Almost there...

We are almost there! The kiddos are crazy and instead of fighting it, I've joined in! Today, we listened to Pentatonix and sang along to Let It Go! Oh well!

Our day began with continuing and for some of us, finishing, our persuasive letters. Then, we continued reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and even made part of it a Reader's Theater! A former student also came in just before lunch and shared a little presentation he made from his trip to the Grand Canyon after he saw that we had made brochures about the Grand Canyon while researching and learning about weathering and erosion. In Math Workshop, we continued our work with fractions by making a human number line and completing an exit slip over equivalent fractions and comparing/ordering fractions. We also played War, Go Fish! and Memory--all fraction style! Our day ended by reading an ebook, Build It! and coming up with common problems that we could invent solutions to.

Long ago...

I'm so sorry that it has been so long since my last blog! I was out Friday afternoon with a sick kiddo and then Monday, I had a planned absence which actually turned into taking care of that same sick kiddo... :) (asthma and tonsil stones stink!!) and then yesterday, I was playing Minecraft and totally forgot about the blog! Yes, Minecraft! We purchased MinecraftEdu for our class for EdCamp and it didn't get installed until LAST EVENING! Anyway, even if your kiddo isn't in my EdCamp today, I have LOTS of plans to use Minecraft this year. The first will be when we return from break, for Social Studies, to create and build the world as it was when the settlers first came and then we'll be modifying it as we learn. I'm super excited about this project! SO...here's what we have been doing:

Our days have begun with continuing our persuasive letters to (possibly you, Santa, aunts, uncles, etc.). Then, after special, we have been reading various picture books until we return from break and can begin a new chapter book. (Let me know if you have any suggestions!) In Reader's Workshop, we've been working with understanding and just reading for meaning. We read about Hanukkah and how the Christmas/New Year's holiday is celebrated in Cyprus with the Greek traditions, we followed directions to make dreidels and play the game, we compared and contrasted lots of different holidays and traditions as well as read, visited the library and blogged. In Math Workshop, we have been working hard to understand equivalent fractions and compare and order them. Science has been working with inventions and in Social Studies, we are still learning from the Native American groups that were in Ohio.

Almost there

What a great day! We all seemed to work well together and this created a great day! Our Numbers of the Week had us writing word problems today. Then, we played Thesaurus Roll-a-Word and received instructions for our next writing project. Students are going to be writing someone (Santa, mom & dad, grandparents, etc.) to persuade them to purchase something for them. :) The Giver was exciting today--Jonas found out that Gabe was going to be Released the next morning so his plan needed to be acted upon NOW. He is off and looking for Elsewhere for what seems like days. What's going on back in the Community? Did the memories transfer to all the people? Did he bring about the change he wanted? We'll find out tomorrow when we finish the book! In Reader's Workshop, we finished up our work with Hanukkah with our reading and making/playing of Dreidel. In Math Workshop today, we continued our work with fractions. First, we took fractions and decided which landmark they were closest to: less than 1/2, 1/2, between 1/2 and one whole, one whole and more than one whole. Then, I told a little fairy tale about Cinderella. (Ask your kiddo!) Finally, we used what we learned from the fairy tale to complete word problems and share our thinking on posters, about fractions. We started a problem-solving inquiry project in Science about inventions to conclude our day by reading Now and Ben and learning about the plethora of inventions by Benjamin Franklin!

Hump day!

We made it through the hump of the week! Today was pretty productive. I've got this cough and my voice is starting to creak and crack...hopefully, I'll keep it through the week... Today, with our numbers of the week, we generated number patterns using ten terms and wrote their rules. (We also discussed what the words generate and terms mean.) The editing, revising, writing, etc. tool we learned about today was the Thesaurus. We generated :) a list of words and students are playing Thesaurus Roll-a-Word to work with using this tool. We came to a troubling part of The Giver today and your child might discuss it with you tonight. They talk about Release all the time for "bad" people, the Old and Newchildren that just aren't "fitting in" with the Community, throughout the book. Some inferred this to mean death while others did not. Well, today, we found out that when the Community members Release someone, they put them to death. We talked about this book being fantasy and science fiction and what that means. We also talked about how that is only what they know as a Community and we are like Jonas and the Giver because we feel things so that feels wrong to us. I became the Giver today, though, and gave them all a nice memory to leave Read Aloud with--that we have some great things coming up next week! In Reader's Workshop, I worked with some reading a fictional story about Hanukkah, where we needed to consult an informational text too to help us understand the fictional story more. I also worked with some others with a poem about Hanukkah where we also needed to use informational text, along with context clues, to figure out some unknown words. After recess, we worked with guess what... fractions! We used our fraction strips to find equivalent fractions as well as to compare fractions. We also played Fraction Blackjack and shared how we grew in our game play from yesterday. We really enjoyed independent math time today, though! (Hmmm...I don't think anyone worked with fractions...:)) Our day ended with finishing up learning about the Mound Builders.

A lot of tweets!

Today provided quite a bit of opportunity for me to tweet pictures of our work so be sure to check them out!
We continued manipulating our Numbers of the Week with addition and subtraction of our numbers and estimation to check our answers. Then, we played Dictionary Roll-a-Word to practice using the dictionary. (We found out that pork chop is actually two words and not in the dictionary--random fact!) In Reader's Workshop, we read a little from The Giver and found out what happened with Rosemary, the previously selected Receiver. Then, we read Elijah's Angels about Christmas and Hanukkah. They decided the theme and author's message is that friendship is the same, regardless of religion and we show respect to each other by discussing, learning and listening about everyone's beliefs. We then, showed comprehension and understanding by following directions to create a dreidel and play the dreidel game. After recess, we went to the computer lab for Hour of Code where Mrs. Olson taught us how to code-make programs run on the computer. We used code.org and had a lot of fun with Anna, Elsa and Angry Birds! We took a brief intermission for a fire drill and then finished up. Once finished with coding, we came back to the room and played Fraction Blackjack where we tried to get as close to one whole without going over. Finally, our day concluded with learning more about the Adena people of Ohio through an Ohio Studies Weekly.

Hectic times!

This is such a hectic time of year! I hope we can stay as focused as possible over the next two weeks... We are working with two 4-digit numbers this week as our morning work. Today, we had to write the numbers in standard form, word form and expanded form and also represented our numbers in base-10 blocks. In a combined word study/writer's workshop, we learned all the cool things that the dictionary tells us. Tomorrow, we'll be playing Dictionary Roll-a-Word. Jonas is getting increasingly more frustrated that the Community is so different from the memories that the Giver is giving to him. He wishes that everyone could feel and love again. I agree, Jonas! We wrote Haiku's in Reader's Workshop to show our understanding of the poem from StoryWorks, Ten Cent Haiku. After recess, we continued our work with equivalent fractions by making fraction strips and playing Cover/UnCover with them. Students felt much more secure with their understanding after today. Our day concluded with reading about the Mound Builders in Ohio. Did your kiddo learn anything new today?

Therapeutic!

Sometimes people head off to work and get so stressed out and head home to relax. However, for me, today, my outside life is crazy busy today and coming here to these kiddos have helped me to relax. I am full of love today for these little psychotherapists! :)

Math 4 Today is going well and students are asking questions when not understanding-we are just becoming so independent. Then, for some extra practice, we practiced "Skyping" with each other by picking secret locations and asking and answering questions. In Writer's Workshop, we used the LEGO's again to continue developing our opinions and counter-claims on Saving the Fig Tree. Each group shared a little bit about their ideas and they were really good! I am LOVING these LEGOs! Jonas found out what snow, sled, downhill, sunshine and sunburn were today in The Giver. And, we found out that the man previously called the Receiver of Memories asked Jonas to call him The Giver. We also discussed that this Sameness that the Community has isn't all that great and we are hoping the book helps the Community realize that... In Reader's Workshop, we finished our vocabulary from this month's StoryWorks issue. Did your kiddo use any new words yesterday or today? Like moxie, torrent or chronic? Math Workshop was very productive today. We had a real world problem to solve about students going on a field trip and sharing sub sandwiches and if they all received their fair share. Finally, our day concluded with Guidance.

First Skype...

Well, today ended a little crazy but we had a great start! We are getting really secure with our Math 4 Today and getting it completed in a more timely manner...which allowed us to begin Writer's Workshop earlier, which meant more time with our NEW LEGO StoryStarters! We have been working with persuasive/opinion writing so today, they were given the following ideas to set the scene. The city council wanted to chop down a giant fig tree in a town. However, the people of the town were very against this for a variety of reasons and had begun a protest to keep the tree. They have to develop multiple characters and character's points of view to persuade the council to keep the tree. We also learned about a counter claim today and so they needed to make sure to have a counter claim represented. At the end of workshop, we didn't feel that our ideas were developed enough so we will be revisiting this again tomorrow. Be sure to check out pics posted on our twitter page @ADE4thGrade! Students played volleyball in gym and then we got to find out more about Jonas' new "assignment" in The Giver. At the end of the chapter, the current Receiver of Memories began with Jonas to give him a memory of snow-this being something Jonas has never heard of! As always, they got so upset when I quit reading. In Reader's Workshop, we worked with vocabulary from this month's StoryWorks. You may hear your kiddo using some of these new words around the house! We froze outside for recess but then began our second day with fractions in Math Workshop. Students were doing really well with understanding equivalent fractions and what fractions are. We cut our workshop a little short so that we could have our first Mystery Skype run through practice! They did pretty well. However, we do have a lot to still work on. If anyone has Skype and would like to participate in another practice with us, let me know! You'd have to make up a place and answer yes/no questions about this place and then ask us yes/no questions about where we are to try and figure out where we are while we are trying to figure out your location. (Example questions: Are you North of the Equator? Are you on the continent of North America? Is your school East of the Mississippi? etc.)

Welcome Back!

It was great to get back and into the full swing of things but man, I'm tired! We started our day with Math 4 Today and then, since a handful of kiddos still needed to finish their math assessments, some of us played Mangahigh, others free wrote or read while those students finished their tests. Then, after Music, while reading The Giver, we found out that Jonas' assignment is not actually assigned to him--he's been selected to be the Receiver of Memories! We are all very intrigued for what this means for Jonas! In Reader's Workshop, we read independently and worked on understanding Thatagirl! more and why and what it means for this story to be historical fiction. Recess was indoor thanks to the rain, but after recess, we took our first look into fractions! They did a great job with their understanding of what fractions are and I have a good outlook on this unit! Ask them about the bowls of fruit questions. In the midst of our discussing fractions, we took an intermission for a community meeting to share our puzzle pieces. Ask your kiddo about it! Finally, tomorrow, we will have our practice Mystery Skype with Mrs. Riley so today, we got our roles and prepared for our run through!

1 down, 1 to go...

Today was a good day in Room 110! We began by completing our M4T and going over it. Then, we discussed spelling. I originally have always said, "There's an APP for that..." when it comes to spelling. However, that doesn't mean that I don't value spelling and that doesn't mean that I don't care about spelling. I read an article over the weekend on Twitter that got me thinking that maybe I wasn't expressing myself appropriately. So, I read them parts of the article and explained my true feelings that spelling is important but using tools: spellcheck, dictionary, etc., can help us and so we don't necessarily need to MEMORIZE how to spell words. We talked about the patterns we've worked with and then read a book and sorted the words we found into long and short vowels and identified some of the patterns. This hopefully, cleared some things up and showed that I do value spelling but in a way that is different than the traditional spelling test on Friday kind of way. (The article is referenced below.) We also had a mini-discussion on making our writing a little meatier too... and they worked with their Thanksgiving persuasive writing pieces. After gym, we read The Giver, and got right to the part where the Elevens were about to get their job assignments as Twelves when I stopped for the day. We discussed how this book reminds us of other texts and movies we read and compared and contrasted these. Some students had some connections to life or themselves too. For Reader's Workshop today. they were to read and make connections using their independent read. We shared some of these ideas out at the end. Our Columbus State bloggers read their final blog from their CS student. I saw a lot of growth from the students that participated in this project. Kudos to you! Also, Monday, Wednesday and Friday people went to the library. After an indoor recess due to the mini-storm we had, we spent one more day reviewing and practicing for our assessment tomorrow in Math. They worked sooo hard! I'm very proud of the effort and perseverance I witnessed today. Finally, our day concluded discussing Archaic Indians from about 3000+ years ago.

So happy for Friday!

Wow-this was a long week but we made it! Thanks again to everyone who came to conferences! This morning, we completed our M4T assessment and scores were much higher than in previous weeks. I think they put a little more effort into it today and they are becoming better mathematicians. Then, we had Guidance with Mrs. Williams' class. After special, we took advantage of having the computers signed out so we: signed up for LearnZillion (a website where they can go and watch videos and get help with specific mathematical standards), wrote down all of our technology resource information, wrote our persuasive pieces, finished our brochures, etc. We also had some time to read and visit the library. Outdoor recess was glorious! It was only 23 degrees but it was totally needed! In Math Workshop, we created factor turkeys to practice finding factors of a number. We also continued working on our review sheets for our test TUESDAY! Our day ended with finishing up our Ohio Studies Weekly on Early People of Ohio and then some got started on a fun turkey activity. We are planning for after break and completing some mapping, timeline and writing activities. So, they are going to disguise their turkeys and then take them with them over break and take pictures. The pictures can either be brought in or emailed to me. We'll be using the disguised turkeys for lots of activities upon our return. The activity is fun but also a brainstorm for future learning projects. They were super excited about this!

Yawn...

I'm so tired today after conferences last night! Unfortunately, your kiddos weren't. :) Anyway, we had a very productive day. We began, as always, with our M4T. Then, we continued writing our Thanksgiving persuasive writing pieces. We also had a "head check" from our nurses. What fun! Ask your kiddo about it. In Art, we did a great job cleaning up...why doesn't that seem to transfer to the classroom...? In The Giver, we didn't get much new information about the characters-just building up more to the ceremony. In Reader's Workshop, we finished searching for why Thatagirl! is considered historical fiction and read independently. Some kids blogged and others visited the library. After lunch and indoor recess, we worked very diligently on our Math review sheets. Our test will be TUESDAY! I'm very impressed by the effort I'm seeing with this unit. Students know their strengths and weaknesses and are seeking assistance when needed. Finally, we began learning about the early people of Ohio by reading a little from our Ohio textbook and completed an Ohio Studies Weekly.

Grateful!

Our Donors Choose project has been funded and we are so very grateful and excited! I have been smiling all day knowing that this resource will boost our enthusiasm and writing abilities. We can't wait until they arrive! :)

Our day began with Math 4 Today and our Thanksgiving persuasive writing. Students are coming up with some really good opinions on why we shouldn't eat turkey on Thanksgiving and are finding quite a bit of evidence to back up their claims! We began a new book for Read Aloud called The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book is Science Fiction/Fantasy and so far, we are very intrigued. In Reader's Workshop, we got our November/December Story Works magazine and read the historical fiction story, Thatagirl! After lunch and recess, we worked on division by way of an exemplar. We took real world problems and solved them using division. One dealt with money while the other dealt with passing out paper to an Art class. Students had to think about remainders today and when to ignore it or round up because of it. Finally, we ended our day in the Media Center making digital book reviews using the iPad app, Educreations. Soo cool! 

Some new resources I shared today that they asked me to put on the blog were:

storyworks.scholastic.com  (classroom code is: lambright110) 

     ~some stories can be read to them; there is a video that accompanies Thatagirl! that they wanted to see

Remainder Counts (they can google this term which will take them to a game to play)

Crazy!

Abnormal schedules drive us all crazy! Today was very abnormal and by the end of the day, it felt like pure chaos! Overall, we had a good day. We even earned a potato head piece for amazing behavior in visiting the book fair. I have a feeling that we will be having quite a few of these abnormal schedule days...
We began with Math 4 Today and started brainstorming for our Thanksgiving persuasive writing. After only 40 minutes, it was time for special and then straight to lunch and recess! After recess, we went browsing at the book fair and then, finally, it was time for some learning. In Math, we practiced division and I can see that they are really getting the process and understanding of the concept of division. If they get an incorrect answer, it is typically because of a multiplication or subtraction error. Keep practicing those basic facts at home to get even more efficient! Finally, we practiced reading and understanding timelines for the remaining time of the day.

TGIF!

Is it a full moon?! Because it has been a crazy week! Today was a total out of the ordinary day...I don't think we did one thing that we typically do! We tried to complete our M4T assessment but ran out of time because our buddies came down! Ms. Wallace read Thank You, Thanksgiving to us and we discussed everything we are thankful for. Then, we made frames that look like turkeys and took pictures of ourselves sharing our thanks to put in the frames. (Check the pictures out on twitter @ADE4thGrade!) After Art, we finished up our turkey frames and read independently/visited the library and then finished Number the Stars. They loved it and loved that it had a happy ending for the families we connected with in the story. After a tiny-bit-warmer-than-yesterday recess, we went to the media center to learn about writing good book reviews with Mrs. Richardson. We checked out a picture book, since it is National Picture Book month, and will be creating a book review about this book using Educreations on the iPads. Then, we came back and used the time we had to catch up on preparing for conferences and making our brochures for Science. However, in the middle of that, we went to the Music room to check out a performance by our buddies! (We saw them a lot today!)

And I thought yesterday was cold...

Our day started with M4T and again, students did well. Then, we wrote our persuasive letter to government officials about keeping the arts in public schools. (I posted it on twitter-check it out! @ADE4thGrade.) In Number the Stars, Annemarie made it safely to Uncle Henrik and delivered the package. Ask your kiddo what was in the package. Then, we read and responded to what we read. Instead of assigning a specific question, however, they just read and responded to me in writing about whatever they wanted. I'm noticing that they are getting much better with writing their thoughts. We went outside for recess today and they were so cold that they asked for a few minutes to warm up before we began Math. :) After the feeling came back to their fingers, we learned division! They did amazing, especially since this was their first day at it! They didn't want to quit either! When we finally moved on to Science, they worked on their landform brochures.

Brrrr!

Boy it got cold quick! This morning we worked with our Math 4 Today and I'm seeing better understanding. Maybe we were doing too much in the mornings and they couldn't give all of their attention to one thing. Then, we researched evidence to support our claim that kids should have art, music and gym in school. We will be writing our shared persuasive letter tomorrow. In Number the Stars, mama is ok-it's just a broken ankle. Whew! However, Annemarie found a package that Uncle Henrik NEEDED... So, she ran and ran through the dark woods to get the package to Uncle Henrik before the boat departed. She was almost there when...duh, duh, duh! Soldiers with dogs stopped her. Today, in Reader's Workshop, we read. We took a break from writing about our reading so that we could just read. They really enjoyed this. :) After a blustery recess, we worked on explaining our thinking in Math. Students completed multi-step word problems and made posters explaining their thinking to share with you next week. I worked with most students on clarifying any misunderstandings from our exit slip yesterday. We also worked a little with number patterns. At the end of the day, we read a book about the Grand Canyon and began a culminating activity on landforms created by weathering and erosion. Students will be creating a brochure about: the Grand Canyon, the Death Valley Sand Dunes in California or the Nile River Delta in Egypt.

Even better!

Well, we earned a potato head piece!! This morning, we focused solely on our Math 4 Today. Then, we got started on our new mini-unit on persuasive writing in Writer's Workshop. We viewed a power point presentation and looked at a lot of mentor texts to see the components of a good persuasive letter. Then, we brainstormed our own class example. We are choosing to write a letter to our government officials to keep art, music and gym in schools. Then, we brainstormed reasons behind our claim. After art, we read Number the Stars and said goodbye to the Rosen's as they head off to Sweden where they can be safe. At the end of the chapter, however, Annemarie looked outside toward the path where she last saw her mother lead them off and there was her mother, lying on the ground! I hope she is ok... Lunch was good but recess wasn't so much. Some kiddos are being too rough/competitive during soccer while other kids are hitting and pushing to keep kids away from destroying their games... All in all, if we would all remember our core virtues, especially self-discipline, and our class rule that "All students shall be safe..." then we wouldn't have these issues. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better at recess. :) In Math, when we were finally able to get to it, we completed an exit slip showing our security of multiplication. We are heading to division on Thursday! We had a fire drill and although it was windy, it was actually pretty warm outside. Finally, we read and discussed more about weathering and erosion and what those words mean and how our Earth has been formed and changed because of them.

Better...

We began our day making a Plus/Delta chart or a chart describing the things we are doing well (Plus) and the things we can do better with (Delta). Then, we talked about what we can do to make these things better.

As you can see, there are things that we all need to do to make things better, however, the majority of them can be made better by the students using self-discipline. Please help to remind your kiddo about using self-discipline at school. Then, we came up with our word for our puzzle piece from our Community Meeting on Friday. Ask your child what our word is! We didn't have a lot of time for Writer's Workshop but I gave them a preview by reading the book, I Will Not Read This Book. You'll get a chance to read this writing piece at conferences next week! After gym, we read Number the Stars where the Nazi soldiers came to Uncle Henrik's to see why there were so many people there. They were able to cover this because of the "funeral" for "Great Aunt Birte." Ellen's parents arrived and now we are wondering what will be happening next! They did not want me to quit reading! In Reader's Workshop, we read, visited the library, blogged for Columbus State and then all wrote about our reading. Again, we really need to work on writing our amazing thoughts so we worked with our fiction independent reads today. It was a glorious lunch and recess! Then, we worked on our problem solving with an exemplar about bricks or crayons. The focus, however, was on sharing our thinking in writing and so after we solved the problem, we demonstrated this solution on a poster and shared it with the class. We looked at the rubric from Exemplars to show that the solution is only one small piece of the "puzzle." They have this rubric in their binders if you want to take a look at it. They can explain the puzzle piece connection. Finally, we completed our Science Weathering and Erosion labs. We got the messy stuff out of the way and will be discussing our findings tomorrow.

Totally not me!

Ok. So I might have been a little snappy yesterday but it is totally not me! By the end of the afternoon I discovered that their lack of listening skills, is the root of the problem. Mr. Potato Head is still empty and we've had a full 2 weeks to earn pieces. We will be chatting about this on Monday and will come up with a decision on how to fix this problem. I'll let you know how it works out and what we decide.
Our morning began with our first ever ADE Community Meeting. Ask your kiddo the point of the meeting and our first task that Mr. Higginbotham gave us. Hopefully they aren't too PUZZLED. :) Then, our schedule was even crazier when Mrs. Root decided that our class ended up a little behind and so she asked if she could take them from 9:20-10:20. At 10:20, we came back and created with LEGO's. We were going to read from Number the Stars but too many kiddos were here and there so we read a wordless book, Flora and the Flamingo. Do you know why flamingos are pink? Ask your child! Mrs. Norris came in to help us with Kidblog today--with editing and the conventions of our writing in order to get more blogs approved. To stay on track for the 30 book challenge, your kiddo should have around 8-10 blogs finished...how many does your child have? In Reader's Workshop, we finished up our work from the week, read independently and visited the library if it was our day. After a freezing recess, we worked on our multiplication with multiple digits. Then, we either played Crazy 8's or Bean Bag Toss to practice our basic facts. Hopefully, you've been practicing at home! Our day ended with a very stressful Science. For some reason, we are not thinking clearly when it comes to performing Science experiments. Students were using their hands to pick up and transfer sand...which caused the sand to go everywhere...the sink is now clogged with grass and dirt and the room is a big, icky mess. This is going to be something that we'll be working on Monday as well in order to continue to perform experiments.

Snappy!

So, I guess I was a little snappy today and when I recognized this, said something to the kids and apologized for being a little snappy, one child said, "...a little?" and another said, "...like a snapping turtle!" LOL! I guess we all have our days. Maybe it was the rain or the fact that we have yet to earn a potato head piece in 2 weeks...! The chatter and noise and choosing socialization over work are killing me! I know what these children are capable of and I'm trying to push them there each day. Oh well! There's always tomorrow, right?

We worked on our Math 4 Today and numbers of the week this morning. Then, we picked a different generalization from our review week and found 5 words to prove this generalization. Next, we created with LEGO's and this time took a picture of our creation so that we can use this when we write our stories. After Art, we read Number the Stars and found that Annemarie senses something big going on when her mom and Uncle Henrik talk about an "aunt" that has died, however, Annemarie doesn't have this aunt... In Reader's Workshop, unfortunately, we didn't seem to read much. They were supposed to read independently, play a comprehension dice game with a partner and/or work on their Time For Kids work from this week and both are due tomorrow. Hopefully, they made enough progress today to not get stressed out tomorrow in getting finished. We had an indoor recess and then continued our practice with multi-digit multiplication. We also learned how to multiply 2-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers but some aren't quite there yet and they continued to practice 2-, 3- and 4-digit by 1-digit. For the end of math workshop, Mrs. Finney came in and played a bean bag toss game to practice basic facts while the rest of us played Crazy 8's Multiplication Style! Ask them how we made it multiplication-y. Our day concluded with Science and learning about how the Grand Canyon was formed. We even took a virtual field trip using Google Earth to the Grand Canyon.

Wonderful!

What a good day! We worked hard, practicing manipulating numbers in the hundreds place with our numbers of the week. Then, we picked a generalization that we had trouble with in the previous weeks and found 5 words that proved we knew the pattern. For Writer's Workshop, we created with LEGO's but didn't have much time. After gym, we read Number the Stars and learned that Ellen is headed to Annemarie's uncle's home in the country for a little "vacation" until things calm down with the German soldiers. In Reader's Workshop, we learned about Volcanoes in TFK and conferenced with me about what they've been reading independently. After lunch and recess, Mrs. Vidic was in for Guidance but the DVD player wasn't working so they did a lot of talking. :) Finally, we ended our day with math and A LOT of multiplication practice. The only way to get better is to practice and that we did!

Most splendid

Today was a typically normal, splendid day. The children were pleasant and we were on task and doing great things. We are working with more challenging numbers of the week for morning work and for Word Study, we took a pre-test to spell and identify generalizations from the previous weeks. Students have chosen generalizations that they feel they still need to work on and those patterns will be where they will work this week. In Writer's Workshop, we created with LEGO's! We talked about details in our writing and so we just used LEGO's to create and model/simulate how we can visualize our story. Unfortunately, we don't have all the accessories and characters that I'd like but we were able to make it work with what we have. In Music, they worked on the value of notes and they made comments relating this to math~kudos for recognizing math in the real world! Afterward, we read more from Number the Stars and got a reality check when the Nazi soldiers came to the Johansen home in the middle of the night looking for the Rosens... In Reader's Workshop, we focused on comprehension with a dice game and read independently and blogged or visited the library. After what turned out to be a nice-not too chilly-recess, we completed a number talk where students solved challenging multiplication problems with ease and mentally! 4,110 x 6 ! This gave them the confidence to accept that they DO know what they are doing and made Math go smoothly. We learned a few strategies for multi-digit multiplication to help make our problem-solving more efficient. With larger numbers, repeated addition isn't that great. Finally, we spent the last part of the day discussing our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the school as well as the rights and responsibilities we have as adults. This brought our discussion to the election tomorrow and we even held a mock election in the class--Which milk do you prefer? White or Chocolate? Chocolate won with 69% of the votes! They got stickers too to show their civic pride. Some students even voted for the Buckeye Children's Book Award and I read Duck for President to them while we waited.

Happy Halloween!

Oh boy! I can sure tell these kiddos went trick-or-treating last night! C-razy! :)
Our morning was a hodge podge of stuff: graphing for those that chose to complete an assignment for my OSU course, Numbers of the Week, M4T assessment, LEGO characters and setting... After gym, we read more from Number the Stars. Students are beginning to get a good picture of how good we have it these days. In Reader's Workshop, we completed a critical thinking activity on "Like Magic," about theme and author's craft. Then, we used QR codes to come up with characters and settings for Halloween stories. We also read independently and visited the library if it was our day. We started outside for recess but it started to rain so recess finished indoors. Afterwards, in Math, we continued with multiple digit multiplication, word problems and writing equations. Our day concluded with working on our weathering Science experiments.

Really?!

The kiddos were crazy today...and that is BEFORE they get the candy!! I'm scared for tomorrow...
Some students have volunteered to participate in my Ohio State class homework so they might be sorting and counting their candy tonight. Thank you in advance for letting them stay up a few extra minutes to do this!
This morning, we worked on our numbers of the week and Rock and Roll Spelling which they had a lot of fun with. After gym, we began a new read aloud, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. This is historical fiction and takes place during the holocaust. We are discussing setting and it's importance while reading this book. In Reader's Workshop, we blogged and read and some visited the library. After recess, we had a Number-ish Talk where students solved multiplication word problems. They did awesome! We then moved on to harder multiplication problems and again, they did awesome! Some that never seemed to grasp understanding of place and value or addition and subtraction are really understanding multiplication and we're talking tough multiplication like 52 x 15! Kudos to you and whatever you are doing at home to help out! Our day concluded with setting up our Science experiments for weathering.
Be safe Trick-or-Treating!

Yaaawwwnnn!

It took us quite awhile to get going this morning... Everyone was sooo tired after the amazing fall concert! Our morning was a hodge podge of things. We completed Wednesdays part of our Numbers of the Week, finished our Branches of Government from yesterday, prove-it to show silent consonant patterns and continued developing our characters and settings for our LEGO stories. (Next week, we'll be ready to "show" our story maps using LEGO's so any that you are able to donate, please do so this week!) After special, we finished Nightmare at the Book Fair with fiction for girls...OMG! :) What did your child think about the book? Did they find a new genre to try out? In Reader's Workshop, we read and read and read. Columbus State bloggers finished their blogs and some worked on their Story Works but for the most part, students read independently. By choice! They LOVE to read!! Instead of recess, some kiddos came into the room and watched a LIVE cooking demonstration from the White House Kitchen with Sam Kass about nutrition. He made a recipe from the Ohio winner of the Kids; State Dinner contest. Visit letsmove.gov to find more information and a TON of healthy recipes developed by kids! In Math Workshop, we modeled with math and persevered through problem solving with multiplication and division. Students worked pretty hard and were really good! Hopefully, they have the confidence now to know they CAN do this! Finally, we ended our day with Science and designing weathering experiments.

Yuck!

This weather is yucky! I was out this morning to take Adison to the pulmonologist but Mrs. Riches was in again and everything went swimmingly! In Writing, they focused on the details of their setting and in Reading, continued working on characters and how they change over time. After lunch and OUTSIDE recess (the rain hit later!), we worked on multiples in Math. Students have learned the bits and pieces of multiplication: prime and composite numbers, factors, multiples and basic facts; and tomorrow will be applying all of these things to solve multiplication problems in the real world. After math, we showed our understanding of the branches of government by making trees! (Check out some pictures of them on twitter @ADE4thGrade.)

See you at the concert tonight! No sooner than 6:30 pm in room B154 at Bradley HS.

Productive day

Overall, today seemed like a productive day. I hope your kiddo felt like that too...
This week, we are working with number sense for morning work. Students have 2 numbers of the week. Each day, they have tasks to complete for each number. Today, they needed to write each number is word, standard and expanded form. They also had to draw their numbers, using base-10 blocks, in two different ways. (5 students went to Bradley to practice for in-between acts for the fall concert tomorrow and were gone until about 11:30.) In Writer's Workshop, we continued adding detail to our LEGO characters. Students are realizing that the more detail they add, the more interesting the character. Today was gym--no concert rehearsal! We finished up the fantasy chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair and it was hilarious! Ask your child what their favorite part of Trip's adventure they liked best. Then, they had time to read independently, visit the library, blog and read Like Magic from Story Works during Reader's Workshop. Recess was gorgeous! We had a chat about taking it easy on the playground...things have been a little rough lately. In Math Workshop, we continued our inquiry into prime numbers and found why they are so special. Finally, we ended the day with some videos (and karaoke?) about weathering and erosion.

TGIF

Woohoo! We made it through another week! Today, we celebrated another full Mr. Potato-Head with a stuffed animal day. Our morning consisted of rehearsal for fall concert, rehearsal for fall concert and rehearsal for fall concert! (I tweeted quite a few pictures during practice!) This afternoon, we worked more with factors and multiples and through this work, got a preview into prime numbers. Our day ended with a Weathering and Erosion video for Science (with stuffed animals, of course...).

Yesterday, our schedule was a crazy mess! I was out Wednesday afternoon for a meeting with the other 4th grade teachers and then had to be out yesterday afternoon as well with a sick kiddo. I didn't want them to miss my instruction in Math 2 days in a row, so we had Math Workshop in the morning and discussed factors and made posters with arrays and factor rainbows to show our understanding. In Writer's Workshop, we continued with character descriptions of our LEGO characters. Mrs. Kline was in for the afternoon and they worked with the story "Beast of Loch Ness" in Story Works and Mrs. Riley, our technology teacher, came in to finish up with Google Maps and Mystery Skype preparation. We are almost ready for our practice run through!

Typical

Today was a typical day this week-one of only two we'll have! We began by working on some problem solving math work. Then, we read Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and discussed the character traits of Grace. Then, students had a chance to read other books and describe the main character using a list of character traits. Finally, they added to their descriptions of LEGO characters they made yesterday by adding some character traits. After music, we finished the historical fiction chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair and read the Intermission 2--Easy Reader about Reed McReedy and began the animal fiction chapter. Trip is a cat in this chapter and not happy! Then, we read independently, some blogged and we worked with the "Beast of Loch Ness" informational text story in our Story Works magazines. Some students are in book clubs and are reading chapter books and meeting periodically to discuss the books. Ask your kiddo what they are reading. Unfortunately, we had indoor recess and students informed me that there was some pillow fighting happening...hopefully, your child was not involved. Anyway, we did not earn our final potato head piece--maybe tomorrow. In Math, we started with a 100 multiplication fact 5 minute timed test. I think the highest score was a 43... yikes! We need to get these mastered in order to make multi-digit multiplication and division less challenging. We then noticed multiplication in quite a few books and read Amanda Beans' Amazing Dream by Cindy Neuschwander about how multiplication is nothing more than counting in a more efficient way. We worked along with Amanda to count sheep's legs, balls of yarn, cookies in the bakery window, etc. Then, we practiced our basic facts with a color by number as well as our extended facts and other practice problems. (How many legs would 7 beetles have?) We finished our day with discussing Mystery Skype job descriptions and then practicing using the technology we will use during Mystery Skype. We can't wait but decided it is better to take our time to learn everything correctly than to look like fools during our first skype because we don't know what we're doing! :)

Tomorrow will be crazy!! Rehearsal is from 9:20-11:45 and then I'm at a meeting, here at school, from 12:00 to the end of the day. There will be a substitute in the class. They will be working oodles more with basic multiplication facts and then Mrs. Vidic will be in for Guidance.

Marvelous

I was out for a doctor appointment this morning and the substitute said that the class was amazing! Kudos~we earned a potato head piece! The morning was also a weird schedule due to rehearsal and will be a few times this week actually.
This afternoon, we received our math tests back-which they are supposed to show you tonight. We also read Marshall, the Courthouse Mouse and learned about the judicial branch of government.

Because I'm happy!

Today was a great day! It was completely crazy and out of sorts with crazy socks, a weird schedule and a Math assessment but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. We began the day practicing writing our names in cursive. We discussed about being able to read cursive and write our signature. (I noticed on the math test that some signed their name on it!) Then, we finished writing our Harris Burdick stories and shared them. Most were creepy but I guess they really got into the "mystery" part of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. We had rehearsal today-which ran over into Reading but OMG-I got goosebumps when they sang, "Roar!" I can't wait for you to see the fall concert! :) After lunch and outdoor recess (we really lucked out this week), we took the dreaded Math Assessment...duh, duh, duuuhhh! I am not that excited to grade them, unfortunately. I think they are ready and we've spent SO long on these basics but they are just not used to taking tests and showing their work and checking back over their work. I handed about 8 tests back to students that either forgot to answer or some forgot whole pages! I'll grade them this weekend and send them home on Monday. The test took the majority of the afternoon so as we finished, we read, wrote, blogged or worked on government crossword puzzles.

Almost there

We are almost finished with this short, crazy week...almost...  We began our day with a maze and word search, just for fun. Then, we continued writing our Harris Burdick stories. I can't wait to hear them tomorrow! Trip was stuck in the Dictionary today in Nightmare at the Book Fair but then woke up in space! Will he get to walk on the moon with Neil, Buzz and Mike?? In Reader's Workshop, we compared and contrasted Minecraft with Lego's. How are they similar? Different? It seems ucky out but we made it through outdoor recess! Then, in Math, we practiced more for our first assessment tomorrow. We had our first Lockdown drill and then for Social Studies, we learned about the Legislative branch of government by reading House Mouse, Senate Mouse.

Busy, busy!

Wow! Today was a busy day and I'm sorry for not posting yesterday but I had a meeting after school and then a paper due for my Ohio State class and when I finally sat down, it was after 8:00 pm and I was EXHAUSTED! So...here's our week so far...
In Writer's Workshop, we began working on a shared writing. We read, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg which introduced us to some amazing illustrations and such a mysterious story behind them. Using these pictures as inspiration for a story, we got into groups and began writing. We continued this work today. One student said, "There are just so many ideas that I have!!" LOVE that! I tweeted about this yesterday and tagged @HarrisBurdick_ and he responded to our tweet!! Cool! Wait...I thought he was dead?! Even more mysteries and even more intrigue and interest in Writer's Workshop! We read Science Fiction and Humor in Nightmare at the Book Fair during Read Aloud. Ask your kiddo about "Boogers and Snot!" :) In Reader's Workshop, we got our October edition of Story Works and read about Minecraft. The room was silent. Today, we worked with the same Paired Texts about Minecraft and Lego's and focused on new vocabulary. See if your child knows what 'drab' means. After lunch and recess yesterday, we received our study guide/review sheet for our first assessment. We worked on the practice sheet and our assessment will be Thursday. The best way to study for math is to practice and re-work problems. I have opened some challenges on Mangahigh and ST Math too that could be helpful. Today, in place of Math, we watched a live interview with Lemony Snicket--well, actually, Daniel Handler, who spoke on behalf of Lemony Snicket. This man is hilarious!! We tweeted a question but ours didn't get picked. :( Then, we spent an hour in an extremely hot music room to watch the Fire Safety video with Norwich Township Fire Department. We received major kudos that because our students know so much about fire safety, we only have about 1 fire per month in Hilliard. Keep up the safety! Do you have an escape plan? Finally, we began learning about the three branches of government in Social Studies yesterday. We read, Woodrow, the White House Mouse and learned about the Executive Branch of our government. Then, we worked on a crossword puzzle about this branch. We also watched the School House Rocks video about the branches called "3-Ring Circus." I love School House Rocks!

EdCamp

Really, the only thing you'll probably hear about from your kiddo today is all about EdCamp. It really was a lot of fun and neat to work with kiddos at all grades and from both buildings. Have conversations with your child about what they did and their thoughts on this type of learning.

(We did do some reading, writing and math but who cares?! It was all about EdCamp today!)

Even better

Today was even better than yesterday. Thank you!

This morning, we continued to work on our Punctuation Personification and Rockin' Rats StoryWorks activities. Students are practicing/learning figurative language and paragraph writing by completing these. Then, we met with our buddies! We read, Spookley, the Square Pumpkin and talked about how we are all different and love these differences about each other. Then, we made pumpkins...in all different shapes and colors and embellishments! LOVE! (Check twitter for pics @ADE4thGrade) After special, we read the Sports Fiction and Adventure chapters in Nightmare at the Book Fair. Then, we continued our work with the Time For Kids and analyzing a new story as well as reading independently and visiting the media center. It was another indoor recess day...boo! Our Number Talk today, consisted of number patterns and creating the rule for finding the next numbers. We practiced this algebraic thinking in Math and ended, as always, with independent math. We finished our day with Social Studies and working on landforms and water forms.

Better

Today was better but we still have work to do. Thank you for talking with your children at home. It made a big difference today that they know that we have this partnership.

To begin our day, we looked at reading an Infographic and taking the bits of information and formatting into a summarizing paragraph. We also proved that we know our word study generalization by finding 10 words that fit the pattern. Our new book for read aloud is Nightmare at the Book Fair by Dan Gutman. Each chapter of this book highlights/is written in a different genre and over-exaggerates the characteristics of that genre. Ask your child about today's Horror section and Professor Psycho! :) Then, we worked with our TFK, read, blogged, visited the library, etc. In Math, we completed 3 x 149 in Number Talks and they were great! Ask your kiddo how they solved that challenging problem. Then, we continued our pattern work and completed some In and Out boxes. We ended our day with Guidance with Mrs. Vidic.

Frustrated.

We began the day with another activity from our Story Works magazine about personification-giving human characteristics to something non-human, in this case, punctuation. Then, we sorted our words and found the familiar generalization of "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." Hopefully, since this generalization is familiar, we'll have an ok time proving it tomorrow! In Writer's Workshop, we continued to publish our small moment stories. If your child is still not finished, maybe they can work on it some at home as we typed them up in Google Apps. If they don't finish during class tomorrow, I'll have them bring their rough drafts home. Thanks for your help with getting these completed! We finished Wonder...sniff...sniff... What did your kiddo think of the book?! In Reader's Workshop, we continued with our Time For Kids work and reading independently while some blogged and/or visited the Media Center. We had a good Number Talk today to show that by knowing, truly knowing, those basic multiplication facts, they can really solve any problem. The problem that taught them this was 4 x 49. No big deal! I pointed out that they have so much confidence during mental math that they should carry this into all aspects of math! After our Number Talk, we looked at patterns on the number line and then patterns within a growing staircase. They are doing really well with this. Finally, we continued our work with landforms in Social Studies.

Now to the frustration. These 26 children (yes, Karleigh moved :( ) are amazing! I hold them at such a high level of expectation because they are so wonderful. So today, when the room was atrocious and they were socializing and keeping each other from working, I got very frustrated. Please help remind your child that when it is time to work, they need to get to work. Also, are their rooms really messy at home?! Some of them are SOOOO messy!! :) We'll work on it, no biggie, just wanted you to be aware so you could reinforce this at home too. Thank you for all you do!!

Soggy day...

It started raining just as we were headed out for recess...bummer! Instead of daily language review, this week, we will be working in our Story Works on some of the extra features. Today, they worked on the Grammar Cop section that dealt with capitalization. We also worked on Math 4 Today and then took a pre-test in Word Study. In Writer's Workshop, we either finished our publishing of our small moment stories or free wrote. We are almost finished with Wonder. Auggie is graduating 5th grade! We should be finished with it tomorrow. I'm excited but sad...this is such a great read! In Reader's Workshop, we worked with informational text in Time For Kids and completed comprehension questions over 2 of our StoryWorks stories. There was also time to read independently or visit the media center. We moved on to patterns in numbers and algebraic thinking. The students did great but they are building their own walls thinking that because it is called "algebra" they can't do it. They are good thinkers and I believe will do well this week. **I've asked them to practice their basic multiplication facts this week. This will help when we move on to multi-digit multiplication.** We ended our day learning about landforms in Social Studies. Ask to see your child's masterpiece we made!

TGIF

Friday mornings are pretty busy...daily language, M4T assessment, word study games... We didn't have a lot of time to continue publishing our stories but we'll try for more time next week. In Wonder, Auggie never found his hearing aids. He wasn't going to tell anyone what happened that night in the woods but word got around and the principal and teachers found out and took care of him and made sure that his parents were aware of what happened and that he was ok. He returned from his school trip and his parents were super excited to see him. They even got him a new puppy! We completed our work on theme from Pandora's Box and read independently. Some students were able to blog as well. In Math, we finished our word problems with QR codes as answers. So fun!! Finally, we brought out the ancient artifact, our Ohio textbook... ooooooo... :) We read a little about Ohio's geography and got some practice with informational text too.

Thoughtful

Our morning routine is getting more, well, routine...We completed our daily language review, Math 4 Today and then they got started on vocabulary for 4 of their words. Once all of that was completed and we watched the ADE news, they picked up right where they left off with their small moment stories. Some are almost finished publishing! In Reader's Workshop, Auggie fits in more with his peers and is feeling more accepted and even gained a few more friends, however, he got into a tussle with some big kids and lost his hearing aids! Will he find them? What's going to happen next? Students also solved some unknown mythological vocabulary and tried to discover the theme of "Pandora's Box." After lunch and recess, we continued our work with addition and subtraction word problems and continued writing our own. I am very impressed where they are as of now with their addition and subtraction and word problem writing skills. Now, if only they would check their work for accuracy and precision, their exit slips might show me this! We took a brief intermission during Math to learn Google Maps with Mrs. Riley, our new technology teacher. We are hoping to begin Mystery Skype and this is something that we'll use to help figure out where they school is that we are skyping with. Ask your child to show you how it works! (And check out our tweets about today's lesson... Green Bay Ocean?!)

What day is it?!

We had a busy morning! Students completed their daily language review, Math 4 Today and then found 10 words to fit this week's generalization. Afterwards, we published (or continued in the writing process) our small moment stories. We had a good amount of time for writing today because our special time was moved to 10:30 for rehearsal...which lasted until 11:30 so Reader's Workshop was cut pretty short. We did have time to read through Pandora's Box and a little bit of time to go to the library or read independently. After lunch and recess, we practiced adding and subtracting with word problems and then wrote our own word problems. We will be typing these up and displaying the answers as QR codes out in the hall. So cool that this is interactive for other students. Our exit slip today was better but there are still students that are not showing understanding with addition and subtraction...keep practicing at home! We took an assessment to show understanding of the balance project we did in Science and from what I've seen, they totally got what I had wanted them to get--Woohoo! Then, we completed our Ohio Studies Weekly that we began yesterday over Ohio's Regions.

Job Shadow

We had a visitor to our class today, Miss Klein, a senior at Bradley that wants to be a teacher when she "grows up," shadowed me. If you hear about a young girl that was watching and in our room today, this is who they are referring too.
After daily language and M4T, we sorted our words and found that this week's generalization is once again the long vowel sound but this time controlled by a silent e. In Writer's Workshop, some of us began publishing our small moment stories while others continued writing, revising and editing. Gym was fun and it doesn't matter what Mr. Burkhart says, on C-days, you need deodorant! :) In Wonder, we noticed that Auggie is really 'growing up' from chapter to chapter. We continued working on theme and also read a drama, or play, from our StoryWorks magazines, "Pandora's Box." They loved this and will be learning some mythology along with the theme and all other aspects of reading. Unfortunately, during special, it began raining so we had indoor recess. :( In Math, we continued our real world addition and subtraction practice with balancing our checkbook. I noticed HUGE improvement in their adding and subtracting! Keep practicing at home~this will make other topics easier as the year progresses. Finally, we ended our day with an Ohio Studies Weekly about Ohio and it's geography. I noticed that after working so hard during Math and Social Studies, they were really loosing steam so we took a brain break with the "Sid Shuffle." (You can google that and watch it on you tube too!)    
                               

Need some work...

I am noticing that, now that we are fully into our daily schedule, some kiddos are struggling with staying on task and choosing to complete their work during class. Interims come home on Friday and you will know if your child is one of them. If this trend continues, class work may need to come home to be completed.
We took a pre-test in Word Study and created our lists and then used Rainbow Editing to identify editing needs with our small moment stories. Some students are ready for publishing tomorrow! We'll continue working all week on these stories. In Reader's Workshop, we discussed theme and while students read independently, they tried to find the theme of their books. We also read Miranda's perspective in Wonder and why she got "sick" before her big performance. In Math, we practiced REAL LIFE addition and subtraction by balancing a checkbook and checking it against the bank statement. This was pretty tough for them but once they got the hang of it, they were on a roll. This too also showed why it is important to be accurate and precise with their answers. One mistake here or there could cause big problems when it comes to finances! Maybe they could help you at home this week with these real life skills. Finally, we discussed the balance inquiry project and what it showed/taught us and completed our map and globe review booklets.

Fabulous!

First of all, Sheldon, one of our hermit crabs changed into a bigger shell this morning! It was so cool and so gross all at the same time! (I showed them a video because it happened before they got here.) Fridays are so fun with Word Study games! Which game did your child play today? In Writer's Workshop, we learned about revising and how it is different from editing--Revising makes is SOUND better where editing makes it LOOK better. Poor Daisy, Auggie's dog passed away in Wonder today. It was very sad. On a good note, though, Auggie and Via seemed to be growing closer and understanding each other more. Then, in Reader's Workshop, we played Chutes and Ladders with inferencing, visited the library, worked with me and read independently. After recess, we practiced subtraction in Number Talks and then took a quiz (blah) and checked in on our addition fact fluency (blah) and completed some real life subtraction... We finished our balance inquiry projects in Science today!! Next week, we'll take a little test to see if they understood what they've done all this time. Our day ended by playing Homeworkopoly. 25 out of the 26 students here today did and recorded homework in their planners to play! Kudos!

Thankful

We worked with understanding what words mean today in Word Study by picking 4 of our words and writing the definition, word in a sentence, synonyms and antonyms and drawing a picture for each word. Cypress was a pretty popular word as was bylaw and defray... does your child have any new understandings after this word work? Reader's Workshop was shortened due to pictures after special but in the time we had, we learned in Wonder, that Auggie got hearing aids! We also practiced making inferences with an "I have, who has?" game. Unfortunately, we had very little time to read independently and they let me know that this was not ok! :) In Math, our Number Talk had us using mental math for subtraction. The main strategies they use are place and value (tens-tens and then what's left-ones) and adding up. We also practiced subtraction using the traditional algorithm and we are still needing practice so we'll keep working at the regrouping and trading out. Our day ended with Science and our balance inquiry.

Woot! Woot!

Some kiddos are needing a lot of reminders in the morning to get going with their work and this is beginning to get them behind from the get go... today, we completed our daily language review, began our Math 4 Today and found 10 words for Prove-it! that fit with our generalization for this week and did all of that before 9:30! In Writer's Workshop, we continued writing our small moments stories. Some have gotten to the revising part of the writing process, where I had asked them to stop, so they blogged or wrote other stories. After music, we finished up Justin's section in Wonder and will be revisiting Auggie in the next part, tomorrow. We worked more with inferencing and informational text and student's marked in their independent reads where they made inferences. In Math, we are fairly secure with addition in our Number Talks so we will be moving onto subtraction. I anticipate some trouble with this as a lot of people-adults too-have difficulty subtracting mentally. Then, we used base-10 blocks to model subtracting with regrouping and practiced a lot! We ended our day with Guidance and discussing respect.

Totally awesome!

After going over our daily language review, and working on Math 4 Today, we sorted our Word Study words and found that this week's words have long vowel sounds. We came up with the generalization that when you hear a long vowel sound at the end of a word, there is most likely a y. There are a few tricky words this week, like survey, that sound like a different letter than in the actual word. We then continued working on our small moment story. A few students are ready to start revising but we are going to wait on the majority of the class to catch up so we can talk about revising vs. editing and how important it is to revise our work, together. After Art, we read more from Wonder, this time through Justin's eyes, which is very hard to read! Justin's part doesn't have capital letters, quotation marks and has a ton of run-on or fragmented sentences! AHHHH! Anyway, it was a good teaching moment to show writer's craft. (Thank you, R.J. Palacio!) We also learned about inferences today. We used pictures and made observations first and then inferences-conclusions, informed decisions-afterwards. The observations were the proof for the inferences. We'll be working with making inferences with both literary and informational texts this week. Students were very active at recess today...this was my inference because they smelled awful after! :) We worked on our mental math and explaining our thinking during Number Talks and then played an addition game to practice regrouping. Then came the fun part. I told a story about my friends "Juan," "Tim" and "Henry" and how/where they shop... this was our introduction to using the traditional algorithm for subtraction! Ask your kiddo about my story. We transferred the story to show the mathematics behind the story but they always seem to remember the story if they get stuck. Finally, we completed our day with Social Studies and globe and map skills review--which we totally needed! Some of them thought we had 12 oceans!

Magnificent day!

What a glorious way to start the week! We took a pre-test and got our new words for word study this morning--does your kiddo know how to spell our nemesis LIBRARY?! Then, we continued the writing process with our small moment stories for Writer's Workshop. After a game of Battleship in gym, we finished Jack's section of Wonder. Jack is a good guy, we decided, he just had a small hiccup in his self-discipline and gave in to peer temptation to talk badly about Auggie. We then read The Volcano that Changed the World, informational text story in our StoryWorks magazine so that we can work closely with this text this week. Students also read independently and worked toward their 30 book challenge. We spent the afternoon in the computer lab learning and practicing using our newest math resource, ST Math. Hopefully, your child will share this with you sometime this week.
Also, students are starting to keep track of their homework in the Social Studies portion of the planner. On Friday, we will be playing Homeworkopoly for the first time!

Thank goodness!!

We made it! This morning was a little hectic and I got everyone off task a little because it was National Talk Like a Pirate Day! I was greeting them with, "Ahoy mateys!" After they completed their morning routine, they needed to figure out their pirate name by choosing a three digit number where each digit stood for a name-boys needed to have an odd number and girls an even number. Some were pretty funny! Then, we played games for Word Study and continued writing our narratives based off small moments. In Reader's Workshop, we played a game using context clues to solve unfamiliar vocabulary words called, Talk Like a Pirate. Duh...I take a theme and truly run with it!! We also read and got caught up on some unfinished work. In Math, we practiced the traditional algorithm for addition and became more secure with carrying to the next place or trading in our base-10 blocks. If your child is struggling, this is probably the step they are forgetting. We also had a fire drill in the middle of math which made getting back into working afterwards, a little more challenging. Anyhow, we finished up and then worked on our Science balance experiments. To finish out our Friday, we wrote in our reflection journals about what we did, our strengths and weaknesses and set a goal for next week as well.

Almost there...

We've almost made it through another week. Today seemed like it went by fast: daily language review for morning practice, vocabulary roll-a-word for word study and writing narratives inspired by small moments in our lives all before special. What small moment from your child's life inspired your kiddo? We earned a potato head piece for an awesome art and then read in Wonder that Jack has finally realized why Auggie has been mad at him. Uh-oh! How is Jack going to handle this situation? In Reader's Workshop, we continued our scavenger hunt for non-fiction text features, read independently and some met with me to show their comprehension on our first Story Works story. After recess, we completed our focus on flexible application of rounding numbers and began the traditional algorithm for addition. What method DID your child use to add? Can they show you the traditional method? Which is more efficient? Finally, we completed our day working on our balance inquiry project for Science.

Constitution Day

Happy Constitution Day! 226 years ago, our Founding Fathers signed our U.S. Constitution so we did many things to learn about and understand this document. In Reader's Workshop, I met with a good chunk of students to talk about primary sources, why some words within the Constitution (Posterity, Tranquility, Blessing, etc.) are capitalized as well as why the amendments are important and what our life would be like without these changes. We participated in a webcast LIVE from the National Archives in Washington D.C. (hopefully you saw our tweets and that @DiscoveryEd retweeted our tweets!) where we saw the actual Constitution and other primary sources. This was very cool-especially to those of us that have seen the National Treasure movies. I read, We, the Kids by author and political cartoonist David Catrow and (my favorite) watched the School House Rocks video of The Preamble! I think students have a better idea of our rights how important our Founding Fathers were to our country.
In Writer's Workshop, we did a shared writing based off of how R.J. Palacio began Wonder. We took a small moment from class last week where Sheldon (one of the hermit crabs) clamped on to Levi's finger and used that to springboard a story from the perspective of Sheldon. Each kiddo can go on and now add to our story using Google Apps. We also read independently and continued our work with rounding in the real world for Math.

Terrific Tuesday!

One thing I notice about this group of kids, and I've shared this with them, is that they are wonderfully verbal in go above and beyond when it comes to discussion and sharing their thinking. However, you would never know this by looking at their writing! For some reason, this awesomeness of understanding does not translate when they write. There might be some writing homework coming in the next week or so to help them with this important skill...stay tuned!
For Word Study, we sorted our words and found a very similar generalization as last week-short vowels but these words have more than one syllable. (We did not move on to long vowels as I had stated in my weekly notes.) In Writer's Workshop, we looked at R.J. Palacio's website (author of Wonder) to see where she got the idea for her amazing novel and found that this book started from a small moment in her life, getting ice cream with her children. Ask your child about this moment. Then, we decided that if she can start a narrative with a small moment, maybe we could too. So, we brainstormed some small moments from our lives to get our creativity flowing. Speaking of Wonder, we learned more about Summer and her perspective on Auggie. She seems like a genuine person that is truly a good friend to him. Then, we turned our focus from literary text to informational text and the features between them. Students have a Non-Fiction scavenger hunt that they are working on this week to find specific text features of informational text. We also had time for independent reading and library time. Our number talks are using more challenging numbers but you'd never know this from their level of understanding and explaining (verbally, not in writing) their thinking. Then, we continued our work on the exemplar-The I-Did-A-Read. This was really challenging for them so we discussed and completed this together. They also worked on independent math--a time where they can "play" around with math and enjoy it. In Science, we continued our inquiry balance project. We had better teamwork today but will continue working at it!

International Dot Day!

Happy Dot Day! We "Made our Mark" along with Darby Creek by creating a human dot! It was very cool to see all the support from students representing their grade with their colored shirts! Thank you for your help with this. Here is a picture I took of the drone flying above to take the picture alongside the moon-very cool! (HR imaging took a picture using the Norwich Fire Department Ladder truck and I'm sure there will be more pictures tweeted or released somewhere--I will let you know when I find out where to locate them.)

After we created our dot, we finished up Part Two of Wonder and can understand a little more about Via, or Olivia-which she likes to now be called. The next part will give us a closer look into Summer and her relationship with Auggie. We also worked with Informational text features through the Time For Kids. In Math, we took a 5 minute addition fact fluency check. Most kids are able to solve the addition problems with sums around 20 or less but are working to complete this more fluently. We'll periodically check in to see if they're getting more efficient with fact fluency, with all operations. We have been learning/practicing rounding but today applied our understanding to multi-step word problems. I've never, in my adult life, been asked to round a number to the nearest thousand! I explained this to them and that they will need to USE the skills in other ways, i.e. organizing a food drive, having a party, concessions stand at OSU football games, etc. Finally, in Science, we began an inquiry project where the students are investigating how a balance works.

TGIF!!

Today was a great day! We worked with combining sentences as daily language review and completed our Math 4 Today assessment to get our brains warmed up. Then, in Word Study, we played word games to show our understanding of this week's generalization. Ask your kiddo why games and not a test. We had gym outside today and it was brisk! Afterward, we got a better look at what Via goes through being Auggie's sister and although it has its highs, there are also some lows. I have been meeting with students this week to discuss their independent book choices. More than a good chunk of the class are reading books that are too easy for them. I tried to talk to them about choosing more challenging books so hopefully, next week, I'll see more variation in book choices. In Math, we completed our work with rounding...well, I hope we completed it! They agreed that rounding to the nearest tens and hundreds were a lot easier than rounding to the nearest ten-thousands or hundred-thousands. Finally, we ended our day with our electronic party!! I heard a lot of "Clash of Clans" lingo! :0)

Patriot Day

After completing and going over our daily language review, we played Vocabulary Roll-a-Word with our Word Study words. Candid seemed to cause students some difficulty today. Maybe you can sneak it into your conversation and see if they pick up on the meaning or mention anything about it. That pretty much took up our writing time. We had a little extended music today because it was Audition Day! Did you kiddo have the courage to try out for a solo? Then, in Reader's Workshop, we read a little bit from Wonder but in this part, we saw things from Auggie's sister, Via's, perspective. We also, read independently and worked on critical thinking and answering questions using the story "Silverman City" in our Story Works. After a chilly recess, we practiced extended facts in Number Talks and then finished our game of "Beat the Teacher." Students showed that they were ready to move on, so we practiced rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. They are expected to round whole numbers through millions so we will be practicing this skill for a couple days. To help remember, I created a fun story about a bossy friend and the shock of the others around--does your kiddo remember? Finally, we ended our day discussing Patriot Day. We took a close look at the "Pledge of Allegiance" and what the words we say each day means. I think they'll say the pledge a little more emphatically tomorrow. We also made ribbons and did some word work with Patriot.

Hump day!

It seems like it should be later than Wednesday... We earned a potato head piece today for walking in a perfect and quiet line to and from Art! Woohoo! One more and we earn our first celebration!
Our day began as it always does, with daily language review and then we moved into Word Study. Today students proved that they understood the generalization of this week's words--short vowel sounds. Some kids had difficulty with this basic skill but I'm hoping that they were just over thinking things. In Writer's Workshop, we discussed writing responses to questions. Instead of just answer the question, we learned that we should use part of the question within our answer. After Art, we read about Halloween in Wonder. This USED to be Auggie's favorite holiday. Ask your child why it wasn't this year. We practiced responding to questions by answering critical thinking questions during Reader's Workshop that pertained to our Story Works story. We also visited the library-if it was their day-and read independently. We made it through recess without getting rained on! Students are learning great strategies in Number Talks and doing awesome at sharing their thinking...now to get them to share their thinking IN WRITING. We reviewed the concepts we've been learning/practicing in Math and then played Beat the Teacher but this time, it is a little more than just a game because I'm assessing if they are secure with place, value, comparing, ordering and writing numbers through millions. Finally, we completed our day with Guidance with Mrs. Vidic. (Planners were not stamped because we ran out of time-sorry!)

Better!

Today was better than yesterday AND it's a full moon tonight. Huh?! I'll take it! :)

We went over our daily language review as our warm up for learning. Then, we sorted our Word Study words and found the generalization of this week's words--1) every word has a vowel sound, 2) each syllable has a vowel sound, 3) these are short vowel sounds. In Writer's Workshop, we talked about collecting artifacts for our writer's notebooks. Ask your kiddo what an example might be. We had a great gym time and then returned to take the SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory) on the computer. This is just another collection of information on how your child performs in reading. Lunch and recess went off without a hitch and when we came in from outside, we went back to the computer lab for the SMI (Scholastic Math Inventory). Overall, our class seems stronger in reading than in math, from these inventories alone. Please help your kiddo to practice math at home-just as you would with wanting to be sure they are reading. I've given them some practice sheets for their binder that they could use or can play a game or go to mangahigh on the computer. We completed our Bouncing Ball experiment in Science. What conclusions did your child make about dropping the tennis ball?

Honeymoon is over...

Well, we were pretty chatty and distracted today. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. We reviewed our one rule, "Every student shall be safe and able to learn," and what their role as student and mine as teacher is. Our focus was that one of their biggest roles is to follow the core virtues. Please help your kiddo to remember their role as a student.
After going over our daily language, we took our first pre-test for Word Study. Then, we went to the computer lab to blog! Students should be 'playing around' with kidblog this week to help get comfortable and familiar with the site. We had a great music and then came back and read more about Auggie's first day at Beecher Prep. All in all, his day was a 5/10. He met a new friend, Summer, but noticed his differences from the other kids. Then, we read a similar short story in Story Works. I wonder if they will pick up on the similarities... We also began our daily rotation for library visits. Which day does your child go to the library? It seems like it took forever to get to lunch but we made it! After a nice recess, we completed a number talk where we are securing our efficient strategies in making friendly numbers for mental math. Then, with a partner, completed an Exemplar. Today, we worked with pips on a domino and number patterns. We ended our day with some teamwork and practice with observations and data collection in science with the Bouncing Ball Experiment.

TGIF

Today was a great day! We only need 2 more potato head pieces until our celebration! Personalizing our writer's notebooks was a lot of fun! Now, our notebooks are individualized and longing to be written in. After art, our buddies came to our room this time and we made our mark as buddies, by creating dots-complete with our pictures, signatures of course and accomplishments we'd like to make this year. Next, after they dry, we'll connect-the-dots with string to make a buddy garland. **Ms. Wallace and I tweeted this out and tagged Peter Reynolds, the author of The Dot, and he favorited our tweet! So cool! (Follow us on twitter @ADE4thGrade .) Our buddies went to lunch and we cleaned up and then had time to read, finish decorating our notebooks or visit the library. When we returned from recess, we completed a number talk on making friendly numbers, this time with larger numbers, and then continued our work with ordering and comparing numbers into the millions place. Finally, we completed our day and week by writing in our Reflection Journals. Have your child share this with you!

Typical day...

Our day started like every other, with Daily Language Review. Then, we wrote without boundaries in our Writer's Notebooks. I gave them some guidance (which some felt were boundaries) to write about things they wonder and to use their senses to write ideas. We had gym today and then read more about Auggie's first day of school. Julian is still being nice in front of adults but mean to Auggie. Also, we learned what one of my favorite sayings from the book means, "CHOOSE KIND." In Reader's Workshop, we got our first Story Works magazine. We will be using this subscription all year--thanks, PTO! Ask your kiddo what is involved with this magazine. For Math, we completed a number talk using/finding friendly numbers to help our mental math. We also ordered large numbers. I showed them an easy way to do this-do they remember? After an exit slip over writing numbers different ways and place and value of numbers, we went to the lab to familiarize ourselves with mangahigh. Finally, we completed our work with the Ohio Studies Weekly newspaper. This 'newspaper' subscription--thanks again, PTO--is a supplement to our teaching in Social Studies.

Terrific!

I had a substitute in the classroom yesterday while I assessed children on their reading out in the hall, so I didn't write the blog--sorry...

Today, we began getting caught up on Daily Language Reviews (since we didn't have school on Monday). Then, we went back and corrected our Important Paragraphs. Unfortunately, the first copies, although AMAZING information within, were not paragraphs but a collection of sentences. Anyway, I think we are good now. :) I also introduced writing with and without boundaries. We will be making our Writer's Notebooks this week so we discussed a little about finding a love for writing. After Music, we went to the Media Center where Mrs. Richardson gave us an overview of literary genres. This will help with our 30 book challenge! We will be going back next week so that we can take a closer look at some specific genres and the characteristics of these. We also read, Kathy's Hats, a book about all the hats we wear throughout our lives, including some that we don't enjoy wearing--in this case because of being sick. They decided to wear hats tomorrow to support Layth's return to school from an overnight stay at Children's Hospital. No crazy hats-just hats. After lunch and recess, we had a number talk where 10 is important with mental math and adding with 9. We then reviewed the different ways we write numbers--standard form, words, expanded form, etc. After practicing this some, we played Musical Place and Value. This was a lot of fun! (We learned too but shhhh!) I also showed them how to access mangahigh, an online web game to practice math. Each child came home with their unique login information to try it out. Finally, we took a pretest in Science and then read, wrote or practiced math.

Week 2 down!

Unfortunately, my little one has this back-to-school crud too and so I was home with her this morning. The students did well with their first substitute experience. Kudos for that! Yet another potato head piece! While I was out, they worked on and/or published their Important Paragraphs. In looking these over, we still have some work to do with making them paragraphs and not a collection of sentences. They read independently and worked on an informational text piece from the Guinness records during Reader's Workshop. All students had a chance to visit the media center on their own this week. Hopefully, they picked up some books to read that will help them begin their 30 book challenge. After lunch and recess, we worked on Math. We began with Math 4 Today. This is a workbook that gives them practice with all aspects and skills of math-not just the skill we are currently learning. They will complete a few practice problems each day with a mini-assessment on Fridays. Then, we played, "Beat the Teacher." This place value game was a lot of fun and they did great! (and practiced reading and writing numbers...) They completed an exit slip at the end of Math and I saw some frustrations arise for the first time. Hopefully, we'll figure out how to work through problems this year and not just give up--like I saw today. No worries, we'll get there. Finally, we ended our day with writing in our Reflection Journal. What reflections did your kiddo make about the week? What is their goal for next week?

Good times!

Today's Daily Language Review was a little challenging as they had to work with commas and quotation marks as well as remember what singular, plural, common and proper nouns were! After reviewing all of that, we continued our work on our Important Paragraphs. We should be publishing our first writing projects tomorrow--wow! We had our first fire drill after Music and earned another potato head piece! What is a "potato head?" (Ask your kiddo! Also, ask what our first celebration will be because we voted on that today.) In Wonder, Auggie took the tour of his new school and found a possible friend in Jack Will and a potential bully in Julian. What does your child think? Students read independently and focused on supporting their ideas about their books with textual evidence. We accomplished all of that before lunch! After a more pleasant but still hot recess, we had a number talk and jumped with both feet into math! Students are creating and reading numbers and reviewing each number's place up to millions. Tomorrow, we review the value of each number's place. After math, we went outside and had a teamwork race. Each student had a foam plate with a tape handle. With a partner, they had to carry an uncooked piece of spaghetti down and around the cone. We had a ton of fun while learning to work together to succeed. Student's then signed their Teamwork Contracts. Check it out in their binders. (I've posted pictures on our Twitter feed @ADE4thGrade as well as on our Facebook page Fourth Grade Superheroes.)

Great day!

Every day is a great day here in room 110! We started our day with Daily Language Review and then moved right into Writer's Workshop. We read, The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. The important thing about writing is that we organize our thoughts. We write using a sandwich format and add lots of details. Sometimes, we try to persuade others. But, the important thing about writing is that we organize our thoughts. We will be writing Important Paragraphs about ourselves. We had a substitute in art and when we returned, we learned about our 30 book challenge. Ask your kiddo to see the information I gave them and to tell you more about it. Then, we read Wonder. Auggie met his new principal and some new students from his new school. *Ask your child what Auggie's principal's name is. teeheehee... Oh, and of course, we read independently! I thought recess yesterday was sweltering but I think the kids came in from recess with purple faces today! Woo! Our number talk was all about the number 10 and making tens. Next, we read The History of Counting and Sir Cumference and All the Kings Tens to help us grasp the magic of 10 in our number system. We worked with base-10 blocks and began some independent work but didn't have time to finish, so we will finish tomorrow. Some students were BEGGING for homework so I told them that if they wanted to, they could work on it tonight but they do not need to. Every other Wednesday, Mrs. Vidic will be in for Guidance and today was her first visit. We did some brain teasers and chatted about filling buckets and helping others by choosing kind words.

See you tonight at Curriculum Night!

On a roll!

We are totally on a roll with this schedule and academics! We began, again, with our Daily Language Review and then had a conversation about a "new" student. Ask your child about the monkey. :) Then, we read, The Dot by Peter Reynolds and talked about making our mark and our passions. Students then, made their own 'dots.' After gym, we came back and did some independent reading while some students finished their dots and then read more about Auggie from Wonder. While reading, I modeled how to close read. This is just paying to attention to the story and maybe taking mental (or written) notes while reading. Then, they split up into groups and practiced reading closely with some fun picture books. All in all a good job. Lunch was good and recess was sweltering! Luckily, I picked them up a few seconds early and we headed into the Media Center to meet with our new Media Specialist, Mrs. Richardson. She reviewed the library procedures and checking out books with us and then students were able to check out. Did your kiddo choose a just right book? They begged me to give them more reading time, so I did! Next, we completed an exemplar. This is a more realistic type math problem. I picked one that was simple so they could focus on getting the process and writing about their math thinking. Finally, we ended our day by writing our mission statement. What sticks out most with your child from writing this?

Week 2...

Today was a great day! We got a little more academic and followed our typical daily schedule. We began with Daily Language Review where we corrected sentence and used our vocabulary. These kids have an amazing vocabulary! Ask them what I decided was a better synonym than calling myself 'old.' Then, we began Writing by discussing sentences. Students wrote sentences that were appropriate for each grade level--Kindergarten through 4th grade. We also discussed the patterns and generalizations we notice about them. Tomorrow...paragraphs! We had music today and then came back and began our first Read Aloud, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio. We only had a glimpse into the main character, Auggie, but are using it as a model for what, why and how reading is. What word did your kiddo contribute to our "Reading Is..." poster? Then, we read! This group loves to just read--AMAZING! After recess, it was time for Math. We started with a number talk. We did an easy string of problems until we can get used to the process but students did great sharing their thinking. Then, we talked about, "played" with and found good uses for all the math tools in the room. Finally, we ended our day with a team-building and problem-solving activity titled, "Saving Sam." Did your student save Sam?

First week--check!

We had a busy day today! Our morning work was to create dictionary entries using our names. What definitions did your kiddo use to describe themselves? Then, we headed alllll the way to the other end of the building for our first get together with our 1st grade buddies! Together, we used the app, 30 Hands, to create mini-presentations about our buddies and them for us. (Ms. Wallace and I are working to compile these into one location for your perusal--stay tuned!) After Art, we came back to the room and read, "It's a Book," by Lane Smith and then read and looked at our classroom books. Technology is fun but there's nothing that can take the place of a book! We also read, "If Everybody Did" and "Manners in the Lunchroom." After lunch and OUTDOOR :) recess, we transformed into superheroes to discuss our SUPER week! I'm sure they can share this fun and amazing experience with you!

Day 3

The newness has worn off...we were a little chatty and I moved some seats around but we are still oh so amazing! This morning, Mr. Higginbotham came in and read the students a story and introduced himself to the class. After our first gym class, we read My Teacher Is a Monster (No, I am Not!) and then made a list of their jobs and my jobs. We finished with filing in the blank for the following sentence: Our class should be _________ everyday. They had some great statements! They also worked on a Super Student poster about themselves. Unfortunately, it was indoor recess but afterwards, we went to the computer lab to set up our new passwords and to set up our kidblog accounts. Have your child show you everything they can access from home! We played a dice game...kinda...which then led us to our one class rule--Every student shall be safe and able to learn. Students brainstormed and shared how they can participate in this rule and then we took pictures to show these actions. Finally, we read Do Unto Otters to wrap things up.