The Beginning of the Third Marking Period

Well, today marks the first day of the second half of the year...a bit delayed!

Between the snow days and the two hour delay, the students arrived quiet and groggy, but that's to be expected!  :-)

The morning was spent on math.  The children participated in our regular rotations.

The teacher lesson focused on using Cuisenaire rods to plot and label fractions on a number line.  During guided practice the students watch a Learn Zillion lesson about plotting unit fractions on a number line.  Finally, at the technology rotation, the children visited an Internet site called Fraction Frenzy to practice identifying and naming fractions of a whole.

After math, it was time for lunch!

Following lunch I gave the class a brief overview of the reading and writing program for the next 9 weeks.  We will be concentrating on historical fiction, a subset of realistic fiction.  The students will be writing a character analysis and they will each publish their own realistic fiction story.

After I set the stage for this semester, the students got into small groups and made lists of things that change.  This lesson comes from the William and Mary program for gifted learners.  After sharing and discussing the children's lists we came to the conclusion that change is everywhere.  It happens over time and can be positive or negative.  Additionally, change can be natural or created by man and it can be orderly or random.

Next, we read the historical fiction book, Richard Wright and the Library Card, and identified actions the main character took, choices he made, that led to events in the story.  This was in preparation for the character analysis each child will be expected to write.

Finally, we ended the day with the remaining three groups sharing their disease/parasite presentations they created at the end of the second marking period.

There is NO homework tonight.

We will get back to our normal routine next week...I promise!!!