Fabulous Friday

Wow!  We've made it through our first full week and it has been fabulous!!!

We began our day with a brief "nuts and bolts" type of updates.  I went over a few changes that will be coming AFTER Back to School Night.  It's important to note that none of these changes will take place until late next week. First, at the end of next week, the binder will no longer go back and forth each day.  Instead it will be stored in the classroom to hold resources the students will need in class.  Second, there will be nightly reading homework and I will be creating a "book Share" page in Google Classroom to encourage students to engage in discussions about what they are reading at home.  Finally, students will be selecting and identifying personal academic goals.  This will be something the student will work on independently because THEY want to improve in this area.  More to come on this, too.  :-)

After our chat, we jumped into math rotations.  Today's small group lesson began with reviewing rounding to the nearest hundred.  One group was accelerated to rounding a 4 digit number to the nearest 100.  Once students proved they were ready, we moved on to rounding to the nearest ten.  During Math with a Partner, the students used their digit cards to create 3 digit numbers and round them to the nearest hundred.  As they worked they were expected to discuss their thinking with their partner.  Those wanted more of a challenge, also rounded their number to the nearest ten.  Finally, during the technology rotation, the students visited Shark Numbers, via the third grade web site, to practice identifying place value.

Since math ran over, next on our agenda was lunch and recess.

When the children returned from recess we began our literacy block.  First the students practiced "Read to Someone".  Unfortunately, many forgot the expectations.  So, we stopped halfway and reviewed the right way, and the wrong way, to do "Read to Someone".

Next, we reviewed the expectations for "Read to Self".  Then the students practiced it, first reading their guided reading book and then they could choose what they wanted to read next, if time permitted. They did a super job of reading the whole time and staying in one spot!  YEY!

After "read to Self" we gathered on the carpet to review the concept of Helping the common good and how to write a topic list in our writer's notebook.  We also revisited the expectations for Work on Writing.  Then the students created topic lists, for their helping others personal narrative, during Work on Writing.

During Read to Self and Work on Writing I met with individual students to continue my informal reading assessments.

Following our literacy block we visited the media center for our second orientation, to learn about book check outs.  The media center will have an open check out policy.  With permission from the teacher, students can visit the media center on any day, at any time, to check out new books.  WE will not have a set day to visit the library.

When we returned to class we had our first, formal, official class meeting.  We began by sharing our favorite sports to watch and play.  Then we exchanged thank yous and compliments...there were lots of them and the students did a great job of being specific!!  Finally, we attempted to solve the challenge, or need, for class jobs.  We got as far as creating a list.

Have a super weekend!