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!