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.

Happy Chinese New Year!

We celebrated Chinese New Year today in Leon's honor! We read books, had oranges and candy (signs of luck for the new year) and made dancing dragons, red lanterns and lucky money envelopes. We even tried to use chopsticks! (If your kiddo has a special celebration they'd like to share with us, let us know!)

We began our day with M4T and then shared about our weekend in meeting. Those in Heritage Lakes had a pretty eventful one with the house fire in the neighborhood! We also heard that two kiddos ran into each other at the mall and another's furnace was getting fixed and almost had a fire! Wow! In lieu of Word Study and Writer's Workshop, we completed our conference presentations and practiced sharing them. Something big and terrible happened in Because of Mr. Terupt and they about killed me when I stopped reading before finding out what happened! Let's just say that it does not look good...I wonder what this means for the class?? Then, in Reader's Workshop, we read, blogged, visited the library and continued working on our book genre sort. We are taking old book order magazines and cutting out the book covers and sorting them by genre. This will give us some recommendations too-by genre-for our 30 book challenge. We had a very sweaty gym, lunch and indoor recess. After quiet time, we got working on our math. Those that finished on Friday, are working on either making a quilt (and then expressing it's design in fractions) or finding and reporting the demographics of our school in fractions (boys/class, girls/class, 4th grade/school, etc.). Everyone else took the test today. Some started and will finish tomorrow after practicing some specific skills while others felt confident to complete the test today. By Wednesday, we'll be working with line plots and fractions on a line plot. Finally, we ended our day with our Chinese New Year celebration!

Guest Blogger-Will!

   Today we started our day by having a morning meeting which I was not at but we did play a game called the laughing bandana to get our laughs out. How you play is the teacher throws a bandana in the air and we laugh until it hits the ground and then we have to be completely silent. Sometimes the teacher has us do a different laugh like a deep belly laugh or high pitched laughs.

This morning after morning meeting we had to work on or spring conference slides which are about the year from our last conference to this one coming up real soon!

   After that we had to go to a spring concert rehearsal with the fifth grade that was a huge accomplishment and I think both grades did an amazing job.

   After the spring concert rehearsal we went to music right after music which is a tongue twister.
we watched a movie which took place in the 1920's but I'm not going to go to in-depth of that but it was mostly about how movies are on the set and why they are like they are.

   Soon after that there was math which was fun for me but most kids hated it but it was good practice for them and myself. I had to take my test today but some are taking it on mayday and on Tuesday but I chose today.

   After that we did a Ohio inventor trading card thing where we made cards for inventors that were chosen by Mrs. L last week.

   And now I'm here blowing right now bye!

Nothing

We began our meeting by reading a today's entry from a book we have in class, Today I Will: a year of quotes, notes and promises to myself. In honoring Rosa Park's birthday today, we reflected on the following questions:

The question that resonated with us most was, "Do I understand that sometimes doing nothing is actually doing wrong?" and how being on auto-pilot or not participating or doing our work may be doing wrong... Lots to ponder today.

Mrs. Bargar was here today to record us speaking our poems over the Garage Band track we created on Monday. She pulled kiddos all day-here and there so nothing seemed to go typically and kiddos missed certain things and little bits here and though so we're sorry if we don't have the full picture of our day today. While we waited for our turn, we practiced reading our poem with the author's name and continued writing our shadow story. In Art, Mrs. Bowers didn't have a substitute so I sat in on the class with her student teacher. I was so impressed that I completed their Potato Head! Now, we get to think about what our celebration should be... After lunch and outdoor recess, we wrote our assignments in our planner and warmed up during quiet time. In Math Workshop, we practiced understanding composing/decomposing, adding and subtracting, mixed numbers and improper fractions. At the end, we signed up to take our test--is your kiddo taking the test tomorrow, Monday or Tuesday? What are they doing at home to prepare? After playing, Rolling Fractions, we worked on our understanding of fossils using the StoryWorks story,  "The Girl Who Discovered Dinosaurs." For Wonder Time today, students asked themselves, what the WHY is behind the WHAT they are doing...are they working with PURPOSE today?

Thoughtful productivitiy

In reflecting on our day, I feel we had a pretty productive day. I feel like we are in the groove of school and are trying to better ourselves for the best "me" every day. We continued our focus on purpose and the WHY to our WHAT today with first picking a seat that is the best for us in terms of learning. I have to say that seats were chosen very thoughtfully today and I agreed with where kiddos chose to sit. This, to me, is more powerful than me assigning seats. They are understanding what they need in order to be successful! Wow. After completing our M4T, in meeting, we shared what we enjoy doing on a rainy day and then played "What are you doing?" where I learned a new dance move but can't remember what it's called... Then, we continued our work with synonyms and antonyms and then wrote our shadow stories. They are putting more effort into these than expected so we'll be continuing with these tomorrow. Then, in Because of Mr. Terupt, Jeffrey opened up more and we found out that he had a brother with Down Syndrome that he unfortunately lost to Leukemia. And, Lexie isn't given much attention at home as her parents are going through a pretty awful divorce and her mother's advice isn't so great. This gave us a LOT to think about when it comes to point of view and why Jeffrey and Lexie act certain ways and do what they do. We had a good amount of time for Reader's Workshop to read, visit the library, finish our work with the plot of "The Great Hodgi" in StoryWorks and blog. Today was a gym day but we had a 4th grade rehearsal for the Spring Concert instead. Then, we had lunch and outdoor recess. We wrote our assignments down (has your kiddo checked out this week's homework on Canvas?) and then Mrs. Firestone and Mrs. Andrews came in to get us set up to take the Bridge Course assessment. In 5th grade, there is an option for an accelerated math class that merges the 5th and 6th grade curriculums together. So, all 4th grade kiddos take this online assessment as a screener for if this course would be good for them. After the brief assessment, we reviewed adding and subtracting mixed numbers. With all the amazing work over the last few days, I thought a lot were ready for the test, however, when I put the option on the board, more than a few said they need more time to practice and even more help understanding. So, we'll be testing Friday, Monday and Tuesday. After Math Workshop, we followed up our fossil work with Dr. Donna by reading an article from StoryWorks from 2014 about "The Girl Who Discovered Dinosaurs." Our day concluded with Wonder Time.

Purpose

What is your purpose for what you do? After our discussion yesterday, I asked the students why they do the things they do. Here are some of the answers I got: "I play soccer to gain endurance," "I complete my work to feel accomplishment," "I help my mom to make her happy," "I play soccer because I'm good at it and I like it," and "I practice sports because I want to play professionally someday." These were great answers! I said that I do everything out of love, so later I happened to ask if they know why I wanted them to understand synonyms and antonyms, they smiled and said, "Because you love us!" Haha! We began by picking a better seat to sit in than yesterday. Then, completed our morning procedures and worked on M4T. Our meeting time was our discussion about purpose. In Word Study, they worked on identifying synonyms and antonyms which they agreed was all review from last year and they identified the real reason for reviewing and learning this--to use it in our writing to be better writers. Yes! We had about 35-40 minutes to work on our Google Presentations but the iPads weren't being very cooperative so only about half of the class was able to work on these. Some kiddos may choose to work some at home depending on how much they still have to complete and how fancy they want to be. We were finally able to spend time reading Because of Mr. Terupt and they are now, really getting into the book. Today, we got more perspectives/points-of-view on visiting the Collaborative Classroom and how each of the students-no matter their personalities or characteristics-is gaining something from the students they are working with. This prompted a few girls to pull me aside and ask if we could do something like this with Mrs. Shively's room and her kiddos. Of course I said, "Yes!" because I don't think I know how to say no, really... Mrs. Shively emphatically agreed and we are going to meet tomorrow to discuss the details. Students had a good amount of time to read independently, visit the library and complete their Columbus State blog if they are 1 of the 10 completing this project this time around. We had Music, lunch and a chillier than expected recess. During quiet time, students should have paid closer attention to writing assignments and reminders in their planner and should also be getting it back out each evening just to double check. For the next 2 weeks, I'm going to ask that you sign that you saw your kiddos' planner (there's a spot at the bottom) so that they can get into the habit of checking it each night. I hope this won't be too much of a hassle and that you can just add it into your evening procedures. In Math Workshop, we worked in the Fraction Cookie Bakery and put orders together and then found the total as an improper fraction AND mixed number. Some kiddos didn't even need the visual of making the cookies. After a great Math Workshop, we read, Groundhog Gets a Say, in honor of groundhog's day and then made shadow puppets that we drew on paper. These became inspiration for a story that we'll be writing tomorrow. As always, we ended with Wonder Time.

Fossils-excavation mess!

Our day began in a typical fashion with M4T and morning meeting. Today, I read the book, Someday, by Eileen Spinelli. It's about a girl with big dreams but also realizing what she is doing today so that she can get there in the future. I watched a video on Facebook yesterday and shared the big idea with the kiddos. The speaker asked a guy WHAT he did. He replied that he was a music teacher so the speaker asked him to sing, which he did. Then, the speaker asked him to sing again but like he was at his uncle's funeral and gave him some other details too. This time, when the man sang, it sounded beautiful! This led the speaker to share that the WHY of his WHAT made the difference. He said that our impact is much greater when we have purpose. Everything else I asked of them today was first given with the purpose in mind. Next, we made sure that we were prepared for our tech work with Mrs. Bargar by having our poems ready and analyzed. We made sure we understood the mood, meaning of the poem, emotion we felt by reading the poem and rhythm and/or repetition of the poem.  We showed that we understood our poem by creating a music project in Garage Band. We'll record our poems on Thursday and write and illustrate our poems too so we have a finished project. Special today was Art and then lunch and outdoor recess. We were very specific with writing in our planners today so remind your kiddo to use their planner for it's purpose of reminding them of their work and responsibilities. In Math Workshop, we showed our understanding of fractions of sets and wholes and composing and decomposing fractions using eggs and candy bars. Students are getting more and more secure! :) Finally, we excavated our dinosaur fossils from the milk cartons! It was so messy and we broke a lot of toothpicks digging those little plastic dinosaurs out! We looked at our imprints with and without the pocket microscope and then answered some questions about what our fossils can tell us. This took us all the way to the end of the day.