TGIF

This morning, while the children were in music, I read through each student's personal narrative rough draft.  I provided feedback on each writing piece to guide the students as they write their final, graded copy.  I also made notes to common challenges in their writing.

When they returned to class, I shared some of the items I noticed.  We discussed adding transitions between ideas, ALWAYS capitalizing the first word in every sentence AND proper nouns.  I reminded them that they are telling a story and it needed to be in a sequential order.

After that, we reviewed the rules for forming plural nouns using this link, which can also be found in the lessons section.

While I met with students about their writing and reading groups, the students wrote the final draft of their personal narrative and completed their community action planning sheet organizer.

Reading Groups
Yellow Jackets:  We revisited chapter 5 and shared their beginning, middle and end pictures.  Then we discussed how to determine what events belong in a summary and we practiced giving an oral summary of chapter 5.

In math we took a quiz.  These have been scored and should be in the math section of your child's binder.

We did have some challenges with homework...and I sent out an email about it.  In case you missed it, the text is as follows:

Parents—

I need YOUR help!

While it is important for the children to do their own work and it is perfectly acceptable for them to have mistakes on their homework, I need YOU to look over their homework every night!!

PLEASE make sure they followed directions (to the best of their ability)!!!

I just checked last night’s math homework and MOST of the children did not follow directions.  They either only showed 1 way per problem (the directions said to show 2 different ways…and I MODELED this) or they left out the drawing or the multiplication problem.

This is becoming a pattern in both class work and homework.

 

It is NOT that the children aren’t smart enough…they need to slow down, take their time and focus on the directions.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks, in advance, for your support!!

Dana

 

Following lunch and outdoor recess the children continued their independent work, while I met with more reading groups.

Cheetahs:  We reviewed page 30 and identified words and phrases the author used to describe how Ben sees Gully.  Then we shared their pictures.  It turns out, most of the group did not use page 30, as instructed.  So we discussed the importance of following directions and putting effort into assignments.  It was a good discussion...I think things will improve!  :-)

Sharks:  We discussed the lists of unknown words they created while reading chapter 1.  Then we identified examples, in chapter 1, that showed Sarah Ida has a "Chip on her shoulder".

Snakes:  We didn't meet because 3/5 students were absent from this group.

We ended the day by viewing a Power Point about services provided by our local government and discussing the concept of taxes.  It  was a great discussion and the students seemed quite interested in the topic.

Have a great weekend!