Thursday

Yesterday I finally finished scoring the unit 2 assessments...the results were not so good! :-( No worries, though...Mrs. Starkey and myself will be working with the students to reteach and practice the various skills that caused challenges! Once we are sure that the children are better prepared, we will begin reassessing them.

So, today, in math, we reviewed determined the area of a figure. Our focus was on figures that were not perfect squares. The students had to estimate which partial squares they could put together to make one. You will find our practice paper in your child's home folder. There is also a basic facts sheet for homework.

I will not be here tomorrow (taking the 3 year old for shots...LUCKY me, huh?) so we will not have a quiz. Instead the children will be making flash cards for some of the difficult multiplication basic facts. PLEASE have your child practice these flashcards DAILY for just 3-5 minutes. As they begin to memorize the products (answers), you can remove the easy cards from the pile in order to reduce the size of the pile and the amount of time needed to practice the facts.

During reading we read two folktales, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Hansel and Gretel, and practiced making inferences.

Following music, lunch and indoor recess the students will work independently on their current writing piece (finishing their graphic organizer and their rough draft) and on a reading comprehension piece. They will read about holidays and answer some questions. I will meet with reading groups.

Bear: Practiced writing high frequency words on white boards. Reviewed syllables and practiced identifying the number of syllables in words. Continued reading book. Tonight they need to complete their word study homework and reread up to page 10.

Tiger: Practiced high frequency words on white boards and continued reading Forests. We also answered questions orally, in group. Tonight they need to finish their word study work and reread Forests.

Lion: We shared their revised homework from last night and what a JOY that was!!!! The students ALL showed much growth on their assignments. I told them that THIS is what learning is all about...they attempted an assignment and did OK...then we discussed what could be done to improve their work and then they went home and used their new knowledge to improve their work! WOO HOO!!!! So proud! They, too, need to complete their word study assignments.

We will end the day with a lesson about friendship with Mrs. Howard.