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.