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.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
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.
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