Productive

Today felt like a productive day. I'm not sure if it is because I'm finally feeling better (I haven't been feeling great this week.) or if we just were in a groove. No matter the reason, I'm happy we were productive! Oh and I forgot to mention that we have begun reading to the preschool! We have 4 classes of students from the ADE Preschool that we get to read with! Some classes even have both AM and PM! We will be reading to some each week and other's once a month. It's a win-win because our children practice fluency, patience and choosing kind and the preschool kiddos get some great role models! :)

I think students are finally feeling more successful with division! I could see more really working and trying to solve this morning's problem and getting more efficient with doing so. They are also doing a great job with completing their more standardized homework practice~again, thank you for your help with this! **Here's my disclaimer: I can see that a lot of the kiddos are solving the multiplication problem using the traditional method. Thank you for teaching them/helping them with this. I'm happy about that. Please be careful though because I can tell that some that have this work on their paper have no idea how or what they did... if you find this to be true, one way we've been solving multiplication is by taking a step backward from traditional by separating the two steps into four steps. So, instead of this:

they would do this:

AGAIN, thank you for helping them!! Some of them truly get traditional, however, some do not so here is how you can help them better understand your "shortcut." :) 

In our morning meeting, one student asked to play a specific game so I got to thinking, why should I be planning everything?? So, starting next week, our meetings will be planned by students! I can't wait... However, today, was mine. We shared our favorite or "go-to" snack. Then, we played, "Would you rather?" (I love and hate this game!) Then, in writer's workshop, we continued our opinion writing. I'm excited to read them! We finally got back to The Beaded Moccasins and Mary has arrived at the Cuyahoga River and I finally got to show them actual pictures of the cave where she'll be living. It is in Cuyahoga Falls (near Cleveland) and it's a historical site called, Mary Campbell's Cave. If you are ever up that way, you should check it out! Anyway, they thought it was pretty cool that I was in the exact spot that our book is about. In Reader's Workshop, we read, blogged, finished our book review of fiction and I met with some for guided reading. I love meeting in small groups because I get a chance to really focus on each child's specific needs and can really pinpoint where they are in their understanding. Today was Art. After lunch and recess, we had quiet time and then finished our fraction posters showing how we can share pizzas equally. They did an A-MAZING job with sharing pizzas, relating it to fractions and sharing HOW they figured the solutions out. Math Workshop was cut a little short since we had Guidance. Mrs. Vidic talked with us today about citizenship and how we can be good citizens. After Guidance, we worked on an Ohio Studies Weekly about the Woodland Indians and then had our Wonder/I-time.