...frozen fractals all around...

This is my favorite line from the song, "Let it go!" from the movie Frozen. Fractals are a mathematical term for an never ending pattern. So, this morning, we created fractals! We made (tried to make) the Koch fractal. See if your kiddo can help you get started...it starts with an equilateral triangle.

After working on our fractals, Mrs. Vidic came in and worked with us on feelings and Zones of Regulation. These zones and understanding feelings can really help at home too-help remind your child to get in and stay in the green zone; help them to build their toolbox. After guidance, we reviewed fractions and some took or began taking their unit 3 assessment. Thankfully, a sub showed up for Mr. Burkhart and I didn't have to teach gym today! Then, we had lunch and indoor recess. We finished The Beaded Moccasins and the class cheered. I love when they enjoy our read alouds! This book was not only enjoyable but also taught us a lot about the early people of Ohio. Then, we went down to Miss Gates room for a Reader's Theater for Henry's Freedom Box, one of my all time favorite books about Henry Box Brown. Once we returned to the classroom, we read independently, visited the library to get books for break, completed our opinion essays-if needed, finished our Earth's Processes comic-if needed, finished up our Science experiments-if needed and many blogged, wrote freely and continued to read for the rest of the time. 

Trying to finish up

We are trying to get to so many different stopping points before we head home for two weeks and it is super stressful! It is also very challenging as some have been finished while others are just beginning! Sigh. We'll get there, I know!
After completing our M4T assessment, we completed a MakerSpace challenge of creating an alarm system for the 3 boys to keep intruders, like Goldilocks, out! Then, in Math Workshop, we took a little Kahoot quiz that Ally and Anisa made for us on fractions (I won!) and then each student received an index card with a fraction written on it. We found a partner and compared our fractions two different times and then found a four-some and put ourselves in order and ended up, finally, in one giant number line of fractions from smallest to largest. We also had some Kindergarten friends come down and share their persuasive writing with us! After music, (a lot of music this week!), lunch and indoor recess, we took a survey on our year so far. I loved their feedback! I learned that although I thought/felt I knew them and their needs really well, they aren't so confident that I do so this is something I'm going to work on. I also learned that they want more Science and enjoy the flexible seating and eating in our class. :) When I asked, "I want more..." and "I want less..." one kiddo wrote "no" and "yes." :) Lol! In Read Aloud, we found out that Mrs. Stewart MARRIED Sequin and is expecting a baby that she will either name Samuel or Samantha after baby Sammy! In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work comparing and contrasting the paired Pokemon Go texts and finished up the day working on our opinion essays and Earth's Processes comics.

Musical day

Today was mostly changing into our costumes, walking to and from the gym, performing and doing it all again! In between, we practiced comparing fractions and worked on either our opinion essays or Earth's processes comic.

No BCD!

Ask your kiddo about No BCD! This is something that we are working on and is part of the R-factor. We totally understand E + R = O and "Press Pause" and get your mind right and above and below the line behaviors. So now, we are working with No BCD! as a Response. A lot of times, our first reaction is to Blame, Complain or Defend, when and Event happens. So, we are going to work to just stand up and own it. No BCD and leave your grumpy pants at home! :)

After discussing this at our morning meeting and creating a reminder poster, we practiced identifying if fractions are less than, greater than or equal to 1/2 and comparing fractions. Then, we really, really worked with trying to explain our thinking. We are stuck with drawing a picture/model to identify the larger fraction but then, need to USE the picture to help explain the reasoning behind it. We'll be taking an assessment on Tuesday to see if we need to continue our work with equivalent fractions and comparing/ordering fractions after break or if we can move on to adding and subtracting fractions. So, please help your kiddo to solidify their understanding with these skills at home. After Math Workshop, we had Gym, lunch and another indoor recess. It doesn't look promising to be outside this week... In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary made a friend! She finally understands the Delaware language enough to understand and have conversation with the Delaware members. She also talked Grandfather into taking her to check on Mrs. Stewart when they go to Sequin's to get more gun powder. We got a new StoryWorks for Reader's Workshop and read the paired text about Pokemon Go. I think this was the most excited about reading they've ever been! They also worked with some new vocabulary that is found in the article. If not finished with our opinion essay, we then worked on that but those that are finished, continued with Reader's Workshop, blogged or did some free-writing. We ended our day discussing the sandbox from yesterday and reviewing what we've learned about Earth's Processes and will be creating a comic strip showing what we know.

Crazy day!

Oh my goodness, what a crazy day! We were busy all day but weren't in the classroom working until 1:30 this afternoon! Our day began with "playing" in the Interactive Sandbox that I arranged through Ohio Farm Bureau to teach us about landforms, weathering, erosion and deposition. Then, we had our final musical rehearsal and then music, lunch and indoor recess. Since it was snowing and beautiful, I found some big white paper and had them make us some giant snowflakes during indoor recess. After recess, we went down to the 2nd grade community room and saw a Reader's Theater that was created by Mrs. Hughes' 3rd grade kiddos. When we finally arrived in our classroom, we read independently, continued our work with parts of speech and had some fun with Mad Libs while doing so. We then wrote thank you letters to Mr. Jordan from the Ohio Farm Bureau and some worked on their opinion essay. Finally, we ended the day trying to understand feelings with a little Zones of Regulation Bingo. It's so funny to see that they don't always truly understand a feeling until they are trying to win a game of Bingo! :) Some feelings that we discussed in further detail were: overwhelmed, annoyed vs. frustrated, sad vs. upset and uncomfortable.

Throwback Thursday

We had a pretty productive day even with a short morning because of music rehearsal. We started our day discussing things we've done this year that we enjoyed as well as things we've learned this year. Then, we lined ourselves up by birthday without talking for a little challenge this morning. It took them 10 minutes and yes, they were silent the entire team so it is possible! :) We only had a bit of time before rehearsal so we played another round of equivalent fraction land. It was indoor recess, thank goodness, because of the cold so we played board games and did a little GoNoodle for movement. In The Beaded Moccasins, they made it to Sequin's and did a little trading with him. He actually tried to trade 4 muskets for Mary! Grandfather did NOT allow that but he got an idea... Mary also had lied to Grandfather about being able to read and he found out her secret today which led us to discuss this idea about lying and if it is ever ok to lie. We then read independently and worked on dictionary skills, reading, padlet, blogging, word puzzles, etc. for Reader's Workshop and worked on our opinion essay in Writer's Workshop. Our day concluded working on weathering and erosion using our experiments and an online game, "Shape it up."

Short mornings

We had another short morning due to musical rehearsal--it's almost here, 1 week from tomorrow! So, after completing our morning work, i-time and our meeting, we didn't have much time for math workshop. We continued working with equivalent fractions by playing a game similar to Candy Land, Equivalent Fraction Land. After recess, in The Beaded Moccasins, the weather is turning warmer and the snow is beginning to melt, so Mary is headed to Sequin's (a French trading post) to "help do her part" and read the treaties and declarations for Grandfather, BUT, Mary can't read... After reading independently, we finished (hopefully) our Dictionary practice work and some blogged while I met with small guided reading groups. We continued writing our opinion essays and finished up our chart comparing Native Americans we've learned about so far. We even used Google Earth to see the Great Serpent Mound! (And we used what we've learned about weathering and erosion to describe why it is smaller now than in the picture in our books and why there is a path around the mound.)

Yuck.

The weather was icky and our behavior was blah. Some did fine but others did not. We began our day enjoying some donuts since we FINALLY had 1/2 of the class receiving 9 or 10/10 on our M4T Assessment on Friday. In our morning meeting, we shared the highs and lows of growing up and getting older. While we have more privileges, we also have more responsibility. Then, we played category challenge with "healthy snacks." The winner had 14 examples! After saying the pledge and writing our SMART goal for the day, we started Math Workshop with a vocabulary/word sort with fractions. Then, we used the fraction kits we made yesterday to play some games. Today was gym, lunch and indoor recess and then, in The Beaded Moccasins, we learned how the Delaware tan deerskins...ewww! It was a bit much for Mary. After reading independently and conferencing with me and setting December Book-it goals, we continued our work with dictionary skills. Today was difficult for them! They had to use alphabetical order to decide if words would come before, on or after a page in a dictionary given the guide words on the page. We transitioned into Writer's Workshop and continuing our work with our opinion essays and then ended the day looking at the similarities and differences of the Native Americans we've learned about.

Working on our independence

This week, we are working on our independence (responsibility and self-discipline)... at this time in the year, we should be much more independent than we are. We discussed having confidence that we KNOW what to do and should just do it. They do not need my approval every step of the way. We also discussed that I am hoping that they begin to develop an intrinsic motivation. They complete tasks when we were checking on their completing using task sheets. They did awesome on M4T last week because I checked each individual's work each day...so, why can't they ALWAYS do this well? It's kind of like cleaning your room. You are going to clean it better if you know mom or dad is going to check it. Help me out by periodically "checking" on things like task completion, accuracy and homework. It is very rare that I "assign" homework or something specific but if I do, it is because I am noticing a need... only 15 people completed their blog last week!
In Math Workshop, I gave some kiddos colored paper and a list of the finished product needs and sent them to work independently to create "fraction strips." The rest of us, worked together to fold and cut paper to create "fractions strips." (We had a musical rehearsal that we didn't know about :) so we ended up finishing these after recess.) Afterwards, we read independently and conferenced with me and set December Book-it goals. In Reader's Workshop, we practiced understanding how to use a Dictionary (one kiddo last week tried to use a Table of Contents with using a Dictionary...) but also how to understand a definition and everything involved with defining words-no matter if we use an app or Dictionary; while I met with smaller reading groups. Then, we continued working on our opinion essays in Writer's Workshop and finished up the day checking in on our Weathering experiments.

Rough day...

Deep breaths. In...Out... We began our day a little rough as we are in a dry spell when it comes to potato head pieces so we each said one word to describe what we would be responsible for to help us to earn some pieces. However, we didn't even get to the "game" or "fun" part of our meeting because we had too many side conversations or were talking over each other. We pressed pause and got our minds right and then went down to 2nd grade to watch one of their Reader's Theaters. Ta-woo! Ta-woo! (Just say it to your kids and see if they smile like I do!) Then, we got to work with fractions. We discussed and created equivalent fractions and shared different numbers of pizzas and candy bars among different numbers of students. We ended with an exit slip writing about the math and although they can make equivalent fractions with pattern blocks, they cannot yet transfer that understanding to decide if two fractions are equivalent. So, we'll continue with this work tomorrow. We had gym today and although it wasn't raining, spent recess indoors because of all the puddles and mud. Overall, our morning was ok. However, the afternoon was a struggle. During Read Aloud, we were all very tuned in to The Beaded Moccasins as we were reading a very pivotal and dramatic part. We also did well with our independent reading and many "cashed" in on their Book-it goals for a free pizza. Here's we things got rough. Reader's Workshop should be a time where students are reading and writing about their reading. This is an independent time so that I can meet with groups to better their reading abilities. They know this but continued and continued to talk and distract and stay off-task. So much so that even after they had more time and we didn't even get to Science, they still did not complete the work/task assigned. Needless to say, some will be working during recess time tomorrow since they chose to spend work time as recess... Hopefully, your kiddo was one of the ones that was able to complete their Reader's Workshop work and work on their opinion essay.
Our goals for tomorrow will be INDEPENDENCE and RESPONSIBILITY.

The Usual

Today was a mostly typical Wednesday. We completed our M4T, Ohio Dailies and i-time before meeting and discussing what we enjoy most about this time of year and our upcoming holiday party-which is going to look different this year, by the way (details will be coming). Musical Rehearsal was this morning at 10:15 so we only had a short time for math so we spent the time using pattern blocks to create equivalent fractions. After one of the few remaining "nice weather" outdoor recess days, we read about the strength the young Delaware Indian boys gain in The Beaded Moccasins and also looked into one of the lesser talked about characters, Mrs. Stewart, and completed a padlet answering some questions about her and her relationship with Mary. We read independently and then finished our work thinking critically about Dania, a character from our StoryWorks story, "Escape from War." In Writer's Workshop, we continued pre-writing for our opinion essay.

Back to reality

I was out sick yesterday :( but hopefully your kiddo filled you in on the day's happenings.

Today, now that we are back from our break, we are back to reality and got right to work! In Math Workshop, we began our understanding of fractions by first discussing what we already know and looking ahead to what we are going to be learning and setting a goal for this unit. We actually had a pretty big number of kiddos that did really well on the pre-test so some set goals for using models and/or number lines to justify their thinking. Then, we reviewed ways to represent fractions and started doing some problem solving with sharing pizzas among different numbers of students. *Students have homework due Thursday to find and model fractions of their family!* After lunch, we read more from The Beaded Moccasins, and identified similes the author uses to help us visualize the comparisons. Then, we read independently and quite a few visited the library (since our sub yesterday was supposed to be the library sub :)). My focus is going to be on guided reading this week so students need to work more independently, so they worked on thinking critically about the paired texts in StoryWorks while I met with a couple groups where we focused today, mostly, on reading closely and understanding the story so we can answer questions about the story. In Writer's Workshop, we picked topics and began our pre-writing for our opinion essays. Finally, our day concluded with Social Studies and learning more about the mound builders and how they are alike and different from the prehistoric indians and hunter-gatherers.

Short week

Sometimes, short weeks make for long days... It's hard to get them into committing to learning when they are excited about our Classgiving, Thanksgiving, road trips and only 2 days of school. It'll just take extra self-discipline and patience! 

Our morning began with a Thanksgiving Challenge. Did you know that only 18 women came on the journey to Plymouth on the Mayflower and only 5 made it?! This was a fact that I learned today through this challenge. Then, after our meeting, we continued the Thanksgiving theme by traveling around the room answering math problem solving questions. I also took this time to read one of my favorite non-fiction texts, All About Turkeys by Jim Arnosky. Today was Music, lunch and a brrr chilly recess! In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary continued her journey with the Delaware to the Cuyahoga River. She received a beautiful pair of beaded moccasins, leather leggings and a leather dress so now the only thing keeping her from looking like "them" is her blue eyes and brown/red hair... After reading, we answered a question about the mood of the chapter using padlet, read independently and visited the library. Next, we came together to do a Reader's Theater on "The First Thanksgiving." Many kiddos did not know this story, which surprised me! They struggled to pronounce Squanto and Plymouth...hopefully, now they understand and can tell you all about it! Sticking with opinion/persuasive writing, we decided to write from the perspective of the turkey...instead of eating turkey for Thanksgiving, we are trying to convince you to eat something different! Finally, our day concluded with working on our Science weathering experiments. 

TGIF!

I love Fridays! It seems like everything is a bit more relaxed and everyone is a bit more pleasant. I don't know, maybe it's just me that is more relaxed and pleasant which makes it seem like everyone else is too! :)

We completed our M4T assessment but still, only 9 students received a 9 or 10/10... some need more incentive to try harder because they aren't that challenging of problems and we do practice problems during the week. Oh, well, I'll keep working at it. Then, we completed a Lunar Landing MakerSpace challenge! We read, Moonshot and built a "module" that could withstand a landing on the moon and keep the astronauts (marshmallows) safe. We didn't have a ton of time left for Math Workshop but since we've had two weeks of problem-solving and basic operation (+, -, x, /) practice, I handed back their Unit 2 Assessments for them to "fix" or take a 2nd chance at. After special, lunch and recess, we read more from The Beaded Moccasins. Mary has now crossed into Ohio and decided to head to the Cuyahoga River to live. Then, for Reader's Workshop, we read independently, finished our math assessments, completed any work that we didn't have time to finish this week, blogged or visited the library. In Writer's Workshop, we continued to come up with ideas for opinion essays by creating a "box and bullet" for people, places, things and other ideas that we feel strongly about. We ended our day working on our science weathering experiments.

Thumbs up

We began our day with a thumbs up to each other. Then, in our meeting, we talked a little bit more about our Classgiving and decided to create a SignUp Genius to help organize our celebration. We had musical rehearsal also this morning so we didn't have much time to work with our problem-solving in Math Workshop but we did get a little practice in. In The Beaded Moccasins, there was a warning given to Mary and Mrs. Stewart to keep up and do their part. It's now been a couple of months and they are still traveling west, over the Appalachian Mountains. Mary has now discovered that she is to replace their "sachem"'s granddaughter that died. We read independently and wrote about our reading and then in Reader's Workshop, finished up our comprehension assessment of the StoryWorks story we've been working on. We began working on opinion writing creating "box and bullets" with our claims and reasons to convince our readers. We also wrote thesis statements. Finally, we prepared for our science weathering experiments by gathering materials-rocks.

STAR testing galore!

Three times this year-beginning, midway and end, we will be taking the STAR assessment. As I shared at the beginning of the year, this is just another piece of the puzzle of your child's understanding and strengths/weaknesses. Today, we took the 2nd round of these tests and after taking the Math portion this morning, I was happy because the majority (22/24) raised their score from the first round-which is all I asked, that they show they are growing in their learning! After looking at the Reading portion, about 1/2 of the class lowered their score from the first round. Hmmmm... Maybe we need to hit specific reading skills harder? I need to look closer at the listed strengths and weaknesses and see what we need to work on. It didn't help that some finished the 30+ question assessment in less than 15 minutes... Anyway, we still worked on building our math fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as problem-solving in Math Workshop this morning and this afternoon, in The Beaded Moccasins, found out that Mary has been kidnapped by Native Americans! We also read books in small groups and discovered the theme and gave specific textual evidence to support this theme. Then, in Writer's Workshop, we looked at the opinion writing rubric and compared 3rd grade to 4th grade and using this rubric, looked at their pre-assess opinion piece from yesterday and decide where they fell on this rubric-most are at the 3rd grade level (some lower), which is fine because you can't get better if you don't know where you are starting!

Task Completion!

Today began our week of task completion. Each student received a chart to record their tasks for the day. Once they completed the task, they initialed and then had me initial. They should have brought these home for your initials so that you can see what they have accomplished. Tomorrow, we'll be setting a goal and continuing to hold ourselves accountable for our tasks. 

After our M4T and Ohio Dailies, we shared how we can/will make the world better. Some shared recycling, upcycling/creating new out of old, being kind, standing up to bullying, etc. Then, we began talking about traditions and cultures and came to our idea of our Classgiving that I emailed about. In Math Workshop, we continued our work with problem solving but I took away some of the math struggles by giving a few practice sheets of addition and subtraction and then the problem solving task that involved addition and subtraction. We wrote in our planners, played GaGa in our new pit out on the playground and had lunch and recess. We began a new book in Read Aloud, The Beaded Moccasins: The Story of Mary Campbell. This is an historical fiction book about a young settler, Mary, that is kidnapped by Native Americans and will parallel with our study of the early people of Ohio in Social Studies. Then, after independent reading and writing about a lesson they learned from their independent reading book (which these were really good, actually!) we read, Chopsticks and discussed the theme. In Writer's Workshop, we wrote an opinion essay as a pre-assessment and concluded our day reading about the pre-historic people of Ohio. 

Grrr....

These kids are so intelligent and can do so many great things! I don't know why they just don't! It frustrates me...

Our day began very well with putting forth big effort on our M4T assessment. Hopefully, we'll have at least half of the class with 8 or 9/9 so we can finally get our surprise! Then, for our morning meeting and keeping with our problem-solving theme of the week, we completed a Pax Breakout EDU challenge! This was so cool and I'm sure something you kiddo will share with you. It was AWESOME! Our Math Workshop was more challenges and problem-solving with a CSI type of assignment. However, we didn't put much effort in before we left for Music, lunch and recess, so we worked on it after lunch. They put forth much more effort and some were even able to complete the task. Then, we read, completed some theme work with Reader's Workshop and finished our Mysteries of Harris Burdick story to end our day.

Thankful Thursday

We began our day with M4T, Ohio Dailies and sharing what we are thankful for this week. After i-time, in our morning meeting, we shared what comforts us when we don't feel good. Many shared blankies or stuffed animals, in addition to family, that makes them feel better when they aren't feeling well. I love that they can share this with us without feeling weird~I, too, shared that I have items that comfort me and that it's good to recognize these things so that they can help us get through tough stuff. Then, we played a few rounds of "Would you rather?" before getting started on Math. In Math Workshop, we began by finding a mystery number as a team of 4 using clues. Some were more challenging than others and we used a variety of strategies to complete these. Then, we worked on our Minecraft challenge. They worked really hard on this! We had art, lunch and recess and then finished, Nightmare at the Book Fair. They clapped! We also discussed the theme of the book and some characteristics of the author's craft. In Reader's Workshop, we read independently and finished our Guinness World Record comprehension work and in Writer's Workshop, continued working on our Mysteries of Harris Burdick stories that we began yesterday. 

Crazy-hectic...

Today was a tough day for me. It was one of those days where everything seems to go wrong and the hits just keep on coming (Adison has been going through something with her abdomen and has had blood work and an ultrasound but still nothing and today was bad for her and I couldn't get a sub and I got my 2nd of 3 knee injections last night so could barely walk, late to a meeting, computer and projector still not fixed, technology issues, etc., etc., etc.). Anyway, I was having a tough time keeping my emotions in the green zone and above the line but I am an open book and shared my feelings and the kiddos rallied around me and helped me to get green and showed me my purpose and allowed me to be human and know that everything will be ok. It was about this time that a sub showed up for me and the doctor called me back and I just took a breath and smiled. Sometimes, it just takes a little perspective.

We started our day working on our M4T and Ohio Dailies. They enjoyed the fun morning question for "What Would You Do Wednesday?" and explained what they would do if they were only 6 inches tall. In our meeting, we shared something-anything we want to learn. Sign language, how to build a robot, a different language, a "spider" or basketball trick, and many more things were shared. Then, we did some fun problem-solving by playing "Who am I?" where we had disney characters taped to our backs and had to ask yes/no questions to figure out who we were. First of all, these kids need to see some of the oldies!! (Bambi, Pinnochio, Lady and the Tramp...) Anyway, it was a hoot! In Math, after working out 30 minutes of technological issues, we completed some problem-solving about sugar content in our drinks. Students spent a little too much time chatting so I asked them to work for just a little bit longer at home tonight before submitting. After we got cleaned up and wrote in our planners, we headed to gym. Mr. Burkhart said that we had a great gym class and earned our first, new potato head piece! Hopefully, the afternoon went well. You'll have to ask them if they enjoyed the Guinness World Record Reading work about seahorses and mysterious books I had for them for the afternoon.

Gorgeous!

Today was absolutely gorgeous-in lots of ways! We earned our final potato head piece on Friday afternoon and did such a wonderful job at the assembly, that we voted on our celebration and decided since Extra Recess overwhelmingly won, we'd celebrate today!

We began our day with really taking our time and putting forth more effort into our M4T. Instead of just completing the problems and closing our books, we reviewed our answers and took time to solve the problems-not just complete them. Last Friday, only 7/25 kiddos scored 9 or 10/10... our goal was at least 1/2 the class. We'll try again this week. Then, in meeting, we shared our motivations for our morning question for Motivation Monday and shared about our weekend before playing Coseeki, saying the Pledge and writing our SMART goal. We began Math Workshop with a Kahoot! survey about problem-solving. (They absolutely LOVED Kahoot! so you might see them creating their own at home!) Next, we individually solved some math problems (the math content wasn't too tough) and discussed HOW we solved the problems. This led us to identifying the problem-solving strategies we already use. We even got bookmarks with the strategies on them to remind us. We'll be working all week with problem-solving in Math and other areas so hopefully, you'll hear about some cool problems they encountered. Midday consisted of Music, lunch and recess and then after we returned, we continued with the animal fiction chapter of Nightmare at the Book Fair and even began the next Fantasy chapter with Trip's "wise and mysterious sage" named, Hockaloogie! We then, read independently and in our Reader's Notebook, identified and described/wrote about the author's craft. It's one thing to read a book as a reader but you find all sorts of other information when reading a book as a writer! Finally, we enjoyed seeing our siblings in the 2nd grade culture performance and then played hard for our celebration of extra recess. Oh, and we ended our great afternoon with a little GoNoodle! :)

Productive

This morning was so productive! I feel, as do the kiddos, that we made some big gains in understanding multiplication, division, factors and multiples! It helps that we only had 18 students but still... :) In our morning meeting, we shared some of our favorite things that make our room special to help Hayden get more familiar with us. Some of the things shared were: warm fuzzies, Mr. Potato Head, games, special seating, morning question... It's not all about the academics~sometimes it's the little things! Then, we played "Just Like Me!" to help him find some others that he may have things in common with. After saying the Pledge of Allegiance and writing our SMART goal, we got to work on math. We did some whole group practice and then worked on our own. Has your kiddo: 1. already taken their test? 2. will be taking it tomorrow? 3. testing on Friday? They have review sheets in their binder to practice with! It was a lovely music, lunch and recess and then, in Read Aloud, we caught back up with Nightmare at the Book Fair! We had left off with Trip in space...?! He is trapped in a historical fiction chapter with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin! Today, he walked on the moon! So much better than dealing with Professor Psycho in Horror, getting pushed out of an airplane in Adventure or accused of killing his principal in Mystery! :) I introduced some new digital literacy resources and after reading independently, wrote reading letters to a friend. In Reader's Workshop, we re-read The Ghost of Specter Elementary, watched an interview with the author and looked at how one of the characters changed over the course of the story, added to our online Canvas digital literacy discussion and transitioned right into Writer's Workshop where Miss Hanlin came in and we worked on completing our personal narratives and conferencing about our writing. Miss Hanlin teaches the Focus class for our gifted program and we will be doing some team teaching on some afternoons. Our day ended with continuing to predict and design experiments to test our predictions in Science.

Not a good report

I came in this morning, to a mess of a room and a not great report from the sub. She is hoping that it was more that they were chatty and just excited for trick-or-treat. Today was ok but they all came in for 5 minutes of their recess because after the messy room and bad report, today was a "No Warning" day and they refused to "Show me 5" or show me the 5 ways of active listening. So, since they chose to talk during work time, they spent 5 minutes of their recess quiet. The afternoon was ok-not great though. We've changed our seating and will be switching things up again tomorrow. Our class rule is "Everyone shall be safe and able to learn." When we are talking, talking, talking, we aren't able to learn. So, there may be some more individual behavior reflections coming home. We all know what to do but are very passionate and impulsive and friendly people and while those aren't bad traits to have, there is a time and place for everything. Tomorrow, we'll have some "No Talking" and "Volume of our Voice" signs that will allow us some visual reminders for these appropriate times and places. Hopefully, I'll have a better report for you for tomorrow! :) Living as a community of different people and learners is a work in progress! Just as we consistently work in our family and household to make things great, we do this in our classroom community as well.

After our morning procedures and morning meeting where we shared our favorite candy and played "Laughing Bandana," we got started on our Math Workshop. Students are busy, busy practicing, reviewing and applying multiplication and division this week to prepare for our unit 2 assessment. Some have already taken it, some have started and others will be assessing over the next few days. Please help your kiddo remember to practice at home too! After math, lunch, (5 minutes of quiet time in the room) and recess, we had read aloud. Yesterday, the substitute read two picture books and today, I showed them how Digital Literacy can enhance our reading and understanding by viewing Emily Arrow, someone that puts literature to music. We also looked at reading ebooks that our district owns through Follett Shelf and some were able to take this opportunity to find some things to read. We transitioned into writing and while some are completely finished and published, others are still at the beginning stages of this personal narrative that we began weeks ago! We need to write more! We can't grow as writers unless we write! In Science, we grouped up and began working on predicting/hypothesizing and designing experiments to test our ideas about weathering.

Mindset

Our morning question got our kiddos into a positive mindset today with starting the day with a growth mindset. Instead of saying, "This is too hard." what did your child say? After they completed their M4T, they did a little fun activity titled, "What should your teacher be for Halloween?" They said: kitty, teacher, mad scientist (because I already have the hair), purple crayon, clown... They didn't get nearly as fun as I thought but fun nonetheless! In our morning meeting, we shared what we'll be or was for Halloween. Hopefully too much sugar won't be consumed this evening! Don't forget to help support our candy buy back program for the troops, too! In Math Workshop, we worked on reviewing and applying and practicing our multiplication and division. A few even began taking their assessment. We had gym, lunch and recess and while I went to get an injection in my knee, the students had a substitute. They read Be a Friend and The Curious Garden in Read Aloud, and started working with a new fiction story in StoryWorks called, The Ghost of Specter Elementary, for Reader's Workshop. In Writer's Workshop, they wrote a short story about Halloween from the perspective of a piece of candy and finished the day completing (hopefully) their landform, weathering and erosion work.

Music 1, music 2 and music 3?!

Yes, we had 3 different music classes today! First, we had the Musical Rehearsal with all of 4th grade and then had our C-day regular music class and then ended our day with meeting with our 5th grade music buddies! Also, we have MakerSpace this afternoon and a visit from a new student that will be starting next week.

In between all of the "extras," we completed our M4T test and if more than 1/2 of the class gets 9 or 10/10, they'll be rewarded with a surprise Monday morning. We also worked on our resort projects and signed up for when we feel we will be ready next week to test over this unit.

Friendship and compliments

Honesty, kindness and humor were 3 things we feel are characteristics that make a good friend. In meeting, we each gave and received a compliment which made us all feel warm and fuzzy to begin our day. We had an assembly about how we can support our troops for this upcoming Veterans Day that was sandwiched into our Math Workshop but we did work on building our resorts in math. Luckily, it ended up being outdoor recess and we finished Pax when we returned! We were left feeling a little "meh" as we understood the ending and agree with all of the choices but it wasn't the happily ever after we always enjoy. It helped to discuss what we think happened next. Since we spent extra time reading aloud in order to finish our book, we spent the remaining time just reading independently or finishing our historical fiction picture book work from yesterday. We took a good 40 minutes in Writer's Workshop today to write, revise and edit our narratives. We are still struggling with our writing conventions (paragraphs, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.) so we will keep at it! We finished up our day working on our landform, erosion, weathering stations.

(Insert surprised face emoji)

This morning, our question was for Text Tuesday: What would your emoji look like?
             

 

We had a welcomed surprise with Antwan back! What they thought was going to be a move, turned out to just be a small vacation, I guess! :) In our morning meeting, we shared one word that described how we felt. There were a lot of tired's... Then, we discussed any questions or comments they had about the homework-since it was a little different than usual. We played category challenge with kinds of candy and then said the Pledge and wrote our daily SMART goal before moving into Math Workshop. Today, we completed Exemplars which is a real world problem that allows us to APPLY our understanding of prime/composite, factors and multiples, multiplication and division. Instead of pulling small groups, I did 4 mini lessons and wanted everyone that needed the instruction to pay attention, for 3-and 4-digit by 1-digit multiplication, 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication, division without remainders and division with remainders with interpreting what to do with the remainder. *Most students chose to watch/participate in all of the mini lessons whether they needed it or not! :) Today was Music, lunch and recess and then in Pax, Peter got started on his journey to find Pax, finally, and realized that he was very sad to leave Vola behind. Meanwhile, Bristle taught Pax to hunt and he got his first prey! We read independently and I checked in and conferenced with some about their independent books and they then wrote what/how their book would be different if the setting was different. In Reader's Workshop, we read The Great Escape about an octopus and wrote a detailed paragraph about it with main idea and supporting details. We transitioned right into Writer's Workshop, independently and continued writing our narratives. In Science/Social Studies, we began learning about weathering and erosion and the creation of landforms.

*Sigh*

Our day was mostly typical. There isn't anything that sticks out as being overly anything. We had Guidance this morning with Mrs. Vidic and discussed honesty and being trustworthy. After Guidance, we had about 30 minutes left for Math Workshop, so we played two different games-one using multiplication and one using division. After Art, lunch and recess, we continued reading Pax and learned the conditions of Vola allowing/helping Peter to find Pax. We also learned that Runt is most likely going to be ok, even with only 3 legs! We read independently and then identified the setting of our independent book (since we've been discussing setting with StoryWorks. Then, in Reader's Workshop, we continued working with "When Girls Ruled Baseball" and identified why this story is historical fiction...which actually turns out to not be so different...?? Then, we moved on to Writer's Workshop. We are really struggling with writing. Even after taking an entire week to complete a shared writing showing the writing process, we struggled this week going forward and drafting after brainstorming. We'll keep working on it but some may have brought their Writer's Notebook home to get caught up. Please help them to remember to organize their big ideas into paragraphs. Finally, our day concluded making a landforms tutorial to help us better understand the different landforms.

Things we should say more

Thank you! I'm sorry. Are you ok? These are just some of the things that we think people should say more!

We had a weird day. It was like our Friday even though it's only Thursday. After working on our M4T test, we went to the gym for a Fire Safety Assembly. We watched a video that taught us about radiation, convection and conduction as well as what to do if there's a fire in our house. We talked about reasons to call 9-1-1, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and a meeting spot for our family outside of our house. Take a few minutes to chat with your kid about what they learned today! Then, we came back to the room and finished up our morning procedures and worked on our math tasks. We had gym, lunch and indoor recess and then, after reading some from Pax, we went back to the gym for an assembly put on by Mrs. Root's 4/5 Music Enrichment Groups. After, we split up and read over When Girls Ruled Baseball (which, by the way, Miren thinks should be updated to "Girls Rule Baseball") and worked with understanding the setting of this historical fiction story. Finally, we hopefully, completed our timelines and continued working on our personal narratives.

Parent Teacher Conferences

I've got the remaining 10 conferences tonight so I'm going to try and get this in before they begin. (Didn't make it...oops!)

Our morning was filled and productive and wonderful. We started by discussing some posters/motivational items I found. One was called "Own your learning!" which I shared with them that I wanted them to begin doing each time they complete a task. I also read them the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson and we shared the "10 Ways to be a Great Student!" checklist as well.
                   

Finally, we made a chart describing things we might do that can be considered "Bothering" and things that are "Being a friend." If students are bothering us, these are most likely things that can be handled ourselves which led us to our Reporting vs. Tattling chart. I know, you wouldn't think I'd need to do this in 4th grade but...

We ended our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and a few rounds of "Would you rather?" In Math Workshop, we continued our work with the tasks listed on our differentiation dice and I was able to pull a few small groups to teach 3-digit by 1-digit multiplication using partial products and 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication using the area model. Very productive morning! In Pax, we learned a little bit about unintended consequences when Runt followed Bristle and ended up getting caught in an explosion! We practiced our fluency by reading aloud, When Girls Ruled Baseball together. We had some extended independent reading time while kiddos that brought money went to purchase books at the book fair and then worked on finishing our timelines and writing our personal narratives.

Two for Tuesday!

I had conferences until after 6:00 last night so I'll blog about yesterday and today! Yesterday was a typical day-nothing out of the ordinary. We discussed what made our weekend magnificent and shared our playground structures in our morning meeting and then got to work on our differentiation dice tasks for Math Workshop. We continued with Pax and got a new StoryWorks in Reader's Workshop. We are reading the drama, "When Girls Ruled Baseball." We'll be discussing setting and historical fiction and I think we'll even be acting this one out! Then, in Writer's Workshop, we began pre-writing or brainstorming for our personal narratives inspired by an event from our timeline. Finally, we got to work on our timelines! :)

Today, we had an out-of-the-ordinary morning. We began with a K'Nex challenge of building a bridge that spans 1 or 2 meters without support. They LOVED this! Then, we only had a small amount of time to work on our math because I had them complete a quick assessment to see where they are and too many (9!) missed the subtraction problem... even ones that were secure with subtraction before! So, this is something that can be practiced at home. I can put up some links in Canvas to subtraction practice. We also went to the book fair to preview and create a wish list. Some took pictures with their device and others wrote down titles and prices. If you'd like, you can send them with money tomorrow to purchase. The book fair will also be open tomorrow evening and then again during the school day on Thursday to purchase too. In Pax, we did some big thinking today. Although we still think Vola is a little crazy, she is also pretty wise! We read independently and then wrote about the setting of our book including textual evidence. Since this new story in StoryWorks is a little lengthy, we took another day to read it and complete the vocabulary and watch the video that accompany it. In Writer's Workshop, we continued brainstorming and organizing our pre-writing. Finally, we completed our day working on our timelines.

Futuristic

Today was "Futuristic Friday: How will you affect our future?" Check out Twitter and Facebook for pictures of some of their replies! We had a good day today. We didn't do so well on our M4T test, however, and need to put a little more effort into it. Maybe an incentive next week will help... In Math Workshop, we finished up our amusement park problems and then used something new-differentiation dice! It might not sound cool but we enjoyed them! Each student was placed in a color group based on how they did on a quick assessment. I created tasks based on their needs and then put them in a colored die. The students roll their colored die and complete the task rolled. I was also able to go around and specifically help and teach as they were working. In a 30-minute period, I taught one kiddo the traditional method of long division, 3 or 4 the partial quotients method for division, 1 student multiplication of 2-digit by 2-digit using an area model, helped some with making arrays of multiplication problems and other stuff too! In Pax, Pax and Gray set off on their quest to find Peter and encountered a fight with a territorial fox where Pax realized that he can really hold his own! We then, spent the majority of Reader's Workshop completing our infographics...quite a few (more than 10) need to complete this over the weekend. We also read and visited the library and in Writer's Workshop, finished "publishing" our shared writing about our school day. Our day ended with a lot of groaning, complaining and some tears because our MakerSpace challenge wasn't as easy as other challenges may have been... I think the struggle is good for them! I can't wait to discuss on Monday!

Ups and downs

Today we had our share of ups and downs. Our morning was good but it seems that our afternoon began to fall apart. We started our day working on our morning procedures and since we were working so well and seemed a bit stressed out the day before, I extended i-time with a condition-they could only work on certain things. This made them feel relieved! After getting a bit caught up, we completed a Number Talk/Number String and then I told them another story that happened in the teacher's lounge but this time, it was about an amusement park and they had to split the 100 students into 13 groups because that's how many chaperones we had. Then, they needed to get the groups tickets and finally, the teachers decided they wanted to ride too, so we needed to get more tickets! We worked really well and ended up earning a potato head piece! This afternoon, we read that Pax finally ate, thanks to Runt finding him some eggs! And Peter is on his way to healing his broken foot and building strength in his upper body to make the journey to find Pax. He's also learning some life lessons from Vola. Today, we discussed the "costs" of war that Pax, Peter, Vola and Peter's dad had paid. In Reader's Workshop, we read independently, completed our dream bookshelf and continued working on our Infographic. Then, in Writer's Workshop, we got into our groups and continued revising and editing our shared writing. Finally, we practiced differentiating between primary and secondary sources and worked on our timelines of our lives.

Wise Words

"When everything feels like an uphill struggle, just think about the view from the top." This was a quote that we began our day with. Students read the quote and wrote their interpretation. Most figured out to not give up but I reminded them that the 'view from the top' part was just important because it is our motivation to keep on going.

So many more students read our morning message...almost everyone came out and gave me a little wink! ;) In our morning meeting, I wanted to see if yesterday's discovery was a fluke so my question was, again, what did you have for dinner? This time, we were all over the place! However, a large handful had some type of pasta-spaghetti, lasagna, beefaroni or goulash. We then, revisited our rock gardens that we created the first week of school and made it a true garden by adding embellishments with signs and encouragement. (I already tweeted pics but I'll put more up on Facebook tonight.) Math Workshop had good intentions but was kind of a bust-it happens! We started off with a pretty solid Number Talk/Number String but then, I think I may have zoomed a little too far ahead. I tried to get them to model-using arrays-what we've been doing with our vending machine problems. They weren't quite there yet. So, they made arrays and practiced the math-they just didn't make the connections that I had wanted them to make. I'm sure in a few days, it'll finally click and they'll say, "OH! That's what we were doing/supposed to do the other day!" In gym today, they did pacers and Mr. B was happy that no one vomited!! (I guess it's happened before.) In Pax, we learned some more about Vola and how she lost her leg and inferred why we think she has such a connection to Peter. She also gave us some wise words to think about with a couple more quotes: "...I am exactly where I should be, doing exactly what I should be doing. That is peace." and in talking about her "companion" raccoon, Francois, Peter asked if he was wild or tame and after their discussion, Peter decided to sit out on the porch so Vola said, "You staying out here on the porch? What do you suppose that makes you? Wild or tame?" This quote also made us think. We read independently and then continued working on research, main idea and supporting details with our Infographic creations. Instead of Writer's Workshop, since some were feeling a little overwhelmed with the Infographic, I extended our Reader's Workshop time and then we ended our day playing with/discovering/investigating Ozobots from our MakerSpace! Fun!! (Pictures were tweeted and I'll put those on Facebook too!)

Power of TEAM

Together Everyone Achieves More! Today, we tried to focus on being a team, especially when it comes to our goal of "Quick and quiet transitions." We were more successful than yesterday but still didn't earn any potato head pieces. Every morning, I put up a text message to the students as a greeting and message to begin their day. I've noticed that we weren't all beginning our day "Ready to Learn," so I put a secret message in our text this morning and only 3 kids did the secret task. So, only 3 students read my message!! So, I think because we are such good people and learned our procedures so quickly, we-me too-took too much for granted and just moved on too fast. Now, we are doing a little backtracking. It'll take a little time but we'll get there! We all pressed pause a bit today and got our minds right!

After our morning procedures, in meeting, we shared what we all ate last night and the majority of us ate chicken! It was pretty funny! Then, we read, What Do You Do With an Idea? by the same author as What Do You Do With a Problem? We learned that we should never give up on our ideas! They can hatch and become something amazing! After saying the Pledge and getting ourselves ready for math, we completed a Number Talk/Number String and realized that these big multiplication and division problems are not really that bad if we start with what we know. They solved 43 x 7 MENTALLY! :) Then, we continued with our vending machine math that we began yesterday but with different numbers. It was much easier today. We had music today and students brought home--or should have brought home--a paper about the upcoming musical. In Pax, we learned a little more about Bristle and why she believes that all humans are dangerous. We also found that not even a broken foot is going to keep Peter from reaching Pax and so he's now asked Vola for help. While reading independently today, we made sure to pay attention to what the main idea was and wrote that on a post-it. Then, we continued researching and creating our own Infographic. Columbus State bloggers also blogged if they hadn't already. We decided that for most of us, writing is our biggest weakness. We had a lot of difficulty writing a paragraph... Today, we finished writing our paragraph and then together, revised our main ideas/topic sentences. I think we did a bit better. This took sooooo long, that we only had a few minutes to work on our timelines and creating a list of primary sources for our research on ourselves.

Make your mama proud!

That was our question this morning. Ask your kiddo how they said they would make you (us) proud today. Did they? We had a very rough day with talking, which we've actually had quite a few of these lately...Mrs. Bowers even came down after special and said that some are losing some of their free choice time because they will not get quiet during Art so that they can get their work done. We even began the day with assigned seats so that we could try to set ourselves up for success. I know they can do it! Shhhhh!

After completing our M4T, Ohio Dailies and morning question, we shared highlights from our weekend and played category challenge in our meeting. Today, in Math Workshop, I told a story about the vending machines in our teacher's lounge and they had to figure some things out about them. Then, we did a gallery walk and looked at everyone's math thinking and discussed our answers and how we solved them. We may have divided but it seems that we all used multiplication. We started with what we know and the problem didn't seem as tough! In Pax, we were introduced to a new character, a human one, Vola. Peter crashed at her barn for the night after breaking his foot and although she's very "eclectic," she fixed him up and sent him on his way. We don't think this is the last we hear of her, though. We read silently while our CSCC bloggers got logged in to Kidblog and set up with blogging about the book they are reading. In Reader's Workshop, we used what we've learned about Main Idea and Supporting Details to research and make our own Infographic! We continued our conversation about Main Idea into Writer's Workshop where we are writing a narrative about our school day. Together, we brainstormed and then got into groups to take these ideas and make them paragraphs-where the topic sentence is the main idea and the other sentences are the supporting details. We'all put these all together to create a Shared Writing Narrative. In Social Studies, we learned about primary and secondary sources so that we can create timelines of our lives. We'll also be writing a narrative to go along with this.

Fabulous!

What did your child say they'd do with one million dollars?! After our M4T test and watching our first news, we completed the MakerSpace Lego challenge!! It was so much fun and I loved seeing their creativity and collaboration and really, just them being kids! In Math Workshop, we completed some Exemplars-real world problems. After gym, lunch and recess, in Pax, we added to our padlet while reading today. We gained some more insight into Peter and Pax and their connection to each other. We then, continued our work with main idea and supporting details with the debate in StoryWorks. We also finished setting our October Book-it! goals and creating our dream bookshelves. Brainstorm, rebut and taboo are a few of the words that we added to our bank of vocabulary today in Writing and we continued trying to finish up our balance inquiry project in Science. 

All the feels!

Our day began by picking a student's name out of a bag and writing something kind about that person, for Thoughtful Thursday, after completing our morning procedures. In our morning meeting, we shared these kinds words and also shared how good and happy it made us feel to receive these thoughts but also to give them to others. In Math Workshop, we did a lot of modeling with multiplication. Some showed basic multiplication facts using number lines and arrays while others modeled how to multiply multi-digit numbers. In Music, we practiced for auditions for the musical-which are tonight! At recess, most of us played Soccer or Football and others played creatively with friends. In Pax, Pax found some new friends, Bristle and Runt. I wonder if these new friends are going to keep Pax from wanting to go back with Peter, if Peter makes it back to him. During independent reading and conferences today, we set goals for Book-it! Book-it! is a program through Pizza Hut which rewards students for reading and achieving their goals. What is your child's goal for October? In Reader's Workshop we kept building our dream bookshelves and continued our focus of main idea and supporting details by reading the debate in StoryWorks and identifying the main points. In Science, we finished up our balance inquiry projects while some took the post test and challenged themselves to think about lemonade a little differently. :)

Small class...

I am conflicted with our Wednesdays...on one hand, I like that we have such a small class and can get our work completed quickly but on the other hand, I feel incomplete! We started our day with M4T and i-time. Afterwards, in meeting, we shared what we wrote for Wild Wednesday and then read, What Do You Do With a Problem? This was not only an amazing book but also had a really great message. Ask your kiddo what they learned from reading it. We set goals and then in Math Workshop, we worked on multiplication facts by making fortune tellers and some met with me to solidify their understanding of rounding and some to practice subtraction using the traditional algorithm of regrouping. There's some debate about what we did in Art...some say they finished their pots while others said they answered questions about the Olympics... I don't know! We continued to read Pax, our Global Read Aloud book, during read aloud today. This book is tough and really pulls at my heart! In Reader's Workshop, we continued our focus on main idea and supporting details with the Infographic in StoryWorks, reading independently and creating our dream bookshelf. Excited, full of joy, glee, cheerful, delight, glad awesome...are just a few synonyms for happy and we learned even more vocabulary today. See if your kiddo knows any of these words: eerie, unfurl, thaw, vast, garment. One group is finished but the other groups kept working on their balance inquiry in Science. **These might be coming home with some individuals if they cannot get their focus on this during group work.

Tasty Tuesday

Our day was very out-of-the-ordinary... We quickly completed our morning procedures, M4T and answered our question of the day--what is your favorite food? Then, Mrs. Bargar, our technology teacher, came in to teach us how to use Explain Everything. This app does it all! They did so well that she just kept teaching...2 hours later, it was time for special. As usual, they got all sweaty and gross at gym and then again, after lunch, during recess. (**I took a lot of pictures at lunch, since I forgot yesterday, that I'll put on Facebook tonight. :) ) After we came in from recess, we went down to the media center where Mrs. Dornburgh taught us about Historical Fiction to help us with our "book" challenges. Once we returned to the room, we got caught up on some things (math test, writing small moment story...) visited the library, blogged on Kidblog, read independently or perused Explain Everything. Finally, we ended our day working on our balance inquiry projects.

Our day in pictures

Check in for lunch.

 It's Monday, sign up for a new job!

 Here's our morning message.

 Find a seat that sets you up for success!

 Complete your M4T.

Something new!! Today was Musical             

                                                              Monday!

 I-time...these kiddos are playing ST Math.

 Morning meeting where we shared our                                                Mouse House designs from MakerSpace on Friday.

 

   Math Workshop.

 Special: Music

Lunch and Recess (forgot to get pictures...oops!)

 Started our Global Read Aloud today-Pax. 

Reader's Workshop (forgot to get pictures of them reading, but I promise, we read!)

  Writer's Workshop. Synonym practice.

Ended our day with Science-balance inquiry project. 

TGIF (written on Sunday-oops!)

Well, we had another A-mazing day! We spent the first part of the morning cleaning and organizing... after completing our M4T test (with very few 10/10's I must say), we organized our table tubs of supplies, book boxes, common spaces, etc. around the room. I spend too much time at the end of the day doing this so we all worked together to get it done today. In Math Workshop, we all worked on what we needed. Some kept practicing subtraction using regrouping, (we've got addition), while others worked on factors and prime/composite numbers and some took their 1.2 Addition/Subtraction test. After music, lunch and indoor recess, we read the intermission in Nightmare at the Book Fair which was a look at a reference material. Then, we finished up some things for Literacy Workshop by completing our close-reading questions about the non-fiction text in StoryWorks, completing our Sandwich Book Reviews and publishing our small moment stories. Our day ended with creating a Mouse House for our first ever MakerSpace challenge!! So much fun and creativity! I wish we could do this for every subject and in all areas of our learning! (I'm working on seeing how I can make this happen...)

Money, money, money!

Well, we had an AWESOME day today, especially during our morning meeting. I was SO proud of our kids! Part of R-factor is to "Stand up and own it." So, we did just that. Almost every kid shared what they did in their behavior that was not so great yesterday with the sub. I mean, they really reflected and owned it! For example, one student said, "I was being bossy," and another said, "I was talking over the teacher." Wow. So, we left the past in the past and moved on. Each student received $0.18 (fake money) for the day. Their goal was to keep all of their money. At the end of the day, they'd be able to spend their money on treats and prizes. We used the behaviors they owned as below the line from yesterday and created a $ amount for each behavior that they would lose if they did that behavior. Here's what they decided:

How much did your kiddo end the day with? What did they earn as a reward? 

In Math Workshop, we continued adding and subtracting using the traditional methods-regrouping. Some students feel they are ready to test on this tomorrow. Others needs some more practice. Try it out with your child tonight to see if you agree.

Others, that had been working with multiplication and division, started working with factors and prime and composite numbers. This afternoon, we continued working on our Sandwich Book Review and close-reading questions, writing our small moment story and finishing up our balance inquiry project. 

Substitute Days

Well, I'm not sure about yesterday, but today, I could hear the volume of voices from our classroom-I was assessing out in the hall-when we shouldn't have even been talking... Mrs. Bowers (not Art Mrs. Bowers, substitute Mrs. Bowers) said that in reflecting at the end of the day, students shared that they were louder and talked more than usual-when I am there. I think they talk a lot when I'm there!! So, we are going to try something tomorrow. I am going to give each kiddo a certain amount of fake $ (coins but not sure how much yet) and they need to try and keep as much money as possible for the end of the day, when they'll be able to purchase treats. As the day goes on, if they talk when they aren't supposed to, talk over each other or use a volume louder than they should, they will need to give me a coin. I'm hoping that by pointing these behaviors out, they might realize what they are doing and we can curb this over-talking and loud volume. Then, maybe we can start earning potato head pieces again!

Anyway, in Math Workshop, students continued working where they left off: addition and subtraction using the most efficient way possible-traditional algorithm or multiplying and dividing. In Read Aloud, they read Wolf! a book about enjoying reading and today a wordless book, Flotsam, about focusing on the details and perspective. They continued writing their Sandwich book review and paying attention to details in the non-fiction story about the Hindenburg in StoryWorks for Reader's Workshop and continued with the Writing Process with our small moment story in Writer's Workshop. Some kept revising and editing while others began publishing. Yesterday, students continued working with timelines by reading a book, Miss Rumphius, which talks about the timeline of her life and today, students worked on their balance inquiry projects for Science.

Specifics

We started our day like usual, with picking a seat that sets us up for success and getting ourselves Ready to Learn. These are things they hear me say and read in our morning message daily. Unfortunately, they aren't truly and actively listening to these words. So, when it was time to write our daily SMART goal, we made sure to be specific with our goal. For example, if someone wrote a goal to "Press Pause," I asked them to add more like when. Or if they said, "Stay Focused," they needed to put more information for how or why or when. This made things run a little smoother today. We are still chatting too much but we are doing better. Mrs. Vidic came in for our first Guidance lesson today where she introduced us to Zones of Regulation. We then related these "Zones" or colors that represent different emotions to which are Above and Below the Line. We discovered that Red emotions are typically Below the Line and Green emotions are Above the Line but Yellow and Blue kind of straddle the line and these emotions are where we need to "Press Pause" and get our mind right to determine if we end up Above or Below the Line. Math Workshop was chaotic for me but really good for the kiddos because I truly feel they are getting what they each need right now. Some took their test, others used base-10 blocks to learn the traditional algorithms for addition and subtraction (ask them about my friends: Juan, Tim, Henry and Thad...), some used what they learned last week about these more efficient methods to practice adding and subtracting and some worked with multiplication and comparisons. We were grooving so great that we were almost late to special! Mr. B said that gym was good and after lunch, we had our first indoor recess of the year-wow! Other than the room being messy, they did great. After writing in our planners, since we ran out of time before special, we finished up the Humor section in Nightmare at the Book Fair and learned some figurative language like hyperbole (exaggeration), idioms (raining cats and dogs) and alliteration (Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers). After reading independently, visiting the library and conferencing with me about their books, we discussed what a book review is and will be creating book review sandwiches this week. Today, they decided the book they will be reviewing. They also worked some more on answering close-reading questions (proving their answers and taking closer looks into the text to justify their response) about the StoryWorks story we've been reading. Next, in Writer's Workshop, we revised-made it sound better-our small moments narratives. Some shared that they switched out worn out words with more delicious words, some added more detail, some reworked the lead or title... At the end of writing, we created a writing timeline for the week which jumpstarted our look into understanding and reading timelines. They enjoyed practicing reading timelines with information about video games and animation. They even did a little research to add to the timeline. Way to extend your thinking!

Finally!

It's been a long week but we made it to Friday! We began our day with our M4T assessment and Ohio Dailies, followed by i-time. Then, in our morning meeting, we shared a goal we had for the weekend and played a few "Would you rather?" scenarios. They love these! Then, in our controlled chaos, AKA Math Workshop, we post-tested, pre-tested, practiced, reviewed, played games, enjoyed free math, etc. After math, we went to Music and then lunch and recess. After recess, we finished up the Science-Fiction chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair and then began the chapter on Humor with Captain Obvious! After some independent reading/library/conference time, we listened to Lauren Tarshis read us "The Flaming Sky" from StoryWorks, while we followed along. Lauren Tarshis is the editor of StoryWorks but also the author of the I Survived... books. We also watched a little "Behind the Scenes" video about the Hindeneburg and zeppelins. Next, they began re-reading to find and write more specific information. In Writer's Workshop, we finished writing our small moments story and some of us had a little time to make cards for Ava who is out with pneumonia AND today is her birthday! :( We ended our day working on our balances in Science and making discoveries that relate to math!

Picture Day! :)

Our day started like all other days-we completed our morning procedures and got ourselves Ready to Learn. After i-Time, we greeted our friends and met for morning meeting. In meeting, we shared our favorite season and why it's our favorite (since today is the first day of fall) and played a new game-category challenge. We said the Pledge of Allegiance and then braced ourselves for a very differentiated Math Workshop. Some students took our first unit test as well as the pre-test for the next unit while others worked on reviewing for taking the unit test either tomorrow or Friday. Everyone worked really well with doing different things as well as determining that they were or were not ready to take the test. We had Art today and then lunch and recess. After recess, we went to the Media Center where Mrs. Dornburgh worked with us on identifying the characteristics of Science-Fiction and Fantasy texts. Students had time to look at some that interested them too. Maybe they'll pick one of these genres for their next book to read? We, then, headed down to get our pictures taken and then came back to our room with a little time left to read independently. In Writer's Workshop, we continued writing our small moment story and conferencing with me. Our day ended with working on our balance inquiry project in Science.

Well...

As you may have heard, my un-luck continues as I "broke"ish my toe last night. I ran into my husband's barbell and smooshed my toe so much that my bones are resting on top of each other. With rest, elevation and a decrease of inflammation, the joint space will return to normal but it hurts and I'm hobbling around. It's hard to teach without walking around!! I guess I didn't realize how much I move during the day!

We had a quiet morning of M4T and i-time and in our morning meeting, we watched a video explaining our first safety drill today. We discussed our options in case of a "lockdown" or emergency. We also shared one thing that we are going to do, specifically, to help us reach our goals. In Math Workshop, we worked with identifying and generating patterns with shapes and numbers. We used pattern blocks, in and out boxes, application with real world situations, a challenge and then more practice problems. (We earned a potato head piece for our quiet behavior during the drill!) We got all sweaty during gym and had a yummy lunch and fun, even sweatier recess! In Nightmare at the Book Fair, Trip was thrown from a plane in the Adventure genre! We continued our work with identifying inferences and then read the non-fiction story in our StoryWorks magazine after looking at some of the content vocabulary about the Hindenburg, using the StoryWorks website. After picking our small moments story to write, and beginning to craft our leads yesterday, we continued with the writing process and conferenced with me about their writing. We moved on from the Great Ohio Mail Race for now! :) Today, we began a science experiment using a balance but AFTER some reminders about working together as a team.

Typical day

We began our day with M4T, Ohio Dailies and i-time. After greeting our friends with an "H," we met for our morning meeting and shared our least favorite chore to complete at home. Next, we played "Popl" and counted by 10s, 100s, 1000s, 10000s, 100000s and 1000000s starting at different numbers and continuing the pattern. Our Math Workshop went really well today (we even earned a potato head piece) as we applied our understanding of place, value and rounding to some real world problems. Some also played a round or two of "Guess my number!" with a partner. At the end of Math, students decided where they were in their understanding and if they feel they are ready to test. Do you agree with what your child thinks?

Today was Music (Mrs. Root said they were really talkative...) and then after lunch and recess, we headed down to the Media Center to meet with Mrs. Dornburgh to learn how to better pick "Just Right" books. Is your child reading a book that is "Just Right" for them? Once we returned to the room, we had some time left in Reader's Workshop to finish up our comprehension quiz and read independently. In Writer's Workshop, we picked the seed moment that screamed, "Pick me!" to begin writing about and then we read the beginning of a few books to learn about crafting a lead. Some shared the seed moments they picked and/or their leads and they are on the right track! We ended our day with Social Studies and map skills with Ohio. (Some continued working on their Great Ohio Mail Race...)