Happy Friday!

This morning we used the graphic organizer from yesterday's reading lesson to write a summary about the first section of the book Wildfires.  Then the students read the next section in the book, Fighting Wildfires, and identified important information that answered the question, "How do people fight wildfires?"  They will use this information, later, to write a summary of the section.

After the children read the section and took note of the important information on their own, I modeled reading the section and explained my thinking, out loud, as I added information to the graphic organizer.  This allowed students to hear why I was or was not including ideas as important information.  Additionally, it gave the children to ask questions regarding what I put on my chart.

I actually heard students comment that this was a helpful lesson.  :-)

In math we completed the grade level portion of the unit 5 assessment.  We will begin the final unit on Monday by telling time to the 5 minutes.

Since we visited the media center on Wednesday, we had time for social studies today, after math and before going to lunch.  We began social studies with a few students sharing the information they had gathered so far on their graphic organizers.  Then the students worked in their small groups using the iPads to continue their research.

After enjoying lunch and recess the students wrote the final draft of their realistic fiction writing piece and completed any unfinished work from the week while I met with reading group.

bears:  We shared the sentences they wrote, using vocabulary from chapter 8, yesterday.  Then we began reading chapter 8 out loud.  The students finished reading the chapter independently and wrote about the disaster on a sticky note.

Lions:  After reviewing the portion of the text that describes the new home, the children shared the pictures they drew in class yesterday.  Then we reviewed new vocabulary for chapter 19.

Crabs:  We reviewed the pronunciation and meanings of the words they listed as unknown from pages 74-80.

We ended the day by continuing to gather information, and add it to our graphic organizers, about the Aztec people.