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...)