Tuesday

The past couple of days have been anything but consistent. So this morning we took time to work on our persuasive writing piece. The students read selected pages in the book Oil Spills to gather the correct information to use in their letters to Congress. They will begin their rough drafts tomorrow!!

In math we defined the movement of figures as slides (translations), flips (reflections) or turns (rotations). We also reviewed our geometry vocabulary using geoaerobics. If you would like to view the PowerPoint go to: http://teachershare.scholastic.com/resources/11739#fragment-2 , scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the PPT geoaerobics PowerPoint download. For homework tonight there is a worksheet to practice identifying slides, flips and turns.

After math the children went to PE and then enjoyed lunch and outdoor recess. Following recess, Mrs. Howard came continued her friendship unit with our homeroom. Therefore, we didn't have reading groups today.

We ended the day by using our reed instruments to produce sound. The point of the lesson was for students to recognize that the reeds had to vibrate in order for sound to be produced. Also, the shorter the slide on the instrument, the higher the pitch.

Prior to dismissal the students arranged their desks in old-fashioned single file rows to prepare for our practice MSA tomorrow morning. The students will participate in a mock MSA tomorrow and Friday. This is to help them get a feel for the testing environment and to see what test questions will look like. Tomorrow's session will be reading. Over the next week the students will get feedback on their written answers and have a chance to improve them. These will come home at the end of next week with sample "model" answers attached.

If you are interested in more information about the MSA and to view sample test questions, go to this link: http://mdk12.org/assessments/k_8/index_c.html