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.