Thursday

This morning the children began their day in art but then went to a character counts, cultural arts assembly called Sprocket the Rocket.  The assembly took up part of our reading block, too.

When we returned to class, we jumped right into our reading and writing block.  First, we revisited the article, "Smoking Stinks" and highlighted (in a new color, not yellow) words the author used that led to implied information.  We looked closely at words we highlighted and wrote the inferred details in the margins of the article.

After that, we reviewed how to use feedback that I provide, in writing, on the children's rough drafts to revise and improve their final drafts.  We talked about spelling and explicit changes they needed to make, as well as, questions I posed to lead them to greater elaboration in the writing.

The children's independent work included making revisions to their rough drafts and individual reading group assignments.

For HOMEWORK all students need to read the article, "Warning!  Secondhand Smoke is a Hazard to your Health" and highlight 3 important EXPLICIT ideas (ideas that the author actually say --right there in the text).  There will be more than 3 but they only need to highlight three.

While the students worked on their math warm up, Mrs. Head pulled a small group to review challenges from last night's homework.  Then we reviewed this video presentation and used it to discuss and identify the knowns and unknowns and what each number represented.  Understanding this is imperative to being able to decide which operation needs to be used to accurately solve word problems.  Next we analyzed a word problem by identifying the knowns and unknowns.  Then we wrote an equation and shared different strategies to solve it.  Finally, we read the other two problems on the worksheet and discussed the similarities (using the same data set...one student said it reminded her of fact families) and differences (the unknowns change).

For homework tonight, the children need to complete the last two problems on the worksheet.

Following lunch and recess, Mr. Vogel's class joined us for a Red Ribbon Week lesson provided by Mrs. Howard.  We had a police officer as a guest speaker to speak about the importance to say NO to drugs and alcohol.

Speaking of Red Ribbon Week....tomorrow is Jersey Day.  Tomorrow is also PICTURE DAY.  Whether you buy school pictures or not, all students will be photographed for the yearbook.

We ended the day by defining vocabulary words involved with OTC and prescription medications.  Vocabulary words included; physician, patient, pharmacist, etc.  Then we watched a Power Point explaining the many proper uses of medication and comparing and contrasting OTC and prescription medication.