Weird

At one point in the day, there were only 12 students in the classroom. Today was the last day of Focus so 6 of our kiddos were out for that. Today was also the last day for working with kiddos' in Mrs. Shively's room so 8 were down in her room during Reader's Workshop. It was kind of cool...very quiet...however, I like our big, happy family best! We started with Word Search Wednesday and then in meeting, shared what we have been doing to enjoy our evenings of excellent weather this week. To work on vocabulary, we played a football game and then had some time to just write. In The One Safe Place, Devin had to work with Roman during the scavenger hunt. I think there is more to the Devin-Roman connection than we know... Today was Art, lunch and recess. After writing our reminders for our field trip and assignments in our planners, we spent some quiet time to create calm and then kept working on building the dimensions of our dream home (area and perimeter). FYI-my dream closet is 600 square feet! We also designed some cool shoes! We completed our day with working on building our City of Ember!

Last Monday of the school year!

Unfortunately, there was a substitute for the second half of the day and from what I've heard, she was quite strict... I was getting an injection in my knee. I need a new knee but they don't want to do that because I'm too young so this is kind of my last option. It's a series of 3 injections over 3 weeks and man, it hurt! and still hurts! (I'm icing my knee with it propped up as I type.) So, needless to say, I'm not sure about the afternoon but if it's anything like our morning, it wasn't great.

We started off very noisy while completing our A-MAZE-ing Monday morning work. Then, we went to Music #1 to help the 3rd graders with recorders. We came back and read a little from The One Safe Place and then students were able to finish their brochures or read or begin to create their summer reading list. Then, it was time for Music #2, lunch and what I'm sure was a glorious outdoor recess. In Math Workshop, they were to work on Real World Math by using restaurant menus to create "bills" and make change after "paying" for their food. They were to finish up Immigration for Social Studies by looking at pictures and taking what they've learned to write a journal entry as if they were an immigrant.

Still working

We are still working but you might not notice because some of the kiddos feel that they don't need to continue to work. It will take EXTRA attention and self-discipline over the next couple of weeks but we need to finish strong!

This week, for morning work, we are working with measurement and angles. Students did pretty well on today's work. In our meeting, we heard all about each other's weekends...I ask for only the pertinent details but we still heard ALL the details including what one even ate! Then, we took our pre-test to get new words to work with and I introduced our next writing project although we didn't have time to get started. In The One Safe Place, Kit and Devin reached the home and got to sleep and eat a ton and on their tour, it seemed that this place was awful until their guide, Luke, a fellow student, let some details slip that this place isn't as it seems. In Reader's Workshop, we read and wrote our Dear Mrs. L letters and visited the library for our last day to check out books for the year! Today was gym, lunch and outdoor recess. After some quiet time, we worked with measuring perimeter and area today in Math Workshop, which was really noisy so I shared this quote with them: "Good mathematics is not about how many answers you know...it's about how you behave when you don't know." I ended our workshop with that thought. We worked on our electricity labs in Science and then finished up our comparison of the Amish and us. We had a few minutes for wonder time.

Oh, Math...

We started our day reviewing some math concepts and then had a gloriously wonderful morning meeting. First, Max, shared a story that he wrote that is absolutely amazing and I'm so proud of him and thankful for him sharing it with us! Then, Claire shared because we got a letter back from one of our counties that we wrote to for the Great Ohio Mail Race! We also earned one potato head piece for our day with the sub yesterday. Next, we became editors by sharing our StoryWorks articles with each other and helping to revise and edit their articles. In The One Safe Place, we met Kit and learned a little more about the "world" and the surroundings they are in. Devin can taste feelings which is really weird and Kit thinks that he is kidding around... We also discussed some cause and effect situations in the book. Then, in Reader's Workshop, we worked with cause and effect surrounding The Great Smog. We also, read, worked on the cover for our StoryWorks issue, wrote our Dear Mrs. L letters and read. Today was Art, lunch and outdoor recess. After some not-so-quiet, quiet time, we reviewed/practiced line plots, measuring and the metric system by measuring our pencil to the nearest 1/2 cm and then plotting it on a line plot and analyzing the data. We then, TRIED TO apply our understanding but for some reason, the student's were not problem-solvers today. They did not even want to try. All but about 4 kiddos...everyone else spent about an hour talking, chatting, goofing off, staring into space and doing everything BUT working on their work. Around 2:45, about 25 minutes after math was supposed to be finished, we stopped and moved on to finish our Social Studies from yesterday. Some students were able to have a little bit of Wonder time.

Math is our worst time of day. I know that it is hard and tedious and can be uber stressful to some but it's also just as important as literacy. I keep trying to stress that to them and that it isn't a problem if they can do it quickly...tomorrow, we're going to take another crack at things and hopefully, will do better with our stamina and perseverance. I'll let you know!

Substitute?

Well, today was my final assessment day for reading and all students have shown progress! There was a substitute in the class so you'll have to ask your kiddo about the details of the say but here's what I left for them to work on:

They completed some math review for morning work and in meeting shared about the careers they hope are in their future. In Word Study, they took the pre-test and created their lists and in Writer's Workshop, they began thinking about and designing the cover for our issue of StoryWorks. We will pick which cover will be our class issue cover but students will use their own cover designs for their copy. Thank You, Mr. Falkner was the book that the substitute read for read aloud and in Reader's Workshop, they read, blogged, visited the library and wrote their letters. Special was Gym and recess was inside today. In Math Workshop, kiddos continued working with metric conversions and in Social Studies, they read about the Amish culture and compared their culture to their own.

Better

Today was better than yesterday but still noisy. Better means they are trying and that's all I can ask. Our day started with a few multiplication and division problems and then in meeting, we shared the decade we were representing today in our wardrobe~I totally rocked my 90's look! :) We finished, hopefully, our StoryWorks article so we are ready to revise and edit on Thursday. In Read Aloud, we started by reading a little about this author and book since it is one I have never read. We learned about synesthesia...maybe this book will be more science-fiction than fantasy? We met Devin, the main character as he became orphaned and had to leave his family "farm." A little strange so far~I need more information... We worked on vocabulary used in "The Great Smog" with terms like sooty, smothered and shrouded. Then, we read, visited the library and wrote our Dear Mrs. L, letters. We had Music, lunch and made it for outdoor recess! After some well needed quiet time, we went on a Measurement Treasure Hunt. It took them a little while to understand the format that their answer leads them to the next question and so on. Some of them ended up in a circle and we realized that with the multiple choice questions, if you were wrong, you could end up missing most of the questions and circling back to where you began. We had a short introduction to the Summer Reading Program at the Hilliard Library and then returned to work on ELECTRICITY, E-LEC-TRICITY! We started by watching the School House Rock ditty and then began our Electrical Circuit lab. Our day ended with Wonder-time!

Chatty, chatty, bang-bang! :)

Well, unfortunately, we couldn't find our M4T's this morning...I think maybe our evening custodian pitched them? I don't know but a stack of 26 salmon colored, graded M4T's weren't trash... So, instead, we worked on multi-digit multiplication and division. After checking our answers, we had morning meeting where they shared, and shared and shared about their weekend. We then worked on our StoryWorks articles. For Read Aloud, since we finished The City of Ember last week, we did some book introductions to find a new book. They picked the one that I haven't read yet so I hope it's good! We read "The Great Smog" from StoryWorks, in Reader's Workshop and wrote our Dear Mrs. L letters and read. We had Art, lunch and indoor recess. After trying to quiet down, (we never really got there...), we learned about the metric system. OMG, they were horribly loud and chaotic. I had to keep stopping in order to teach. It was not good. Hopefully, they got it...but we'll work more with it this week. Finally, we read, Today I Feel Silly by Jaime Lee Curtis about feelings. We then worked with Zones of Regulation and tools for our toolbox. Ask your kiddo about Lazy 8 breathing and Size of the Problem.