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!