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!