We're Back!! Welcome to MP2!

Today marks the first day of the second marking period.

We began our day in the media center.  The students video taped their "I Pledge" statements which they wrote in class last week.

When we returned to class we reviewed the structure of a narrative story and then learned those of a narrative poem.  We learned that just like a story, a narrative poem has a title, characters, setting, problem and a solution.  Narrative poems have lines, instead of sentences, and stanzas, instead of paragraphs.  Also, these poems tend to have rhythm but they do not have to rhyme!

Next we turned our focus to themes in literature.  We defined theme as the central message, or lesson, that the author wants us to understand.  Then we listed common themes found in children's literature.  These included; good versus evil, treating all people equally, love and friendship, working hard pays off. showing respect for others and family traditions.

While I meet with small groups, the students will work on individual reading group activities and complete the fifth and final slide of the Key Note iPad presentation.

Sharks:  We met and discussed the symbolism of the medal in the chapter with that title.  WE also talked about the fact that Al's teacher believed in him and now he is believing in Sarah Ida and giving her a chance.  Independently the group will read "The Accident" and list unknown words.  They will reread that chapter for homework this evening.

In math we began with a formative, instead of a warm up.  The formative presented four word problems and 4 number sentences.  The students had to match the correct word problem and number sentence.  After that we reviewed multiplication and division as being inverse operations and related the fact families to those they worked with in second grade using addition and subtraction.

Students completed a follow up fact family worksheet while Mrs. Head and I pulled small groups.  My small group used manipulatives to model word problems and identify the correct number sentence needed to represent the problem.  Mrs. Head worked with small groups solving two step subtraction word problems and multiplication word problems.

There is a fact family worksheet for homework.

Following lunch and outdoor recess the students continued working independently while I met with more small groups.

Yellow Jackets:  Independently the students read chapter 16, the final chapter in the book.  They also wrote about the theme in their RRJ.  IN group we discussed the ending of the book and the theme.  For homework they need to read pages 107-113 and write 2 facts they learn about Christy Matthewson.

Cheetahs:  Independently the students reread chapter 14 and wrote about how Hana and Ben have changed in their RRJ.  IN group we discussed writing about change (needing to state how something was at the beginning and end in order to illustrate a change).  Then we began reading and discussing chapter 15.  For homework the children need to read pages 11-115, finishing the chapter.

Snakes:  Independently the children reread the Dogs book and wrote one fact for each section of the book.  In group we reviewed that headings began each section and discussed how we could identify the headings (bold print).  Then I collected the dog book and handed out our new book called The Energy Contest.  We began by building background knowledge by discussing different sources of energy; solar, batteries and electricity.  Then we did a picture walk to preview the book.  Next I introduced the diphthong -oi and we practiced writing words with -oi.  Finally, we read pages 2 and 3.  For homework the children need to reread pages 2-3 TWO times to work on fluency.

The end of our day was quite busy!  We voted on new star students for the month of October.  These students were selected for being consistently displaying respect towards themselves, their peers, adults and belongings.  Then we reviewed our work study skills from the first marking period; collaboration and analysis.  Next I introduced our next two work study skills; meta cognition (understanding how we best learn) and evaluation.  Finally, we identified the meaning and examples of medical emergencies.