TGIF!

This morning we began our new reading book clubs. In my class we continued identifying the main idea in text using the spiders article. Today, we again used the iPads, but we used a different App that had a main idea graphic organizer. Our approach today was to identify three details from the section of text and then use those details to determine the main idea. I told students to read the details and think about the author's purpose for presenting those details together...that is the main idea.

While I met with reading groups, the students continued working on the spiders main idea. Then they completed individual reading group activities. After that, they had a multiple choice main idea worksheet to do.

Lions: I met with the lions group first. We created a new vocabulary section in their RRJs and practiced adding new words to this section. Each entry will list an identified word, the sentence from the text in which it appears, three synonyms from the dictionary/thesaurus we have in the classroom and finally the students will circle one of the synonyms that "works" in the sentence from the text. We did this, together, in group using the word erupts. This afternoon they will attempt it independently using the word surface.

In math Mrs. Benson and I introduced creating and using conversion charts to help solve conversion problems...kind of wordy but hopefully you know what I mean. This picture illustrates an example:

Following math, the children went to the media center before enjoying lunch and recess.

After recess we finished our juicy details lesson by working in small groups to group juicy details, from the book, according to how they were used. Then the students continued working independently while I met with my remaining two groups.

Bears: After scoring their BCRs about the conquered dragons in their book, I modeled a "good"response so the students could see what they did well and what improvements they could make. Then we discussed Ben's decision to keep Gully and why Ben's mom was surprised by this decision. We will begin a new book on Monday.

Crabs: We read the section in the book about the World Cup and identified the main idea in this section.

We will end the day by reading an article, from The Washington Post, about the seventh billion person born into the world and discuss the different perspectives.