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.