Open House Monday

Today was MCPS' yearly Open House.  It was nice to have so many parents visit our classroom.

We began our day with a class meeting.  First, we did a group share where we finished the sentence starter, "One thing you may not know about me..."  It was fun to discover so many interesting facts about one another!!

After that we moved onto compliments. 

Then we began a problem solving process.  I identified a problem...students aren't following directions.  Next, the students brainstormed ideas of we might solve that problem.  I listed the ideas that were shared.  Next week we will discuss the ideas and vote on one we think might work.

After that we moved onto our whole group reading and writing lessons.  Reading focused on the idea that many of the words in our language have more than one meaning.  We examined the Britannica Online Dictionary as a way to learn about different meanings of words.  We also analyzed a dictionary entry (on a printed worksheet that is now living in the reading section of each child's binder) and discussed many of the parts of a typical entry.

Our writing lesson focused on analyzing a paragraph written in a persuasive text.  We identified how the author engaged readers and state her opinion.

For independent work the children will look up the word mint, in a dictionary, and identify different meanings of the word and the part of speech for which each meaning is used.  They will also write the topic sentence for their community action research report.

Reading Groups
Sharks:  We met and reviewed the main character (Sarah Ida) and the problem, so far, in the book (Sarah Ida was sent to live with her Aunt Claudia and she is not happy about it).  Then we began reading the chapter called Rossi.  For HOMEWORK they need to reread the entire chapter and draw a picture of the beginning, middle and end (of the chapter) in their RRJ.

In math we organized counters to represent a given word problem.  Then we wrote a multiplication equation to match both the counters and the word problem....after doing this lesson I realized I should have captured it using Educreations...SORRY!  Once we identified the equation, the students explained what each number in the equation stood for.


While Mrs. Head and I worked with small groups the students worked on a practice worksheet.  My small group practiced solving two step word problems.  Mrs. Head worked with students who missed the quiz on Friday.  There is a multiplication worksheet for homework.

Following lunch and a chilly outdoor recess the children continued their independent work and I met with reading groups.

Reading Groups
Yellow Jackets:  They wrote a summary of chapter 5 in their RRJ.  For HOMEWORK they need to read chapter 6 and list unknown words (both words they can't decode and/or words they can decode but don't know what they mean).

Cheetahs:  We read and discussed the first half of chapter 5 in group.  Then the students read the rest of the chapter independently and identified who Ben met and 2 things about her.  For HOMEWORK they need to reread chapter 5 and complete the Venn diagram that is in their RRJ, comparing Ben and Hana.

Snakes:  We reviewed their double vowel words from there independent work last week and reread our book.  For homework tonight they need to reread the book (we are working on fluency and word recognition) and list "sh" and "th" words on the chart we created in their RRJ.

We ended the day by analyzing a cartoon and a video clip of Rube Goldberg type machines.  These are contraptions (for lack of a better term) which have many moving parts which work together to solve a problem.