Hump Day...the Saga Continues

Well, yesterday I visited my GP, for my knee, and she is sending me to an ortho today. I will be leaving school early to go to this appointment.

The children began their day in the media center. When they return to class, we will review what they have accomplished thus far, in their small groups, on their African Desert research project.


Then I will remind the students that relevant information is that which pertains to the purpose for reading. So, in the case of the African Desert research project, the relevant information is that which explains or describes the culture, geographic characteristics, climate and/or plant and animal life in the African Desert. All other information becomes irrelevant for this project only. If we were to reread the same sources with a different purpose in mind, we would identify different aspects as relevant or not.

After that, I will review sentence structure (subject/predicate) and the usage of linking words to form compound and complex sentences.


Reading Groups: 

Yellow Jackets:  We met and discussed the expectations for their answer to the "after the Discussion" question.  This will be a graded homework assignment for them to complete tonight and hand in tomorrow morning.

Cheetahs:  We reread Nail Soup and I shared the idea that I couldn't decide who was more dishonest, the old woman or the soldier.  This led to a quick discussion of what made the soldier dishonest.  For homework the children need to answer both parts of the "Building Your Answer" BEFORE the discussion question (front side of worksheet ONLY).

In math we will use the pattern blocks to identify and name fractions of a whole. We will also explore how the same pattern block can be named as a different fraction according to the size of the whole. For homework students are expected to go to the virtual manipulative web site and build models of a whole using base fractions of 1/3, 1/6 and 1/8. They should them draw or write about these in their math journals or print off their work and bring it in. As a challenge, students should try to build 2/3 and 5/3, too.

This afternoon the students will continue working on the African Desert Project.

Reading Groups:

Sharks - They will read chapter 5 and discuss/identify the beginning, middle and end of the chapter.  For homework they need to reread chapter 5 and draw the beginning, middle and end of the chapter in their RRJ.

Snakes:  In group the students reread up to page 10 and then continued reading until the end of the book.  Then they  identified/discussed the beginning, middle and end.  For homework they need to reread the book and draw a picture of the beginning, middle and end in their RRJ.