Wednesday, February 27

In Math today, we learned how to find the median or middle number in a set of data. Most kids are doing great with this unit, however, some are still unsure as to which numbers to report when working with numerical data--the labels or the tallies? We will continue to practice this week and at least part of next week so there is plenty of time to figure things out and practice. In Reader's Workshop, we continued to try and understand poetry as well as play a game using context clues. We kept writing poetry in Writer's Workshop and picked the poem, or at least narrowed down the choices, for which poem we are going to use for working with garage band? We concluded the day with Guidance.

Monday and Tuesday, February 25-26

First of all, sorry about not blogging yesterday--didn't get home until 8:30 and well, you know... Anyway, yesterday, in Math, we began data collection and representation--which the kiddos are doing amazing with by the way! We continued reading Heartbeat for Read Aloud and then worked on Poetry in Reader's Workshop with reading, interpreting and comprehending the author's message and then wrote different kinds of poetry for Writer's Workshop. We concluded the day learning about the physical properties of matter--luster, density, conductivity as well as shape and size.
Today, in Math, we used individual packs of Skittles to collect and interpret data. We found that in our class, red is the least represented Skittle where purple is the most. Most students had 15 Skittles in their packs while Evelyn was a big winner with 17 in her pack! In Read Aloud, Annie told us more about her life. In Reader's Workshop, we illustrated our riddle poems, tried to find poems that had deeper meaning and interpret the author's words and read lots of poetry. In Writer's Workshop, we continued to experiment and try out different kinds of poetry. Some kids are still just staying at the surface of their emotions and writing about things like Goldfish, Jelly and Sports while others are tapping into their deeper emotions and showing their vulnerability in some pretty awesome poems. We will be picking one poem to publish. illustrate and create music to. In Science, we took our knowledge of the physical properties of matter to explain the physical properties of different objects.

Thursday, February 21

We took our Multiplication and Division assessment in Math today. Overall, the children did great. They understand the process of multiplication and division and can show how they solve problems. Unfortunately, even with many reminders, quite a few of them did not read the question for meaning and missed them because of that reason. In Read Aloud, we continued to read more about Moody Max and Annie's grandpa in Heartbeat. We worked on poetry for Reader's Workshop and in Writing, wrote oodles of poems to put on our "tree." Our day concluded with Social Studies and discussing the many different religions and new communities in Ohio in the 1800's.

Wednesday, February 20

This morning was all about practicing and reviewing for the Multiplication and Division assessment tomorrow. Please help your child practice tonight so that they feel prepared for the test tomorrow. It is not just about understanding the process of multiplying and dividing but also interpreting the remainder and deciding when to multiply and when to divide... We finished Love That Dog yesterday and began another Sharon Creech poetic novel called Heartbeat today. In Reader's Workshop, we worked with understanding the nuts and bolts of poetry and how to decipher theme and meaning of poetry which led us to writing different kinds of poetry in Writer's Workshop. Yesterday, we learned about the different kinds of figurative language that we can include in our poetry to emphasize our ideas. We have also created a "Poet-tree" to display our poetry. :) We ended the day learning about the people in Ohio in the 1800's and the progression of education too.

Thursday, February 14

Happy Valentine's Day! In Math, we found the perimeter, area and volume of our boxes and then we decorated them. They did a pretty good job but will obviously need more instruction and practice which we will do soon. Instead of Read Aloud, we passed out valentines. The students then read them and were able to eat 2 things. This made for a sugar high of an afternoon! In Reader's Workshop, we read a story about Valentine's Day and then did some vocabulary with some of the words associated with the holiday. We also read a poem about a Clockatoo--this was quite a bit more challenging but students should now understand what a cockatoo is as well as understanding what weep, punctual and plight mean. We also took a trip to the book fair for some to purchase books. In Social Studies, we talked about the changes in transportation that happened in the 1800's, now that Ohio is a state and the population began increasing.

Tuesday, February 12

We browsed the book fair today! I know my children came home with an extensive list... In Math, we made a flip book for what to do with the remainder in a division problem--ignore it, round it or report it as a decimal or fraction. For Read Aloud, we began Love That Dog--a book in which the story is told through poetry. In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work from yesterday with fluency practice and vocabulary practice. We finished up our day in the computer lab working on our conference presentations. (or wrote stories, poetry, played Mangahigh...)

Monday, February 11

Today was a great day in room 110! In Math, we continued our work with division by interpreting the remainder. Students struggled with this a little because they understood this to mean that they could CHOOSE what to do with the remainder. I had to help them understand that the question determined what to do with the remainder and they needed to read and apply the words in the problem to decide what to do. In Read Aloud, we read some poems to jump start our poetry unit. Hopefully, students will begin to gain interest in reading and writing poetry. In Reader's Workshop, we read, practiced our fluency by reading a poem with a friend and looked at latin roots for vocabulary help. (This will help them next year, especially, with the common core standards in 5th grade.) After Reader's Workshop, we headed down to the computer lab to complete our conference presentations.

Thank Goodness It's Friday, February 8

We were sooo chatty, loud and needy this afternoon... whew! We spent most of the day in the computer lab working on our conference presentations so that made us a little bit crazy but at least the presentations are looking good. In Math, I showed them the traditional method of division and some caught on quickly while others are still preferring to use the partial quotients method. I am fine either way, however, the traditional way is much more efficient and leaves room for fewer mistakes so that is the end goal. We also read some and had indoor recess, again.

Thursday, February 7

The kids were a little crazy today... By crazy, I mean loud AND we got to go outside for recess so it's not that they were stir crazy... Anyway, we had a great day. In Math, we continued to work on the partial quotients method or "marshmallow" method for division. I'm going to teach the traditional method for solving division problems tomorrow but my rule is that if that don't completely understand, continue to use partial quotients as they'll have plenty of chances to pick up the traditional method throughout this year and next year too. Instead of beginning a new book for Read Aloud today, the students worked on their presentations for conferences next week. In Reader's Workshop, we read, worked on our fluency and practiced with some OAA passages. In order to help some kiddos get caught up in Writer's Workshop, some of us worked on our historical fiction pieces while others worked on conference information, which is how we finished the day.

Wednesday, February 6

We had an amazing day! We earned 3 potato head pieces and were able to even choose our new seats! In Math, we learned division by using the partial quotients method. Their homework is to share this method with you by completing a problem. We finished The Beaded Moccasins! Some didn't want it to end. For Literacy, we read silently, proved that we knew our Word Study generalization by finding words that fit the pattern. We finished our day on a wonderfully positive note with Rachael's mom teaching us about Chinese New Year!

Tuesday, February 5

Today was a semi-normal day... our special time was changed so Math was split into 2 parts but other than that, we had a great day, typical day. In Math, we worked with division. We began with dividing marshmallows among the class. We didn't estimate too well but each student was able to receive quite a few marshmallows! Then, we practiced some basic division with equal answers-no remainders. For part two, it was a little more challenging as some of the division problems did not come out even and students had to decide what to do with the remainder. For the first day of division, they did awesome! In Read Aloud, Mary realized that things and even people can be replaced but never forgotten... we ended today with Mary saving her family/tribe garden but hurting her hands to do so... I met with the remaining two reading groups to set individual reading goals during Reader's Workshop while the rest of the class read and read out loud with a buddy to practice their fluency, reading rate and accuracy which were most of the goals they set yesterday. We worked with temporal words, linking words, similes and writing amazing introductions in Writer's Workshop. We first looked at mentor texts to get a plethora of ideas and then revised our writing to make it more emphatic and interesting. Finally, we discussed and characterized solids, liquids and gases. Try to add a little of this matter conversation to your dinner talk this evening and see what they can say about what they've learned.

Monday, February 4

Today, in Math, we began division by factoring numbers. We created factor posters for numbers using arrays and factor rainbows. Students were dividing but I don't think they realize this yet. Tomorrow, I'll help make that connection between multiplication and division. We also played "I Have, Who Has" which is a game we try to play with every new ideas and units in Math as we love this game! In The Beaded Moccasins, Mary visited Mrs. Stewart who was traded to Sequin for muskets. My how things have changed at the trading post. In Reader's Workshop, we got our new reading groups. I met with some groups today and we went over their current reading levels and statistics of their reading. Then, we set individual reading goals. Ask your child what their goal is and how you can help them to achieve this goal! We continued drafting our historical fiction personal narratives in Writer's Workshop. Some are doing really well with this while others are really struggling to grasp the concept of putting these two genres together. See where your child is in the writing process and if you are able to help them at all. In Science, we began our study of Matter by watching a Bill Nye the Science Guy video. The first few lessons should mostly be review of previously learned material but then we'll build upon this prior knowledge to learn about physical and chemical changes and properties of matter.

Friday, February 1

Happy Friday friends! Today, in Math, I assessed the students on their understanding of multi-digit multiplication. The majority of the class is able to multiply 2 digits by 2 digits. The students that are unable to complete this task are at least able to multiply 4 digit by 1 digit. We will be moving on to division next week but will continue to practice multiplication. Keep practicing at home too! In Read Aloud, Mary started to think about her future. Will she ever be rescued? Will she get married to a Delaware? We finished up our work board in Reader's Workshop and played spelling games on the ipods. In Writer's Workshop, we starting drafting our historical fiction personal narratives. We discussed that we need to "squish" the two genres together and this may take more than one revision and draft to get it just right. We finished the day with a video about Ohio and all the great things we have here. They truly enjoyed most of it--very cool!

Thursday, January 31

In Math, we practiced and practiced multiplication of multiple digits. In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work board for the week. We continued/finished up with researching our historical time period for our historical fiction personal experience narratives. We finished the day with reading more about Mary Campbell from The Beaded Moccasins. She has been held captive for about a year now and is only speaking Unami. No more English!