Crazy hat day = crazy children day

I had to take off my hat because it is really hard to take someone seriously with a chicken on their head! :)

In our morning meeting, we greeted each other by: sticking our tongues out, half-hug, class handshake and I even tried (with permission from Juan, of course) the greeting where you take the person's hand and rub it on your face! Then, we shared our favorite candy-most like some kind of chocolate-and played category challenge. Max won with 12 costumes named by the time the ball got back to him. To understand our words better, we played Vocabulary Roll-a-word. Your kiddo should be able to tell you what gnu, gnat and knack mean! In Writer's Workshop, we picked our research topic and came up with 3 questions we want to search about. We'll begin researching next week. Today, in Nightmare at the Book Fair, we finished up Science Fiction and read Humor with Captain Obvious and the Exaggerator! We had a good laugh but learned a little more about figurative language with Mr. Idiom and Lee Literal. In Reader's Workshop, we read independently, blogged, visited the library or met with me to learn about inferences. Today was Art, lunch and outdoor recess. In Math Workshop, we continued practicing multi-digit multiplication but also played a game, Bizz-Buzz-Bazooka, to practice our facts and some of us explored the Sieve of Erasthosthenes and prime numbers. We had Guidance today and Mrs. Vidic talked with us about fairness.

Ciao!

In our morning meeting, we learned about different cultural greetings. Ask your kiddo if they remember any. (There are a lot of cultures that kiss! 1, 2, 3 and 4 times!) Then, we TRIED to prove that we understood this week's generalization but it was tough! We did come up with lamb (thanks to my name), know and listen. Those silent consonants just aren't as frequent as vowels... In Writer's Workshop, we discussed writing informational text: features of it as well as how to best pick topics and questions and that we still don't want it to be boring. We read about Adventure as a genre and started the chapter on Science Fiction. They are really enjoying the silliness of Nightmare at the Book Fair! Then, we had a chat about figurative language vs. literal language. In our StoryWorks story, the author uses similes, metaphors and hyperbole to get us to understand and build pictures in our minds. We then worked to better understand the plot of the story. We also blogged, read independently and visited the library (if it was our day). After gym (Mr. B said that we had some difficulty following directions), lunch and only our 2nd indoor recess, we continued our work with multiplication. According to the exit slip from yesterday, about 1/3 of the class understands multiplication completely! Another 1/3 needed some clarification and a little more guided practice and the other 1/3 needed a little more support and re-teaching. They should all be practicing multi-digit multiplication tonight for homework! Some were even hoping that you'd show them the traditional method. *hint*hint In Social Studies, we learned about more early people of Ohio, the hunter-gatherers and I shared an arrowhead that was found on my grandpa's farm--a real artifact! They were impressed. I didn't tell them that they aren't that rare. :) Finally, we finished up our Ohio Studies Weekly.

Night and day

Today was night and day compared to yesterday! Math was enjoyable and children practiced multiplication and only needed my assistance for clarifying questions. Ahhh. I likened Math today to basketball. I was the coach and just taught them how to make foul shots (multiplication). They needed to just practice making free throws from the foul line (multi-digit multiplication problems). They understood about practicing math a little better. I also said that I can't throw for them-only they can solve the problems to become better mathematicians!

After they finished their M4T, they wrote about their seating choice for the day. Why did they sit where they did? (high top table, round table, low table, etc.) Why did they choose the seat they did? (ball, chair, stool, cushion, etc.) Why did they choose the people they are sitting with? This helped them to make good decisions with where and how they are sitting today. In our meeting, we discussed why we like fall. Then, we sorted our words and found that all of our words have silent consonants this week. Next, we finished the chapter on Horror in Nightmare at the Book Fair and also read Sports Fiction. Trip didn't get a face transplant by Professor Psycho and he won the Super Bowl! (Ask your kiddos...) In Reader's Workshop, a group performed the drama, "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" for us. These opportunities allow us to practice our fluency and speaking and they are an enjoyable way to listen to the story. We had Music, lunch and outdoor recess. (We made it but it was spitting rain a little.) After developing our strategies for multiplication and practicing using them, we completed an exit slip. This will help me to know who uses what strategy and who needs more practice. In Social Studies, we completed an Ohio Studies Weekly learning about Ohio's Early People. In Wonder time today, we continued to work on our Ohio Studies Weekly--Wonder/I-time will be more guided than independent for awhile.

Sorry.

Sorry about not having a blog last night. It was a tough day and Mr. Lambright's birthday so we went out for dinner and enjoyed family time.

In class, we had an ok morning until recess, when we had some issues, but then had a great lesson in the Media Center with Mrs. Richardson and earned a potato head piece but then the last hour and a half was terrible. We were working on Math and it seemed like everyone was competing for my attention. I can only help one person at a time~I totally needed one of those "Take a Number" counters! Anyway, we are going to figure out how to best work through our Math problems on our own or collaborating with a friend. I have faith in them-they need to believe in themselves!

In our morning meeting, we got carried away discussing if we dress up for Trick-or-treat or not and what our costumes will be this Thursday. We took a pre-test in Word Study and got new words and A LOT of kiddo missed words this week-it's not necessarily a tricky pattern but there were words the kids aren't used to using on this list so vocabulary played a big part. We finished our Small Moments story in Writer's Workshop and started a new book for Read Aloud. We are reading Nightmare at the Book Fair by Dan Gutman. Each chapter is written as a different genre. We are reading Horror right now with Professor Psycho! Then, we divided up the drama to read parts of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from our StoryWorks. We discussed some of the text features included in this drama though first. After recess, we had a refresher course in research with Mrs. Richardson and then we came back and the rest of the afternoon was with working on our multi-digit multiplication strategies. They are still developing and today, we'll tidy them up a little bit.

Mornings>Afternoons

Our mornings are so much better than our afternoons. Actually, we do well until about 2:15. I'm not sure what it is-if they are just done or what. The second quiet time has helped. I also think that the more we work in groups for Science experiments/labs, the better it will get...? Oh! We earned a potato head piece this morning for awesome collaboration during Reader's Workshop. They were talking but it was a good talking because they were on task and working together!

We began our morning by choosing a seating option that was different than usual. They did NOT like this idea. I explained though that I wanted them to be sure that they were being the best me they can be and that in choosing something different, they might find a better way to focus. We'll see how it went by where/how they choose to sit tomorrow. In our meeting, we complimented each other. This was a little awkward at first but when they saw how good it made the person feel, they kept it going. I even got a compliment! Then, in word study, we acted out some of our words-which was wonderful to watch! :) Afterwards, we continued writing our small moments stories. Ask your kiddo to read their story to you and give them some plus/deltas. We are almost finished with Wonder. Today, Auggie reflected a little on his year and decided that his highs far outweigh the lows he's experienced. It is always very bittersweet to finish a book. I'll miss Auggie! In Reader's Workshop, we read the drama, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and worked on the main character, Ichabod. **If anyone has a DVD of the Disney version, could you let me know? We may watch it...they are very into this story!** We had Music today and then lunch and recess--which was beautiful! After our first quiet time, we practiced multiplicative comparisons (comparing numbers using multiplication) and then worked to develop some strategies for solving multi-digit multiplication. After we shared our strategies, we played, "I Have, Who Has" with our basic facts. We finished up our Wind and Water lab for Science after our second quiet time. Our day ended with Wonder/I-time which is always so stressful for me because they are so ready to go and be done and I am still trying to individualize time...we may need to go to a more specific activity for this time instead of it being so open ended. We'll see...

Good

Today was a good day. Nothing outstanding but nothing bad. Overall, I'd say it was an average day. We began our day with M4T and our morning meeting. We shared our favorite color and did an awesome job just sharing and not having a conversation about everyone's colors. Then, we watched the news from last week and Kid President's #socktober video. Next, we did Prove-it! to show that we understood this week's generalization. Some get it but others are only LOOKING at the words. They need to listen for the long vowel sound and look for the two vowels together. We then continued writing our small moments story. This can be worked on at home for Writing homework! In Wonder, Auggie has more friends than ever and Julian is the one that is being left out. Sometimes beautiful things come from tragedy. We got a new StoryWorks today and students read, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which is written as a drama. We had Art today (look for their Art to Remember tonight), lunch and recess. After quiet time #1, we had a number talk-ish about multiplication. Then, we showed what 3 time 2 equals 6 really means. They partnered up and showed this thinking in a different equation and then we shared. Finally, for workshop time, they work applied this thinking into realistic problems, watched a LearnZillion video and/or practiced skill problems with comparison statements. After quiet time #2, we got in our teams for Science and continued to work on understanding erosion and weathering. Our day ended with wonder/i-time.

Namaste.

So, today we had 2 quiet times and during the second, I showed them two of my favorite relaxing yoga poses--child's pose and corpse pose or savasana. (I didn't tell them the name of corpse pose though. :) ) They enjoyed learning them but were very giggly so didn't get the full effect but we'll keep trying.

Our day began with completing their M4T and in our morning meeting, we discovered that we have as many students as there are letters of the alphabet! So, we each took a letter and named a food that begins with that letter. We struggled with U and X. Then, Will brought up that Mr. B asks them if they have class numbers-which we do not-and thought instead, they could have class letters. Cool! So, I made slips and we pulled out of a hat. What letter is your kiddo? We sorted our words for word study and found that, "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking!" In Writer's Workshop, we read The Memory String by Eve Bunting and discussed and found examples of how the author showed us instead of telling us. In Wonder, Auggie and Jack got into some trouble where Auggie lost his hearing aids! However, he gained some new friends. (They were so mad when we stopped reading!) Today was the final day working with our September issue of StoryWorks, where we worked on close reading and critical thinking questions about the history of Candy. Hopefully, they can tell you some interesting facts. We had gym, lunch and recess and Mr. Burkhart said listening was not a strength of ours today. After quiet time, we completed our chaotic Math Workshop where kiddos were in all different spots in their learning! Tomorrow, we'll begin our unit on multiplication and division so get practicing those basic facts! We finished up our Ohio Studies Weekly on researching where we read and interpreted graphs and used table of contents, glossary and index to answer questions. I think we will be good to research next week! Our day ended with Wonder/I-time. Did your child wonder today? Work with a teacher to better understand a skill? Get caught up on their work? Read? Write?

Better but...

So, today was better than Thursday but we still have some work to do. Today, we implemented a second Quiet Time in the afternoon to center and calm ourselves. We are also taking away the electronic option during this time. This was causing too many of them to get worked up again. I might start showing some breathing and yoga poses that I do to calm myself too so they have that as an option. I'll try anything! :)


Miss Callender, an OSU FEEP student (First Education Experience Program) that has been in Miss Rudolph's Kindergarten class came down to observe the bigger kids this morning. We started with M4T and our morning meeting where we shared one thing we did over the weekend that we don't typically do and ended with the laughing bandana. Next, we took our word study pre-test and developed our lists for the week. Then, we went down to the Library Media Center to learn about the online catalog for books in our library with Mrs. Richardson. We finished up from word study and read independently when we returned. We also wrote new daily goals and discussed that each daily goal should be S.M.A.R.T. and that they shouldn't have the same goal each day unless they didn't achieve the previous day. We had Music, lunch and recess and then Quiet Time #1. In Math Workshop, we had 3 different groups going. Group A: took their addition/subtraction/patterns post-test, unit 2 pre-test, multiplication fact fluency and worked on a patterns problem. Group B: worked with me to practice subtraction, some decided to begin the post-test and some started the unit 2 pre-test. Group C: took the unit 2 pre-test, multiplication fact fluency, finished their Reality Checking and worked on a patterns problem. Then, we had Quiet Time #2. Afterwards, we discussed how to begin experiments/problems in Science. First-discuss and divide team roles, then read the directions, then plan it out and then get started. We needed to back-track so that we are more prepared next time. In Social Studies, we worked with understanding the how to research using the Ohio Studies Weekly magazines. Our day ended with Wonder/I-time. Some have ditched the wondering part so we'll get back on track with that. For I-time, I've been working with a group of kiddos on their reading fluency and I think I'm ready to dismiss a couple! There's also a couple of kiddos that work with Mrs. Firestone/Mrs. Andrews on number sense.

Thursday

We began our day taking the M4T assessment for this week since we do not have school Friday. Then, in meeting, we discussed why we greet each other. It's not just for fun but also to connect and greet our friends as family. In Writer's Workshop, we began to write our small moments story. Some are writing personal narratives about that small moment where others have decided to write a fictional narrative inspired by that small moment. We are also making sure to Show-not tell in our writing. (I noticed that some did that in their padlet entry this week too! padlet.com/heather_lambrig/Thursday10_15) In Wonder, Auggie headed to the 5th grade trip to the Nature Retreat. In Reader's Workshop, we were supposed to re-read the Candy story paired text in our StoryWorks but when I pulled students to meet for groups, many said they didn't read which then made it hard to complete our work. Sooo, some kiddos worked recess to finish their work. I love that they love to read but Reader' Workshop is also about understanding reading too-not just reading the books they want. After Art, Lunch and Recess, we enjoyed our quiet time and then instead of a Number Talk, went straight into Math Workshop. Some chose to take the Unit 1.2 post-test today while the rest of us worked in a group on subtraction and what re-grouping truly means, using base-10 blocks. Those that needed it, continued to practice subtraction using the traditional algorithm. Those that finished their assessment, worked on real world addition and subtraction but balancing a checkbook. This was fun... they struggled with this a little but once I explained exactly how to do this, they did better. I asked them to check to see how many of you all still use a check register with your banking. Mr. L and I typically do not--with online banking and the ability to deposit checks by taking a picture of them with your phone, check registers have become somewhat obsolete. Mrs. Vidic came in for Guidance during Math Workshop and discussed appropriate playground behaviors and responsibility with them. Our day concluded with cleaning up and Wonder time. We are still working on Wonder time and what this means...some feel it's more of play time and I'm finding it difficult to work with my group on their I-time (individual/intervention time) when the rest cannot be independent in their research or wondering.
We continue to be a work in progress...but aren't we all?? :) Hope you are having a great weekend!

A day in the life (in pictures!)

I give you information about our day but a picture speaks a thousand words, they say, so here is a picture walk through of our day. (Except for gym, lunch and recess because I forgot to take pictures. Oops!)

Good Morning! Sign up for lunch as you come in.

Hang up your book bag on an empty hook.

 Check the projector screen for your morning text message.

 Find a good seat for the day.

Make sure you have your star box, binder in your day bag and pencil box stocked with a sharpened pencil and only needed supplies!

Complete today's work in Math 4 Today.

Time for our morning meeting! Handshake, Pledge of Allegiance, share--Which core virtue is easiest for you to show each day? How do people describe you? activity--Category Challenge-TV shows.

 Prove-it! for Word Study. Find 10 words that fit this week's pattern. Walk around the room-look on posters and in books.

Show Don't Tell! In Writer's Workshop, how can you SHOW emotions instead of telling us what you're feeling?? Working together to come up with examples.

Meet me on the carpet for Read Aloud! I wonder what will happen in Wonder today?

Independent reading time for Reader's Workshop.

(Gym, Lunch and Recess)

Quiet time...ahhh! Read, draw, write, catch up on work, blog, ST Math, etc. -just independent and quiet. 

 Number Talks--this signal shows I have the answer.

 Math Workshop-Subtraction using the traditional algorithm (or the adult way as Max says!)

Math Collaboration in Math Workshop--Real World math problems using addition and subtraction.

Time to get cleaned up for Science! Weathering and Erosion problem-based learning from Picture Perfect Science.

Clean up and get your planners out! (This was tough today with soil and stuff...)

Ok-assignments written down. Managers and Assistant can stamp my planner (this stamp only means that I have written down my assignments) and I can get packed up and ready to begin Wonder/I-time.

Finally, Wonder/I-time (sorry-no picture... I was working with a group of kiddos on fluency and building their words per minute) and then time for home! I hope you enjoyed this little look into our very busy day. If you have questions about things, ask your kiddo!!

No behavior slips!

We made it through our No Warning day without anyone getting a Behavior Reflection! In our morning meeting, we shared our favorite technology. We also worked on our communication-speaking and listening-with a partner activity. We sorted our words for word study and found that they all have silent e's...at the end of the words...which makes them have long vowel sounds... ! Yay! (They are getting really good at their word sorts!) In Wonder, Via did an amazing job as Emily in her school play and we started to learn a little more about Miranda. We had about 15-20 minutes to read, blog and visit the library because Mr. Higginbotham came in for a lesson on Digital Leadership and leaving your digital thumbprint. Then, it was time for Music, lunch and a very chilly recess! Quiet time was delightful and then our Number Talk went well too. In Math Workshop, we reviewed addition using the traditional algorithm and then practiced adding in a real world format. Next, it was time to learn the traditional algorithm for subtraction! Most can do it this way but are still using base-10 blocks to help understand the trading. We will practice the rest of this week and take our posttest either Thursday, Monday or Tuesday. (I'm allowing the students to sign up for when they feel they are ready to take it.) Our day ended with watching a video about Weathering and Erosion and all of the beauty that is left because of it but also how to slow it down to keep Earth's surface!

rough

Today was a rough day. I think every person was talking when they weren't supposed to be at one time or another today. AHHH! It sure did make for a rough day. I don't know what else to do. Be on the lookout for pink Behavior Reflections because they will be coming home. Tomorrow will be a "no warning" day. If you are talking when you are not supposed to be, or being too loud during times it is ok to collaborate, you will need to reflect on how your behavior is keeping other students from learning...

Our day began with watching the ADE news and checking out our Donors Choose project. Thank you so much to those of you that have donated!! I contacted them and we got all of our donations matched so we only have $86 to go!! Woohoo! Then, in meeting, we shared what we read this weekend. Reading is reading and we heard everything from the neighborhood news to a comic book to their chapter book to birthday cards to the McDonald's menu! I was thrilled that they recognized that even though they may not have picked up a novel, they were reading!! Then, we took our pre-test and created our list of new word study words. Next, we looked at RJ Palacio's website to see how she got the idea for Wonder. *Ask your kiddo. We are writers too so we created a list of our "small moments" that could possibly be story ideas. We didn't have much time to write so then we met to read Wonder. We are still on Auggie's chapter and were so sad that Daisy died! :( However, we ended on a happy note when we realized that Via is IN the play-not just the understudy! In Reader's Workshop, our Columbus State bloggers got all set up with their buddies and began their blog back to them. (Feel free to have them show you their blog. They are due by Thursday morning.) After quiet time (my favorite part of the day, after Read Aloud), we had a Number Talk and then learned the traditional algorithm for adding. We used base-10 blocks to SHOW regrouping. Most of them understand but a few need some extra practice. (They have worksheets in their binder to use.) Finally, we completed the K in a K-W-L chart about Earth's Surface, What we already know. Then, we focused more specifically on the Grand Canyon and how it was formed. We even looked on Google Earth to see satellite images of the Grand Canyon and the layers. Cool! Our day concluded with sitting silently with our heads down instead of wonder/i-time although, this was only about 5 minutes because it took them so long to get themselves cleaned up.

End of the week

Sorry about these being sparse this week but with late conference nights, I didn't have much time to blog. Anyway, I hope that your kiddo was able to keep you in the loop. If not, here's some things that we did so that you can have conversation about school:

Book Fair--we browsed the book fair on Monday and went back on Wednesday to purchase books. A lot of kids bought books which I love to see!

Wonder/I-time--we are doing an ok job with using this time efficiently...we still struggle with working independently and quietly so that I can work with a small group or that others can get caught up on their work/wonder/research/etc.

Arcade--in preparation for tomorrow's Community Cardboard Challenge, Ms. Bednar's 3rd grade class, created an arcade complete with tokens and tickets and prizes! We played today and had an awesome time!

First Celebration--Mr. Potato Head is complete and we celebrated today with an electronic party. Kudos kiddos! Now, let's do it again!

Writer's Workshop--we are moving on from our "short" stories on Monday! If they didn't finish, they can always continue their work at home.

Reader's Workshop--we are finishing up with text features, text structures and informational/non-fiction text. We should be finished with this story at the beginning of next week and will be either moving on to another in this issue but we might just move on to October's issue.

Math Workshop--we weren't happy with our post-test scores so we took a couple days to reflect, re-teach and better understand this unit. Some are still unsure but we'll continue to work on those skills as we move on to add and subtract. Rounding still needs some work but again, we'll keep at it, especially when estimating.

Social Studies--we used our StoryWorks and the TFK to "read" informational text through using charts, tables, graphs, graphics and timelines.

On a roll!

We are on a roll with good days! In our morning meeting, we greeted each other with our class handshake and then shared how we wanted to celebrate our first full potato head--electronics party won--and then we played "Would you rather?" I had difficulty making a choice with some of those! In Word Study, we sorted our words and found that this week, we hear long vowel sounds caused by our words ending in y. We hear long a, e and i. We continued revising, editing and publishing our writing. If not finished by Friday, they may need to complete at home or just move on because these were supposed to be short stories and we're still going... In Wonder, Via's got a boyfriend and we found out about the 'Boy's War' against Jack that Julian started. Students read independently, worked on text structures, met with me and/or visited the library. We had another sweaty gym, lunch and beautiful recess and returned for quiet time. Then, Mrs. Bargar, our technology teacher, came in to teach us about the app, Explain Everything. It is very cool and I hope to use it a lot this year. Some kiddos need reminded of the Acceptable Use policy that you signed off on in Home Access... I might make some copies and send them home as reminders... Then, we took our first post-test and although I need to look at the data, I think some did worse than on the pre-test! Ugh! We also took a pre-test over 1.2-fluently adding and subtracting whole numbers, reading/solving word problems and patterns within numbers. We ended our day with Wonder/I-time. Some things we need to work on are quicker transitions and being more independent in our work. Independence does not equal socialization and silliness!

Celebrate Good Times...

We earned and kept our final potato head piece! Congrats kiddos! We narrowed our celebration down to 3 choices so we'll vote tomorrow and will most likely hold our celebration on Thursday or Friday. This is a crazy week-schedule wise so extra patience is needed as our schedule will be wonky (book fair, library and technology lessons and fire prevention). In our morning meeting, we greeted each other with OUR handshake and then we shared something we ate this weekend that was unique or different for us. Next, we took this week's pre-test for Word Study and created our lists. (If you want to see your child's personal list, it is written in their planner.) After writing our words in our planners, we discussed/reviewed what a narrative is and what 4th grade narratives should look like as we are all finishing up our first narratives. *Here's where the out of the ordinaries come in... Mrs. Richardson shared books with us that are nominated for Buckeye Children's Book Awards and gave us some time to look through some of them. We came back to the room long enough to put things away and get ourselves cleaned up. Then, we went down to check out the Book Fair! From there, we came back to the room for only a second to get our lunches and things for Music, Lunch and Recess. After a GORGEOUS recess, we had our quiet time and added technology to our menu of things we can do during this time. 10 minutes isn't a lot but if you are quiet, independent and focused, you can get quite a bit accomplished. In Math Workshop today, we completed two Exemplars--real world problems that apply the skills we have been learning. One used rounding and the other used reading, writing and comparing numbers. We have our first test tomorrow...I hope they are ready! Next, we switched gears and talked about getting information and "reading" tables, charts, graphs and diagrams. Then, we practiced doing this using a TFK-Time for Kids. After working at this for awhile, we wrote our assignments down and then had our Wonder/I-time. It will take a little bit of time to truly use this time efficiently and independently but overall, it went well. However, because some chose to keep working after I stopped our Wonder time or socialize, it was a little stressful clean up.

Good day

We had a good and fun day. We started with creating a class handshake. (Check out Twitter for video!) Then, we all learned our class handshake. Next, we worked to prepare information for our student led conferences next week. They are eager to share their progress with you! In Wonder, Jack punched Julian! We all agreed that this wasn't ok but the reasoning behind him doing it was about being a good friend to Auggie and now they have made up. In Reader's Workshop, we continued with non-fiction text features but also discussed what non-fiction text structures are (and we'll work more with these next week). We also read independently and blogged or visited the library. We got a compliment on how nice our line was walking quietly down the hallway, from a Kindergarten teacher so we got a potato head piece! Only one more for our party! After Art, Lunch and Recess, we used quiet time to read, draw or complete our weekly padlet. (padlet.com/heather_lambrig/Friday10_2) In Math Workshop, we continued working with rounding big numbers and practiced some place and value as well. Our first test is Tuesday! Finally, we ended our day with Wonder time where a couple kiddos decided to learn a little Spanish, some blogged or played ST Math, others worked on math review and some continued working on their conference information.

flexibility

I read an article this morning about how teachers sometimes can provoke misbehaviors. One of the ways was through not having assigned seats. This made me think about our class. So, in morning meeting, we talked about our seating-what they liked, didn't like, needed, etc. We decided that some students can benefit from assigned seats and I will help them to pick where that seat is. They also shared that they would like more seating and more stability balls to sit on. So, we went and got 2 desks, some more chairs and found a round table to use. We moved some things around and this allowed them to spread out more. I also created a project on Donors Choose to get more balls for the room. (I'll send out more information about this project. What I love about it is that they have anonymous donors and they'll match every donation for the first week so we only end up paying out of pocket for half!) Then, we wrote sentences using 5 of our words that we needed to understand the meaning of and continued on in the writing process. The kiddos yelled at me because in Wonder, I stopped right when Jack realized what HE did to make Auggie mad... In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work with non-fiction text and read independently. We had gym, lunch and chilly recess and then quiet time. We had a shortened Math Workshop because we had Guidance but we worked with rounding numbers. Students are able to round numbers when asked directly but when asked to flexibly apply this understanding, they struggle. For example, if I say, "What is 452 rounded to the nearest 10?" They can tell me 450. However, if I were to say that I have a secret number that when rounded to the nearest 10 is 450 and ask them to tell me all the possibilities of my secret number, they can't. We'll keep working on this but rounding in these types of situations would be good practice at home. In Guidance, Mrs. Vidic discussed RESPECT and what it means. Then, we FINALLY set up our folders and began Wonder/I-time! They seem pretty excited about this "free" time. :)