Following directions

Oh my goodness. You would've thought that I asked them to complete an obstacle course with zero instructions, the way they struggled with a simple task this afternoon! Do they struggle at home with following simple directions? Were they just not listening? Not paying attention? Whatever it was, it was painful and didn't end the day very well. Maybe it was because it was the end of the day... let's go with that! :)

We began our day with some fraction practice problems, reflecting upon what we want to learn and what we need to practice for i-time and understanding and EMBRACING the "Power of YET!" Instead of saying/feeling/believing, "I can't do _____," we are now trying to train ourselves that we just can't do it YET! Help to model this in your home by allowing yourself to feel the power of YET. We read, Giraffes Can't Dance and watched a little video on Class Dojo. Then, we discussed situations where we can look back and see that we just hadn't discovered our YET. Math Pre-Tests are a great example! So, I handed back their pre-tests from yesterday and we set goals. Although, most of us were disappointed with such a low number, we embraced the power of YET because, duh!, it's a pre-test and we haven't learned it YET! Then, we did some work with composing and decomposing fractions. So far, so good... It was then, Music, lunch and what I see as a growing pattern of indoor recesses. After cleaning up from a very messy recess, we voted on our next read aloud as I read, Snappsy the Alligator. Once tallied, we began reading from, A Night Divided which is a very serious historical fiction book set in 1961 when a fence went up in the middle of the night in East Berlin with half of a family on either side...and we are only on chapter 3! They surprised me with that choice but it is good so far! They are very interested in historical fiction as they do love "I Survived..." books. We had time to read independently and visit the library and then in Reader's Workshop, were introduced to Lightbox books that our library has that has a really awesome digital component too (can be accessed through my Canvas home page.) We were looking at/reviewing Informational Text/Non-fiction text features-table of contents, index, glossary, photographs, captions, etc. We had a short time for some free-writing and then the madness happened. ;) We began our study of energy by discussing what we know about energy and what it is. *More information will be coming home tomorrow about this project and how you can help!!