Wonderful Wednesday

My morning began with a staff meeting providing some training for the new Promethean boards.  It was a great start---I learned so much and am super excited to begin using the board on Friday!!

The students began their day in the media center.  When they returned to class, we revisited The Secret World of Walter Anderson and identified information provided by the illustrations in the book.  Then we read a Q&A interview with the author of the book, EB Lewis.  We discovered that this author reads the text and thinks about what he is curious about and uses that as a driving force.  His illustrations add to the text, as opposed to reflecting the text.  Additionally, he says he has one word in his mind (I related this to theme) as he creates each illustration.

After that we revisited are organized Sports better than Pick Up Games to identify how conclusions can summarize facts in  opinion writing.

Independent work today includes individual reading group assignments, revising opinion paragraphs to identify the conclusion statement and make sure it summarizes the paragraph, and completing any unfinished tasks from earlier in the week (Baking Bread Production - resource chart, Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle article).

Sharks:  After some deliberation, I have decided to nix the biography research project and go for a more structured reading group approach.  I am going to try out a reading intervention program to help boost this group's literal and inferential comprehension and their writing.  Today we began by doing a word sort, in group, focusing  on the -aw sound.  After that, I gave a heavy, thorough book introduction and instructed the students to think about it if they get stuck during their independent reading of the book.  The students will read the book, by themselves or with a partner, this afternoon and list important facts about wolverines in their RRJ.  Tonight, they are to complete a word sort, similar to the one we did in class, by cutting apart the words on their worksheet, and gluing them into a chart in their RRJ, according to the spelling of the -aw sound.  They also need to reread their Wolverine book.

In math we reviewed elapsed time word problems and identified grams as a unit which measures mass.  Students were told to think of the weight of a paper clip as equivalent to a gram.  While Mrs. Head and I worked with small groups using strategies to solve elapsed time word problems, the rest of the class worked on an elapsed time worksheet.  For homework, students need to complete the word problems involving mass worksheet.

Following lunch and outdoor recess the students will continue working independently while I meet with more reading groups.

Cheetahs:  Independently the students read the biography about Theodore Roosevelt and identified unknown words in their RRJ.  In group we reviewed the meanings of the unknown words and then discussed character traits, and support from the text, to describe TR.  For homework the children need to reread the biography looking for examples of persistence, motivation and effort.

Yellow Jackets:  The students read Hans Christian Anderson's version of The Ugly Duckling thinking about the concept of change and how it relates to the story.  In group we discussed, to quote a student, this "brutal" version of the tale.  Tonight the students have a choice for homework.  They can either write about a time they felt the pain of being different or create a collage of what beauty means to them.

Snakes:  The students reread the book All About Redwood Trees and listed important information in their RRJ.  For homework they need to reread their word strips and the book.

WE ended the day by reviewing the three types of resources (human, natural and capital) and the concept of a production process.  Then we watched a video snippet, three times, to understand the idea of specialization.  This idea created some confusion...but I think we finally got it...maybe!?!?!