Field Trip

This morning was our field trip to the Dublin Arts Council to see "Hatred Doesn't Work" by Alfred Tibor. (Check out the email I sent, Twitter and Facebook for more information.) Then, we came back for a little bit of Art, Lunch and Recess. In Math Workshop today, we got our tests back and identified ideas that we do not understand vs. the questions that we didn't read completely or had silly mistakes on. Then, we practiced applying multiplication and division with practice problems. We then, went to the library where Mrs. Richardson helped us choose thick questions for researching. Finally, we read, wondered/wrote thick questions and practiced math.

math tests and more Native Americans...

Well, our morning was spent taking our Unit 2 Math Post-test and taking our unit 3 Math Pre-test. Our afternoon consisted of visiting the remaining 2 sessions of Native American EdCamp. Plain and simple. That's how we roll! :)

stream table and Native Americans

We had a very busy day! All morning, we worked with the stream tables and modeling erosion. Students had to build and place a home on some slanted land. Then, a heavy rain came. What did your kiddo add from their trip to Home Depot to help prevent too much erosion and deposition from destroying their land? We then had a little time to read and visit the library. After Music, lunch and a freezing recess, we then had our EdCamp-Native American style. Each teacher-Mrs. Bolyard, Miss Cross, Mrs. Stafford and myself-taught an aspect of Native Americans. Students chose 2 sessions to attend today and will be attending the other 2 sessions tomorrow. What did your child do today?

Live from Urgent Care! :)

So, in my family, it's always something! Adison was at the doctor this morning with a sinus infection and we are getting X-rays on Ella's elbow right now. I can't wait for Dad to get home from Chicago...I'm ready for a break!

Anyway, we had an A-mazing day!! Like really, really good. We talked this morning and just had a good, honest discussion that I'm doing all I can do and they need to do more-with self-discipline and responsibility and respect for themselves, classmates and me. Next, we wrote sentences showing our understanding of our word study words...envoy, poise, sirloin and turmoil were some words that needed looked up. Then, they formed groups and began a shared writing. They are in groups of 3-5 and are writing one story. The Beaded Moccasins was rough today. I had warned them ahead of time that it would be tough to hear and completely understand and they actually handled and understood it really well-they even offered ideas for why the scalping of the baby happened. In Reader's Workshop, they continued their work with the fiction story and understanding theme. We also read, blogged and went to the library. Gym, lunch and recess were great and we had a wonderful quiet time. I could feel the energy of the room die down-that earned us a potato head piece. We had great discussion in Math Workshop about critiquing the reasoning of others. Then, we got our review packet for our test on Monday and began working on it. For Social Studies today, we watched a video about the early Native Americans in Ohio-specifically, the mound builders. We then read in our Ohio the text and found more information about them. When it came to our most chaotic part of the day, they kept it together and earned another potato head piece. Wow. That's just about all I can say. Wow.

Pinball wizard!

I feel like a pinball wizard, with about 26 little pinballs zooming around all the time! I thought I posted yesterday but I don't see it...sorry.
Yesterday, we had another great day. (I posted a lot on Twitter and Facebook too!) In meeting, we shared our favorite song (which meant I sang all day long because I had them in my head!) and then we got into small groups to try and find "uncommon commonalities" among us. It was hard! One group found that they each had a sibling. One group all liked dogs... Then, in Word Study, we sorted our words and found that all of our words have the "ow/oy" sounds, with ow, ou, oy and oi. In Writer's Workshop, we practiced our parts of speech understanding by completing Mad Libs. In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary turned 12 on May 11, 1759, had a terrible fight with her mother, ran off and she was captured by Indians! I overheard a kiddo say, "NOW it's getting interesting!" I love when they love to read! We heard more similes and found that they are really helping us to visualize the story as the author wanted us to. We continued our work with mood and the poem from StoryWorks in Reader's Workshop and also read, blogged and visited the library. We had Art, lunch (where there is a book club started by some kiddos-on their own-like they came to me and asked if they could start a book club...AWESOME!) and then outdoor recess. We began our Math Workshop with a gallery walk, looking around the room at everyone's posters about the vending machine division problems from Monday. We talked about what we were looking for: problem-solving, division strategies, answers to the problems, etc. NOT how pretty or colorful they were. Then we discussed our thoughts on our work as well as what others had to say. Next, we got another problem from the "Teacher's Lounge" and worked to find the answers. Students are doing a really good job with division and really pushing through! We'll be taking our test over multi-digit multiplication and division on Monday. Next, we got the computers and completed a webquest on weathering and erosion for Science.
Today, there was a substitute in the classroom as I was with the other 4th grade teachers discussing and planning. Our substitute was one that had a tough time when he was here last but today, he said, was much better. I'm thinking there are some potato head pieces in our future! In Word Study, they proved their understanding of the generalization by finding more words that fit the "ow/oy" pattern. They completed Mad Libs and shared some of the silliness for Writer's Workshop. In Read Aloud, they read, My Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil that was written in similes. Then, they illustrated some silly similes themselves. They read the fiction story, The Golden Lie, in StoryWorks and then read independently, blogged and visited the library. We had Music today and then lunch and outside recess-we made it before the rain! In Math Workshop, they worked on figuring out some ways that we could all go to an amusement park and created posters. Tomorrow, we'll take another gallery walk and "critique the reasoning of others" again reflect on our understanding. In Science, we completed the webquest but also completed some crossword puzzles online about weathering and erosion.

I'm baaaaccckkk!

I'm back and hopefully things will be semi-normal for awhile...

Our day began with completing a Plus/Delta/Prescription chart about our classroom behaviors because I didn't get the best report from the sub. We realized that we need to choose better seats, use more self-discipline and get focused-stay focused in order to be more successful. Then, we talked about celebrating our goal achievements more. Each student has a paper in their binder to record when they achieve their daily goals. If you see a sticker, then I agree that they achieved this goal. Next, we went a little out of order as we worked on parts of speech with a cool, funny game for Writer's Workshop before we took our pre-test and made our new list for Word Study. In Beaded Moccasins, we learned a little bit more about Mary, "westering" and the Campbell's. Tomorrow it will get real interesting! In Reader's Workshop, we listened to the poem and discussed the mood that the author wants us to get-not our opinion necessarily. We also read, blogged and visited the library. Today was gym, lunch and outdoor recess. In Math Workshop, we worked on a problem about vending machines in the teacher's lounge for division today. They made posters and tomorrow we'll do a gallery walk and critique the reasoning of others. Students are doing really well with division! Then, I tried to get a little more creative with our quiet time today and just do some breathing and a yoga salutation but the sillies came out and it was just purposeless. For Science/Social Studies, we continued our work with landforms by completing some riddles and our "craft" as the kiddos called it. :) 

Better.

Overall, today was better but still loud. We chose seats that were not with our usual table mates but we're still able to work with our friends during work times. I'm sure tomorrow will be even better.

In meeting, we shared how we felt coloring yesterday. Most felt calm and relaxed. Then, we read, The Day the Crayons Came Home. At the beginning of the year, we read, The Day the Crayons Quit so it was nice to check in some different crayons in Duncan's home! In word study, we sorted our words and found that the letter r can control the vowel sounds of words-such a bossy letter! For Writr's Workshop today, we discussed conclusions and wrote a possible conclusion to our research reports. We finished up our fantasy chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair in Read Aloud and had some work time during Reader's Workshop to work on inferences and reading and blogging. After Music, lunch and indoor recess, we finished up playing our "Who has the largest quotient?" game and then did some real life math when I brought in real skittles to divide among the class! They had to figure out how many each got first though. We also read, Remainder of One and began our discussion on what to do with what's leftover, or the remainder. Luckily, with the skittles, I got the extras! 😊 We ended Math Workshop a little early to head down to Mrs. Kleman's room to check out their research-ask your kiddo what they learned! When we came back to our room. We finished up our group questions about the prehistoric Indians.

Just another manic monday... oh, oh...

Mondays are well, Mondays. We were loud and talkative but we learned. It's just really frustrating and disrespectful that they CHOOSE to keep talking when I'm talking or ask them to stop. We're going to be more choosey with where we sit tomorrow so that should help-you know I'll let you know! :)

In meeting, we read, The Crayon Box that Talked. It had a great message about being amazing as individuals but even more exceptional together! Then, we just colored. I printed off a page from crayola.com that is from an adult coloring book and we just de-stressed and calmed ourselves down for the day. *Unfortunately, they kept coloring ALL day-even when they weren't supposed to! Anyway, after we spent about 15 minutes coloring, we took a pre-test and developed our new lists for word study. Then, in Writer's Workshop, we worked on our introductions for our research reports. They came up with some great leads! We began the chapter on Fantasy and the "Quest for the Gold-Plated Knick-Knack" in Nightmare at the Book Fair and then made some inferences about Bad Day at Riverbend by Chris VanAllsburg. Then, we continued making inferences, blogged, read and visited the library. After some Free Art with a substitute, lunch and recess, we wrote in our planners-nothing out of the ordinary so far this week-and had some quiet time that just wasn't very quiet. We started Math Workshop with a book, The Great Divide about division. (This is when the kids asked why we were reading so many books today...I guess I was in a reading mood when I planned for today!) Then, we divided. Like, physically took 112 cubes and divided them among 7 people. We first gave each person 10 and then subtracted 70 from 112 which left us with 42. Then, we gave each person 5 and subtracted 35 from 42 (because 7 x 5 = 35) which gave us 7. We gave each person 1 more and were left with 0 cubes. Each person had 16 cubes SO 112/7 = 16! We kept practicing division with practice problems and a game. I gave an exit slip at the end of math so we'll see how far along they are in their division thinking. In Social Studies, we got into groups and answered some questions about pre-historic indians. Finally, we had a maze to work on during Wonder/I-time since it is A-maze-ing Monday!

Shhhhh!

We were really loud today. Oh my goodness! It was like old times. It was a crazy week so maybe that has had something to do with it.

In our meeting this morning, we shared behaviors we can do that are "Above the line."

We also played a new game called, "What are you doing?" This was fun and I think they enjoyed it. Next, it was another day of research in Writer's Workshop. Remember-your kiddo can always work on their research at home! We read Intermission 2--Easy Reader in Nightmare at the Book Fair. It was a very quick read in the style of Dr. Seuss. Then, we watched a little video that accompanied the story "Escape from Alcatraz" in our Story Works. Students worked on providing text evidence, read, blogged and visited the library in Reader's Workshop. We had music today then lunch and recess and struggled with quiet time. The reason for quiet time is get calm and centered. However, when they talk to each other and goof around, they are not creating calm and getting centered and ready to learn. In Math Workshop, we were so happy that a student that yesterday shut down with division, got it today! We worked on connecting what we know about multiplication and division and some learned how to divide. We worked on our weathering and erosion brochures for Science and finished up with wonder and i-time. 

It felt like another Monday.

Having a day off in the middle of the week felt like Monday again! I kept asking kiddos how their weekend was!

In meeting, we shared what we did on our day off. I also shared some learning that I did yesterday. I took away some pretty big and important ideas that I have already begun to implement in my life. One of the ideas was to "Press Pause." This idea is part of the R factor or helps us to make the best Responses possible to different situations. Things happen that we are unable to control. However, what we can control is how we respond to the events. If we have good or "Above the line" responses, the outcome will be more favorable than if we have impulsive "Below the line" responses. So, we can "Press Pause" to give us a few moments to think about our response. We want to pause before responding so that we don't go below the line with our response. *This is just a snippet of what we talked about and we'll be working a ton more with this this week but I think it would be a good conversation to have with your kiddo. Like I said, I'm implementing these ideas into my whole life. I think I told Ella, my 12-year old, to press pause like 5 times last night!* Then, we continued researching our topics for Writer's Workshop. In Nightmare at the Book Fair, we finished up our chapter on historical fiction and Trip got to walk on the moon! For Reader's Workshop today, we just READ! and it was glorious! We spent the last few minutes voting for the Buckeye Children's Book Award, got to work with clay and creating our sugar skulls in Art, ate lunch and had recess. We wrote our assignments in our planners during quiet time and then in Math Workshop, made the connection between multiplication and division. TOO many students put up a block with division. They know how to divide but don't know they know! :) We discussed fact families and that helped a lot. We worked on our weathering and erosion brochures in Science and finished up the day with a crossword puzzle and maze for Wonder time.

weird week...

It is so weird to come to school on Monday, then off on Tuesday and then back on Wednesday but we'll make it work!

Our day began with talking about implementing a tiny shift in our schedule. In meeting, we shared by solving basic multiplication facts. Was your kiddo one that volunteered to solve a problem? Then, we played Popl-a counting or multiples activity. Today, we 'popped' up for multiples of 4. Our first day of research went pretty well. Children are more than welcome to research as their reading and writing homework this week! They have access to all of our research sites via hilliardschools.org/elem and then the  "My Library" tab. In Nightmare at the Book Fair, Trip was trapped in a Dictionary and then ended up on the Apollo 11 headed for the moon! We began reading "Escape from Alcatraz" in our StoryWorks and completed the word study vocabulary sheet that went with it. We also worked on inferences, met with me, visited the library, read independently and blogged. For our schedule shift, we laid our planners out before we went to special today. We had gym, lunch and a beautiful recess. During quiet time, we wrote our assignments in our planners and then quieted ourselves down. In Math Workshop today, we continued our work with prime and composite numbers, factors and multiples. **If students didn't finish this work in class, it is homework-due Wednesday!** We worked on creating brochures on landforms created by weathering and erosion for Science. Students are either working on: Grand Canyon, Mississippi River Delta, Great Sand Dune National Park or glacial moraines. Our day ended in a true chaotic fashion with some going to work with Mrs. Andrews for I-time.