Marvelous Monday

The students began their day working with Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Dodson.  First, they did a book exchange in the media center.  Then they went to the computer lab to work on their blogs using Kids Blog.

When they returned to class we reviewed this week's math HOMEWORK.  The children will be bringing home a half sheet paper with the instructions.  Each night they will receive a half sheeter with basic multiplication facts.  The student should be timed for 2 minutes to see how many problems they can complete.  Then they should get an adult or use a calculator to correct the problems they solved in the two minutes.  After that, they should solve the rest of the facts, on the sheet, that they didn't have time to answer while being timed.  Please have your child return the fact sheet the next day.  Keep the directions at home for future use.

Next we began our math rotations.  Our focus this week is on 2 dimensional shapes.  During the teacher led small group instruction, we defined and identified examples (and non examples) of quadrilaterals and rhombuses.  During guided practice the students solved word problems involving mass.  Finally, during the technology session the children played a shape naming game of memory.

After math, I reviewed this week's independent work tasks.

1. Students will write a thank you note to an assigned visitor from Career Day.
2. Students will publish their issue inquiry project using Microsoft Word.
3. Students will watch an Educreations lesson teaching students how to turn heading into researchable questions and then read the text to identify the main ideas in a section of non-fiction.
4. Students will watch a video about using robots on assembly lines.  Then they will choose a video about robot usage in automobiles and emergency rooms OR radio astronomy and school buses.  Finally, they will describe how using robots as part of an assembly line affects producers, in their social studies journals.
5. Students will watch a Magic School Bus video about decomposition.

Before turning the students loose we reviewed the format and correct capitalization and punctuation for a friendly letter.  I also briefly explained how turning a heading into a question and answering it with information from the text can identify the main idea.

Cheetahs:  We met briefly and were going to begin reading the next chapter of their book.  However, we got derailed discussing whether or not it was a challenge for Walt Disney to create Mickey Mouse.

Following lunch and outdoor recess, I did a mini lesson reviewing how to create, format, save and print a document using Microsoft Word.  Then, while the students worked independently, I did some end of the year, informal reading assessments with individual students.  Due to this testing, reading groups will be met with sporadically this week.

At the end of the day we watched a short video clip to learn what decomposition is and reviewed what we learned on Friday about organic and inorganic materials.  After that, the students worked in groups of 2 or 3 to put organic material into jars.  We will observe the jars all week to see first hand the sequence of events in the decomposition of organic material.  The children will capture their findings using a packet they received today.

Field Day is FRIDAY.  Mr. Lee is desperate for volunteers.  Please email me if you have time to help out!