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.

TGIF! :)

Ahhh...Friday's are always great days for us!

This week's M4T wasn't terribly difficult so we we talked and as a group decided that 18/24 of us needed to get 7, 8 or 9/9 (there was a problem we didn't complete) for a CLASS donut party on Monday. Then, we took time to work on our StoryWorks articles. Mr. B needed us to have special at 10:00 so that made our morning a little different but we adjusted well. After gym, we came back and finished The City of Ember. We LOVED it! :) I'm not going to ruin it for you but it was a happy ending with all of them begging to read the next book in the series, The People of Sparks. In Reader's Workshop, we visited the library, wrote our Dear Mrs. L letters, created our Friday padlet and read. Lunch was a little loud and chaotic but recess was outside so yay! We had a shortened Math Workshop today where we worked with conversions of pounds/tons, feet and inches, and time and money. Finally, since we have been learning about the Zones of Regulation and identifying our feelings, we watched, Inside Out and then chatted about how to get ourselves into the "green zone" when we are in the blue, red and yellow zones. We started beginning to build our toolbox with ideas.

Transitioning...

We got a lot accomplished today as I'm trying to wrap up our 4th grade year. I'm moving at a quicker pace and trying to help transition them to 5th grade but they are pushing the brakes! If we don't transition, it'll be too much of a shock next year as 5th grade is super fast paced with a ton more expectations! Your child may be coming home with more work each evening to finish as they aren't getting as much time in class before we need to move on. No worries-I'm talking like 2 days instead of 3...for example, today, in Math Workshop, we worked for an hour and 15 minutes on lots of different things of their choosing. Tomorrow, they need to show me 2 completed tasks (they were given 6 different tasks) and in Science, we completed a lab on Tuesday and they had all of Science yesterday to finish up the questions and some time today too.

We started with M4T and I went around to help clear up any misconceptions they may have had. Some of them just need to ask more questions! Then, in meeting, I happened to quote a movie, like I typically do as I speak fluently in movie quotes so our sharing became their favorite movie quotes. Then, in Writer's Workshop, we met with our "team" to create our portion/article for our class issue of StoryWorks. We are at a really good part of The City of Ember, so they begged me to read more so I did and they still yelled at me when I stopped! I wish I could spend the day reading but there's other stuff to do! :) We didn't have a lot of time for Reader's Workshop but enough to write our Dear Mrs. L letters and read. It was raining so we had music, lunch and indoor recess. It took a while to quiet down but once we did, we discussed this final measurement math unit. The pre-tests weren't terrible so a lot of what we need to learn is more fine tuning some of our ideas. However, everyone needs work and direct instruction with the metric system and conversions. If you can, help your kiddo at home practice with conversions like minutes in hours, days in a year, inches into feet, yards, etc. These are ones that they "knew" just might need a refresher practice. We also worked with angles of a circle and within polygons so practiced applying our understanding of using protractors and what we know of angles (right = 90, straight = 180) to measure unknown angles. Next, we spent some time finishing up our lab on Oil Spills but then read in our Ohio text about what life in the new state of Ohio was like. We discussed new forms of transportation, immigrant settlements, public schools and religions. We ended our day with reading another chapter in The City of Ember. :)

Assessment Day

Today was an assessment day for me so I was next door reading with kiddos all day. From what I heard (or didn't hear) things went well with the substitute. I'm about half-way complete so I'll be out next Wednesday to finish up.

Students were to begin their day with M4T and then morning meeting. After meeting, they worked with their spelling lists by using their homonyms in sentences. They got with their writing partners/groups in Writer's Workshop to work on their writing for our StoryWorks issue and Mr. M, the substitute, read The Wednesday Surprise to them for read aloud, about a little girl that teaches her grandmother to read. They continued their work with thinking critically about the drama we've been working with, writing about their reading in a letter to me, maybe visiting the library and blogging and reading. We had Art today, lunch and made it outside for recess! In Math Workshop, we shared measurements of our traced figure and answered some measurement questions and finished up the paperwork from our Science lab yesterday.

What a mess!

Today was a pretty good day-much better than yesterday. We began our day with M4T and morning meeting. We do the same thing every morning and they still have difficulty getting started each day. In meeting, we read, Squashed in the Middle, and shared things our families do that drive us crazy like Daisy in the book that was the middle child and never seemed to be heard. In Writer's Workshop, we developed our story ideas and collaborative groups for our StoryWorks issue we are creating.

  What is your kiddo writing for our edition?

We brainstormed ideas for our story and decided team roles for each person in our group. Tomorrow, we'll begin writing! There was a huge plot twist in The City of Ember...they begged me to keep reading so I did and they still yelled at me when it was time to stop. They LOVE read aloud! In Reader's Workshop, we completed another critical thinking question about the drama in StoryWorks, read, blogged, visited the library and wrote Dear Mrs. L, letters. We are working on writing about our reading so these letters help with that. Today was gym, lunch and recess. In Math Workshop, we finished up our Architecture and Kite project presentations. We even tried to fly the kites...some were more successful than others and it would've been good to have had a little more wind... We had a few minutes left so we prepped for our measurement lesson tomorrow by getting into groups and tracing one person. We'll be using these to describe our tracings in as many different ways as possible. In Science, we tried to predict some ideas to help clean up an oil spill. What worked best? We ended the day trying to clean up from Science!

Oh boy...

I know that all things ebb and flow, however, last week was just so good! We'll try again tomorrow but today was just chaotic and chatty and not listening much.

M4T and meeting began our day with taking a pre-test to get new words in Word Study after that. In Writer's Workshop, we looked closely at a StoryWorks issue as a whole because we are going to create our own issue! The kiddos got into partners or groups and brainstormed ideas to propose or pitch to the class tomorrow. Once we get all the ideas worked out and stories assigned, we will be working to create. We will all be writers, creators, editors and publishers! Lina and Doon found "matches," "candles," "boats," and "paddles" in The City of Ember! Now, they have to figure out what to do with them to save their city! In Reader's Workshop, we performed the drama, pointed out the figurative language and answered some critical thinking questions about the story. Today was Music, lunch and indoor recess-too wet. We spent all of math presenting our Architecture projects and I'm so impressed!! Tomorrow, we'll finish up with the Kite projects and some that need to finish the pre-test.

 

 

 
 
 

TGIF!

What a great way to end this great week! It was a splendid week with lots of learning and lots of earning-potato head pieces that is. :)

About 5 kiddos received donuts for achieving 8, 9 or 10/10 on their M4T...I've had these donuts for so long...I hope they don't expire before they're gone! Encourage your kiddo to do their best on our M4T work, please! Next, we finished our persuasive letters. Two young ladies even provided evidence with their letter persuading me to promote them to 5th grade~wow, I'm impressed! In The City of Ember, Clary helped Lina and Doon to see that the instructions are for egress-which means exit or way out. In Reader's Workshop, we read over the drama and used Augustine as our translator as this story had some Spanish in it and we needed him to make sure we were pronouncing it correctly! We then read and worked so hard that we forgot about special and were about 5-7 minutes late! Oops! After Art, lunch and recess, we spent the majority of the afternoon working on our geometry projects for Math Workshop. We ended our day reading up on some current events with Time For Kids magazines. We read about Malala, the Great Lakes and their algae problem, saving Sea Turtles, catching poachers and those being detrimental to our environment and growing our brains.

Typical :)

Our day began as typically as any other. We worked on our M4T and then in morning meeting, I shared some "Words of Wisdom" that happened to come in my Humira (one of my RA medicines) box the other day. Then, I asked them to share any words of wisdom they had. Somehow, the conversation turned to me being old and my age and I realized, they need to work on their compassion! Then, they proved their understanding of this week's generalization by finding 10 words that fit the comparative/superlatives pattern. Afterwards, they continued writing their persuasive letters to me. Why should I promote them to 5th grade? In The City of Ember, Doon decided to try the mysterious locked door again and this time, the key was in it! He opened the door to find that the room was full of supplies and there was a person snoozing in the middle of it. The most shocking part was that the person was the MAYOR! There were no new assignments given in Reader's Workshop today but a lot of kiddos needed to get caught with this drama and the vocabulary and language worksheets to help understand it. Today was gym and then lunch and outside recess. In Math, half of us corrected our mistakes on our geometry test (because understanding the material is more important than the score) and then we worked on our projects. Mrs. Vidic came in for Guidance but I was kicked out of the room so not sure what they worked on. Once I was allowed back in, we worked more with our projects and then ended the day finishing up our TFK work from yesterday or on Wonder Time.

Walk-a-thon and substitute

Today had only 2 out of the ordinaries~the walk-a-thon during specials time and a substitute this afternoon. I am having an MRI of my knee...wish me luck!

Our morning was normal with M4T and morning meeting. We shared how many laps we plan to walk and some are planning on completing a 5k in the 30 minutes allotted...we'll see! We sorted our words for Word Study and came up with the generalization-comparitives and superlatives. Mrs. L is thin. Mrs. L is thinner than Craig. Mrs. L is the thinnest in the class. :) In The City of Ember, Lizzie found yummy food and Lina found out. Is Lizzie the one from the pipeworks? In Reader's Workshop, we worked more with the drama and author's craft-using figurative language.

The walk-a-thon was fun but brrr chilly! Here are some pics I took:

There was a substitute for the afternoon but they should be finishing up with their math test, working on their math geometry project and having some current event fun with TFKs about government and science.

Hmmm...

Well, our day started out pretty chaotic...a kiddo vomited on the carpet and all over my desk right before the test began! So, I shuffled the kiddos out of the room but since everyone else was already testing, we had to go sit outside (I didn't break protocol because I grabbed the test booklets! Phew!) while we waited on Mrs. Andrews to let us know what to do. It was decided that we would be testing in the Media Center but first, we had to brave the room to grab our pencils. Most kids had already gotten comfortable and didn't even have their shoes on! Oh well! They showed awesome flexibility and with an ok report from the substitute (minus two students), they earned their final 2 potato head pieces! After testing, lunch and recess, we worked on some reading, writing and math from yesterday and then enjoyed a glorious celebration of outdoor recess! We came in to pack up and then had an amazing fire drill (we earned our first new potato head piece) and then special-Art. Did you see all the amazing art pieces that came home today?? Lovely!

Did they earn their party?

We have only needed 2 potato head pieces for quite some time now...I hope they earned them today!! Our day was to begin with M4T and morning meeting. They took a pre-test for Word Study and created their new lists. In Writer's Workshop, the students are writing persuasive letters to me to persuade me to promote them to 5th grade. The substitute read, The House on Maple Street and the students discussed what their story might be like if it were written about them. They read and completed vocabulary for a new story, the drama, in StoryWorks for Reader's Workshop and hopefully, were able to go to the library today. They had gym, lunch and recess. In Math Workshop, some worked on their Architecture project, some took their assessment and others continued to practice geometry for taking their test on Wednesday. They continued their work with changes to the environment by talking about oil spills for Science. As always, our day concluded with Wonder time.

It's Friday, Friday, gonna get down on Friday...

Today was a great day! Other classrooms talked about how their kiddos' were out of control and crazy...we were good! Maybe a full moon on a Friday works in the opposite fashion for us! Anyhow, I'll take it! :)

We weren't as successful on our M4T test as last week but this was a hard test. I still have donuts...maybe next week! After we completed our test, we were able to free write. We enjoyed listening to Kidz Bop too! In The City of Ember, Lina and Doon checked out the locked door in the Pipeworks to find that the door is still locked. However, someone came and opened the door and left so someone knows what is behind that door. In Reader's Workshop, we read and looked at the books in our classroom to see if we could find anything that sparked our interest. With the library closed this week, they acted as if there were no books around so I pointed out the TONS of books we have in our room. We had Music, lunch and a beautiful outdoor recess! A few of our friends from Mrs. Shively's room even came out during our time out there. In Math Workshop, some of the students took their geometry math test and then began an Architecture Project. Everyone else worked on practicing and practicing for their upcoming test (either Monday or Wednesday). In Social Studies, we finished up our letters for the Great Ohio Mail Race. We also learned how to address envelopes!

Accountability

Today was a day that I was on the ball! I made sure that work was completed and I was checking it off as it was turned in. No more, "I'll do it when I want..." Did your kiddo complete work during recess? It's because your kiddo did not use their time wisely.

We began with M4T and hopefully got enough of the test finished so that we have the majority of the class receiving 8, 9 or 10/10 tomorrow! In meeting today, we shared the one word that expressed our feeling. I heard a lot of "bored" and "tired" which led us to talk about how to make sure that we are keeping our behaviors "Above the line" as being bored and tired will lend itself to working on auto-pilot. Then, we played a few rounds of "Would You Rather?" and then made sure that our goals were fitting for today. If they weren't able to tell me their goal without looking, they wouldn't be successful with it so we made sure they knew it. In Word Study, we edited and re-wrote sentences. There were 10 sentences but they only had to complete 5 and check them with me. If they were good with all 5, they were finished. If they missed 1, they had to complete another one. If they missed 2, they would need to complete 2 more. How many total sentences did your child complete? They then had time for free-writing. In The City of Ember, Lina found Doon and showed him The Instructions and was just as excited as she was! They are headed to the Pipeworks tomorrow to see what they can find! In Reader's Workshop, we finished our work with synthesizing the paired texts and wrote our Dear Mrs. L letter about what they are reading independently. We had Art and lunch and then since it began raining during lunch, indoor recess. After some quiet time and writing our assignments down, we practiced applying our understanding of geometry and played a couple of games. At the end of Math Workshop, students signed up for when they'd like to take the test: tomorrow, Monday or Wednesday. We concluded our day with working on our Great Ohio Mail Race questionnaire and letters.

4 by 4 breathing

Our day started out kind of crazy so we learned a new tool for our Zones of Regulation tool kit...4 by 4 breathing. You take 4 counts to breathe in through your nose, hold it for 4 counts and then release it for 4 counts through your mouth. We used this to "calm our chaos" as I called it! :) We also took a little extra time to make sure that our goals were what was actually needed to keep our behavior "Above the Line" and not straddling the line as some have been lately...Not necessarily "Below the Line" but not "Above the Line." In Word Study, we corrected misspelled words. This was actually pretty comical because they thought some of the words were spelled correctly and started getting confused for how they should be spelled...We had some time for free writing after that and then read more from The City of Ember. Lina is still thinking that the "Instructions" are important so she showed them to her friend, Lizzie, but she didn't care so she wrote a letter to the Mayor about them, but never heard back from him. She finally decided that she's going to talk to Doon-he'll for sure help her out! In Reader's Workshop, we are going to begin focusing on writing about our reading by writing letters to me each week about what they are reading independently. Their first letter is due tomorrow and then after that, they will have one day each week to work on their letter. Hopefully, this correspondence will aid in the improvement of their writing skills and sharing their thinking about reading in writing. Today was gym, lunch and recess. After writing our assignments down (has your child checked in with you about their 30-book challenge yet??) and a little quiet time, we worked with symmetry in Math Workshop. We did some straight mathematics with understanding symmetry but then had some fun with our names. We have decided to join the Great Ohio Mail Race where we are writing to the 88 counties in Ohio (all 3 classes) and hopefully, they'll be writing us back! Students have some homework for finding some information about Franklin County to put in our letters. We ended our day with a few minutes of Wonder Time.

Two down...one to go!

Today was the Math AIR test and they did great! I saw a TON of effort!! They seemed a little overwhelmed at the beginning but after a liquid extra love in the form of Smarties or gum, they felt better. :) After testing, we had lunch, recess and some catch up work time. We also browsed the book fair and enjoyed Music.

This time of year.

This time of year always causes discipline issues. The kiddos are getting ready for the year to be over as we are taking end-of-the-year tests...However, we still have a lot to still do. Interims will come home on Friday so that means we have 6 more weeks left. It's the seventh inning stretch-we've got this! Help to remind your kiddo that it will take more self-disicipline and more responsibility to get through.

We began our day with M4T and since we had the most 8, 9 and 10/10's on Friday's assessment yet, we completed a few problems on this Friday's test too. Then, in meeting, of course we had to share about our weekends. This has become a Monday tradition. I asked them to keep it short this time but they tell really long stories! Then, in Word Study, we edited and corrected Celebrity Tweets. Some had a few minutes for free writing but most enjoyed the tweets and Boggle instead. We read The City of Ember and Lina discovered instructions for something. They look important but she's not quite sure what they are for...could this be the help the city needs? We continued working with, "The Story of Awwww" in StoryWorks and today found evidence to prove our thinking. We also read and some blogged but no library this week due to the book fair. Today's special was Art and then lunch and a gorgeous outdoor recess! (The kids said it was too hot!) After quiet time, we worked with measuring angles with a protractor. They did really well with this! After practicing for quite a bit, we then practices other geometrical ideas we've been working on like lines, rays, area and perimeter. Since we have the Math AIR test tomorrow, I gave them the option of either have Science, as normal, or doing some review of math skills and they chose math review so, we completed some multiplication and division and then ended the day with a Math Quiz Game Show!

Fingers crossed...

I was out this afternoon for a dr appointment and my fingers are crossed that 2 potato head pieces are earned! I also am out tomorrow for a class. Here's what we did (hopefully) today.

We began with M4T and again, spent some time completing a few more problems on Friday's test. Then, in our meeting, we read, Night Animals and then discussed our fears. Most kiddos' fears are when they are alone and it's quiet. I was happy to hear that other than that, these kids' are mostly fearless! After saying the Pledge, we tried to figure out how to spell some really challenging words like pneumonia and rhetorical. We were not very successful with this task...how do you figure out how to spell a word when you don't have the right starting place? (Like p- for pneumonia or rh- for rhetorical. A dictionary was not helpful so...what do you do? We'll keep working with this. In The City of Ember, there was an extended blackout and Poppy was missing! Lina found her after the lights returned on, with Doon. Their paths are crossing! In Reader's Workshop, we got our new StoryWorks, read and blogged. Some kiddos went to work with our friends in Mrs. Shively's room. Today was Art, lunch and a beautiful outdoor recess. Math Workshop was all about symmetry with a read aloud about symmetry in nature, superhero masks and symmetry of letters and names. For Science, they are to complete their letters to Sea Turtle Conservancy groups and also some fun sea turtle activities. Wonder time ended the day.

One down, two to go

Our entire morning was spent taking the English Language Arts AIR test. The students did great and showed great effort! Kudos! After lunch, indoor recess and a few moments of quiet time, we worked on building/creating our Town Maps for Math Workshop. Our day ended with gym! Short and sweet!

Yuck! :(

Today, in the classroom, was just as nasty as outside. We had a few students that struggled big time! I'm sure it is a mixture of the change in schedule, upcoming tests and just a rainy Monday...at least I hope that's what it was. Even if it's only a couple of kiddos that are struggling, self-discipline and silent wait time from others is helpful. Unfortunately, it seems that the majority of the kiddos take the time I'm dealing with "issues" to chat or get off task which then causes more time to get everyone settled. An audience just creates a bigger problem...

We began with days 1 & 2 in M4T as well as worked on a couple of problems from the M4T test for Friday. Maybe by completing a few problems of the test each day, they will be more successful. We'll see! Then, we had a pretty long meeting. A lot of kiddos wanted to share about their weekends! After saying the Pledge, we worked on a practice English Language Arts writing prompt. Then, we used the scoring rubric to score each other's essays. What did your kiddo score out of 10? What do they need to focus on tomorrow when writing? Conventions? Focus and organization? Elaboration and Evidence? We had Music, lunch and indoor recess. Homework tonight is to get a good night's sleep, eat a healthy breakfast and come to school with a positive mindset. Treat these tests like the Super Bowl of 4th grade-you may get a gorgeous ring out of it but you'll still be playing for the team next season. You want to do your best work to show what you know but you won't be failing 4th grade and everyone will still love you afterwards! :) In Math Workshop, we took what we've learned about geometry so far to create a town map. Does your child's town have a theme? We concluded our day by practicing the Reading portion of the AIR test tomorrow. This format is different as some questions have different parts and others call for two answers to a question. Some kiddos finished early and were able to work on their Sea Turtle Rehabilitation letters.

TGIF

Friday was a typical day! We began by completing our M4T test, with donuts being offered for 8, 9 and 10/10's...however, this only applied to 3 people. :( Then, we continued writing our informational writing. This is not an assignment about researching and writing information. This is about making informational text unique and NOT boring. For example, writing from the perspective of what is being researched (frog, bear, famous person) or talking about how you don't like something and using the research to disprove their opinion or sharing the information in a commercial style or using the  photospeak app, etc. They should be thinking outside the box! In The City of Ember, we found a little bit more information about how desperate Ember is becoming and Lina's grandma, forgot about Poppy! In Reader's Workshop, some of us kept writing, some blogged, we read, visited the library and completed our work with The Cow's Horn. We had Art, lunch and outdoor recess. If your kiddo hasn't practiced the format of the AIR test yet, I highly suggest them doing so! This will take the unknown out of this and allow them to truly show what they know! The link can be found on Canvas. In Math Workshop, we took the vocabulary we've learned and used it to classify 2-dimensional shapes. We played, Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! again and more of our baby turtles survived this time! Students kept working with environmental and human factors, detrimental and beneficial instances that caused this. Finally, we worked to write letters to Sea Turtle Rehabilitation organizations.

Thankful

I'm so thankful for each and every kiddo that I get the pleasure to work with each day. I'm not saying that every day is easy and some days leave me exhausted but I genuinely love each child and their family and feel sad to know that there's only a handful of days left this year! I wish I were moving to 5th grade with them! Anyway, thank you. Thank you for being my partner and for sharing in the growth of these young individuals so far this year!

Our day began with M4T and then in meeting, we each shared one "Above the line" behavior we did yesterday with the sub. They earned one potato head piece and other than Math (our hardest time to keep it together), they had a good day. Identifying "Above the line" behaviors is one step toward being able to "press pause" when falling "below the line." Then, we spent quiet a bit of time writing our informational writing. One kiddo is writing about volcanoes and asked how he can make his writing unique...so I looked up the Pixar short, "I Lava You" about two volcanoes finding each other and falling in love but it's also informational because it talks about how they form and erupt and how the process of changing Earth's surface is extremely slow. In The City of Ember, we got a look into the Pipeworks and Doon's first day on the job. He left us feeling dread for the people of Ember... In Reader's Workshop, we finished our work with "The Cow's Horn" and read, visited the library and blogged. We had gym, lunch and indoor recess and then were reminded again how to find the testing portal to practice with the format of the AIR test next week. After some quiet time, we completed an angle sort classifying angles by acute, obtuse and right. Then, we had a plethora of different angle activities involving soccer fields, baseball fields, houses and challenges. We ended Math Workshop with an exit slip and watching this awesome youtube video for remembering angles: https://youtu.be/IT1nuAKSP5o put to YMCA! :) We also read, Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland. Cindy Neuschwander, the author, has my "punny" type of humor! In Science, we are working with how changes to organism's and their survival can be natural and unnatural as well as detrimental, beneficial and indifferent. We are learning about this through a look at sea turtles. Today, we read, Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! and played a game which mimicked the very poor life expectancy of baby sea turtles. Did your child "live?" As always, our day ended with Wonder time. The group I've been working with is enjoying the extra attention they've been getting and are gaining self-confidence with review of skills-both is literacy and math. Today, we played a game with prefixes.

Enjoyable day :)

Today was a pretty enjoyable day. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to make it enjoyable but I guess nothing out of the ordinary happened to make it not enjoyable, which made it an enjoyable day! We began with M4T and I think the donuts worked because I'm seeing more effort. (It's only Tuesday but I hope it continues!) Then, in morning meeting, we shared our worst injuries since injuries in kiddos are on my mind these days with Adison's broken? elbow...some were pretty gross! Then, we played, "Just Like Me" and then said the Pledge. After checking our goals, we sorted our word study words and found that they could be grouped by their starting letters. However, upon further inspection, they had similar first letters. All of our words begin with consonant blends meaning the first two consonants blend together to form their sounds. We began writing our informational writing for Writer's Workshop and learned more about Lina and her job as messenger in The City of Ember.  In Reader's Workshop, we completed our theme work with the StoryWorks story, The Cow's Horn.  We had Art, lunch and outdoor recess and then quiet time. After creating our calm for the afternoon, we had a quick round of "Mrs. L says" or as Mrs. Sharma is calling it Geomexercise! where we show the vocabulary we've learned. Then, we used geoboards to complete practice activities that help to learn and reinforce parallel and perpendicular lines. We played a quick game of Dots and Lines and then tried to play a more individualized game but not all of us were ready for that. There'll be more practice with these terms tomorrow. In Social Studies, we took a second look at our government assessment from yesterday. I rarely test in Social Studies, but I think understanding our government is one of those important life skills that every person needs. Today, instead of encouraged to use their resources like yesterday, I used more emphasis and somewhat made them use their resources and hopefully, did better re-taking the assessment today. Our day ended with wonder time.

Whoops!

I just realized that I never posted blogs from Thursday and Friday of last week... whoops! I'm so sorry...hopefully, your kiddo talked to you about their day. Anyway.

This morning, students that received an 8, 9 or 10/10 on their M4T on last Friday's assessment, got donuts for their perseverance and hard work. I've been offering this incentive for so long and there are just some that still do not take this "test" seriously and complete their best work. So, I rewarded those that did and hopefully, next week, everyone else will get their donuts! Then, in our morning meeting, we shared about our weekend and then read, The Good Little Book. We said the Pledge, wrote our goal for the week and then took our word study pre-test. After we wrote our words in our planners, we read two informational texts that aren't typical. I Don't Like Snakes and The Bear Report. These books are examples of how to make informational text interesting. Next, we wrote topics that we are interested in writing about. In City of Ember, we learned a little more about the setting Lina and Doon live in. We had a community meeting at 10:45 so we only had a little bit of time to read and visit the library. In our community meeting, Mr. Higginbotham shared the beginnings of the R factor training with our students. He discussed, "Press Pause" and "Get your mind right" and "Above the line behaviors." Luckily, this is nothing new for us! We've been pressing pause and staying (trying to) above the line for months! We went directly to special from our meeting, gym, and then had lunch and indoor recess. After recess, while writing our assignments in our planners, we perused the practice AIR portal/website. Homework this week is to practice the format of the AIR test. Some questions ask for multiple answers. There are 2 writings that will need completed in a short amount of time and the writing needs to follow the prompt and accompany a piece of literature. I think it would be a great idea to practice and get familiar with all of this so that the AIR test assesses their knowledge of the content and not be assessed on the format of the test. Our first test is English Language Arts so my suggestion was to work with that one this week and then next week, the Math one and then the week after, the SS one. In Math Workshop, we finished learning the geometry vocabulary WITH hand motions! (Ask your kiddo to show you some of them!) Then, we went on a geometry hunt with the iPads around the building to find real world examples. Once we captured at least one image for each term, we came back and used Explain Everything to "present" our findings. We began Social Studies by assessing our current understanding of government with a little assessment. After completing the assessment, we watched School House Rocks--How a bill becomes a law and I'm sending my vote to college. Unfortunately, even though they were able to use all of their resources, they chose not to and did not do very well, so this will now be an assignment to complete tomorrow and if they do not finish, it will become homework. Our day ended with wonder/i-time.

Wow!

We started the day with M4T and ORGANIZING our star boxes and binders. It felt very good for all to purge some things that are not needed! In our meeting, we read, It's Tough to Lose Your Balloon, and talked about finding the positive in things. Then, we made sure our goals were written positively instead of in a negative way. Kudos to them because they already were! After a few gross rounds of "Would You Rather?" (Would you rather...vomit raspberry sherbet or have sparkly boogers?!), we continued writing our "One day...The End." stories. They did so well that we earned a potato head piece! In The Tiger Rising, Rob met the tiger and is now in charge of feeding him. However, Sistine would rather let the tiger go and seems to feel like a tiger in a cage herself! There are a lot of feelings that are coming out lately with Rob, Sistine and even his father and Willie May. In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work with, The Cow's Horn, by working with plot today. We also read and visited the library. Some kiddos visited Mrs. Shively's room to work collaboratively with her kiddos during this time as well. After gym, lunch and a beautiful outdoor recess, we practiced for our decimal assessment tomorrow with online games. They really enjoyed Math Man-which is like Pac-Man but the ghosts have decimals on them and they need to eat the ghosts by the dot on the number line below. All of the games are on my Canvas page so they can access them at home. I also "assigned" some problems for them to work on in their yellow workbook.

After math, we worked on Wellness and focused on our emotional health by reading a Time For Kids about feeling safe and healthy at home and then completed a few activities to go along with it. Our day concluded with wonder/i-time.

Productive chaos?

Our day began with completing our M4T and then morning meeting. In meeting, we greeted our friends and shared one thing we've learned about ourselves and our learning so far this year. One thing we discussed was that distractions are possible no matter what the seating or anything looks like. The only thing we can control is our reaction to these distractions and how to keep the distractions from interfering with our learning. In Word Study, we found that our words are similar and that we can use what we know about one word to help us spell the related word (ex. televise, television) and then in Writer's Workshop, we continued our "One day, The End" stories. We discussed that adding more detail doesn't mean to add more sentences or events but to add more information about the sentences that are already written. Oh my goodness, they hated me for stopping where I did in The Tiger Rising! Beauchamp, the owner of the hotel and presumably the tiger, asked Rob if he would want a job taking care of a wild animal...could he really be talking about the tiger Rob found??! Then, in Reader's Workshop, we worked more with the vocabulary and figurative language in, The Cow's Horn from StoryWorks, read, visited the library and some met with me for Guided Reading. We had Music, lunch and outdoor recess today and during quiet time, while writing in our planners, we completed 2 of our homework questions because the format for the problems are the way they'll need to answer the problems on their math AIR test in a couple weeks. It is a very confusing format so a little practice will help them to feel more secure and be tested on the math content instead of a testing format. In Math Workshop today, we wrote decimals on an index card and then found a partner. We compared our decimals using <, > or =. Next, we ordered ourselves into a number line. They did awesome and I think understand these skills a little better! We ended our Math Workshop with some application of our decimal skills with some real world problems. In Social Studies today, we finished the branches of government reading and then worked on two Ohio Studies Weekly magazines. Finally, our day concluded with Wonder/I-time.

Welcome back!

Wow-it was a nice week off but now, we have 49 days to get everything complete! Our day began with completing our M4T and talking to each other about what we did over Spring Break. Then, in meeting, we shared what someone else did over break. In Word Study, we took our pre-test to get this week's words. The students know they are connected-just not exactly how. Then, I read, One Day, The End, to jump start our writing. This book showed that the middle of our writing is super important and details are necessary! After taking some time to begin on our writing, we read more from The Tiger Rising. Rob's "suitcase" is beginning to open a little with Sistine. Will this tiger allow him to completely open his feelings and finally heal from his mother's death? In Reader's Workshop, we read, The Cow's Horn, in StoryWorks, read, visited the library and some met with me to work on guided reading. Today, we had Art, lunch and indoor recess. In Math Workshop, we continued to practice decimals and some are actually planning a party for our class to show their understanding of decimals. In Social Studies, we worked with Branches of Government by playing some online games.    Our day was concluded with wonder/i-time

Woohoo! It's Spring Break!

We made it! Today felt like a race trying to get things finished but we did it! We started our day brainstorming places we'd like to go over Spring Break...Floriday, Get Air and England! were just a few. Then, in Writer's Workshop, we wrote persuasive pieces hoping to influence you into taking us somewhere special. Some of them were really convincing... In The Tiger Rising, Rob began to open up to Sistine. It was truly magical to see it happen as sometimes you just feel comfortable around certain people. I think this will be a beautiful friendship--I hope! In Reader's Workshop, we read, visited the library, worked with me and some continued writing. We had gym, lunch and a very windy and chilly outdoor recess. Right after quiet time, Dr. Donna came so we could test out our boats! We tried to all go outside but it was too cold! So we brought the tub in and each group went out and tested their boat in the hallway. How did your child's group do? In Math Workshop, we practiced putting decimals on a number line and then completed a decimals check-in. I think some did really well and will be moving on after break! We then practiced applying our understanding by figuring out golf swing statistics, metric measurement conversions, marbles in a bag or how much money was made babysitting. Finally, our day ended with completing and testing our leprechaun traps!

We are almost there!

What a beautiful day! It seemed like a Monday...however, we did a good job of jumping right into our learning. Instead of M4T, we wrote 3 SMART goals for ourselves to achieve over spring break. **Quite a few kiddos said they were going to clean their rooms! Then, we rolled story starter dice to get ideas and then wrote a story with this idea. In Read Aloud, we began a new book, The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. We are still getting introduced to the characters but what we've learned so far is that Rob's whole life was turned upside down when his mother died and he and his dad moved to Florida. Now, he's locked up his feelings so he doesn't need to feel and is having a terrible time. Until, he finds a tiger?! Hmmm...where is this story going? In Reader's Workshop, we read, visited the library, worked with me, completed the Explain Everything summary and used context clues to complete the meanings of words in our BFG Glossary. In Music, we watched some of our Spring Concert, ate lunch and enjoyed the fresh air at recess. Once inside, we wrote in our planners and created a sense of calm with quiet time. In Math Workshop, we began by going over the work we began on Monday. This application of decimals is getting them! (If you are able to work with them over break by comparing or ordering--at a restaurant, which is cheaper? Or at the grocery, which is the better deal?-please do.) Then, we wrote about our progress with decimals and created a goal for the remainder of the unit. Then, we kept practicing with ordering and comparing decimals. For Science, and with St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, we made traps for Leprechauns! Our day ended with a government word search for Wonder time and then worked independently on our own wonder time activities.

Happy Pi Day!

3-14. Pi Day. 3.14159... Unfortunately, we don't work with pi too much in 4th grade so they don't understand today as much as I wish! However, it is also Adison's birthday so they celebrated that with me. :)

Instead of M4T this week, today, we found pictures in magazines and wrote captions to go with them. I thought they would take this idea and make it hilarious, but they were just normal! Maybe if we do this again, they'll do something silly with the pictures. In meeting, we shared a little bit about our weekend and lack of an hour that was messing us up and played a few rounds of Would you rather? In Writer's Workshop, we partnered up and created conversations with each other. Then, we finished The BFG! It is always so bittersweet finishing books. I wonder what we should read next...any suggestions? This "week" in Reader's Workshop, we are completing our summaries on Explain Everything and PhotoSpeak or Chatterpix as well as completing our BFG glossary. We are working with reading for a purpose in guided reading groups this week. After Art, lunch and outdoor recess, we had a multiplication number talk and then dove right in with decimals. We warmed up with a game of pick it, shade it, practiced identifying tenths and hundredths and then applied this understanding. Some kiddos did not use their time as wisely as they could have so a lot of them have homework due Wednesday to finish this work. After Math Workshop, in Social Studies, we worked with identifying the "jobs" or responsibilities of each branch of government. First, we brainstormed the roles and responsibilities of the adults at ADE and then applied this understanding to our government. Our day concluded with Wonder/I-time. I am really enjoying spending time with my group and just brushing up on basic skills. Today, we worked with elapsed time. What did your kiddo work on?

Almost finished

Today was the last day of this crazy week and we made it! We only had one little out-of-the-ordinary so it was a mostly typical day.

We finally reached our M4T goal!!! (I did lower it to 9/13 and they only needed 7, 8, 9 or 10/10 but still!) Shhhh...don't tell them but they will be treated with some donuts on Monday! Then, we played, "I have, who has?" with prefixes. It went really well-they completely understand the meaning that un-, pre-, re- and im- do to root words. We had a pretty silly lesson in Writer's Workshop about commas...ask your kiddo how lives can be saved by using commas in our writing! In The BFG, the plan has been activated to capture the giants and they have just reached Giant Country. We'll finish the book on Monday. I hate to finish~I love this book! Instead of Reader's Workshop today, we went to the Media Center to learn how to access FREE eBooks through our school library! Have your kiddo show you all the possibilities! We had gym, lunch and outdoor recess. After quiet time, we worked on applying our understanding of decimals. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be for them but they weren't very confident in themselves. After Math Workshop, we learned about the branches of government by first watching some School House Rocks and then creating a government tree. We ended our day with wonder time.

STEM afternoon

We had a normal morning with M4T, Prove-it in Word Study (much better this week!) Read Aloud and Reader's Workshop. We are almost finished with The BFG and today, the BFG and Sophie acted on their plan and it worked perfectly! The Queen even invited them to stay for breakfast! Now, they have called in the Army and Air Force to plan on capturing the Giants and ridding them from eating poor little chiddlers forever! In Reader's Workshop, students worked on their book summaries using Photo Speak and Explain Everything, blogged and read independently. We, begrudgingly, had Music today although they are kind of music'd out right now... lunch and indoor recess. Our afternoon was spent partly at ADE working with either Mrs. Bolyard of myself on a STEM activity-either with Piggy's house of cards in my room or hoop gliders in Mrs. Bolyard's room. The other part of the afternoon was making our designs using Darby Creek's Maker Space. They loved it! We had a little extra time before Wonder Time so they asked me to read more from The BFG.

Field trip?

Well, our morning was spent at Bradley High School practicing for the Spring Concert tonight. When we returned, I overheard a kiddo say that they had a fun field trip! :) Hope I see you tonight! (Don't forget your tickets!!!)

After we returned from Bradley, around 11:45, we had a few minutes to blog, read and visit the library. Then, we had lunch and a glorious recess. Next, we met with our design team to work on our designs that we will be making tomorrow at Darby Creek's Maker Space. Then, in Math, we ordered our names on a number line and then demonstrated we can identify decimals as fractions, in expanded notation, on a number line and with base-10 blocks. Our day ended with Wonder/I-time.

Today's crazy...3323[o]ipwi\

The crazy we had today was all this morning with Music Rehearsal from 9:30-11:30 and then met with our small groups in order to design our boats to make in the Maker Space with Dr. Donna on Thursday. However, before we left, we sorted our words for Word Study and found our generalization to be that our words have prefixes and/or suffixes.

After lunch and recess, we wrote in our planners (don't forget quarters for Mrs. Root!) and calmed ourselves with quiet time. In Math Workshop, we used base-10 squares to find the value of our name in fractions and decimals. We also played decimal top-it and worked with ordering decimals on a number line and putting numerals in place value puzzles. Since we lost all of our morning, we spent part of the afternoon reading silently or visiting the library. Our day ended with Wonder/I-time.

Beginning of our crazy week...

So, we have at least one out-of-the-ordinary EACH day this week. Today, we have a technology lesson with Mrs. Bargar. We learned how to use Photospeak and Chatterpix to make characters "talk" and using Explain Everything, created a summary about a book we've read. It was a lot to learn but we are going to continue to work on this summary all week.
After our technology lesson, we took our pre-test to get new words in Word Study. Then, in The BFG, Sophie and the BFG, traveled to London to begin working their plan. We also read, visited the library and Columbus State bloggers began their final blog. We had Music, lunch and a beautiful outdoor recess. After some quiet time and writing in our planners (by the way, we have a busy week with the Spring Concert so we are taking a week off of homework-meaning that I won't be posting anything new on Canvas. They can still read, write and work with math, however.), we began with a fraction number talk where we compared decimals. Next, we each got a card with a fraction or decimal and then ordered ourselves into a human number line. We, then created base-ten block pictures and represented the total value of our pictures in fractions and decimals. We also played Decimal Top-it with partners. In Science, in thinking like a scientist, we took the information that we gained by looking at the actual items in the mystery bags 1-3 and took a second look at the rest of the mystery bags so that we could make better inferences based on more scientific observations. Our day ended with Wonder/I-time.

Fabulous Friday!

The kiddos were bummed at realizing they had to sit where I placed them the other day but understood that they were more successful in those spots. We made a few tweaks here and there but overall, they are in "assigned" seats. Hopefully, we'll finally get 10/13 of the class with 7, 8, 9 or 10/10 on their M4T test so that they get a nice treat Monday morning. Fingers crossed! After completing the M4T test and watching the news, we continued writing our fictional narratives. I'm hoping to get them able to bust out multiple paragraph stories with a beginning, middle and end by April when they'll need to write two for the AIR test! The more they write, the better they'll write! Sophie's plan was revealed in The BFG and the dream has been mixed for the Queen. Now, they are off to London to try to rid the world of giants eating the little chiddlers for good! :) In Reader's Workshop, we had our final day of working on the debate and poem in StoryWorks. We also read and visited the library. Today was Art, lunch and indoor recess. We wrote in our planners and had some quiet time to meditate and create calm. Then, we re-took the Unit 5 Math Test or if we felt we did our best on the test, worked on creating and writing decimals and fractions using base-ten blocks. We all ended up working with creating, writing decimals and writing the decimals as fractions. In Science, we practiced making and DOCUMENTING observations using Mystery Bags. Students were more interested in trying to guess the items than with making observations so we are going to come back to this next week and try to come up with some better and more scientific observations. In thinking like scientists, we make inferences based on our observations and then as we collect more and more data, we change our ideas and inferences. So, after they've seen what the objects in the first 3 bags were, they can have a more scientific second look at the rest of the bags.

Goodness!

Is it another full moon?? I'm starting to think that the crazy weeks are just normal now... :/ We started the day like we typically do...M4T and morning meeting. However, the previous two days-which were successful-I picked their seating and today, they chose. Guess where they'll be sitting tomorrow?! In meeting, we discussed the responsibilities they have as a student and how they should be keeping you informed of what is going on in the classroom as this is one of their responsibilities. Then, we shared words we dislike. At my house, "moist" is an icky word and I can't stand when kiddos say "liberry" instead of "library." Most students didn't necessarily have any icky words but hate when things are grammatically incorrect. Hmmmm...maybe I should remind them of this more often! :) In Word Study, we worked on prove-it again since yesterday was a debacle. They did somewhat better today but still struggled. We continued writing our fictional narratives in Writer's Workshop, well, those that completed their prove-it's in time. In The BFG, we learned about some of the dreams that the BFG has caught and bottled up. Meanwhile, the other giants galloped off to eat some English chiddlers! Sophie thought this was awful...the next chapter is titled, "The Plan." We'll see what happens! In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work with understanding the debate (informational/opinion text) and the poem (understanding enough to answer interview questions AS the speaker), read independently (we need to work on picking books that will sustain our attention longer-like chapter books-too many comics being read!) and blogged and/or visited the library. We had gym today, lunch and outdoor recess. In lunch, we are working on using restaurant voices and manners! After writing our assignments down in our planners and some quiet time, we worked more with decimals. They are doing AWESOME with understanding tenths and hundredths! They struggled a little with changing representing decimals and fractions from a base-ten model though so we'll continue making this decimal-fraction connection. After Math Workshop, we finished creating our ABC Ohio books that we began on Statehood Day. As always, we ended our day with wonder/i-time. Ahhhh...now it's time to relax a little and begin it all again tomorrow!

Easy afternoon

I am out this afternoon for an appointment for my Ella. However, the substitute had it pretty easy with Spring concert rehearsal from 1:00-2:30! Here's how our morning and hopefully our afternoon went.

This morning, we completed our M4T and finished our "Fractions of my Brain" projects. In our meeting, we shared what we will do to help the substitute. Prove-it was tough today! They had a terrible time finding words that fit this week's generalization. They were looking for double consonants, after short vowels, before adding a suffix. For example, sit - sitting and stop - stopping... Instead of reading The BFG, we worked on our fictional narratives. Then, continued our work with the poem and debate in StoryWorks, blogged for Columbus State and read independently. Instead of special, we had Math Workshop. We practiced reading and writing decimals and fractions. We split number lines up and wrote the fractions and decimal equivalents. After lunch, indoor recess and music rehearsal, we practiced Thinking Like a Scientist with observations using Mystery Bags. Our day ended with Wonder Time.

Happy Statehood Day!

We celebrated Ohio's Statehood today by completing ABC Ohio books on Google Apps!
      
                       

After M4T, we shared how we keep safe and aware to follow up our conversation yesterday. Examples we discussed were not texting or talking on the phone while walking, being aware of our surroundings, knowing our address and a parent's phone number, walkie-talkies, etc. However, the point was reiterated that we need to be present and aware to be safe. After a few rounds of "Laughing Bandana," we moved on to sort our words for Word Study. Our generalization this week is double consonants after a short vowel, before adding a suffix. We continued writing our fictional narratives in Writer's Workshop. A couple of kiddos feel they are already finished...this is why we need to work on our writing!! In The BFG, the Fleshlumpeater Giant encountered a nightmare (thanks to the BFG!) and it was very fun to read! In Reader's Workshop, we blogged, read and completed comprehension activities. We planned for Art, lunch and outdoor recess, however, while at Art, the sky unloaded so it was indoor recess. We finished our "Fraction of my brain" projects and then began our introduction to decimals. Once I explained the monetary connection (1/10 = 0.1 = dime...) they understood. I was a little concerned with all of the ?'s on the pre-test but I think they'll end up doing fine with this unit, especially with fractions being their strongest area thus far. In Social Studies, we celebrated Statehood Day and then ended our day with Wonder/i-time...is your kid working with "Do the Math" with Mrs. Andrews, multiplication with Mrs. Bolyard or comprehension and understanding with me? If not, what are they doing to better themselves?!

Frobscottle and whizpoppers!

We had a rough start to the week with our chatting and socialization...goodness! Our focus for the week is to "Be Still..." I got that from watching The Karate Kid last night (the newer one) where Mr. Han explains that doing nothing and being still are two different things. Being still has focus. We are going to work with this idea more throughout the week. In Word Study, we took our pre-test and created our lists. Then, in Writer's Workshop, we began writing a fictional narrative. However, we had to have a mini-lesson on pre-writing and how important that first step in the writing process is. The BFG was oh so fun today! Ask your kiddo what a whizpopper is! You can check out our glossary we are making in Google Apps too, for the book using context clues to help us figure out what the words mean. In Reader's Workshop, we are to read the poem and the drama-both from StoryWorks and complete comprehension activities about them. Our Columbus State bloggers began their blogs and we read and visited the library. After gym, lunch and recess, we tried to quiet down but it took awhile... In math workshop, we finished taking our Unit 5 post test, took our Unit 6 pre test and began a project on fractions. After that, in Science, we paid attention to observing and documenting...these kiddos are not very observant! We also worked with following directions and writing directions. Our day ended with a shortened wonder time.

Hopefully

I was out this morning with Ella as she had some dental work done but came in at noon (but then had to go to a meeting all afternoon.) I checked in with the kiddos at recess and they said that they were a little loud/giggly once but overall ok in the morning. Looking at my sub notes at the end of the day, they were talkative but ok. I think they'll earn one potato head piece. I'm happy with no major issues! :) Here's what should have occurred:

M4T and then getting to know the teacher in meeting, sharing what they had for breakfast and then a couple of rounds of "Would You Rather?" In Word Study, they completed a word search that I made with words to use now that said is dead and they wrote using dialogue in Writer's Workshop. I'm sure they were bummed about a day off from The BFG but I'm positive the sub would have done terribly as the Big Friendly Giant! So, she read, Sit-In, a March Book Madness picture book. They have been reading the drama in StoryWorks about the same protest at Woolworth's so they were then able to compare and contrast the two perspectives of the same situation. I can't wait to hear what they thought. In Reader's Workshop, they made inferences about the StoryWorks story, read independently, blogged and visited the library. **I am super impressed with my Columbus State bloggers for having them complete by this morning!! Thank you for your help with that!** We had Music, lunch and recess. This afternoon, they continued working with multiplying fractions (Mrs. Sharma said they really have it so I'm going to offer the test tomorrow with the understanding that they can finish on Monday if they don't feel comfortable. They don't know this yet but I, too, think they are doing really well with this skill and I don't think we need to drag it out much longer. In Science, we've been Thinking Like a Scientist so today, they worked with writing directions and following directions. Not sure how well they did...one activity was that silly one where it tells them to read it completely before doing anything and then only needs them to do one or two things. I wish I would have been there for that!

I hope you are enjoying the homework on Canvas...

...and I thought last week was busy...

Oh my goodness! I had a crazy, busy week last week and I thought it was because Mr. Lambright was out of the country, however he's back and this week seems even crazier! Have you ever just wanted to re-do some days? That's how I feel about the last two days. Oy vey! We worked on independence today to help a little in this. I felt so overwhelmed yesterday, like if a kiddo sneezed, they'd ask me what to do next! Today was a little better with that, phew!

We always complete our M4T when we first arrive and then in meeting, today, we shared made up words we use-like in The BFG. Have you heard of a patushka? How about mcsquseme? or dunno? We had a lot of fun with this! In Word Study, we are working with compound words and proved that we understand by finding more examples today.
Yesterday, we kept writing using dialogue with quotation marks in Writer's Workshop and in The BFG, learned more about Giant Country and enjoyed getting to know the Big Friendly Giant and his langwitch. :) In Reader's Workshop, we focused on the setting and it's importance to a story. "Sitting Down with Dr. King" would be a very different story if the setting were different. We also read independently and identified the setting in our chapter books. We had Gym, lunch and outdoor recess and then after quiet time, had an awesome "game" of Popl. Ask your kiddo what this is. We spent Math Workshop multiplying fractions with whole numbers. In Social Studies, we learned more about the Frontier Wars and events leading up to Ohio's statehood.
Today was World Read Aloud Day! Thank you to Mrs. Dixon and Mr. Plumley for sending in videos of themselves reading aloud. The kiddos LOVED it! We also watched a couple of celebrities reading books to us and then created a paper quilt made up of all of our favorite read aloud titles. Some of our kiddos went down to Mrs. Shively's room to work with some of her children.

 

After music rehearsal, lunch and indoor recess, we played another game of Popl and then continued with multiplying fractions. In Science, we did some activities to help us Think Like a Scientist.
As always, our days ended with Wonder Time.

Well...

If things continue like today, it's going to be a long week! A handful of students spent part of their recess with me because they chose to not even begin their Reader's Workshop work during the given time. I don't like to take recess away as I think it is super important but sometimes, a point needs to be made. Work needs completed during work time. They can socialize and play during recess time.

We completed our M4T this morning and then shared about our weekend in meeting. We also learned of our hectic afternoon at this time too. Then, we took a pre-test and created our list of words for word study this week. In Writer's Workshop, we are going back and adding dialogue to some of our previously written work, now that we understand the rules or procedures. We got a new book in Read Aloud! This time we are reading and fantasy book called, The BFG by Roald Dahl. We will be creating a glossary of made up terms in Google Apps to go along with our book. In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work with the drama about protests and sit-ins for equality by comparing and contrasting the main character at the beginning of the story and at the end. We also read and CSCC bloggers, blogged back or got caught up  in their book, Lunch Money. We had Art, lunch and outdoor recess. Then, our crazy afternoon began with the OSU professor, Ms. Lan, who conducted the research study; we had a 5-minute math and then Dr. Donna came and helped us "Think Like a Scientist"; finally, we finished up math by doing some skip-counting by 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 and then practice multiplying fractions by whole numbers. Finally, we ended our day with wonder time.

AHHHH!

Our focus this week is on product and what we are producing to show our personal best. Some are really internalizing this and I've seen better products this week! (For example, we are completing a "Day in the Life" activity in Social Studies where students read about settling in the Northwest Territory or frontier/pioneer life and although I asked for them to wrote about a day as if they were a pioneer and include an illustration, some students have chosen to write a journal and have many entries; or in Math today, instead of only completing a few division problems on each page to complete, they challenged themselves by working with 2-digit divisors or tried to learn the traditional method.) Ask your kiddo about the products they put out this week and see if your child gave their personal best!

We completed days 3 & 4 in M4T (and some people chose to get a head start on their assessment tomorrow). In meeting, after greeting our friends, we shared the one place in the world we would be other than here...I said that I was torn because I wanted to be with Mr. L in the Netherlands but would really prefer a nice, tropical beach... Then, we learned the rules for using quotation marks and practiced these rules with elbow macaroni! Calan said yelled, "It's too loud in here!" Next, we practiced writing. (I've been grading the checkpoint writing assessments we took and they do not look good...too many kiddos are in the 1st and 2nd grade level...) We finished our book, Because of Mr. Terupt and he lived! and he came to visit the last day of school! and the children get to have a do-over next year-kind of! It was a very happy ending. Then, in Reader's Workshop, we read and blogged and visited the library--too many of us visited the library at the same time. We had Music, lunch and :( indoor recess. After quiet time, we worked on division in Math Workshop and completed our "A Day in the Life," pioneer stories in Social Studies. Our day concluded with Wonder/I-time. 

Back to the grind!

Our day began with some catch up. We worked on days 1 & 2 in Math 4 Today and then talked about what we did during our Bonus day off! Lots of snow play and sledding. We also talked about product. When I give an assignment, they need to think about what their product will look like. Too many of them are just filling in the blanks and giving the bare minimum. So, our focus this week is on purpose and product. Then, we wrote and wrote and wrote. When I originally told them they'd have 25 minutes to write, they thought that was too long but when I announced that they needed to get things to a stopping point and they moaned that they needed more time. That's good! Mr. Terupt made it out of brain surgery and now it is wait and see... Lots of thoughts, questions and emotions going on in the minds of all the students. When I read that he made it out of surgery successfully, there was an audible sigh of relief. :) In Reader's Workshop, we got a new StoryWorks and began reading the drama about Martin Luther King and the students "sitting down/standing up" for their rights. We also read and blogged. Today was B-day, Art, but we had a concert rehearsal instead. Then, we ate lunch and had indoor recess. After cleaning up and writing our assignments in our planners, we reviewed and practiced multi-digit multiplication. In Social Studies, we read about the pioneers and life on the frontier of the Northwest Territory. Then, we wrote, "A Day in the Life," as if we were a pioneer man, woman or child. Finally, as always, we ended with Wonder/i-Time.

Valentines, Mr. Potato Head celebration...

We started our day but passing out and collecting valentines. Then, we wrote-pencil and paper only-for 20 minutes. I'm trying to build their stamina with writing independently. As easy and fun as technology is, I don't want them to lose that paper and pencil connection. Then, in Because of Mr. Terupt, things started to look up for the kids. James, from the Collaborative Classroom, had made so much progress that he is leaving for a school closer to his home so they had a party in his honor. It took James to let everyone know that Mr. Terupt's accident was nobody's fault. Next, we read and blogged in Reader's Workshop. A lot of kiddos went to the library to get books to read over the long weekend so hopefully, you'll see them reading! We had Gym, lunch and indoor recess and then after quiet time, worked more with line plots and analyzing the data which in this case dealt with subtracting and adding fractions. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they did applying this fraction knowledge! Then, we completed our toy inventions and Ohio inventor trading cards. FINALLY, we PLAYED for our celebration! I loved seeing these kids be kids and play with each other!

New friends!

I have a few minutes in between conferences so I thought I'd let you know how our day went. We took our M4T assessment and by the sound in the classroom, I'm not too optimistic that they ALL (or at least 10/13) did their personal best to get an 8, 9 or 10/10...We'll see! In meeting, I read, Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco and then we talked about an activity we were going to do today. Mrs. Shively brought her kiddos down for a visit and a time to get to know us! Ask your kiddo about it-they loved meeting Dorsey, Blake, Lillian, Ava, Danny and David! We read books to them and then talked/wrote about some of our favorites. We also got to share some of our own favorites-toys, foods, people and animals. **This prompted our celebration tomorrow--bring a toy and/or stuffed animal in tomorrow so we can just PLAY for a short time. :) We had music, lunch and another indoor recess. After quiet time, we worked with line plots in Math Workshop. Today, our purpose was to understand how to create a line plot and interpret what it shows. Tomorrow, we'll work more with the fractions and adding and subtracting them when interpreting the data. We mixed things up and read from Because of Mr. Terupt next because we needed to find out what happened! Mr. Terupt is going to have brain surgery to fix a bleed on his brain. The snowball caused the bleed but only because he had a lot of concussions when he was younger during wrestling. We finished up the day inventing toys!

Typical Day

Our day began like all others, with M4T and students working diligently with this week's problems. They will be taking the assessment tomorrow (since we do not have school on Friday and will be passing out valentines on Thursday) and I'm offering the same incentive--a surprise Monday morning IF at least 10/13 of the class scores an 8, 9 or 10/10. Hopefully, this will be the week! We played Synonym/Antonym BINGO for Word Study and then used the remaining time for free writing (writing without boundaries) during Writer's Workshop. Unfortunately, not much writing occurred because they spent the time figuring out using electronics instead of writing. There'll be more WRITING tomorrow. :) We found out that Mr. Terupt is in a coma from the snow/ice ball accident, during Read Aloud. He's been in the hospital for weeks now and the students are trying to understand and comprehend the entire thing as well as their feelings. They literally yelled at me when I stopped today. I'm so mean. In Reader's Workshop, we completed our book genre sort posters. Now, students have over 125 titles of books to choose from when looking for a specific book! We also read and blogged. Today was Art, lunch and indoor recess. After quiet time, we finished up the tests--which I am proud to announce that EVERYONE "passed" with at least a 72%!! This is the absolute best we have ever done on a math assessment! Kudos! Then, we took the next unit pre-test-multiplying fractions, completed some fraction activities and/or played ST Math. Finally, we ended our day finishing up our Ohio Inventor trading cards and fossil reading activity.