Better

Today was definitely better than yesterday! We began our crazy Thursday withOUT morning choice. Today, we began by cleaning and organizing our binders and our tubs. Then, they moved on to ST Math for i-time. I also opened the warm fuzzy store for the first time this year. Ask your kiddos if they bought anything! After our mindset special, we finished the fantasy chapter and read a tiny bit of girl fiction and found out that Trip is a girl in this chapter! This should be fun! We read independently and then in Reader's Workshop, used the text features we discussed yesterday to answer questions about the story and the author's craft. In Writer's Workshop, we looked at the writing checklist for opinion writing and searched for the differences between 3rd and 4th grade. Knowing the expectations and differences help a lot when learning and writing. Unfortunately, it was indoor recess due to the rain and after quiet time, we went over a couple questions students had with their Math 4 Today and then picked up where we left off yesterday in Math Workshop. I saw a lot of light bulbs today as they FINALLY grasped the understanding of equivalent fractions! Our day ended with musical rehearsal.

Insanity

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results... we haven't earned a potato head piece in quite a while. We are talking too much and it's not just that it's loud and chaotic but our work is suffering! If needed, we're going to be spending some recess time working next week and I absolutely hate taking recess time away because I think it is precious and well needed, however, we are not using our class time wisely...

After a very noisy start to the morning and a good music rehearsal, Mrs. Wyskiver came in for our first guidance lesson of the year. We focused on grit and resiliency. It was fun and I participated in the challenge too! We also watched a video with some special kiddos singing the song, "Stronger." Then, in our meeting, we tried to change our "R" about having a sub during my surgery by asking questions to her ahead of time. They came up with some pretty good questions, like: What is your teaching style?" How do you do rewards? Consequences? Do you stay on task/schedule? What is your favorite subject to teach? Then, we thought it might be good to share some things about us too, so we are going to each share one thing we want her to know about us! After saying the Pledge of Allegiance, we read a tiny bit from Nightmare at the Book Fair. We are still in the midst of the Fantasy chapter and now Trip has a sidekick! We read independently and discussed non-fiction text features and how they help readers using the story in our StoryWorks for Reader's Workshop. In Writer's Workshop, we went over the details from the debate both for and against the idea of "Is it good to be bored sometimes?" After our discussion, they wrote their opinion. In Math Workshop, we continued with equivalent fractions using name collection boxes and clocks or focused on the whole. In Science, we continued working on our landform brochures for weathering and erosion.

E + R = O revisited

So, they all confessed as soon as they saw me that their talking and behavior was not ideal yesterday. I asked why and their response was that some feel that they can do whatever they want with a sub there. This led our discussion to them complaining about me being absent and about hating subs. I totally get it. I didn't want to be out yesterday and get poked and prodded and all of that. This then led to a reminder about E + R = O. We cannot change the events that happen (a sub in the classroom for them or my pre-surgery testing), however, we have complete control over our response. After we discussed this from yesterday, I shared with them about our out-of-the-ordinaries for today which was STAR testing. Again, with the complaining. Again, with the, we cannot change the events that happen (taking STAR or giving STAR), but we can change our response! This is the adjusting and adapting part of the R-factor. So, what ended up happening is a lot of kids took their time and did their best work on the STAR assessments which is going to give me a lot of good data to help guide and personalize my instruction. This new response made the outcome much better!

Other than STAR testing, we finished some work up from yesterday in Reading as well as completed some background information for opinion writing using a StoryWorks article on if it's good for kids to be bored sometimes and looking at BOTH sides of the argument. In Math Workshop, we had a gallery walk looking at the posters we made yesterday about sharing sub sandwiches. We had an excellent discussion about this too! Our day concluded by going to the media center and continuing to learn about research with Mrs. Dornburgh.

Is it Thursday?!

So yesterday felt like Halloween again and today feels like a crazy Thursday! Oh well, we're rolling with it! :)

We finally finished our 60 letters/cards for #OhioKindnessWeek for the Ohio Department of Education for the Children's Hospitals of Ohio! We also continued to practice our signatures and cursive writing. We had music rehearsal during specials and then went to the MakerSpace for a STEM challenge with Mrs. Kalb's class-Flying Turkeys! So much fun creating our turkeys and trying to slingshot/catapult them over the fence so they don't end up on the dinner table! Then, in meeting, I shared a "poem" with them that I made of some of the things I am thankful for about them. We had some time to finish our small moment stories if not finished, our Wonder turkeys if not finished and read independently. After lunch and recess, we practiced multiplication during quiet time and then went to the media center for a "Friendsgiving!" vertical team activity. We had a friendship mix snack, charades, origami turkeys, coloring pages, handprint wreath, back to back drawing, Jeepers Peepers game (like Headbanz) and other challenges and activities to complete with our friends! #blessed

Is it Halloween again?

Oh my goodness! They were super chatty today and it was like it was Halloween again! They must be excited for our 2-day week! (Me too! :))

We began our day with learning how to sign our names in cursive! They aren't very good so they should keep practicing! ;) After Art, in our meeting, we had a WONDERful discussion about the movie and differences from the book. In Nightmare at the Book Fair, Trip left the animal world and woke up in a Fantasy. This chapter really encompasses what the author is trying to do with over emphasizing what all he does. He makes it longer, uses tough vocabulary and lots of words to say what could be said in just a few, includes a quest, good vs. evil and lots of other fun and fantastical stuff! We read independently and in Writer's Workshop, we made Wonder turkeys, sharing who has shown us kindness and how we spread that kindness and #choosekind. We practiced multiplication during quiet time and then in Math Workshop, those that had been working on the cooking project, snuck away to secretly make their recipe for the rest of the class while we reviewed and practiced equivalent fractions and played Uncover with our fraction kits. We ended our day finishing our early people of Ohio illustrations or interviews and our weathering and erosion brochures.

Typical

Our day began with morning choice and i-time where most of us finished our word sort with short and long vowels. After gym, in meeting, with the movie Wonder coming out, we shared what we thought was the worst book to movie we've seen. The BFG and A Dog's Purpose were two of the biggest. Then, we played a few rounds of Coseeki. After saying the Pledge of Allegiance, we began the Animal Fiction chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair where Trip is a cat! We read independently, finished our inference kidblog activity, published our small moment story and wrote letters/cards to Children's Hospital as part of #OHKindnessWeek! It was a bit warmer recess today and after quiet time, we continued our work with finding equivalent fractions using unifix cubes and tangrams. Again, it's easy to find equivalent fractions using fraction strips because that is how we learned it but applying that understanding to different situations--unifix cubes, tangrams, unusually cut cakes, etc.--is more challenging. We also had some time to play Cover Up. We ended our day with Social Studies where we continued reading about the prehistoric people of Ohio and either illustrating or creating an "interview" with/of prehistoric people.

right on schedule! (for once)

I wrote our schedule on the board today and made sure that we stuck to it! We got everything accomplished! Hooray! :)

Our crazy Thursday began with morning choice and i-time followed by our morning meeting where we shared what we are looking forward to for Thanksgiving and played a little "Would you rather?" Thanksgiving edition. We're about half and half for gravy on mashed potatoes or not. Then, we did a word study lesson on vowels-short and long. I thought this would be easy and mostly review but it wasn't so I'm glad we did it! After our mindset special, we finished the historical fiction chapter after Trip walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong, in Nightmare at the Book Fair. We also read the second intermission-Easy Reader-which was a lot like Dr. Seuss, about Reed McReedy. We read independently and then went over our inference work with informational text. We also got a kidblog assignment to read a literary text and completed a question about them. Some of us got started on this or even finished it while others continued publishing our small moment stories. After a very cold recess, in math workshop, we kept working with fractions by completing a problem about an unusual baker. Some really struggled with this understanding. Sometimes, even though we understand the basic idea, we have trouble applying our thinking to different situations. So, please, if cooking or coming across fractions at home, see if they can apply their understanding. (Uh-oh, this recipe calls for 1/2 cup but I only have a 1/4 cup...what can I do?) Our day concluded with musical rehearsal.