our Skittle Math. We took a brief break to go watch Mrs. Lairson's 1st grade students' play and then came back to finish our math.
I was out this morning but they finished their informational report presentations! This afternoon, in Math Workshop, we discussed what games have and what we need to do to make successful games. Then, we played some math games so we could get ideas of what we wanted our games to be like. We completed our day discussing the different people in Ohio (in the 1800s) as well as different religions and the evolution of school.
Yesterday, after Music, we had our final Guidance lesson with Mrs. Wyskiver about bullying and appropriateness with social media. Then, we had Story Time from Space! where a real astronaut on the International Space Station read a book to us! It was very cool! Then, we began our new read aloud, The City of Ember and were introduced to Lina and Doon and Ember. We read independently and then played a game in Writer's Workshop for verbs and adverbs. After lunch and recess, we went over our M4T and then finished up with our Skittle Math. We took a brief break to go watch Mrs. Lairson's 1st grade students' play and then came back to finish our math.
I was out this morning but they finished their informational report presentations! This afternoon, in Math Workshop, we discussed what games have and what we need to do to make successful games. Then, we played some math games so we could get ideas of what we wanted our games to be like. We completed our day discussing the different people in Ohio (in the 1800s) as well as different religions and the evolution of school.
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Day 2-no iPads...
We've made it now 2 days without our iPads! (Well, we've had to use them for a few things here and there but basically, we have been iPad free.)
We began our day with a school community meeting where Mr. H discussed being able to adjust and adapt. After Art, in our meeting, we first signed our certificate we received for being an OFFICIAL certified kind classroom! Then, we discussed all of the kind things we already have done this year, as this is national kindness week, and I shared that all of Hilliard is wearing orange on Friday for Hilliard's Day of Kindness. Finally, we listened to the song, "This Is Me," from The Greatest Showman and talked about what we heard and how amazing it is to accept each other, and ourselves, how we are! Next, we began sharing our presentations for our research. There were some really cool and original presentations even though a lot of them researched the same things--perfect! After almost half of the kiddos shared (and over an hour of presentations...), they watched a video and worked more with parts of speech, or more specifically, adjectives. It was indoor recess due to the wind chill and wet conditions. After quiet time and Math 4 Today, in Math Workshop, we got some skittles and did Skittle Math and we got to eat them too! What was the value of your kiddo's skittles? We ended our day looking at fossils, understanding the purpose of fossils and then creating play-doh dinosaurs with only seeing their bones.
We began our day with a school community meeting where Mr. H discussed being able to adjust and adapt. After Art, in our meeting, we first signed our certificate we received for being an OFFICIAL certified kind classroom! Then, we discussed all of the kind things we already have done this year, as this is national kindness week, and I shared that all of Hilliard is wearing orange on Friday for Hilliard's Day of Kindness. Finally, we listened to the song, "This Is Me," from The Greatest Showman and talked about what we heard and how amazing it is to accept each other, and ourselves, how we are! Next, we began sharing our presentations for our research. There were some really cool and original presentations even though a lot of them researched the same things--perfect! After almost half of the kiddos shared (and over an hour of presentations...), they watched a video and worked more with parts of speech, or more specifically, adjectives. It was indoor recess due to the wind chill and wet conditions. After quiet time and Math 4 Today, in Math Workshop, we got some skittles and did Skittle Math and we got to eat them too! What was the value of your kiddo's skittles? We ended our day looking at fossils, understanding the purpose of fossils and then creating play-doh dinosaurs with only seeing their bones.
Monday, April 16, 2018
No technology?!
I read an article about screen time and part of the quote really stuck with me: "...The device does the thinking for them, and as a result, their own cognitive muscles remain weak." (Liraz Margalit Ph.D)
So, our ipad cart was CLOSED today (and hopefully all week!). We are trying to flex and strengthen our cognitive muscles (or brains!) This was "mean" and challenging at first but as the day went on, we actually had way more participation. In Word Study, we worked with high frequency words by either writing the words in different ways or working with the meaning of the words. After gym, in our meeting, we discussed the above quote and why we need this tech break and then read, Press Here, a book where we got to really use our imaginations! After saying the pledge, they discussed things they can do this week without technology and wrote a goal for themselves. Next, Mrs. Hider finished Restart! Yay! I love happy endings. :) Since we spent so much time finishing the book, we only a short time to learn and review parts of speech. Well, what we thought was going to be review was more about learning it. So, we'll keep working on understanding and applying parts of speech. After lunch and a very, very cold recess (it was hailing...), we worked on a 3- Act Task in Math Workshop. It caused them have to apply the skills they've learned in 4th grade and they had to think, or flex their cognitive muscles! Some persevered and persisted but others gave up too quickly. I was impressed, though, that most of them were able to look at their initial answer and realize that they weren't correct. After math workshop, we discussed and learned about fossils.
Monday, April 9, 2018
Math Monday!
Today was a great day! We did math ALL day in preparation for the next two days of testing! Unfortunately, Mrs. Hider's little one is sick so she was home with him, however, I LOVED doing all of the teaching! :)
For Word Study, we worked with math vocabulary-making sure we knew what all the math words mean. Then, in meeting, when sharing about our weekend, we had to make it mathematical. Some shared the number of games that were canceled due to weather, the number of friends that spent the night, number of days camping, etc. Then, we played, Popple, where we POP on multiples of certain numbers. Next, we practiced using the tools on the practice test and released items and went over the answers and how/why we made the mistakes we made. After lunch and a blustery recess, we worked with practice problems around the room and again, made sure to go over the answers. Hopefully, they feel prepared for the test after reviewing all day! I loved it!
For Word Study, we worked with math vocabulary-making sure we knew what all the math words mean. Then, in meeting, when sharing about our weekend, we had to make it mathematical. Some shared the number of games that were canceled due to weather, the number of friends that spent the night, number of days camping, etc. Then, we played, Popple, where we POP on multiples of certain numbers. Next, we practiced using the tools on the practice test and released items and went over the answers and how/why we made the mistakes we made. After lunch and a blustery recess, we worked with practice problems around the room and again, made sure to go over the answers. Hopefully, they feel prepared for the test after reviewing all day! I loved it!
Thursday, March 15, 2018
MEASUREMENT TEST TOMORROW!
We have our measurement assessment tomorrow. We've been trying to practice as much as possible, this week, to get to this stopping point but please, ask your child to show you their practice packet and if they aren't finished, which is about 2/3 of the class, they should keep working! We tried to make sure they completed a couple problems on each page so that they could ask any questions while they were at school. I told them you'd be asking to see! :)
We also worked on understanding our word study words by writing them in sentences or drawing pictures to recognize the difference. Some moved on to word games. For special today, we watched the 5th grade Musical-The Jungle Book. We also read aloud the drama in StoryWorks and continued our research and informational text writing.
We also worked on understanding our word study words by writing them in sentences or drawing pictures to recognize the difference. Some moved on to word games. For special today, we watched the 5th grade Musical-The Jungle Book. We also read aloud the drama in StoryWorks and continued our research and informational text writing.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Yay!
Mrs. Hider has been out sick this week and although that is a "BOO!" I have been teaching! I've missed it so much and although I've had a sinus infection and feel like my eyes are going to pop out of my head, have loved every minute of it!
In Word Study, we are working with homonyms-all of us. In Restart, Chase is putting the pieces together that he wasn't such a nice boy and that people are scared of him and for legitimate reasons. In Reader's Workshop, we completed another reader's response. This time, we read an informational text about how to make a rainbow. Then, on Canvas, we compared and contrasted the two different methods for making this work. Unfortunately, they STRUGGLED with this! They had no idea how to formulate their ideas and respond appropriately to the text. So, we spent an extra 30 minutes on the Answer Sandwich. We practiced restating the question and giving a gist answer. For example, if you ask you child, "What did you do at school today?" They should be able to respond, "At school today, we did many things." or "Today at school, we did a lot!" as just a couple examples. In Math, we measured our pencils to gather data for creating a line plot. Then, we made tape shapes on the floor and found the area and perimeter of our shapes. Yesterday, we finished up measuring and naming angles.
In Word Study, we are working with homonyms-all of us. In Restart, Chase is putting the pieces together that he wasn't such a nice boy and that people are scared of him and for legitimate reasons. In Reader's Workshop, we completed another reader's response. This time, we read an informational text about how to make a rainbow. Then, on Canvas, we compared and contrasted the two different methods for making this work. Unfortunately, they STRUGGLED with this! They had no idea how to formulate their ideas and respond appropriately to the text. So, we spent an extra 30 minutes on the Answer Sandwich. We practiced restating the question and giving a gist answer. For example, if you ask you child, "What did you do at school today?" They should be able to respond, "At school today, we did many things." or "Today at school, we did a lot!" as just a couple examples. In Math, we measured our pencils to gather data for creating a line plot. Then, we made tape shapes on the floor and found the area and perimeter of our shapes. Yesterday, we finished up measuring and naming angles.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Only Math now...
Oh my goodness...it is so weird not teaching everything! I've never realized before but I'm a little protective! :) I must trust Mrs. Hider because I can't believe I'm letting her teach my kids! She's doing great and I'm only teaching Math right now~luckily it's my favorite! I also am enjoying participating and seeing the kids a little different than I'm used to~they don't pay attention nearly as much as I thought!
We got new words for word study this week so check your kiddos planner if you want to know the pattern they have this week. After gym, they played charades in meeting after discussing what they did this weekend. (I guessed Brady's "shopping!") I'm a little lost in Wishtree but I think two kids are separated by their ethnicity or religion but are talking anyway and their "wish" is to NOT be separated based on ethnicity or religion... after reading independently, they got a new StoryWorks and read the informational text about the American Revolution. They also wrote the beginning of a journal entry and in Writer's Workshop, continued working on our historical fiction writing. After lunch, recess and quiet time, instead of a number talk, we got our metric conversions from last week back, and fixed them. **This is something they can work on at home, too!! I've placed the questions on Canvas so they can fix them!** Then, we worked on more application of our understanding with more real world application of using conversions. Next, in Social Studies, we learned what we "Ohio" needs to become a state and that in the Northwest Territory, there was no slavery, which was very different than other states! Finally, Mrs. Hider introduced one of the topics we can choose for research that we'll begin right before break. Today, we got a snapshot into what the Underground Railroad was.
We got new words for word study this week so check your kiddos planner if you want to know the pattern they have this week. After gym, they played charades in meeting after discussing what they did this weekend. (I guessed Brady's "shopping!") I'm a little lost in Wishtree but I think two kids are separated by their ethnicity or religion but are talking anyway and their "wish" is to NOT be separated based on ethnicity or religion... after reading independently, they got a new StoryWorks and read the informational text about the American Revolution. They also wrote the beginning of a journal entry and in Writer's Workshop, continued working on our historical fiction writing. After lunch, recess and quiet time, instead of a number talk, we got our metric conversions from last week back, and fixed them. **This is something they can work on at home, too!! I've placed the questions on Canvas so they can fix them!** Then, we worked on more application of our understanding with more real world application of using conversions. Next, in Social Studies, we learned what we "Ohio" needs to become a state and that in the Northwest Territory, there was no slavery, which was very different than other states! Finally, Mrs. Hider introduced one of the topics we can choose for research that we'll begin right before break. Today, we got a snapshot into what the Underground Railroad was.
Friday, March 2, 2018
TGIF!
It was so weird for me today...I wanted to give Mrs. Hider some time for her to bond with the students so I sat out in the hallway for most of the morning. I worked and organized and finished up our reading assessments but I missed the kids! She needs this time, though to truly understand the whole aspect of teaching 30 children.
Anyway, we played word games or wrote sentences/drew pictures of their words for word study and went to Music. After, in morning meeting, they played Coseeki and read more from Wishtree before reading independently and working on the drama, "I Have a Dream." Today, they completed a comprehension quiz and received them back...how well did your kiddo do? They finished up researching their event for the historical fiction story they are writing. Today was a very cold outdoor recess but most of them didn't even wear their coats! Brrr! Mrs. Hider gave them an extra 10 minutes of recess and then they completed their M4T assessment. In Math Workshop, we finished up our metric conversion problems, FACEing Math--metric challenge and tried to figure out the size of the Statue of Liberty's nose based off of her arm length... We ended the day with the Ohio Energy Project and went around measuring temperatures in rooms around the building.
Anyway, we played word games or wrote sentences/drew pictures of their words for word study and went to Music. After, in morning meeting, they played Coseeki and read more from Wishtree before reading independently and working on the drama, "I Have a Dream." Today, they completed a comprehension quiz and received them back...how well did your kiddo do? They finished up researching their event for the historical fiction story they are writing. Today was a very cold outdoor recess but most of them didn't even wear their coats! Brrr! Mrs. Hider gave them an extra 10 minutes of recess and then they completed their M4T assessment. In Math Workshop, we finished up our metric conversion problems, FACEing Math--metric challenge and tried to figure out the size of the Statue of Liberty's nose based off of her arm length... We ended the day with the Ohio Energy Project and went around measuring temperatures in rooms around the building.
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Better
Today was better but still off... tomorrow will be even better-I know!
We began with a silent work environment and took the time to clean and organize our tubs and binders. Some still have some work to do with their binders but I think we are making progress! Then, we found words that fit our word study patterns and had a great meeting, I'm sure. (I was sharing my final passion project so I wasn't in there for this-Mrs. Andrews was hanging out while Mrs. Hider was teaching.) After mindset, they read Wishtree and then read independently followed by reading the drama, "I Have a Dream," aloud. After reading the drama, they worked on cause and effect and then spent the rest of the time gathering research for their historical fiction story they will be writing next week. Unfortunately, it was indoor recess. After quiet time and a number talk with Mrs. Hider, we continued our metric system conversions. These are TOUGH but once they figure out the 10x pattern of the metric system, they move quicker. They are also struggling a bit with figuring out what they are supposed to do when given word problems, which is causing a few of them to struggle. Some also worked on FACEing Math to practice converting, after finishing the other problems. **This was supposed to come home for them to work on so that they get the extra practice! We ended our day with discussing the American Revolution and the Northwest Territory, in Social Studies.
We began with a silent work environment and took the time to clean and organize our tubs and binders. Some still have some work to do with their binders but I think we are making progress! Then, we found words that fit our word study patterns and had a great meeting, I'm sure. (I was sharing my final passion project so I wasn't in there for this-Mrs. Andrews was hanging out while Mrs. Hider was teaching.) After mindset, they read Wishtree and then read independently followed by reading the drama, "I Have a Dream," aloud. After reading the drama, they worked on cause and effect and then spent the rest of the time gathering research for their historical fiction story they will be writing next week. Unfortunately, it was indoor recess. After quiet time and a number talk with Mrs. Hider, we continued our metric system conversions. These are TOUGH but once they figure out the 10x pattern of the metric system, they move quicker. They are also struggling a bit with figuring out what they are supposed to do when given word problems, which is causing a few of them to struggle. Some also worked on FACEing Math to practice converting, after finishing the other problems. **This was supposed to come home for them to work on so that they get the extra practice! We ended our day with discussing the American Revolution and the Northwest Territory, in Social Studies.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Rough...
Today was a rough day. Yesterday, we earned like 3 potato head pieces and today, I was ready to take minutes off their recess! They would NOT stop talking and goofing! So, this afternoon, we tried to free ourselves of distractions and put as much away as possible. We also realized that we NEED to organize our tubs and binders! My rule is that we only need to keep what we are currently working on (other than the standard things that stay in our binders.) So, in Reading, they only need things that are from our current StoryWorks-February; in Math, they only need things that pertain to measurement. Feel free to help your child organize their binders and book bags!
We completed our word sort this morning since we weren't able to yesterday followed by Art. They took too long trying to walk back from Art quietly so they didn't have time for an activity but shared what they enjoyed about LivBits yesterday. There was some drama in Wishtree today when LEAVE was carved into her... the kids are doing a wonderful job making inferences and understanding the figurative language and deeper meaning of this text. After reading independently, they read the drama, "I Have a Dream," aloud again and discussed the setting and why it is such an important role in historical fiction. They also had some time to continue researching for their own historical fiction. Lunch and recess were great-a little chilly with the breeze-but nice. We had quiet time and really tough number talk, however, we did great trying to keep all those numbers in our minds! In Math Workshop, we worked on understanding conversions with time and the metric system. We continue to solidify our understanding of place and value and the 10x understanding of our base-10 number system with the metric system. (By the way, they HATE the productive discomfort this is bringing and even coined the term, "kill the meters" instead of kilometers!) After math, we worked on the Ohio Energy Project and heat.
We completed our word sort this morning since we weren't able to yesterday followed by Art. They took too long trying to walk back from Art quietly so they didn't have time for an activity but shared what they enjoyed about LivBits yesterday. There was some drama in Wishtree today when LEAVE was carved into her... the kids are doing a wonderful job making inferences and understanding the figurative language and deeper meaning of this text. After reading independently, they read the drama, "I Have a Dream," aloud again and discussed the setting and why it is such an important role in historical fiction. They also had some time to continue researching for their own historical fiction. Lunch and recess were great-a little chilly with the breeze-but nice. We had quiet time and really tough number talk, however, we did great trying to keep all those numbers in our minds! In Math Workshop, we worked on understanding conversions with time and the metric system. We continue to solidify our understanding of place and value and the 10x understanding of our base-10 number system with the metric system. (By the way, they HATE the productive discomfort this is bringing and even coined the term, "kill the meters" instead of kilometers!) After math, we worked on the Ohio Energy Project and heat.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
LivBits!
Oh my goodness! Liv (Olivia, from LivBits) is even more darling in person! We got to not only talk with her and take selfies with her but she watched some of our own "bits"! It was very cool! I'll put pics on Facebook and the link to our bits is on Canvas so that you can see them too! (I'll post the padlet she made once I get the link.)
Our day began with gym right at 9:15 so that we could get everyone in before our LivBits visit. Then, in meeting, we watched some of our bits and discussed how Olivia is a 5th grader so this was a big deal and that we needed empathy and such when working with her because we got to work one-on-one to create our "catch phrase." Then, Mrs. Hider began their new read aloud, Wishtree. I'm in love already! Ask your kiddo "who" is telling the story! It seems like it's going to be emotional... We got a ton of time to read independently and in reader's workshop, we read aloud the drama, "I Have a Dream," and then discussed more about what makes historical fiction historical--the setting. Students then had time to continue working on research for their historical fiction piece. What event in history did your child choose to write about? What fictional pieces are they adding in? After lunch another gorgeous recess and a few minutes of quiet time, we spent the afternoon, pretty much, with Liv! :)
Our day began with gym right at 9:15 so that we could get everyone in before our LivBits visit. Then, in meeting, we watched some of our bits and discussed how Olivia is a 5th grader so this was a big deal and that we needed empathy and such when working with her because we got to work one-on-one to create our "catch phrase." Then, Mrs. Hider began their new read aloud, Wishtree. I'm in love already! Ask your kiddo "who" is telling the story! It seems like it's going to be emotional... We got a ton of time to read independently and in reader's workshop, we read aloud the drama, "I Have a Dream," and then discussed more about what makes historical fiction historical--the setting. Students then had time to continue working on research for their historical fiction piece. What event in history did your child choose to write about? What fictional pieces are they adding in? After lunch another gorgeous recess and a few minutes of quiet time, we spent the afternoon, pretty much, with Liv! :)
Monday, February 26, 2018
What will you practice?
Life is just tough right now. It's sad and I wanted to focus on the positive and help the kiddos do the same. So, I saw this video on Facebook this morning and showed it to them during meeting. (https://youtu.be/MENdKcaXf78) We discussed it and then set some personal non-academic goals about what we will be practicing today. What goal did your child set?
After morning choice, picking new words in word study, music and the above meeting topic, Mrs. Hider led them in a fun "Who am I?" game and then read a March Book Madness picture book, Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great. We had time to read independently and then read the historical fiction text, "I Have a Dream" about Martin Luther King, Jr. We also completed a worksheet in order to understand some of the vocabulary specific to the setting. In Writer's Workshop, Mrs. Hider introduced writing historical fiction. We looked at some mentor texts and discussed characteristics from The Beaded Moccasins and other historical fiction texts we've read. After lunch and a beautiful outdoor recess, we had a productive number talk and then learned about the metric system and conversions. We worked really hard to build our metric staircase and practice using it so we only had a few minutes left for Social Studies, but we discussed what all is happening in America between the French, British and Native Americans, when they all want the Ohio country.
After morning choice, picking new words in word study, music and the above meeting topic, Mrs. Hider led them in a fun "Who am I?" game and then read a March Book Madness picture book, Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great. We had time to read independently and then read the historical fiction text, "I Have a Dream" about Martin Luther King, Jr. We also completed a worksheet in order to understand some of the vocabulary specific to the setting. In Writer's Workshop, Mrs. Hider introduced writing historical fiction. We looked at some mentor texts and discussed characteristics from The Beaded Moccasins and other historical fiction texts we've read. After lunch and a beautiful outdoor recess, we had a productive number talk and then learned about the metric system and conversions. We worked really hard to build our metric staircase and practice using it so we only had a few minutes left for Social Studies, but we discussed what all is happening in America between the French, British and Native Americans, when they all want the Ohio country.
Thursday, February 22, 2018
It wasn't me! :)
Students walked in to assigned seats today... Mrs. Hider assigned seats and softened the blow a bit with a blow pop. :) Now that she is taking over more and more, I want her to try things out and honestly, I was going to be doing it anyway.
After the shock of assigned seats was over, they worked on finding words to fit their word study pattern. I'm so happy that we stuck with this schedule because they are really getting the hang of it and are understanding the patterns that words have and are processing it so that they can begin to transfer the understanding to their writing. In meeting, they shared nice things that people have done for them and then played a fun game where a student had to guess what book character was on their back by only asking the class yes or no questions. After mindset, we watched March Book Madness book trailers so that we can pick our next read aloud. We had a bit of time to read independently and then showed that we know text structures by identifying them in some information about Alcatraz. The rest of the time was devoted for them to continue with writing their introductions and conclusions for informational text. Due to the extremely wet and muddy playground, we were inside for recess today. After a bit of quiet time, Mrs. Bargar came in and shared all about iMovie with us. We were making our "bits" (inspired by LivBits!) look more "professional" by editing, adding a title and some music. They need to share these with me by Monday so I can organize them so that you can view them. We had a little time left so we did some "Would You Rather Math" problems. A lot of them embraced (or didn't really embrace it but experienced it) productive discomfort! Here was the problem: Would you rather go to Store A and get a pair of $70 jeans for 30% off or go to Store B and get $30 off? There was another challenge that asked the same question but what if the jeans were $150-would that change your thinking?
After the shock of assigned seats was over, they worked on finding words to fit their word study pattern. I'm so happy that we stuck with this schedule because they are really getting the hang of it and are understanding the patterns that words have and are processing it so that they can begin to transfer the understanding to their writing. In meeting, they shared nice things that people have done for them and then played a fun game where a student had to guess what book character was on their back by only asking the class yes or no questions. After mindset, we watched March Book Madness book trailers so that we can pick our next read aloud. We had a bit of time to read independently and then showed that we know text structures by identifying them in some information about Alcatraz. The rest of the time was devoted for them to continue with writing their introductions and conclusions for informational text. Due to the extremely wet and muddy playground, we were inside for recess today. After a bit of quiet time, Mrs. Bargar came in and shared all about iMovie with us. We were making our "bits" (inspired by LivBits!) look more "professional" by editing, adding a title and some music. They need to share these with me by Monday so I can organize them so that you can view them. We had a little time left so we did some "Would You Rather Math" problems. A lot of them embraced (or didn't really embrace it but experienced it) productive discomfort! Here was the problem: Would you rather go to Store A and get a pair of $70 jeans for 30% off or go to Store B and get $30 off? There was another challenge that asked the same question but what if the jeans were $150-would that change your thinking?
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Back and Forth
Since Mrs. Hider has begun the takeover :), I've noticed the students are very loose with their behaviors... so today, we reviewed above the line/below the line behaviors, no matter who is teaching. Then, I shared something that Mr. Higginbotham shared with us at our meeting this morning, #ObserveUs. What we do is post our goals outside of our classroom with a QR code that leads to a google form to fill out to give us feedback on our goals-if they were visible, met, examples, advice... Our goals are: 1-showing self-discipline to not talk while the teacher/speaker is talking, 2-being purposeful with our actions and 3-showing empathy and kindness in all we do. Now, we're just waiting on some feedback!
Today's word sort went so well! Students are doing much better with looking at the spelling of the words and listening to the sounds of the words to put them together to sort them and find their patterns. Some patterns this week are: oy/oi and ou/ow, r-controlled vowels, short vowel sounds with multi-syllable words and au/aw/augh/ough. We finished Love That Dog today. Such good feelings with this book. I wonder what we'll be reading next! After reading independently, we revisited our StoryWorks informational texts we've read and searched for their text structures. We also received a fun Informational Text BINGO challenge/game to complete and in writing, we continued working on writing our informational text introduction and conclusion. Unfortunately, because of the rain, it was indoor recess and then in math, we discussed and practiced problem-solving strategies. We embraced productive discomfort! Finally, we concluded our day with the Ohio Energy Project and talking heat transfer and insulation. Have you used your weather stripping yet?
Today's word sort went so well! Students are doing much better with looking at the spelling of the words and listening to the sounds of the words to put them together to sort them and find their patterns. Some patterns this week are: oy/oi and ou/ow, r-controlled vowels, short vowel sounds with multi-syllable words and au/aw/augh/ough. We finished Love That Dog today. Such good feelings with this book. I wonder what we'll be reading next! After reading independently, we revisited our StoryWorks informational texts we've read and searched for their text structures. We also received a fun Informational Text BINGO challenge/game to complete and in writing, we continued working on writing our informational text introduction and conclusion. Unfortunately, because of the rain, it was indoor recess and then in math, we discussed and practiced problem-solving strategies. We embraced productive discomfort! Finally, we concluded our day with the Ohio Energy Project and talking heat transfer and insulation. Have you used your weather stripping yet?
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Taking over
Mrs. Hider is starting to take over more and more! Right now, she plans and leads our morning meeting, read aloud and number talks.
We got new words for word study this week, after morning choice. We write them in our planners too, so take a look! We are getting quicker with word study so we actually had an extra 10 minutes of i-time to work on what we wanted. After music, in meeting, we acted out the Fidget Family adventures. Love That Dog was sad today! We found out why Jack doesn't really want to write/discuss his poems... After reading independently, we reviewed text features of informational text and then learned about text structures. We practiced using topics we came up with. Then, we did some informational text writing to go with our research from last week. Our focus is on the introduction and conclusion because according to our last writing rubric, those are areas we need to grow. It was a very pleasant recess today-a little windy, but nice. After quiet time and a multiplication number talk, we split up into 2 groups: narwhals and unicorns. The narwhals finished the decimal assessment and then became unicorns and worked on problem-solving. We finished up the day with learning about the French and Indian War and adding events to our timeline.
We got new words for word study this week, after morning choice. We write them in our planners too, so take a look! We are getting quicker with word study so we actually had an extra 10 minutes of i-time to work on what we wanted. After music, in meeting, we acted out the Fidget Family adventures. Love That Dog was sad today! We found out why Jack doesn't really want to write/discuss his poems... After reading independently, we reviewed text features of informational text and then learned about text structures. We practiced using topics we came up with. Then, we did some informational text writing to go with our research from last week. Our focus is on the introduction and conclusion because according to our last writing rubric, those are areas we need to grow. It was a very pleasant recess today-a little windy, but nice. After quiet time and a multiplication number talk, we split up into 2 groups: narwhals and unicorns. The narwhals finished the decimal assessment and then became unicorns and worked on problem-solving. We finished up the day with learning about the French and Indian War and adding events to our timeline.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Wow!
So, Mrs. Hider and I assessed students on their reading today and 99% of the kiddos we read with today (we read with 25 students), moved up at least one reading level-this means that they are making good progress! One trend we found was that students are not monitoring their reading. If they read something and it doesn't make sense, they should stop and figure it out before moving on. Have your kiddo read out loud to you periodically-maybe once a week and ask them questions about what they are reading. This might help them to gain better fluency. They are also proving that they are way smarter and better readers than they show in class and in writing. We are more than 100 days in to the year so we are going to be getting more challenging... you may see a bit more specific homework/practice until they can show what they know. It's about time for me to start inputting grades and right now, there'll still be a lot of 2's when I know most of them are capable of 3's...
In class, students worked on understanding the meaning of our words this week and read the book, The Water Princess, which is one of the books on the March Book Madness picture book bracket. In Reader's Workshop, they read another informational text about the great Halifax explosion and today was the last day to gather research for their topics. Math was spent either testing, practicing for the test, problem-solving or extending our thinking. Our day concluded with learning some pretty interesting facts about presidents and doing some fun activities too. Hopefully, this helps them to understand why we will not be in school on Monday!
In class, students worked on understanding the meaning of our words this week and read the book, The Water Princess, which is one of the books on the March Book Madness picture book bracket. In Reader's Workshop, they read another informational text about the great Halifax explosion and today was the last day to gather research for their topics. Math was spent either testing, practicing for the test, problem-solving or extending our thinking. Our day concluded with learning some pretty interesting facts about presidents and doing some fun activities too. Hopefully, this helps them to understand why we will not be in school on Monday!
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Happy Valentine's Day!
Our day began with morning choice followed by word study and some kiddos are still really struggling with word study. It is more than just spelling. We are trying to find patterns in our words-which is pretty cool! However, some are just wanting me to tell them the pattern and I'm not so after another 25 minutes today, some still haven't figured or even tried to figure it out so we'll keep working. Does your kiddo know their pattern? After Art, they had a great meeting with Mrs. Hider where they shared what each person likes about another and played a game I've never tried that I really liked-Pica, Ferme, Nada. Then, in Love That Dog, they found that the more Jack tries poetry and understands it better, the more he begins to enjoy it. In Reader's Workshop, I introduced them to March Book Madness! It is sooo cool~you'll have to ask them about it. We continued our research in Writer's Workshop, which again, is frustrating them because they hate that they actually have to search for the information. After a very dramatic lunch and recess (I guess a couple of boys bought specific valentines for some girls and gave them to the girls which caught them off guard and caused them to react below the line, there were some very hurt feelings.) and quiet time, we learned about perimeter, area and even surface area and volume before practicing how to find area and perimeter. Then, was the fun part~we found the perimeter and area and some even found the surface area and volume of their boxes. Next, we decorated our boxes and passed out valentines. Thank you all so much for all of the treats and kind words! I even got a fluffy purple unicorn!! (I think he'll be our new mascot! :))
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
She's our age?!
Luckily, the popular vlogger, LivBits, is coming to ADE! So, we wanted to learn a little more about her in preparation for her visit. Mrs. Firestone and Mrs. Bargar came in this morning and shared some of her vlogs (video blog) and more information about her and then we had a chance to make our own vlogs! Just like Liv does, ours are literacy based. We got a big jumpstart today but are still working to get our videos recorded. Next week, we'll work with Mrs. Bargar to compile them and tidy them up, in iMovie so that we can publish them out to you! So, stay tuned, but talk to your kiddo about what they did for their vlog!
Today was day 2 in word study so they sorted their words to find their pattern. Some patterns are silent consonants, plural endings, along with a couple different vowel patterns. I was out this afternoon but in Math Workshop, some students took their decimal post test and measurement pre test; some continued their extension projects or worked on a different challenge problem; others practiced and reviewed decimals. They ended their day with Social Studies and addressing the conflicts that arose with the settlers and they began an illustrated timeline of these events.
Today was day 2 in word study so they sorted their words to find their pattern. Some patterns are silent consonants, plural endings, along with a couple different vowel patterns. I was out this afternoon but in Math Workshop, some students took their decimal post test and measurement pre test; some continued their extension projects or worked on a different challenge problem; others practiced and reviewed decimals. They ended their day with Social Studies and addressing the conflicts that arose with the settlers and they began an illustrated timeline of these events.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Short week
We only have 4 days this week and I happen to be out of the classroom for most of them, unfortunately. I was out this morning for a doctor appointment and physical therapy, I'm out tomorrow afternoon for a meeting and on Thursday, I'll be assessing reading. Luckily, Mrs. Hider was back today and will be there tomorrow afternoon too. She'll be assessing with me on Thursday though, but we'll be hanging out in the hall so still around.
This morning, after morning choice, students got new words for word study and wrote them in their planners so if you are curious, have them show you! They had music and then Mrs. Hider led morning meeting and began their new read aloud with them, Love That Dog. This is a novel told in poetry about a kiddo that doesn't like writing poetry! :) They read independently and continued their work with the informational paired text about jellyfish. In Writer's Workshop, they wrote about their morning from a perspective other than their own. We shared some of these: Caleb wrote from Lucky's perspective, Brianna wrote from the perspective of a chair and Robby wrote from Brady's perspective. They got to go outside for recess and after quiet time, we finished up with our exemplars we began on Friday and then fixed a previous exit slip and played some decimal practice games. At the end of Math, they signed up for when they are ready to assess. See what your kiddo thinks:
This morning, after morning choice, students got new words for word study and wrote them in their planners so if you are curious, have them show you! They had music and then Mrs. Hider led morning meeting and began their new read aloud with them, Love That Dog. This is a novel told in poetry about a kiddo that doesn't like writing poetry! :) They read independently and continued their work with the informational paired text about jellyfish. In Writer's Workshop, they wrote about their morning from a perspective other than their own. We shared some of these: Caleb wrote from Lucky's perspective, Brianna wrote from the perspective of a chair and Robby wrote from Brady's perspective. They got to go outside for recess and after quiet time, we finished up with our exemplars we began on Friday and then fixed a previous exit slip and played some decimal practice games. At the end of Math, they signed up for when they are ready to assess. See what your kiddo thinks:
We ended our day setting up our "Save the penguin!" experiment. They had to try to keep a soda can cold using one of the following materials: nothing, foil, plastic wrap, felt (I couldn't find wool), paper towels or cotton balls.
Friday, February 9, 2018
End of the week
Sorry about no post yesterday but with conferences after school from 4-8, I ran out of time!
Here's a snapshot of yesterday:
We worked on Morning Choice and then completed a word hunt to find words that fit our same word study pattern. This was our first week with our new word study "system" so it wasn't super successful yet. In meeting we read a book that fit in nicely with our upcycling project we were working on, Pandora. Ask your kiddo what it was about. After mindset, we read a very exciting chapter in The Beaded Moccasins, with a deluge, tornado and Mary getting injured! After reading independently, we read another book, Voices in the Park. This story was the same (or similar) story told through 4 different perspectives. Then, we played around with perspective by writing from different points of view. Fun! It was indoor recess all week due to the weather but after quiet time, in Math Workshop, half of us went and worked with Ms. Hanlin while the rest stayed and worked with me. Both groups worked on decimals and I think everyone has a much better understanding now! We ended the day upcycling and turning "one man's trash into our treasure!"
Today, we played word games for Word Study and after Art, put up our first new potato head piece! After meeting where we shared something we are proud of and a goal we have, instead of a game, I opened the warm fuzzy store for a "Flash Sale!" Then, we finished, The Beaded Moccasins! It was such a good book! Ask your child what happened. After reading on our own, we read the paired text, Invasion of the Jellyfish in StoryWorks and completed a pretty cool vocabulary activity that was right up their alley~pretend they are a jellyfish and explain what their YouTube show/channel would look like. :) When finished, they continued writing their perspective writing or poetry. In Math Workshop, we completed a pretty challenging exemplar showing our flexible understanding of decimals. Our day ended with a vertical team activity making tissue paper flowers for residents at the Hilliard nursing homes to accompany the valentines we made with the preschool kids a couple weeks ago.
Here's a snapshot of yesterday:
We worked on Morning Choice and then completed a word hunt to find words that fit our same word study pattern. This was our first week with our new word study "system" so it wasn't super successful yet. In meeting we read a book that fit in nicely with our upcycling project we were working on, Pandora. Ask your kiddo what it was about. After mindset, we read a very exciting chapter in The Beaded Moccasins, with a deluge, tornado and Mary getting injured! After reading independently, we read another book, Voices in the Park. This story was the same (or similar) story told through 4 different perspectives. Then, we played around with perspective by writing from different points of view. Fun! It was indoor recess all week due to the weather but after quiet time, in Math Workshop, half of us went and worked with Ms. Hanlin while the rest stayed and worked with me. Both groups worked on decimals and I think everyone has a much better understanding now! We ended the day upcycling and turning "one man's trash into our treasure!"
Today, we played word games for Word Study and after Art, put up our first new potato head piece! After meeting where we shared something we are proud of and a goal we have, instead of a game, I opened the warm fuzzy store for a "Flash Sale!" Then, we finished, The Beaded Moccasins! It was such a good book! Ask your child what happened. After reading on our own, we read the paired text, Invasion of the Jellyfish in StoryWorks and completed a pretty cool vocabulary activity that was right up their alley~pretend they are a jellyfish and explain what their YouTube show/channel would look like. :) When finished, they continued writing their perspective writing or poetry. In Math Workshop, we completed a pretty challenging exemplar showing our flexible understanding of decimals. Our day ended with a vertical team activity making tissue paper flowers for residents at the Hilliard nursing homes to accompany the valentines we made with the preschool kids a couple weeks ago.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Just tell us...
Again, today, the kiddos just wanted me to tell them the information. Two even said, "I'm just being lazy." Yes, you are! For example, in Science today, they were asked about conductors and insulators so I told them to look on page 20 of their energy books. They continued to ask for what those words meant and then admitted that they were just being lazy. It made for a pretty stressful afternoon. I'm doing my best and it's not the easy way...it's actually pretty painful to watch so many kids struggle to figure something out when you could just quickly tell them the answer.
Today in Word Study, we sorted our words to discover the pattern. Some kids are working with past tense words (add ed, double the consonant and add ed), some are working with the vowel consonant e or silent e pattern that makes the vowel long and others were working on derivations of words (words that are similar but spelled and sound differently.) After gym, Mrs. Hider asked us about something we are thankful for and then we added some chains to our empathy/kindness chain of things we've personally done that are kind today and then we played Coseeki. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary finally arrived at Sequin's and found that he and Mrs. Stewart were now married and she was going to have a baby and name it Samuel or Samantha! We also heard similes, metaphors, hyperbole's and alliteration when reading today. After spending some time reading independently, we worked with idioms, proverbs and adages. Can your kiddo share any of this with you? We even had some fun illustrating the literal meaning of some of these. It was indoor recess again and we are getting a bit stir crazy... After quiet time, we had a race to match decimals with their word forms and fractional forms before moving on to Trashcan Basketball! We through wads of recycled paper into the bin 10 times and represented our successes with fractions and decimals and then collected 9 other student's information to represent out of 100. In Science, we are going to be creating a dwelling for penguins and are trying to figure out what type of materials will keep a penguin cold. So, we melted ice cubes on metal and plastic spoons and hypothesized which types of materials we could use to keep a can of soda cold.
Today in Word Study, we sorted our words to discover the pattern. Some kids are working with past tense words (add ed, double the consonant and add ed), some are working with the vowel consonant e or silent e pattern that makes the vowel long and others were working on derivations of words (words that are similar but spelled and sound differently.) After gym, Mrs. Hider asked us about something we are thankful for and then we added some chains to our empathy/kindness chain of things we've personally done that are kind today and then we played Coseeki. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary finally arrived at Sequin's and found that he and Mrs. Stewart were now married and she was going to have a baby and name it Samuel or Samantha! We also heard similes, metaphors, hyperbole's and alliteration when reading today. After spending some time reading independently, we worked with idioms, proverbs and adages. Can your kiddo share any of this with you? We even had some fun illustrating the literal meaning of some of these. It was indoor recess again and we are getting a bit stir crazy... After quiet time, we had a race to match decimals with their word forms and fractional forms before moving on to Trashcan Basketball! We through wads of recycled paper into the bin 10 times and represented our successes with fractions and decimals and then collected 9 other student's information to represent out of 100. In Science, we are going to be creating a dwelling for penguins and are trying to figure out what type of materials will keep a penguin cold. So, we melted ice cubes on metal and plastic spoons and hypothesized which types of materials we could use to keep a can of soda cold.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Why didn't you just say that?
This has been the motto lately among the kids. I am trying to get them to THINK instead of just telling them what to do. They get really frustrated because they want me to spoon feed everything. However, this will allow them to become better THINKERS! It can be painful at times (for all involved) but will be worth it in the end.
We began with our typical morning choice activities followed by word study during i-time. They didn't enjoy morning choice activities with a word study focus and I need to fit it in somewhere so we're going to try this. Today, they picked their lists of 12 words. After music, in meeting, Mrs. Hider had them share one great thing from their weekend and then they played category challenge for the states. Mohamed said the 50 states in alphabetical order before the ball got all the way around! Wow! (And I thought only I knew the "Fifty Nifty" song. :) ) In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary has a friend and she sure likes to talk! Mary is also going to go visit Mrs. Stewart... We read independently and in Reader's Workshop, we tried to secure our understanding of figurative language by making a flip book with figurative language terms, definitions and examples. This really helped! Some even wrote using figurative language in Writer's Workshop. It was too cold so we spent recess inside and after quiet time, we took a 5 min. multiplication fact timed test. They BEG to do these! I added a bit of challenge for those that were up for it by putting the multiplication facts in division form. They have learned that knowing these facts fast has helped with multi-digit multiplication, division and finding equivalent fractions so they are trying to improve. Then, in Math Workshop, we continued our work with decimals as money and this is when they really said, "Why didn't you just say that?!" We ended our day discussing the Declaration of Independence or as we are referring to it, a breakup letter. We watched a clip of the movie, "National Treasure," which explained a little about the document and then illustrated the words of the preamble.
We began with our typical morning choice activities followed by word study during i-time. They didn't enjoy morning choice activities with a word study focus and I need to fit it in somewhere so we're going to try this. Today, they picked their lists of 12 words. After music, in meeting, Mrs. Hider had them share one great thing from their weekend and then they played category challenge for the states. Mohamed said the 50 states in alphabetical order before the ball got all the way around! Wow! (And I thought only I knew the "Fifty Nifty" song. :) ) In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary has a friend and she sure likes to talk! Mary is also going to go visit Mrs. Stewart... We read independently and in Reader's Workshop, we tried to secure our understanding of figurative language by making a flip book with figurative language terms, definitions and examples. This really helped! Some even wrote using figurative language in Writer's Workshop. It was too cold so we spent recess inside and after quiet time, we took a 5 min. multiplication fact timed test. They BEG to do these! I added a bit of challenge for those that were up for it by putting the multiplication facts in division form. They have learned that knowing these facts fast has helped with multi-digit multiplication, division and finding equivalent fractions so they are trying to improve. Then, in Math Workshop, we continued our work with decimals as money and this is when they really said, "Why didn't you just say that?!" We ended our day discussing the Declaration of Independence or as we are referring to it, a breakup letter. We watched a clip of the movie, "National Treasure," which explained a little about the document and then illustrated the words of the preamble.
Friday, February 2, 2018
Even crazier today!
The overall feel of the class was just chaotic and loud today. At least that is how it felt at the end of the day. We began with working on our Word Study Morning Choice and i-time followed by Art. Then, Mrs. Hider led our meeting where we shared what we're afraid of and along the same lines of our kindness slips from earlier in the year, we are making a kindness chain to share how we are empathizing and what we're doing. I'm hoping this chain will go all the way around the room by the end of the year! In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary snuck away and told Mrs. Stewart that she was about to be traded for muskets and Mrs. Stewart is ok with it! We also learned a little about how and why certain crops are planted. Then, we read, Groundhog Gets a Say! in honor of Groundhog Day and were inspired to create shadow puppets to inspire a writing story. There were some very silly stories! When we finished, we worked on our conference presentations. Thankfully, it was indoor recess (which is where the craziness began, I believe...Oh and we also did another mannequin challenge...) and instead of taking our M4T assessment during quiet time, we took them home to complete so time will not be an issue. Yes, you can help! For fun, we took a Following Directions Test and I laughed so hard! Ask your kiddo about it. Only 3 students followed the directions! We completed a Number Talk and then looked at decimals as money before heading to the MakerSpace. This challenge accompanied the book, Blackout, and we had to make something to help during a blackout. *You'll have to check out all the fun photos on Facebook!
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Very crazy Thursday
Man-today was really crazy... we began with a school community meeting where Leader Squad (Student Council) introduced the Pennies for Patients campaign we are beginning next week at school to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (information came home today). Mrs. Hider led meeting where they shared what they love about 4th grade and did some, "Would you rather?" questions. Next, was our Mindset special and when we returned, we participated in World Read Aloud Day! First, I read The Beaded Moccasins where Mary discovered that Grandfather wants to trade Mrs. Stewart for some muskets. Grandfather also discovered that Mary cannot read and lied to him. Then, instead of or in addition to, they read poetry for two voices from the books, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You. We received certificates for our participation and then, we worked on understanding some more figurative language--hyperboles, more idioms, metaphors, alliteration and personification. We had lunch and outdoor recess and then went back to Mindset to help out with the 1st and 2nd grade students. Once we finally returned to the classroom, we worked on our presentations for conferences next week.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Up-cycling
Our day began as all do... we continued working with word study as our focus for morning choice followed by i-time. Most are playing games but at least they are creating words and collaborating with friends with Boggle and Scrabble! After gym, in our morning meeting, we continued our work with empathy and the book we read yesterday, Ada's Violin, by watching videos of the real Ada. This sparked our interest and we are going to up-cycle something. So, if your kiddo starts going through your recycling, this is why! In Reader's Workshop, we worked with idioms. Maybe you can find a way to throw one or two in to conversation with your kiddo and see if they pick it up! Here are some we worked with today: let sleeping dogs lie, clam up, when pigs fly, smell a rat... After matching idioms with their meanings, they were able to continue free-writing and adding poems to our poeTREE. It was lunch and outdoor recess and quiet time where we completed and went over our M4T. After our Number Talk (see if your child can tell you 16 x 8), we related decimals to our base-10 number system and blocks where they made pictures and then determined the value of their picture and we ended Math Workshop with an exit slip. Math took quite a while today so we didn't have much time for Social Studies but we did begin to discuss the Explorers and the 3 G's that brought them to the Americas.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Mrs. Hider
I was out this morning for a follow-up from my surgery so it was Mrs. Hider's first day without me. Mrs. Bowers (the sub-not art teacher) was there and did most of it but Mrs. Hider led meeting for the first time! She's still observing for one more week and then she'll be taking over more and more. They read Ada's Violin for read aloud and got a new StoryWorks magazine in Reader's Workshop where they worked with the poem, The Snowflake. After indoor recess due to the temperature, we had quiet time and a Number Talk. In Math Workshop, we continued our work with fractions and decimals by creating a human number line. Each kiddo had either a fraction or a decimal and they put themselves in order. Then, we worked on an Exemplar and played Decimal Top-it. Since they decided they wanted to prove their thinking yesterday in Science, we set up our experiments and tested them. Ask them what they discovered and why!
Monday, January 29, 2018
Empathy
We began our day with a focus on word study for morning choice again this week. What word study activity did your kiddo do? Then, after Art, in our meeting, we shared one word about our weekend. Do you think your child said: fun, terrible, sleepover, sports or boring? After our one word, we discussed our basic needs and then watched 2 videos about children in poverty. We are going to focus on EMPATHY this week so we discussed what empathy means and then I shared a story about a student from last year. It's one thing to see the children in Africa and have empathy but it's another thing to realize that there are kiddos in our school that don't have their basic needs met. Also, they received a chart for Random Acts of Kindness. After about 10 minutes, some said they were finished. So, we had another discussion that acts of kindness are only random when they happen out of the blue. They need to do things because they empathize with someone-not just to check something off their list. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary made it to Sequin's trading post on Lake Erie and dodged a bullet when she said she couldn't read the treaty because it was in French! Phew! After reading independently, we worked with identifying figurative language in song lyrics. I challenged them to try and find more when listening to music because we didn't do very well with this today. We also did some free-writing and writing poetry for our POETree. :) It was a very cold outdoor recess with big snow flakes and in quiet time, they should have completed their Math 4 Today. However, some are choosing to work on it at home this week so you might want to ask them if they've finished. In Math Workshop, we started our decimal learning by placing fractions and decimals on a number line. This proved to be pretty challenging for some. Unfortunately, we just want to be told what to do instead of trying to solve and figure it out on their own. They aren't enjoying having to think... I stopped them about half way through and gave a little more explanation about decimals and their places and values. This helped a lot of them to finish putting the numbers on the number line. Today was only day 1 and they don't realize that they don't need to know it all right away! (Needless to say, it was a bit stressful...) We ended our day with Science. I gave them 2 probes (thought provoking questions) that dealt with heat vs. temperature. We really want to know the answers, too, so we created experiments to do tomorrow to figure them out! One was the mitten problem and the other was the temperature of objects--what does your child think?
Friday, January 26, 2018
Great day!
Today was just a great day overall! It's not as if anything specific happened but we got quite a bit accomplished, kiddos were happy and after all the kids left, Mrs. Hider and I looked at each other and said, "That was really fun! We had a really good day, today!"
We began with morning choice and i-time, followed by gym. In meeting, we shared the first thing we do when we get home from school and then played category challenge with animals. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary is headed to the trading post to help them with reading treaties, however, they don't know that she can't read... after reading independently, we spent 45 minutes on our checkpoint writing assessment. They have WAY too much anxiety! We need to do more of these types of assignments/tests because they were giving up before we even began! It was a beautiful day for outdoor recess and after taking our Math 4 Today assessment (which came home with them today and they weren't wonderful), we took the decimal pre-assessment and got started with understanding decimals by playing a game with tenths and hundredths. They really enjoyed it so we just played and played until the end of the day.
We began with morning choice and i-time, followed by gym. In meeting, we shared the first thing we do when we get home from school and then played category challenge with animals. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary is headed to the trading post to help them with reading treaties, however, they don't know that she can't read... after reading independently, we spent 45 minutes on our checkpoint writing assessment. They have WAY too much anxiety! We need to do more of these types of assignments/tests because they were giving up before we even began! It was a beautiful day for outdoor recess and after taking our Math 4 Today assessment (which came home with them today and they weren't wonderful), we took the decimal pre-assessment and got started with understanding decimals by playing a game with tenths and hundredths. They really enjoyed it so we just played and played until the end of the day.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Did we do any learning today??
Yes! Although, it didn't feel that way...it was a crazy Thursday after all! :) Our day began with working on word study and then in meeting, shared our favorite part of Valentine's Day followed by some, "Would you rather?" questions. Why Valentine's Day talk already? Well, this afternoon, we had a vertical team activity where we worked with the preschoolers to make valentines for the two nursing homes here in Hilliard. Our big kids LOVED the preschoolers and thought they were just the cutest things ever!! We also worked on our Math 4 Today and planned out our opinion writing for the assessment we'll be writing tomorrow.
Some other out-of-the-ordinaries were our pizza party lunch for those that completed the Winter Break Challenge and our ice cream/popsicle potato head celebration!
Some other out-of-the-ordinaries were our pizza party lunch for those that completed the Winter Break Challenge and our ice cream/popsicle potato head celebration!
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Hungry today!
I feel like we got a lot done today! We began with morning choice activities with a word study focus. Once we grasped this concept, we were good to go. After Music, in meeting, we shared our favorite sports team. (For some reason, everybody needed a snack today so I went through an entire bag of goldfish-the big ones that I get at Sam's Club, too! Maybe they're growing... Anyway, I was getting snacks so we didn't have time to play the game.) In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary decided she needed strength, like they boys in the tribe. So, she jumped into the icy water too...luckily, she was saved by White Eyes! Hepte told her that she already had more strength than those boys. We read independently and then discussed the poem we completed yesterday. In Writer's Workshop, we completed our shared opinion writing. I feel so much better about them doing their writing assessment now. I think for the next writing, our informational report, we might complete a shared writing because they really did well with this modeling. After yet another indoor recess, in Math Workshop, we finally finished reviewing and practicing and securing (mostly secure) our understanding of fractions. We are ready to move on to decimals! (Some still need some extra practice with fractions, though so don't stop working on them!) Our day concluded working on Science and the Ohio Energy Project. We talked about what energy is and how we use it and can be more efficient.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Fun in the dark!
OMG-we had a fun morning! The power went out around 8:30 this morning but we weren't going to let that stop us! It was actually kind of fun to hang out at school in the dark-it was like we were there after hours. (Which I am a lot and this was nothing like that, but for them, it was cool!) For the first hour or so, there were emergency lights in the bathrooms, however, we used a flashlight when those went off~that was fun. In Art, Mrs. Bowers had to bring it "old school" by drawing on the chalkboard instead of using the power point presentation she had made. We also used materials from our Ohio Energy Project--our hand crank flash lights and Mrs. Hider and I wore glow bracelets. It was almost like a party! :)
In meeting, we shared the which ethnicity of food is our favorite. (I get a lot of my meeting share ideas from my evenings at home. Last night we had Mexican food and I put a Chinese type recipe in the crock pot for dinner tonight.) Italian was a big favorite amongst the kids. Japanese was pretty popular too. Sushi, YUM! In The Beaded Moccasins, the Delaware boys of the village learned strength in a unique way~ask your kiddo about them jumping in the ice every morning of the 4 moons. We read independently and then finished working on our poetry understanding we began the previous day. We spent a lot of time on a shared writing today. We have been working with opinion writing and although they understand and can write a claim and come up with reasons to support this claim, we need work with elaborating on these reasons. We didn't finish so we'll pick up where we left off, tomorrow but did well today. I'm feeling much better about our checkpoint writing assessment this week. Unfortunately, it was once again indoor recess. :( In Math Workshop, we kept working on securing our fraction understanding and when secure, practicing and extending our fraction knowledge. We ended our day finishing our Infographics of Native American groups.
In meeting, we shared the which ethnicity of food is our favorite. (I get a lot of my meeting share ideas from my evenings at home. Last night we had Mexican food and I put a Chinese type recipe in the crock pot for dinner tonight.) Italian was a big favorite amongst the kids. Japanese was pretty popular too. Sushi, YUM! In The Beaded Moccasins, the Delaware boys of the village learned strength in a unique way~ask your kiddo about them jumping in the ice every morning of the 4 moons. We read independently and then finished working on our poetry understanding we began the previous day. We spent a lot of time on a shared writing today. We have been working with opinion writing and although they understand and can write a claim and come up with reasons to support this claim, we need work with elaborating on these reasons. We didn't finish so we'll pick up where we left off, tomorrow but did well today. I'm feeling much better about our checkpoint writing assessment this week. Unfortunately, it was once again indoor recess. :( In Math Workshop, we kept working on securing our fraction understanding and when secure, practicing and extending our fraction knowledge. We ended our day finishing our Infographics of Native American groups.
Monday, January 22, 2018
Still inside...
Ugh...due to the rain and wet of the outside, we are still inside for recess. :(
We began our morning tying to finish up the Knuffle Bunny's we made on Friday. Some still weren't finished so they were able to bring supplies home to finish up there. After gym, in meeting, we shared about our weekend and played Coseeki. In The Beaded Moccasins, the weather started to change and it's now getting colder so she is in a cave during NE Ohio winter...brrrr! The students are starting to notice some changes to Mary since the kidnapping where she's becoming a bit less spoiled and appreciating what she has. After reading independently, we worked on another poem-this one had a lot of symbolism and thinking figuratively, which stressed some kiddos out a bit. This goes back to our discussion about reading more than just the words on the page. YOU are one of the main characters of the book and need to work to become that character. In Writer's Workshop, we will be taking the checkpoint writing assessment this week (an assessment of their writing that is "standardized" among all of the 4th graders in the district) and so today we looked at our last writing piece with the rubric to see what we should focus on improving. I noticed that we need to work on elaborating our ideas so tomorrow, we're going to do a shared writing to help us better prepare. In Math Workshop, we continued to secure our fraction understanding so that we can move on to decimals... some also worked on extension activities like reducing fractions and adding/subtracting mixed numbers (which led us to the discussion that problem solving is when you don't know what you are doing--which means that when they understand it, it's not a problem!) Our day ended with working on our infographics of Native Americans.
We began our morning tying to finish up the Knuffle Bunny's we made on Friday. Some still weren't finished so they were able to bring supplies home to finish up there. After gym, in meeting, we shared about our weekend and played Coseeki. In The Beaded Moccasins, the weather started to change and it's now getting colder so she is in a cave during NE Ohio winter...brrrr! The students are starting to notice some changes to Mary since the kidnapping where she's becoming a bit less spoiled and appreciating what she has. After reading independently, we worked on another poem-this one had a lot of symbolism and thinking figuratively, which stressed some kiddos out a bit. This goes back to our discussion about reading more than just the words on the page. YOU are one of the main characters of the book and need to work to become that character. In Writer's Workshop, we will be taking the checkpoint writing assessment this week (an assessment of their writing that is "standardized" among all of the 4th graders in the district) and so today we looked at our last writing piece with the rubric to see what we should focus on improving. I noticed that we need to work on elaborating our ideas so tomorrow, we're going to do a shared writing to help us better prepare. In Math Workshop, we continued to secure our fraction understanding so that we can move on to decimals... some also worked on extension activities like reducing fractions and adding/subtracting mixed numbers (which led us to the discussion that problem solving is when you don't know what you are doing--which means that when they understand it, it's not a problem!) Our day ended with working on our infographics of Native Americans.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Not much time!
Today was a crazy Thursday and even crazier than usual because we didn't have much time together! Mrs. Root is having a little difficulty with her younger grades understanding the activities and lessons for Mindset and she asked our class to help out! So, they were in Mindset from 1:35-2:50 today in addition to their vertical team time, 10:25-11:10. Wow~a lot of mindset!
After morning choice and i-time, we read the Knuffle Bunny books in preparation for our show tomorrow. We had great discussion along with the entertainment the books provided! I know I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's musical! Other than mindset, we read independently, finished up and went over the poem we began understanding yesterday, wrote a bit and continued securing our understanding in fractions.
After morning choice and i-time, we read the Knuffle Bunny books in preparation for our show tomorrow. We had great discussion along with the entertainment the books provided! I know I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's musical! Other than mindset, we read independently, finished up and went over the poem we began understanding yesterday, wrote a bit and continued securing our understanding in fractions.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Monday? or Wednesday, already?!
I'm still not sure what day it is, however, we're going with it. We had a couple out of the ordinaries today. First, we had a safety drill this afternoon and then, we went to the MakerSpace for some creative play!
We are trying for less screen time because when given the choice, they'll choose the ipad. So, for Morning Choice, we tried some things other than what is "easy" and had a great time. Hopefully, this will continue through the week and so on. After Art, in meeting, we shared and shared about our looooonnnnggg weekend. In The Beaded Moccasins, they finally arrived at the Cuyahoga River where they plan to live. I love this chapter because I've been to Mary Campbell's Cave in Cuyahoga Falls and took pictures that I like to share with them. It brings the historical part of the historical fiction book more to reality. We read independently and then partnered up to work on understanding a poem. In Writer's Workshop, we either worked on our opinion writing or wrote poetry. In Math Workshop, we are practicing and reviewing and securing our understanding of all things fractions. My hope is that we'll be able to move on to decimals on Monday, with everyone. Our day ended with a few "Would you rather?" scenarios after MakerSpace.
We are trying for less screen time because when given the choice, they'll choose the ipad. So, for Morning Choice, we tried some things other than what is "easy" and had a great time. Hopefully, this will continue through the week and so on. After Art, in meeting, we shared and shared about our looooonnnnggg weekend. In The Beaded Moccasins, they finally arrived at the Cuyahoga River where they plan to live. I love this chapter because I've been to Mary Campbell's Cave in Cuyahoga Falls and took pictures that I like to share with them. It brings the historical part of the historical fiction book more to reality. We read independently and then partnered up to work on understanding a poem. In Writer's Workshop, we either worked on our opinion writing or wrote poetry. In Math Workshop, we are practicing and reviewing and securing our understanding of all things fractions. My hope is that we'll be able to move on to decimals on Monday, with everyone. Our day ended with a few "Would you rather?" scenarios after MakerSpace.
Friday, January 12, 2018
Early Dismissal
Today was crazy! We had a little bit of math, a little bit of reading and writing and some understanding of why we have school off on Monday. We made it through safe and sound! :)
Thursday, January 11, 2018
We did it!
Together, we made it completely through the day with minimal redirection so we have officially earned our full potato head celebration! :) We'll be deciding how to celebrate tomorrow and then the celebration will be next week sometime.
Today was Mrs. Hider's first day! She is completing her student teaching for Grand Canyon University and will be with us for the next 4 months. After some introductions, we had a school community meeting reminding us about building skill and choosing to keep ourselves above the line. Some of our kiddos were recognized for their efforts in December and received certificates and got to stand up in the meeting. After mindset, in The Beaded Moccasins, they arrived at their village and Mary met her "mother," Hepte and discovered that the "old one," that had captured her is their leader and she is to be his granddaughter. Their rest didn't last long and now they are headed for the Ohio Territory to set up permanent residence. We read independently and then practiced our fluency using poetry for two voices before going over the poem we worked with yesterday. In Writer's Workshop, we continued writing our opinion pieces inspired by MLK day. I was hoping we could get outside today but it was raining terribly. In Math Workshop, we worked on what multiplication with fractions and whole numbers means and looks like. Our day ended with discovering/exploring toys and how they work with energy transformations in the Ohio Energy Project.
Today was Mrs. Hider's first day! She is completing her student teaching for Grand Canyon University and will be with us for the next 4 months. After some introductions, we had a school community meeting reminding us about building skill and choosing to keep ourselves above the line. Some of our kiddos were recognized for their efforts in December and received certificates and got to stand up in the meeting. After mindset, in The Beaded Moccasins, they arrived at their village and Mary met her "mother," Hepte and discovered that the "old one," that had captured her is their leader and she is to be his granddaughter. Their rest didn't last long and now they are headed for the Ohio Territory to set up permanent residence. We read independently and then practiced our fluency using poetry for two voices before going over the poem we worked with yesterday. In Writer's Workshop, we continued writing our opinion pieces inspired by MLK day. I was hoping we could get outside today but it was raining terribly. In Math Workshop, we worked on what multiplication with fractions and whole numbers means and looks like. Our day ended with discovering/exploring toys and how they work with energy transformations in the Ohio Energy Project.
1/10/17
Sorry~forgot to post last night. I'm still really tired and achy by the end of the day so I went home and went to bed.
I was out for professional development yesterday morning but Mrs. Bowers was our substitute and they worked with poetry and opinion writing. In Math Workshop, we are continuing our understanding of multiplying whole numbers with fractions. They are making a great transition from adding and composing fractions (1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 3/4) into multiplication (3 x 1/4 = 3/4). In Social Studies, we worked on our Infographics for the Native American group we picked to represent.
I was out for professional development yesterday morning but Mrs. Bowers was our substitute and they worked with poetry and opinion writing. In Math Workshop, we are continuing our understanding of multiplying whole numbers with fractions. They are making a great transition from adding and composing fractions (1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 3/4) into multiplication (3 x 1/4 = 3/4). In Social Studies, we worked on our Infographics for the Native American group we picked to represent.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Ugh!
Man, today was rough! I don't know if we need to get outside for recess or what but I think I stopped every five minutes to get them from talking! Even when I was up in the front of the room teaching! Our goal today was to be more purposeful with everything we were doing. For example, after our meeting, we said the Pledge and then were to go get our ipads and come back for read aloud. A small handful did this, however, the majority of the class, did not do this with purpose-they talked with their friends and went to their bags, etc. We'll try again tomorrow.
We began our day completing a Learning Styles survey for our morning question, "Tell me Tuesday." What are your child's preferences? In meeting, we shared for 30 minutes! what we did yesterday. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary and Mrs. Stewart continued west over the Appalachian Mountains with their captors. She was told that she was going to replace their leader's granddaughter who had passed away. We read independently and in Reader's Workshop, discussed poetry. We even had a few minutes to write some poetry before continuing our work with our opinion writing. In Math Workshop, we worked with multiplying fractions with whole numbers. We showed what this looks like using equations, area models and number lines. We ended our day completing our chart describing the who, what, when and where of Native Americans in Ohio.
We began our day completing a Learning Styles survey for our morning question, "Tell me Tuesday." What are your child's preferences? In meeting, we shared for 30 minutes! what we did yesterday. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary and Mrs. Stewart continued west over the Appalachian Mountains with their captors. She was told that she was going to replace their leader's granddaughter who had passed away. We read independently and in Reader's Workshop, discussed poetry. We even had a few minutes to write some poetry before continuing our work with our opinion writing. In Math Workshop, we worked with multiplying fractions with whole numbers. We showed what this looks like using equations, area models and number lines. We ended our day completing our chart describing the who, what, when and where of Native Americans in Ohio.
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Back to the grind...
We are getting back into the grind of school. I'm having to pull some of them along with us, but we're all moving on! :) It was a crazy Thursday schedule but that gave us some time to complete our spelling screeners before Mindset. We are going to try something different, as a grade level, for spelling so the screeners help us to split the kiddos into groups based on their spelling needs. We are still concentrating on the patterns of words so they won't necessarily have "lists" and "tests." In our morning meeting, we went over the class surveys and they agree there should be less talking in the class so today, we had semi-assigned seats to begin the day. This helped a bit but we still need to use more self-discipline and control for when to talk and how loud our voices should be. In The Beaded Moccasins, it was Mary's birthday! We are still getting to know Mary and the setting so we've stopped a lot to better understand the time period. Yesterday, we worked with carding wool and spinning thread and today we learned about churning butter. We are also focusing on the similes the author uses to help us understand. After some time reading independently, we listened to the poem in StoryWorks, "Ode To My Shoes," and answered some critical thinking questions about the poem. In Writer's Workshop, we looked at our opinion writing we did before break and compared it to the 4th grade checklist to make sure we are making the transition to 4th grade opinion writing. After lunch and indoor recess and quiet time, we completed a one-pager about fractions. Pretty much, they were given a blank piece of paper and they needed to fill it up, artistically, with everything they know about fractions. Since we are all at different points in our learning, I wasn't sure where they all ended up before break. This will help me to better grasp where they are and where to go from here. Although it was a little overwhelming at first, they did ok. I think we'll need time tomorrow to finish but your kiddo might be working on this tonight. We ended our day reading about the Native Americans of the 1700's.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Happy New Year!
I made it through my first day back! I'm pretty swollen, sore and tight but I did it! We had a good day~very chatty, but the first day back is always chatty. We started the day with "Snaps" of our winter break and shared them during our meeting. We shared a lot during our meeting, actually! I really enjoyed chatting and catching up. Next, we completed a 2017 Year In Review. In order to set goals and improve, we need to first know where we are. This review helped get our minds right on the basics of our 2017. We started a new book for Read Aloud, The Beaded Moccasins by Lynda Durrant. This is a historical fiction book about Mary Campbell who was taken captive by Native Americans in the 1700's. We are still being introduced to the characters, setting and time period so we haven't even gotten to her capture yet. In Reader's Workshop, we met up with our literature groups to make sure we were all caught up with our reading-which most of us were not... After lunch and indoor recess, obviously, in Math Workshop, we used what we knew of fractions to understand the markings on a ruler and then measured ourselves to the nearest quarter inch. We then made a line plot of how tall we all area and drew conclusions about our data. Next, we read a quote:
and discussed that we should measure our growth (academic, sports, etc.) on our past, not each other-just like we measure our height. We even hung up a paper and marked our heights that we can look at as a visual for remembering this. It's hard to not compare ourselves to each other, especially once you get old enough to understand, but we are going to try! We concluded our day reviewing our understanding of the mound builders.
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