Terrific Tuesday

After beginning their day in PE, the students returned to another one of my infamous lectures...the topic today???  Understanding that what has been taught in prior years/lessons, needs to be used in all assignments.  For example, when completing a BCR, it is EXPECTED that sentences begin with capital letters, end with punctuation, words in the text are spelled correctly, etc., etc.

After that we reviewed the terms motivation, persistence and effort.  Then we finished reading Tuning Up, Eric Kimmel's autobiography, pausing along the way to identify examples of these ideas in the text.

Then I reviewed yesterday's vocabulary lesson and follow up activity.  The focus today was that when you are defining a word you can not use that word in the definition.  I revisited the Webster's Online Dictionary and modeled troubleshooting when a definition uses the focus word in it.

While I met with small groups the students completed individual reading group assignments, finished researching their issue and charting the information on their graphic organizer, read about producers and consumers and wrote about what they read in their social studies journal, and completed the vocabulary activity mentioned above.

Sharks:  We met and were supposed to share their third, and final, culminating activity for the Amber Brown book.  Unfortunately, none of the students heeded my advice yesterday.  Many assignments were not neatly done, some had no elaboration, and some didn't even do it!  They were told to redo their assignment for homework tonight.  I was very disappointed.

In math we reviewed Friday's quiz during the warm up.  Then I introduced the concept of elapsed time and modeled using a t-chart to calculate it.  The lesson can be viewed here.  For homework the children need to watch this lesson and solve the elapsed time problem in their math journal.  For those who left their journal at school, the start time was 10:24.  The end time was 10:56.

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

Cheetahs:  The students read pages 120-126.  In their RRJ they identified a title for this chapter and explained their reasons for choosing it.  In group they had more time to work on this with my help.

Yellow Jackets:  The students finished the book by reading chapter 13.  Then they wrote a letter to Mama from Journey's point of view.  In group we shared the letters and I provided feedback.  For homework the students need to revise their letters and either write it neatly on lined paper or type it.

Snakes:  The children reread pages 2-8.  In their RRJ they identified three of nature's gifts and how each is used.  In group we practiced reading and writing high frequency words.  We discussed that when a c is followed by an e or i it usually makes the s sound and that a y at the end of a word will usually make an e sound.  Then we read pages 8-16.  For homework the students need to reread pages 8-16.

At the end of the day the children were split into small groups and they played the natural resource game I had modeled in class yesterday.  Tomorrow we will discuss the depletion of natural resources that might have occurred in their game and relate to the real world.