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.