12-12-12

Well, this isn't the week I had envisioned-being out 3/5 days...I sincerely dislike being out so much and I truly hope you know that I wouldn't do it unless I had to. Yesterday, kiddos practiced adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators, read a historical fiction picture book about Christmas, worked on their persuasive letters, read and worked on their literature circle/book club books and continued reading about the native americans of 1700s. Today, we continued our practice with adding and subtracting fractions and I taught them how to make common denominators. I explained that this isnt a skill they need mastered but by exposing them to this, they are getting a step ahead for next year. We began reading Beaded Moccasins in Read Aloud which will help to reinforce their understanding of Native Americans. In Reader's Workshop, we played "Blurt," a new word game as well as met for groups and worked on a Time For Kids. We researched and wrote the introduction to our persuasive letters for Writer's Workshop. In Science, we finished, mostly, our weather comics.
Check with your kiddos about tomorrow and Friday. I will try to write or send an email Friday but I'm not sure there will be time. Thank you for your understanding.

Monday, December 10

In Math today, we looked at fractions with pattern blocks as well as equivalent fractions and then moved into adding and subtracting fractions. For some, we are moving a little too quickly but I want to get to a good stopping point before heading to break. It might help to practice fractions at home this week. I will probably send some math homework to help as well. We finally finished our book for Read Aloud. This was a really good book and a great introduction to historical fiction. In Reader's Workshop, we completed an Ohio Studies Weekly about the early people of Ohio, read and some played Logic and Reasoning while others met with me to work on reading strategies and skills. We began our persuasive writing today and learned about the author Charles Smith Jr. who will be visiting our school this spring.

Friday, December 7

I was only at school for the morning because I have sick kiddos at home so here is what we 1. did this morning and 2. should be doing this afternoon. In Math, we finished our fraction pizzas and made fraction strips to learn and identify equivalent fractions. We played a game with our fraction strips too and finished by showing what we know using a math journal page. We had indoor recess because of the rain. :( Hopefully, they won't be too stir crazy this afternoon... They should be reading Freedom Summer for Read Aloud. This is a historical fiction picture book. (I didn't want a substitute to finish our other book!) They will be reading about holiday traditions and practicing math skills during Reader's Workshop and finishing, finally, their informational reports. In Science, they will be working on and hopefully completing, their comic strips.

Thursday, December 6

Today in Math, we practiced making fractions by creating pizzas with toppings. Each slice is different and tomorrow they will be writing what fraction of their pizza contains which toppings. Some interesting topics included bacon and a pope? One student made pancakes instead of pizza-fun but I'm concerned that they spent more time being artsy than mathematical... We almost finished our read aloud but chose to wait until tomorrow to enjoy the ending. We will also be talking about how our main character changed over the course of the book. In Reader's Workshop, we worked with compound words and an OAA passage about Jane Goodall. We worked on our informational reports in Writer's Workshop. Finally, and first actually, we began and ended our day with Social Studies about Native Americans. (Mrs. Root didn't have a substitute so no music today.)

Late Start-Wednesday, December 5

It was a shortened day but full of learning and fun. In Math, we practiced fractions of sets with Smarties! They did a fantastic job on this. We will have an assessment over fractions the Tuesday before break. We will continue to practice identifying, modeling, naming and recognizing fractions as well as adding and subtracting fractions up until then. We read more of our historical fiction book today and are starting to see how our main character may begin to grow or change. In Reader's Workshop, I met with some to read and discuss while others read a Time For Kids or sorted their words from word study. We continued, again, with our research and informational reports in Writer's Workshop. We are only going to be working on these for one or two more days. If they are not finished, they will need to continue at home as the majority of the class is now working on their 2nd report. We completed the day with a touching story and lesson from Mrs. Vidic for Guidance.

Tuesday, December 4

We had a very productive day today! In Math, we kept the momentum going with fractions by playing I Have, Who Has with naming and identifying fractions. We then practiced writing and finding fractions of sets. We need a little more work on this and will continue this learning tomorrow. They were able to findfractions of sets like boys in our class but had more trouble finding the set when given the fraction-1/3 of 12. Read Aloud is getting really good and it might be beneficial to talk to your child about what is happening. It takes place during Vietnam and the main character's brother's best friend just died. This is making the main character look at her life and her feelings and it is getting a little deeper than I can get in the 25 minutes we have-no big deal-just thought there might be a teachable moment or time for deep discussion at home. In Reader's Workshop, we sorted our word study words, some worked on a TFK and others met with Mr. Schulze (a district literacy coach). In Writer's Workshop, we continued with our informational report writing. We progressed about 10,000 years in Social Studies and learned about the Mound Builders!

Monday, December 3

In Math, we began fractions today! Students have a great base of understanding so I'm excited to see them with this learning. I am stressing that fractions are part of a whole and that we have to pay attention to the whole. In Reader's Workshop and beginning with Read Aloud, we made the transition from informational text to literary text by discussing characterization. Students then read independently and noted some characteristics of the main character. We will be tracking how this character changes over the course of the book. I challenge them to read at least one longer fiction book. We went to the computer lab for Writer's Workshop where students continued to research and type their informational reports. In Social Studies we learned about the first people of Ohio and prehistoric people.

Thursday, November 29

Another crazy day, another full moon? Anyway, we got a lot accomplished! In Math, we worked on subtraction with decimals which proved to be much more challenging than addition...students understood to line up the decimal but struggled with zeroes. We focused on trying to add up like most of us do in adult life and students showed more success with this strategy. Tomorrow, students will be showing they understand decimals by applying this knowledge in an application setting. Hopefully, they will show a more secure understanding and we'll be able to move into fractions next week. I am fairly confident that this will be the case so be prepared for fractions! Students working on the independent project will be sharing their class lunch proposals tomorrow also. Will a class lunch be in our future? I am not sure. It depends on the proposals I get tomorrow! We read more of our historical fiction book, Neil Armstrong is My Uncle... which is a really good book that the students are connecting with even though the setting is different from today. In Reader's Workshop, we worked on vocabulary, reading independently and proving our answers when answering questions after reading a passage. We continued working on our informational reports in Writer's Workshop and continued work on our weather comics.

Wednesday, November 28

Crazy day... is it a full moon?? Anyway, in Math, we continued with being in two separate groups-one working on an independent project and the other working with me to secure their understanding of decimals. I thought that they had it yesterday but when I graded their exit slips, I found that only 2 had and the rest still needed more. So, today we secured that understanding and moved on to adding decimals. They did much better with this. Tomorrow we will subtract and make change and then re-assess on Friday. We had second grade visitors from Mr. Alexander's room come in during Read Aloud to perform a reader's theater for us. We used this to teach us about fluency and the kiddos learned quite a bit from them. Since the reader's theater ran over, Reader's Workshop was a little different and we only read silently and worked on proving our word study generalization. In Writer's Workshop, we discussed adding a strong conclusion to our informational reports. So far, from what I'm seeing, students are really doing a nice job. Finally, in Science, we continued our work on our Weather Comics.

Tuesday, November 27

In Math today, the kiddos were put into 2 groups. Some worked on an independent project where they are researching and writing up a proposal for a class lunch to give to me this Friday. The other group worked on securing our understanding of place and value. First, we began with whole numbers because I found that those that had trouble with decimal place and value also have trouble with whole numbers so we made a tool to help us. We then made the same tool but for decimals. We showed the symmetry between the too and I think I finally saw some light bulbs light up at least for some or a little for each. Instead of Read Aloud, Carter shared some rocks he got when he went to Denver last week. For Reader's Workshop, students worked on sorting their word study words, buddy reading poetry for two voices and reading comprehension about orcas. We have been working on researching and informational report writing. Today, we focused on an inviting lead as our introduction to our informational report about our animals. I think we have revised to make some pretty good leads! Then, in Science, we continued our rough drafts of our weather comics.

Monday, November 26

Today was a great day back! The students were a little noisy and messy but overall great. In Math, we did a few different things. Some needed to take the decimal assessment from last week, others needed more work with decimals and the rest moved on to a game that dealt with adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals. It was a little chaotic for me, but the kiddos did well. Tomorrow, half of the class will be working to secure their skill with basic decimals while the other half will be working on an independent project that enforces their secure understanding of decimals. In Reader's Workshop, we practiced our fluency by reading to a friend in different voices (funny!) and worked on vocabulary. Some of the words we practiced using were nylon, suburb and laptop. We continued our work with our informational reports in Writer's Workshop and in Science, worked on our weather comics.

Tuesday, November 20

We had a small class size today as 4 were absent and 2 more left as the day progressed...I am a little jealous at all the places people are headed for this holiday break--Denver, Texas, Washington DC, New York, etc. We'll have some great conversation when everyone returns! In Math, we took adecimal assessment. I know I didn'tgive notice but felt like the students were at a point where they were showing that they understood decimals and needed to move on. I will look at them over the break and see if the assessment shows the same and we'll either move on to fractions or clear up any misconceptions of decimals first. In Reader's Workshop, we finished our TFK and elapsed time work from yesterday, read and some worked with me. Then, we continued working on our informational reports in Writer's Workshop and concluded our day with our buddies. We read All About Turkeys by Jim Arnosky and then did a math activity where we rolled the dice to create our own turkeys. Fun was had by all!

Monday, November 19

Today was a short day for me as I was only there for the morning. I'm sure your child can fill in the blanks for the afternoon though. In Math, we practiced and reviewed decimals. Some were working with me naming and writing decimals, others were practicing adding and subtracting decimals and everyone (by the end of class) was completing a mini project using decimals realistically. I "gave" them $1,000 and they have to spend it keeping track of what they buy and a running tally of how much they spend and have remaining. I noticed that some are spending money on things with only dollars or round numbers so tomorrow we are going to figure in some tax to make sure they are truly practicing with decimals! Sneaky kiddos! This afternoon, they read and worked on a Time for Kids about time in school, worked on elapsed time and had a book review lesson in the library. They also worked on their weather comic strip some.

Friday, November 16--Woohoo!

This was a LONG week for me... In Math, we practiced what we have learned about decimals. Some are proficient and will be working on an independent project on Monday and Tuesday while others need a little more practice and/or clarification and will be working more to solidify that. In Reader's Workshop, students played word study games, got caught up on previous workboard work and read silently. Meanwhile, I pulled some kiddos to take a little assessment of their reading. We worked on our informational reports in Writer's Workshop and then we took a little break to taste a piece of candy that a parent brought me last night. This candy was her favorite as a child growing up in China. It was delish!! Thank you Mrs, Wagoner! I also introduced a culminating activity for our unit on weather which will be a weather comic strip. If you receive the newspaper, show them the comics on Sunday (or any day for that matter) and discuss what goes into making comics. It is hard to put the right amount of inference and humor and speech to make a comic. They will begin next week and will finish up the first week or so of December.

Thursday, November 15

Today was a long but productive day. Quote of the day during reading: Me-"You haven't gotten very far in that book, have you?" Student-"No. You teach too much! I don't have enough time to read!" Love it! In Math, we worked on subtracting decimals today. We practiced real world skills by using a Red Robin menu to purchase meals and then pay and get change. They had a great time with this! Our historical fiction book in Read Aloud is really good! It might be a tear jerker... In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work with inferences and read about eating bugs in a Time for Kids. For Writer's Workshop, we put researched findings into our own words in an informational report about blue whales. After conferencing with me, they are moving on to write an informational report from the research they gathered about an animal. In Science, we got back into our groups and finished creating our weather instruments to measure precipitation, wind speed and wind direction.

Wednesday, November 14

Today was a great day! We started out changing seats and with this seat change, things seem much quieter. I think they were too comfortable with their table mates... Some didn't enjoy the change while others did a little too much and in turn switched again. :) In Math, we added decimals. This took the entire time as we needed reminders to add ones with ones and tenths with tenths and to line up the decimal point. In Reader's Workshop, we worked on inferences, proving our word study generalizations and reading. We have been working a lot with the books that we are currently reading independently. Ask your child what they are reading? I think some of you would be surprised at how quickly some abandon their books. It takes a lot of concentration and attention to stick with a book until the end but it extremely worth it. To make this point, try turning off the television or their video game in the middle of their show. They won't like it very much and might understand that when abandoning books, it is the same. In Writer's Workshop, we continued with taking research and putting the information into their own words. I have received a few already and they are doing a pretty good job stating the facts but adding their voice so as to not make their reports boring. I am looking forward to reading their animal reports. At the end of the day, in Science, I gave them a basket of materials and the task of making weather instruments to measure precipitation, wind speed and wind direction. Oh my goodness! I loved seeing them brainstorm ways to do this. They worked in teams and are all on the right track. Some did what I had envisioned while others are creating different things which I'm curious about. We'll see!

Tuesday, November 13

Brrr it was a chilly start to the day! In Math, we did many things decimal related. We wrote tenths and hundredths using words, numbers and fractions. We identified decimals using pictures and base-10 blocks. We then partnered up and compared our numbers and then ordered ourselves from least to greatest. We even had a competition to see who could get in order quicker-a boy group with one girl or a girl group with one boy...and the winner was... The boy plus one girl group! For Read Aloud, we began a new historical fiction book. In Reader's Workshop, we worked on our research, read and sorted our word study words. Then, we compared and contrasted last week and this week's generalizations in a Venn Diagram. For Writer's Workshop, we looked at an example and began learning how to write an informational report. Students are practicing taking already gathered information and putting it into their own words. We finished our day with reading some Science books to prepare for our inquiry project with weather instruments tomorrow.

Oh and we won our first Manga High Fai-to!!

Monday, November 12

Good day! In Math, we reviewed some basics of decimals and practiced ordering, comparing and writing decimals. We are still sticking with hundredths for now but every now and then thousandths are thrown in which sometimes throws them off. No worries-we'll get there! We finished Nightmare at the Book Fair! I polled the class on if they liked the book and the answer was overwhelmingly yes. Quite a few children also said that they are interested in a new genre because of what they heard from this book. Yay! In Reader's Workshop, we worked on inference. I read some picture books that took a lot of inferring to comprehend and they would write down their inferences as we went. We said that an inference takes information from the book as well as personal knowledge and puts them together to draw a conclusion. A lot of kiddos wanted to give predictions as inferences but we talked about the differences between these ideas. In Writer's Workshop, we continued with our stories about our streets and what happens in our neighborhood. At the end of the day, we worked on research for our animal and practiced for conferences.

Well needed Friday, November 9

Today was a little extra crazy because Mrs. Williams had a reaction to her medication and didn't have a substitute so her students were split up and we received some extra kiddos. It was wonderful-just added to our already crazy day. We did a lot of catching up today. In Math, we played oodles of games including Manga High as we are in a Fai-to! or challenge from another school. We are tied right now so your child may ask to play on the computer this weekend. I promise it is educational! This afternoon, we completed our turkey t-shirt. This took about an hour to complete. We read, played spelling games, completed our conference material, researched our animal, and got caught up on workboard work for the rest of the afternoon. Again, there was a lot of independent working so a lot of redirection needed. I have been stressing that they are in charge of their learning and am finding that some don't do well with the leadership role there. I may need to guide some of them down the right path for a little longer...

Thursday, November 8

We struggled a little bit today. We are at the point in the year where they are showing that they can be more independent so I give them that opportunity. However, they seem to need more redirection and discipline when working independently. Independence is a big thing and there are aspects to it that need to be taught, retaught and refined so we'll continue to do that. It was just a semi-frustrating day. Now that I've vented a little, here is how our day went. In Math, we continued our learning of decimals and did a decimal ordering activity. Students seemed to have quite a bit of difficulty with this but once we slowed down and really listened and looked at the patterns, we seemed to get it. No worries-we are still beginning. Mr. Hennes has given all the classrooms a challenge of creating a Thanksgiving themed t-shirt. We worked on the plan after lunch and we are making ours into a turkey! Gobble! In Reader's Workshop, two groups played a Logic & Reasoning game, some students worked with Mr. Wendt and everyone else continued working on the Workboard activities. Some of our first grade buddies came down and performed a Reader's Theater of The Little Red Hen. Then, we finishe d our day working on our information and portfolios for conferences next week.

Election Day!

Today is election day and we made it pretty special. Hopefully, it resonated with your child enough that they will be able to come home, fill you in with the festivities and care about the results of the election. After special, we watched a School House Rocks video about the Electoral College. Then, we held a mock election... Which drink do you prefer--Chocolate Milk or White Milk?? Each student drew 2 states out of a hat and received a ballot. Then, when I called each state, they cast their ballot and told us which drink their electoral college votes went to. We did this 51 times! (Did you know that Washington DC has 3 electoral college votes?) At the end, we tallied the popular vote: 20 for chocolate milk and 6 for white milk! Chocolate milk won the popular vote! Then, we practiced our addition (and boy do we need more practice!!) and counted electoral votes and with a vote of 117 to 418, the winner is...   Chocolate Milk! Students were surprised that although Colorado is a larger state than Ohio, it only had 3 votes where we have 18. We also talked about our job as citizens to vote-no matter what. I said that I don't drink white or chocolate milk but I drink almond milk and still needed to vote. (I didn't go into write-ins, don't worry...) We did some Reading and Writing as well and completed some things for conferences next week too. At the end of the day, we headed to the library for our 3rd session on researching. Now, students may be bringing their research books home to help complete their research. This can be included in their Reading and Writing Logs as homework.

Monday, November 5

In Math, we began our new unit on decimals. We looked at the relationship between decimals and money as well as the place and value of decimals through thousandths. We are almost finished with Nightmare at the Book Fair so today we finished up with fantasy and began girl fiction. (This chapter even makes me nauseous!) Has your child made a book bingo yet? In Reader's Workshop, we worked more with inferencing and read about the presidential candidates in Time for Kids. Some finished writing our directions to somewhere today in Writer's Workshop while the rest of us did free writing in our Writer's Notebooks. We took a pretest in Word Study to develop our new lists and finished our day with Science. We recorded today's weather so that we can look for patterns and try to forecast the weather. We also looked at weather maps and some gave us a pretend forecast for the country-like they do on Good Morning America and the Today show.

TGIFriday, November 2

The children were crazy today! I think they were crazier today than yesterday! We took the assessment/quiz/test in Math today and overall, they did great. They either got it or they didn't. There weren't many in betweens. We will be moving on to decimals next week but please know that I will continue to work with those few that did not get it. We continued reading the Fantasy chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair. Hopefully your student is working on getting their book bingo... In Reading, we worked with inferences and practiced our informational text skills by completing an OAA passage. We wrote directions to somewhere during Writer's Workshop. This is helping us with sequencing and being descriptive and complete in our writing. We rounded out the day with Science and learning how to track the weather. Next week a meteorologist job will be added and students will be recording the weather each day so that we can try to track weather patterns.

Thursday, November 1

Wow! I was expecting crazy kids after last night but everyone is doing great! We reviewed in Math today for our quiz tomorrow. Please help your child to practice tonight! We finished our animal fiction chapter in Nightmare at the Book Fair and began the chapter on Fantasy. This is a good, silly one too! In Reader's Workshop, we had some making up to do with kiddos and the library so a majority of our time was spent doing that and silently reading. We also looked at grammar and correcting sentences. In Writer's Workshop, students practiced with direction writing but this time how to get somewhere. We finished the day with Social Studies and learning about agriculture.

Wednesday, October 31

Happy Halloween! I was going to write about our normal day but, there was no substitute for Mrs. Bowers so we didn't havevArt today. Instead, we had free art in the classroom with whatever supplies I could scrounge up from my cupboards. They seemed to enjoy it, so no worries there! In Math, we worked with true and false number sentences, parentheses and open sentences. These skills, added to basic multiplication and division and the earlier math vocabulary we learned, will be assessed in a quiz on Friday. Please help your child to practice! In Nightmare at the Book Fair, we read the genres of easy reader and animal fiction--fun, fun! In Reader's Workshop, I read "I Need My Monster" to the class. The students listened carefully for clues about the monster and then were able to draw or describe his monster. Then, they created their own monster. In Writer's Workshop, they then wrote descriptive paragraphs about their monster and why it was special to them. They had time to share these with the class. We were lucky to be the audience in a performance by our buddies in music which was cool! Finally, we looked at voting rights and laws in preparation of the upcoming election.

Tuesday, October 30

Brrr! We did quite a bit out of our norm today. We took the OLSAT. This assessment looks at how kiddos think. It is a "fill in the bubble" assessment that focuses on patterns and thinking differently. It is used as one more piece of information we get as teachers to help guide our instruction. It is also used as a screener for all 4th grade students to "catch" any of those students that show cognitive gifted ability. They did great with it and I see it as just one more opportunity to increase their stamina and practice testing. We also had some visitors from Central Office come in to see us use the Smart Response System...unfortunately, the technology wasn't cooperating and they didn't get to see these amazing students at work. Oh well-it is what it is! So, we did do some math practice, reading, writing and word study. We also took advantage of Superstorm Sandy to help teach part of our weather unit!

Wednesday, October 24

I watched the fall concert rehearsal this morning and it is amazing! I can't wait for you all to see it! Extra kudos to our Ashley on her solo without accompaniment and she sounded beautiful! There were even tears from some adults... This afternoon, we took a Geography assessment using the clickers. I thought it would be simple and review but almost half of the class thinks that Virginia is a state that borders Ohio, a third of the class thinks that the United States is a continent and the majority of our class is unsure about the hemisphere in which we are located. I feel that these are life skills and necessary common knowledge so please help your child learn, recognize and understand the current event and life skills that deal with our state, country and world along with what we do in class. Then, we read and completed some vocabulary and informational text work. Next, we worked on writing directions. The students are writing a paragraph on how to make one of their favorite foods/snacks. It's amazing how they always forget to state the obvious! Finally, we ended our atypical day with Guidance about bullying.

Tuesday, October 23

Well, we began the day with Music Rehearsal from 9:30-11:45 and then went to recess and lunch. Then, this afternoon we used the Smart Response System (clickers) to practice/assess basic multiplication facts. We read for a little bit of time and some visited the library and then, we talked about what we are responsible for in the way of Research according to the Progress Report. We finished our day in the Media Center with Mrs. Dorr learning how to research, generate a topic and begin a plan for researching this topic. All in all a good day but very disjointed...

Monday, October 22

Good day today! In Math, we were a little split up because we had gym at a different time but we were able to work on multiplication facts and arrays. In Nightmare at the Book Fair, we learned about Science Fiction and started into humor with Captain Obvious and the Exaggerator! It is a fun chapter! In Reader's Workshop, one of the tasks for Workboard was an OAA passage as a mini assessment to see where we still need work with informational text. We also worked with sequencing. In Writer's Workshop, some still needed to finish up from last week while the rest did some free writing. Finally, in Social Studies, we read about Ohio's natural resources.

Thursday, October 18

Today is our Friday and we made it fantastic! We played games in Math-Multiplication Tic-Tac-Toe, Multiplication Jenga and Knock it Off-to help learn our basic facts, met up with our 1st grade buddies and did some getting-to-know-you activities and Mr. Whitt from COSI came to show us some really cool stuff. Thank you Caroline for sharing your awesome dad with us! Wow! It was a fun but full-of-learning day!

Wednesday, October 17

In Math today, we moved on to BASIC multiplication and division. We found in previous years that while learning addition and subtraction, it is best to move onto basic multiplication and division facts before moving into the place and value of decimals and working with fractions. Hopefully, this will make things easier for future lessons. This will be a short unit and will consist of basic fact practice and assessments. In Nightmare at the Book Fair today, we read about Sports Fiction and Adventure--ask your kiddo about Trip's adventures. In Reader's Workshop, we worked on vocabulary of some of our spelling words, buddy reading to practice our fluency while some met with me to work on non-fiction text skills or completed a response to non-fiction text. In Writer's Workshop, we continued our "Diary of a _____ " stories. For Science, we discussed and learned about the water cycle.

Tuesday, October 16

Phew! I am beat--feels like we did a lot today! In Math, we took our assessment and I am pleased to announce that more than the majority of the class "passed" by the state standards of 73%. Look over your child's test with them and help them to understand the ones they missed. Do they understand and just made silly mistakes or are they unsure of how to complete the problems? In Read Aloud, we began reading a new book by Dan Gutman. It discusses the different genres of literature in a fun and amusing way. Nightmare at the Book Fair will be our introduction to different genres of literature. With this, a Book Bingo will come home tomorrow and students will be encouraged to read different genres of books to create a Book Bingo for a special prize. Then, we read B is for Buckeye which is an alphabet book with facts about Ohio. We then went to the computer lab to learn more about collaboration and sharing documents with Google Apps to create an "Ohio ABC" book. The students are having a great time with this and don't realize how much they are truly learning too. In Science, we watched a video about wind and clouds. We are lucky to have a parent that works at COSI in the 4th grade that will be coming in on Thursday to teach us some cool stuff about Weather.

Monday, October 15

Tomorrow is our Math Assessment over whole numbers--place of numbers (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.), value of numbers (10, 300, 6,000, etc.), ROUNDING numbers to the nearest, writing numbers in written and standard form, addition and subtraction. It seems that after going over the review sheet today, distinguishing between place and value, rounding and subtracting were biggies that need practiced. We finished reading Loser by Jerry Spinelli in Read Aloud~great book with a great message by a great author! In Reader's Workshop, we worked with responding to informational text as well as practiced our fluency by reading with a buddy. In Writer's Workshop, we listened to Diary of a Worm and focused on not just sequencing but also journal writing and taking informational facts about something and making it fun and humorous. To show this, students are writing short "Diary of a ____"journals. Next, I'm hoping they can begin journal writing themselves in their Writer's Notebooks. We got new words in Word Study and finished up our work with Chapter 1 on Ohio's Geography in Social Studies.

FRIDAY, October 12

Right now the room is crazy but quiet with everyone enjoying their electronics. We even earned a new piece today toward our next celebration. I wonder what that will be... In Math today, we practiced and reviewed for our assessment on Tuesday. I noticed that some of us still need practice so please encourage your kiddo to practice at home this weekend--place, value, rounding, writing numbers in different ways, addition and subtraction. In Reader's Workshop, we finished up our workboard from this week and some met with me for Guided Reading. We are still focusing on Informational text and responding to all kinds of literature. Today was the last day to finish our Roll-a-Stories in Writer's Workshop. I'm looking at their presentation, paragraphing and sentence fluency. Finally, before our celebration, we played games for word study. I saw some great learning!

Thursday, October 11

Today was a normal day according to our schedule, however, we had students coming and going and out for many different reasons. If at any time your student misses something and feels overwhelmed because of this, please help them to come talk to me. So far, I haven't seen this to be an issue but as the year progresses things will get more challenging and go quicker. In Math, we worked with really big numbers. We used Ohio's populations since 2000 to round and talk about estimation and then ordered large numbers. In Reader's Workshop, we worked on Ohio Studies Weekly and vocabulary while I met with Guided Reading groups. We finished our stories in Writer's Workshop--I'm focusing on presentation, sentence fluency and paragraphs. Please help your child to always remember conventions even when writing on kidblog. Finally, in Social Studies, we reviewed the first unit on the geography of Ohio.

Wednesday, October 10

The students are discussing responsibility currently, with Mrs. Vidic in Guidance...no more 'normal' days... Anyway-great discussion! In Math today, we continued our practice with whole numbers and I really see more and more students showing secure understanding. There will probably be an assessment next week sometime so be sure to keep an eye out for this in the planner. In Reader's Workshop, we worked on our Time for Kids and vocabulary Rock-n-Roll. Ask your student if they learned any new words today. We are finishing the writing process focusing on sentence fluency, presentation and paragraphing with our stories in Writer's Workshop.

Tuesday, October 9

I have one at home with strep so today I was only present this morning. We had an bnormal schedule due to music practice so we began the day with Math. On their menu today: computer games, Manga high, practice, practice and practice of place, value, rounding, addition and subtraction. Mr Martin, the same substitute as yesterday, is there this afternoon and will be doing some vocabulary work with them. The day. Will be concluding with a lesson with Mrs. Dorris about book reviews.

Monday, October 8

Like I said, there are very few "normal" days anymore... In Math, we were really differentiated in what we did as I found that we are very differentiated in our understanding of whole numbers. Some students are secure in place, value, rounding, adding and subtracting. Others need intense researching of one or more of these skills and the majority of the class just needs more practice and a little reteaching. Ask your student which category they fell into and how their learning was different today. This will continue throughout the week and groups may change depending on how quickly students grasp concepts. After lunch is where things were out of the ordinary. Instead of Read Aloud, students had an extra music practice. In Reader's Workshop, I read, It's a Book and then students compared and contrasted technology with books. It was a great thought provoking book and a great discussion as well. Then, I had to go to a meeting to learn about a great new writing resource so Mr. Martin was the substitute. In Writer's Workshop, students continued with the writing process focusing on sentence fluency and paragraphing. We are rounding out the end of Unit 1 on the geography of Ohio so students began reviewing the concepts they had learned. Good day-wish I could have been there all day!

TGIF!!! October 5

I am starting to think there aren't "normal" days anymore... Today was fire safety so we met with Lt. Lewis to watch a video and talk about fire safety. This is really important and we think our 4th graders know what to do but please be sure because unfortunately, some do not know phone numbers and addresses which are super important in case of emergencies. Take the time to go over these things and your evacuation plan just in case. In Math, I told a great story about my friends Juan (one), Tim (tens), Harry (hundreds) and Theo (thousand) and how Juan shops at Giant Eagle so he buys singles of things and Tim shops at Sam's Club so he buys in bulk and Harry goes to Costco, etc. to help them better understand subtraction. (They said the substitute really confused them.) If you see your child struggling at home with subtraction, ask them about my friends-it should help. In Reading, I met with a couple groups and went over fact and opinion and informational text. In Writer's Workshop, they continued their story using appropriate paragraphing and sentence fluency. At the end of the day, Evelyn shared rice kris pie treats with the class-thank you! (Thanks also to Max for sharing cookies yesterday.)

Tuesday, October 2

Overall, today was a pretty typical day. In Math, we discussed addition. 2 + 2 = 4... Why? What does that mean? Show me. Prove it. Then, we completed a few addition problems. After we fixed any mistakes we made, we finished our Math Menu from yesterday by playing Addition Top-It and doing some partner work on dry erase boards. For Read Aloud, we went to the Media Center where Mrs. Dorr showed us and introduced the nominees for the Buckeye Children's Book Award. In Reader's Workshop, some kiddos received their special treat for completing their Reading Minutes card. Everyone read or perused the books Mrs. Dorr showed us. In Writer's Workshop we learned how to stretch our sentences. We used what we've learned about parts so speech to help up do this. Then, we took our stretched out sentence and developed it into a paragraph using sentence fluency-and discussed what this is. We sorted our words in Word Study to find that this week's words have long vowel sounds with a silent e at the end. In Science, we created a barometer to measure air pressure after discovering and experiencing pressure yesterday in class.

Monday, October 1

Well, today was a little out of the ordinary as I had an appointment this afternoon and there was a sub-yes, there was a sub today! So, you'll have to ask the students what their afternoon was like. In Math, we practiced addition facts and prepared our minds to move from place and value into using those values to add and subtract multi-digit numbers. It may at first seem easy but this work with whole numbers is still building the foundation to be later manipulated with large numbers and decimals. Well, hopefully, I'll be at school all day tomorrow and can write more then.
Take care,
Heather

Thursday, September 27

Another soggy day of indoor recess and today proved not so great. Some children did well as always, however, some chose to make some bad choices. Hopefully, after our discussion and wonderful afternoon, that will not happen again. In Math, we continued our work with place and value. In Reader's Workshop, we worked on our Ohio Studies Weekly and vocabulary. Ask your child what gargantuan means and how the President might use it. In Word Study, we "drew" our words. Students had to look up what 5 of their words meant and draw a picture showing the words. We finished our day in the computer lab with Mrs. Parker-Jones. Today was the correct day! We worked with Google Apps and learned about document sharing. Ask your children to show you what we learned today. It is ok if they want to create a document and share it with me to show you.
I'm out tomorrow with a sick kid so you're on your own. Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, September 26

What a soggy day, which unfortunately, meant indoor recess. Boo... Anyway, in Math, we took the MAP assessment. This assesses students using a computer program on math skills. It tailors the assessment to how well they perform. As they do well, the degree of difficulty increases. It is given solely for the purpose of another look at their mathematic ability. I am able to see where their strengths and weaknesses are in different math strands (number sense, geometry, etc...) so that I can better help them in Math. After lunch, we listened to the candidates for student council give their speeches and then voted for our class representative. In Reading, we worked more with non-fiction and cause/effect situations, inferencing and comparing and contrasting. In Writer's Workshop, we completed Mad Libs to practice parts of speech and in Word Study we looked around the room and in books for words that fit this week's generalization. We finished our day with Guidance a la Mrs. Vidic.

Tuesday, September 25

Today was a productive learning day. In Math, we played place and value musical chairs, played base 10 exchange, worked with base 10 stamps to identify numbers and had some edible math too! In Reading, we read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie to learn and discuss cause and effect. We sorted our words in word study and found the generalization that the letter y, sometimes makes a long vowel sound. We had some extra time before heading to the computer lab so we were able to free write in our Writer's Notebooks. Then we headed down to the computer lab to find that I had the wrong day! So, we marched back to the room and read some more from our read aloud, Loser. Since we had some extra time :) kids were able to share from their Writer's Notebooks and from their recent travels and we played Homeworkopoly. (I'll let you know about the computer lab on THURSDAY, which is the day we are supposed to be there!)

Monday, September 24

Today, we accomplished quite a lot in a short period of time. In Math, we worked more with the place and value of numbers. In Reading, we worked on vocabulary with regards to perspective and making sure the definition fits the circumstance. We also continued our work with non fiction text in reading groups--some worked on comparing and contrasting while others worked with cause and effect. In Writing, we played around with sentences. We finished the day off with a lesson in the library with Mrs. Dorris about using the online catalog searches.

It's Friday, Friday, Friday.... September 21

Hi all! It must be a full moon because today was a little bit crazy! We were loud and goofy but actually got stuff accomplished so I shouldn't complain. Anyway, in Math, we began our unit on whole numbers with discussing the place and value of numbers through millions. This was a little tricky for some so maybe some extra practice over the weekend might be useful. In Reading, we met in our groups and discussed the features of non-fiction text and how they help us and what we find most useful. We wrote in our Writer's Notebooks about things we wonder. What does your child wonder about? You'd be surprised how deep some got. Where is Ohio? We looked at Ohio and it's place in the world, country, etc...as well as the specific geographic features of Ohio.
Have a good weekend,
Mrs. L

Thursday, September 20

Hi all! Great day yet again. In Math, we worked on a math menu which had us playing games, practicing transformations and even trying something a little more challenging-frieze patterns. While they were working independently, I was able to pull small groups and individuals who needed some extra practice. Tomorrow, we're moving on to place and value of whole numbers. In Reader's Workshop, we read some non-fiction articles in Time for Kids and wrote responses to one of the articles that "spoke" to us. In Writer's Workshop, we finished our descriptive paragraphs and wrote freely without boundaries in our newly decorated Writer's notebooks. We finished the Bouncing Ball experiment in Science and talked about the scientific process and collecting and analyzing data.
Enjoy your evening!
Mrs. L

Wednesday, September 19

Ahoy matey! Today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day! Sooo, we HAD to do something for this fun occasion! In Reader's Workshop, one of our activities was to read and understand vocabulary pirates use and then write like a pirate. In Math, we applied our understanding of transformations using our handprints and then writing what kind of transformation we showed and how we know. In Writer's Workshop, we finally decorated our Writer's Notebooks! We also wrote our first academic goal of the year. Ask your child what their goal is and how you can help them to be successful!
Aye!
The Cap'n

Tuesday, September 18

Unfortunately, I was out this afternoon because of a doctor appointment for my daughter so you'll have to ask your kiddo what happened while I was out. I know what I left for the substitute but not sure what all they got to. In Math this morning, we worked with reflections, translations and rotations. We discussed and modeled these ideas and then practiced these skills by playing Tetris, Blokus and using pentominoes. There are a few free Tetris websites out there but I told them I'd let you know the one we were able to gain access to so they could play at home if they wanted:  http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/tetris/index.html. Tomorrow is late start so school begins at 11:00.
After while Crocodile!
Mrs. L

Monday, September 17

Today was a little different than usual as I had a meeting to plan with my team, Mrs. Dorr and Mrs. Parker-Jones so I was out of the classroom for about 1 and 1/2 hours this afternoon. However, the kids were in great hands and it seemed like they never even missed me. In Math, we reviewed one thing I noticed needed one more practice from looking over the assessments. After that, we moved on and worked with symmetry and reflections. We will finish with these transformations by week's end and will then be moving onto place and value of whole numbers. In Reading, we are still working with non-fiction text, which is the majority of what we read as adults. We responded to non-fiction, read an article about the history of chocolate (yum) and did some comparing with this article. In Writing, I changed my plans up a bit because I saw so much interest and creativity during math with creating reflections and symmetrical shapes that I decided to use that and have them write descriptive paragraphs about what they created. We had robots, aliens and even just some circles and rectangles. Today is Constitution Day so in Social Studies, we talked about the constitution: what it is, how it came to be and interpreted the preamble. We used a book, We, the Kids and watched a couple School House Rocks videos and I think they have a pretty good grasp about our constitution. Overall, it was a very productive day.
Have a great evening of conversation!
Mrs. L

TGIFriday, September 14

We were very noisy the last two days...Mr. Potato Head lost an ear today... Hopefully, next week we will get back on track. We took our assessment in Math today because after yesterday, I realized they knew what they needed to know and I didn't want to give them busy work when most didn't need the extra practice. I have already graded some of them and overall are doing very well. The mistakes that have been made are not due to misunderstanding but format of the assessment or not paying attention to details. No worries, we will review and visit these geometry skills throughout the year. We have been working on responding to all different types of literature during Reader's Workshop, Read Aloud and homework, so we read each others' blogs and responded to them today. Unfortunately, this didn't first work as planned. I had to remind them that this is school and that they need to respond as readers, not necessarily as friends. We are working on it and I'm confident that as the year progresses, things will come more naturally. I am, however, extremely impressed that kids are reading and writing blogs after school! This is what I've been wanting--authentic reading, writing and interest in learning! in Science, we did an experiment with the bounce of tennis balls when dropped at different heights. With this, we looked at dependent and independent variables, the scientific process/method, working together and collecting data. We also took a sensory walk in the drizzling rain :) to gain inspiration for our writers notebooks.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. L

Thursday, September 13

Uh-oh...Mr. Potato Head lost his ice cream treat...ask your child why he lost something instead of gaining. In Math, we worked in groups to apply what we've been learning about polygons. While students were independently working and playing games, I was able to pull some kiddos over for extra practice/help. They did a great job with this! In Reading, we worked with responding to our read aloud, Loser, played Boggle and one group I worked with invented a secret code! Xf ibe gvo! In Writing, we talked about writing with and without boundaries. We started an inquiry project in Science to help teach us the scientific process, safety and procedures.
Hopefully, see you tonight!
Mrs. L

Wednesday, September 12

Happy day! We are being very productive in all areas. In Math, we continued with geometry by classifying quadrangles by their attributes and reviewing polygons. We are headed for an assessment early next week. In Reading, we are continuing to look at nonfiction text as well as focusing on vocabulary and responding to different texts. In Writing, I'm sure you heard, that we have created our blogs. Visit kid blog.or/MrsLambrightsClass. There, students can update and comment on blogs. Feel free to peruse all student blogs. We also began guidance today which will continue every other week throughout the year.
Hopefully, see you tomorrow at curriculum night!
Mrs. Lambright

Monday, September 10

Today was a great day, as always! In Math, we continued our work on angles and measuring and identifying angles. We continued our work with non-fiction text during Reader's Workshop. In Writing, we had the laptops out and created our individual blogs. Visit kidblog.org/MrsLambrightsClass to access these blogs, however, nothing has been published yet. Check back at the end of the week to read their blogs. The day went quick but we seem to have gotten a lot accomplished!
Enjoy your evening,
Mrs. Lambright

TGIFriday, September 7

Thank goodness it's Friday! Today, we continued our geometry work with angles but introduced a protractor and learned how to use it to measure angles. We continued reading Loser by Jerry Spinelli in Read Aloud which focuses on compassion for a fellow student who isn't exactly like every other student. Love it! Reader's Workshop was a little crazy as kiddos were all doing different things trying to catch up from this week's workboard activities. We are going to begin writing our individual blogs next week so today we found some blogs written by kids and read them to get some ideas as to what blogs are and how they look. They then wrote ideas for their blogs and I can't wait to read them. We will begin writing them next week so be on the lookout for information about where you can find your child's blog. In Social Studies, students are creating their own island maps to show their knowledge of map skills. We used our foot or hand as a template for our island. We love taking off our shoes!
Have a glorious weekend! Go Bucks!
Heather Lambright

Thursday, September 6

I feel like today was actually a normal day! In Math, we continued our work with geometry using geoboards and yarn. In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work board work and some students had guided reading. We finished our Important Paragraphs in writing which you can check out at curriculum night next week. Finally, in Social Studies, we practiced and reviewed maps and map skills.
Have a great evening!
Mrs. L

Wednesday, September 5

Today was a very technological day. We spent a good portion of the day in the computer lab today. We first learned about the computers and how to use them appropriately and safely as well as set up our personal accounts. Each student has access to many things at home through HCSD. Their username is their ID number or lunch code. They set up their passwords today and should share them with you only. I will show you some things at Curriculum Night next week that they can do using these logins. The second portion of our computer lab time was spent typing up our important paragraphs. Students are quickly learning very good life skills with typing, editing, fonts, SAVING, etc. We also read a book, Everybody Needs a Rock and then went on a walk to get our own rocks. We then began to set a goal for the beginning of the year. All in all, a great day. By the way, I was a little premature with talking about Homeworkopoly yesterday--we didn't get to it but we did today!
Have a relaxing evening!
Mrs. L

Tuesday, September 4

What a soggy day! Needless to say, we had indoor recess today. :( In Math, we started with our first unit, geometry. It is really more of a refresher from last year although it didn't really seem that way today... We began Guided Reading groups today! We discussed why we read and talked about decoding and different strategies to use when we come to a word we don't know. Ask your kiddo about the Chunky Monkey! In Writer's Workshop, we went to the computer lab to type our Important Paragraphs. Some students need some extra practice with typing... We learned about globes and our world today but what you'll probably hear about most is that we played Homeworkopoly.
Have a great evening,
Heather Lambright

TGIFriday, August 31

Today was a great day! We began with gym which is always fun. In Math, we continued our work from yesterday representing ourselves using numbers and played some review math games. In Reading, we talked about Reader's Response and our homework expectations with reading. We moved onto revising and editing in Writer's Workshop and in Science, we graphed data that was collected about our spuds.
Bye-bye said the fly!
Mrs. Lambright

Thursday, August 30

I assessed students on their reading skills and abilities so we had a substitute today. Mrs. Bowers (not the art teacher) was our sub and she is fabulous! I learned through assessing that mostly everyone in the class, like at least 21 kiddos, are at grade level or above! Woohoo! I know what I left for plans but you'll have to ask your child what went on in the classroom today...
Have a great evening!
Mrs. Lambright :)

Wednesday, August 29

Wow! Today has been a great day! We had art and then had a number talk and then went to the library and can finally check out books! I have been so impressed with this groups love of reading! Since we spent most of Math in the library, we didn't have a lot of time so we practiced basic addition in a more complex situation. For most, this was pretty simple. In Reading, we spent some time reading the books we checked out from the library and then talked about how using Post-it notes can be useful/helpful while reading. We continued with the writing process for our Important Paragraphs and in Science, did some "Spud Stuff."
Enjoy this glorious evening!
Mrs. Lambright

Tuesday, August 28

Today was a great day! We are finally getting into the swing of things and setting up a daily routine. Students are quiet in the halls (mostly) and Mr. Potato Head has eyes and an ear! In Math, we did some review of skills--some of us have forgotten how to add so please work on some addition and subtraction facts at home. In Writer's Workshop, we reviewed writing paragraphs with The Important Book and will now write paragraphs about ourselves. We had Social Studies today and got out our Ohio textbooks--ooooh! These were a hit but I'm sure it won't last too long.
Have a great night!
Mrs. Lambright

Monday, August 27

Well, today was our first indoor recess and that went very well. The students also are now able to choose their seats at lunch-anywhere in the cafeteria and by anyone they want. This too went pretty well. We had a number talk and completed a partner activity in Math. This afternoon, we talked about how to choose books that are just right and students "showed" what reading both does and doesn't look like. They had a lot of fun showing what it doesn't look like! We also organized a few folders and discussed sentences and what 4th grade sentences should look like. In Science, we drew pictures of what we think scientists look like and the tools they use. We realized that each of us is a scientist! Finally, we learned a little bit about homework expectations for the year. This will make more sense as the week progresses and they get more information.
Have a lovely evening!
Mrs. Lambright

Wednesday, August 22

Well, 2 down and 178 to go! Today was another wonderful day! We learned about respect and responsibility--what they are, what they look like and how we can show them in the class. We also talked about being "ready to learn!" Ask your child what this looks like... This afternoon we did some team building outside with tarps. Hmmm...doesn't it sound interesting?
Have a great conversation,
Mrs. Lambright

Tuesday, August 21

Today was an awesome first day of school ever!! We had a fancy fire drill complete with fire trucks. We had lots of fun and learned a lot about the classroom. We also met new friends today! Mr. Potato Head can now see! *ask your kiddo what this means...

See you later alligator,
Mrs. Lambright and class

Welcome!

Welcome to our daily blog! Have you ever asked your child, "What did you do today?" and received, "Nothing." as a response? Well, here you will find a summary of our day which can help you to ask specific questions to start great conversations with your child.