TGIF

The children began this wonderful Friday by going to music.

When they returned to class we got right to business.  First, I introduced our new word wall.  Instead of having a word wall that is organized alphabetically, I am going to have one arranged by topic.  Our groups so far include; science words, math words, social studies words, contractions, tricky words, WOW words, interesting verbs and interesting adjectives.  Students will be expected to spell these words correctly since they will be posted on the wall.

Next we used the class list of words with apostrophes and completed a word sort in small groups.  The students were expected to work collaboratively to organize the words into any categories they wanted as long as they could explain their reasoning.  This led to our identifying two reasons we use apostrophes in our writing; contractions and possessive nouns.

After that, we had our whole group discussion as to why Ooka made Ghonta pay back more rice than we took using the responses they crafted in their small groups on the iPads yesterday.  While having our discussion, the students also learned how to "push" the answer they had written on the iPad onto the white board so that the entire class could view it.  Very cool!

With everything we accomplished, we had no time for small groups and independent work this morning.  So we dove straight into math!  We began math by listing anchor activities that the children could do when they were done with their assigned tasks.  This list included math iPad apps, flashcards, creating and solving problems on white boards and worksheet games which I will provide that will be linked to the current skill set.  I also introduced a worksheet game that practiced rounding to the hundreds.

Then several students had a chance to share the strategies they used to solve their homework problems last night.  This serves two purposes...the person sharing the work has to explain their thinking which in turn, sharpens their understanding.  The children who are listening will here it explained from some body's view point, other than mine, which may help clarify their understanding.

Next the children took their first math quiz.  This SHOULD be scored, returned to the students and stored in the math section of their binder before the end of the day today!

After the quiz I taught a lesson decomposing tens to solve a subtraction problem.  You can view it here or under the lessons tab.

After the students ate lunch and enjoyed outdoor recess the returned to the classroom to work independently and meet in small groups.

The independent work was to finish publishing their piece and complete any leftover work from the week.

Yellow Jackets:  We reviewed their vocabulary entries from classwork yesterday.  I collected their books and introduced the book we will begin on Tuesday.

Cheetahs:  In group we practiced creating a vocabulary entry, in their RRJ, using the word coach.

We ended the day with science.  First the students identified and defined words to add to our science word wall.  Then they worked in small groups, using various materials, to create a ramp that answered a testable question.  Then we shared our findings with the class and discussed, using scientific language, why the ramp worked the way it did.  I was VERY impressed!