Hump Day

This morning we continued to read George Washington's Breakfast to chart important information versus interesting facts. The point of the lesson was that important information is that information that matches the reader's purpose for reading. Today our purpose was to determine what George Washington ate for breakfast. Unfortunately, we did not finish since we had a bus evacuation drill.

While I met with reading groups the students completed their peer conferencing, read assigned pages in their reading books and practiced writing the letters x, y and z in cursive.

Reading Groups:
Cheetahs: We reread the story William and Boomer and then the students completed a Somebody/Wanted/But/So/Then chart in their RRJ.
Bears: We reviewed their "talking words" lists and then began discussing chapter 7. Unfortunately, their teacher (me!) goofed and talked about chapter 8!!! (it was one of THOSE days!!!) So, they then had to read chapter 8 and, on a sticky note, write the beginning, middle and end of the chapter to share in groups tomorrow.

In math we constructed a line plot to graph the number of siblings of the students in our class. Then the students worked independently to create a line plot and answer questions given a set of data. There is a line plot worksheet for homework.

After math, we went to the computer lab to begin publishing our writing using Word. I am hoping that by publishing our final drafts, using our rough drafts, on the computer, students will be able to utilize the spelling and grammar checks to revise and improve their pieces.

Following lunch and indoor recess we worked on identifying when to use a and an before a noun. The students completed a practice exercise from our language arts book while I met with reading groups.

Reading Groups:
Crabs: We shared the students beginning, middle and end post it notes. Then the students used the book, their sticky notes and our discussion to write a summary of chapter 2 in their RRJ.

Lions: We discussed how Sarah Ida felt at the end of Shoeshine Man. Then we talked about whether or not we thought Sarah Ida actually wanted to work...it was a great discussion.

We ended the day with a class meeting where every student shared what they would do if they were the teacher. We also discussed the importance of active listening and focusing on the task at hand.