Ups and Downs

Perfect title for our day...some GREAT moments and then some not-so-great...

Beginning with math, we took our quiz and almost everyone did very well. Right now, my lowest grade in math (the average) is a C...I think that is pretty terrific...the students are working hard, asking good questions and learning a lot! The quizzes are graded and coming home today. We will take the assessment later this week. There is a practice worksheet for homework.

During reading we identified verbs in the morning message, since many children are struggling with identifying the predicate in a sentence. The simple predicate is the main verb in the sentence. I am wondering if identifying verbs might be part of the struggle.

After that, we took our spelling test. Then we spent a little time reviewing fact and opinion before heading off to art.

Following art, lunch and recess (today was Jump Rope for Heart, by the way) we discussed the literary genre of historical fiction...works of literature that are not true but the setting and the story itself are based on historical facts.

I introduced the novel F is for Freedom and told them that the story is set during slavery and that the Underground Railroad plays an important role in this book. To increase our background knowledge on this time period (and in honor of Black History Month) we watched a United Streaming Clip that discussed slavery and the Underground Railroad...it was very interesting and we had GREAT discussion during the video.

Following the video (and discussions) we had run out of time and were not able to begin the novel. We will begin reading it aloud later in the week.

We did a practice BCR in preparation for the MSA. Students read a piece of text and answered an essay question....this is where frustration (for me) set in. Since the students were aware that this was a "practice" session, I had many capable students not completing their work...very frustrating!

Finally, we went to the media center for book shopping.

For homework the students were told to bring their reading log home and to write 2 facts and 2 opinions about slavery in it.