Terrific Tuesday

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday. I was at home with two sick boys. They both had pink eye!

But today I am back!

In math, we began with a warm up and by reviewing their homework. Both tasks involved rounding numbers to the nearest ten and hundred. Based on questions during warm up and the homework, I suspected there was much confusion. So, I gave the children a quick "exit card" assessment.

Basically, I gave them 4 problems to solve on an index card. Then I sort the cards into piles of "who gets it" and "who doesn't". I will use this information to form small groups to either reteach the concept or provide more challenging concepts. It's a form of dipsticking!

The students worked independently while I met with small groups based on the information in the above paragraph. There is a worksheet for homework tonight and I will give a formative assessment tomorrow covering place value and subtraction. There is NO rounding on it!!

After reading the morning message, I read the story Sachiko Means Happiness to the class. We discussed the importance of the setting to the story and then the children wrote about it in their reading response journals. While they worked independently, I met with reading groups.

Bread and Jam for Frances: Read and discussed the book in a small group with Miss Diane. For homework, they are to reread the story and answer the questions, "When did you know Frances was changing her mind? Explain using details from the story." in their RRJ.

JGB: Listened to a first reading of The Master Cat. For homework they are to reread the story.

Frog and Toad: Read The Story in reading group and discussed character traits for Frog. Homework is to read for 15 minutes...free choice.

Following lunch and recess the children will come in and select a personal narrative, from their writer's notebook, to revise for a score. My mini lesson will include a modeling of the items I will be looking for in their personal narrative (topic and concluding sentences, sensory images, etc.)

Finally, we will end the day with Science. Mr. Vogel found a cool performance task that will allow the children to "dust for fingerprints" using cocoa powder!

I would love to hear from all of you...how often are you reading? Is the blog helpful? Can I improve it? How???? Either e-mail me at dana_c_holman@mcpsmd.org or post here!