Terrific Tuesday

This morning we used text features to help us identify the main idea in sections of the book Life in the Polar Regions.

While I met with reading groups the students read the article Center of Life in their National Geographic and completed a follow up worksheet. They also completed a cartoon for the new WOW word, blunder (a silly or careless mistake).

Reading Groups:
Bears:We created a new vocabulary section in their RRJs and practiced adding new words to this section. Each entry will list an identified word, the sentence from the text in which it appears, three synonyms from the dictionary/thesaurus we have in the classroom and finally the students will circle one of the synonyms that "works" in the sentence from the text. We did this, together, in group using the word currents. This afternoon they will attempt it independently using the word designated.

In math we reviewed constructing conversion tables and then created rectangular boxes using a given amount of materials. For example, create a sandbox using materials that measure 20 yds. So, one box might have 2 sides measuring 2 yds. and 2 sides measuring 8 yards each, 2 + 2+ 8+ 8=20.

Following PE, lunch and recess we began to share our prewriting for our next writing piece, when we hit a snag! Therefore, we backed up...way up...and created new topic lists for writing to inform. Unfortunately, most of the student's topic lists were geared towards writing to perform a task.

While I met with reading groups, the students worked on their new topic lists and continued independent work from earlier in the day

Reading Groups
Crabs:We created a new vocabulary section in their RRJs and practiced adding new words to this section. Each entry will list an identified word, the sentence from the text in which it appears, three synonyms from the dictionary/thesaurus we have in the classroom and finally the students will circle one of the synonyms that "works" in the sentence from the text. We did this, together, in group using the word compete.

Lions: We read the first section of their new reading book and identified what a highland is and how it can be created.

We ended the day by rereading Uncle Jed's Barbershop which led to a wonderful discussion about the civil rights movement and segregation. When we got back on track, we identified the choices Uncle Jed had to make.