*sigh*

We had a typical day. Well, it was our first indoor recess so that was out of the ordinary. But, other than that, it was typical. In meeting, we watched Caine's Arcade and loved it so much, we watched Caine's Arcade 2 also! Ask your kiddos about these movies and about OUR community cardboard challenge on October 10. I hope you all can make it! Then, we finished our short vowel practice sheets and continued on in the writing process. Some are choosing to publish using Google Apps. They can work at home also. AND, they should know how to get to it. If not, hilliardschools.org; Students tab; Elementary eSchool; Google Apps; they then log in just like they would at school. In Wonder, we finished up with Summer and moved on to Jack. He has no idea why Auggie is mad at him. This should get interesting! In Reader's Workshop, we read independently and checked out some non-fiction texts while working on a scavenger hunt for non-fiction text features. I was also able to meet with some kiddos and we had a great chat about the non-fiction story in our StoryWorks, The Evil Swirling Darkness, about the Joplin tornado and the features of non-fiction text but also about the vocabulary from the story: pulverize, debris and supercell were some of the words we discussed. We had Art, lunch and indoor recess and a surprise of our new student, Augustine, stopping by to check things out! I was impressed with the kids that came over and introduced themselves to him. Quiet time was almost quiet...but it was needed and has been a blessing that we will definitely keep. Sometimes, the most active kids don't need more activity but some independent and quiet time to center and calm themselves. Then, we completed an ST Math challenge together and I showed them some new things like the fluency practice they can do to help with their basic facts. For Math Workshop, we continued to practice what we've already learned about place and value and numbers through millions (some need more practice) but we also moved on a little with patterns. They asked for some more time so tomorrow, they will continue to work with this. Finally, our day ended with Social Studies. We brought out the old school text book on Ohio! We looked at the copyright and saw that it is even older than them! But, we also discussed that Ohio's history hasn't changed and that this is still a good resource for learning about that. However, we'll need to look elsewhere for more up-to-date information about the economy and government.