Thursday

This morning the children began their day in art.  When we returned to class we reviewed the central message in the play, "The Calabash Kids".  Then we compared that play to the other play we've read, "The Hidden One".  Both plays were written by the same author and we sued the comparison to gain more information and a deeper understanding of both plays.

Our whole group writing lesson involved us evaluating the first paragraph of the mentor writing piece, "Heating and Cooling".  We identified that this paragraph clearly stated the topic of the piece AND how improvements made by technology benefited user of the tool.

While I worked with small groups, the children continued gathering research using the Internet and books.  They also completed individual reading groups assignments.

Cheetahs:  Reread chapter 5 and wrote a summary of the chapter in their RRJ.

Sharks:  Revisited portions of the text to answer the "after" reading questions in their RRJ.

In math we reviewed using multiplication and partial products to determine the area of a given figure.  The children began a worksheet in class and they are to finish it for homework.  The last problem on the worksheet is a CHALLENGE problem that is OPTIONAL.  There will be a quiz tomorrow that will cover word problems and determining the are of a given figure.

Following lunch and outdoor recess the students continued their independent work while I met with small groups.

Yellow Jackets:  These children read chapter 2 and wrote a summary of the chapter in their RRJ.

Snakes:  We identified the number of sounds (not necessarily letters) in words and used elkonin boxes to identify which letters spelled each sound.  Then we read and discussed pages 18-23.  For homework the students need to reread pages 18-23.

We ended the day by defining the concept of a geographic region.  Then we began identifying some of the common regions in the world.