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.