Terrific Tuesday

Just like yesterday, today we were able to get right into our daily routine!  YEY!!!!!!!!

We began with our math rotations.  When working with me in small groups, the students were introduced to and practiced the compensation strategy for addition.  This entails rounding addends to create friendlier numbers to add and then compensating for the rounding to find the final sum.  I have uploaded a lesson, taught by me, onto the third grade web site.  Feel free to check it out...but don't judge.  ;-)

While working with a partner in math the students created addition problems involving two 3-digit addends.  Then they visited the virtual manipulatives web site to model the problems suing base ten blocks.  Finally, they recorded the problem in their math journal.

The technology rotation had the students visiting Sumdog to practice their addition skills.  The students were able to work on adding multiples of 10 to 3 digit addends and adding two 3-digit addends.

For HOMEWORK the students should visit Google Classroom.  They will view my lesson on the compensation strategy for addition, attempt to use it to solve a problem and then post how it will help them with addition OR why they think it won't.

After math, we took a quick Go Noodle brain break and then began our literacy block.

As I stated during Back to School Night, I believe small group instruction is "where it's at" and I utilize flipped instruction to deliver many lessons.  Sometimes, though, it is necessary to pull the group together and clarify lessons taught through videos or engage in discourse about what we have read.  Since we do not have specials on Tuesdays or Fridays, there may be some whole group instruction on these days.

Today I attempted to have a large group discussion about Ooka and the Honest Thief, focusing on the characters and the main events in the story.  After a few minutes it became clear that while the students had watched the read aloud video, they weren't prepared to discuss the story.  So, they will re-watch the story today and list main events in their RRJ.  We will discuss the story tomorrow, in class.

After that, I modeled adding a conclusion, using dialogue, to my personal narrative, which I began writing last week.

Today's independent work, during the literacy block, include individual guided reading group assignments.  Additionally, the children will re-watch the Learn Zillion, adding a conclusion using dialogue lesson, and add both to their personal narrative rough draft.  They must do this by Friday as I will be grading their conclusion with dialogue at that time.  Next, the students will re-watch the Ooka read aloud and identify main events in their RRJ.  This will not be graded.  It will be used for our discussion tomorrow.  If time permits, the children may explore the web sites that are posted for the inquiry project and begin choosing a topic.

Following lunch and recess the students got started on their literacy assignments while I met with guided reading groups.

Lions:  The students worked collaboratively, rereading pages 1-11 and listing the main events.  In group we reviewed and discussed their lists, analyzing which we thought were the main events.  For HOMEWORK tonight, the students need to read pages 12-22 and list unknown words (words they can't pronounce and/or understand) on a sticky note.

Tigers:  The children reread Taking Medicine and listed unknown words, in their RRJ, independently.  They brought their lists to group and we reviewed the meaning and how to decode the words, depending on the reason they had been added to the students' lists.  After that, I shared that the illustrations in books can provide additional information that they author didn't write.  We looked at the picture on page 13 and identified what information we could obtain from it, such as taking too much medicine can make you vomit (because there is a bucket, we can infer the man may throw up) and that it is a serious situation (the woman looks panicked and is on the phone with the doctor).  For HOMEWORK the children need to reread the book, working on fluency.

Panthers:  Independently the students finished reading Saturdays at The New You and listed any unknown words in their RRJ.  In group we reviewed these lists, working on decoding some an defining others.  The we analyzed a picture in the book to determine what additional information the picture provided that the text didn't.  This proved challenging for the group.  We will continue to work on it!  For HOMEWORK the students need to reread Saturdays at The New You, working on fluency.

After the Panthers group we took a quick break to go over the expectations for a weather evacuation and a fire drill, since we will be practicing both this afternoon.  Then we returned to our literacy block.

Leopards:  Independently, the students read chapter 2 and analyzed the picture on page 20.  In their RRJ they identified additional information that the picture provided but wasn't specifically written in the text.  When the children came to group we reviewed their responses in their RRJ.  As I had suspected, these weren't exactly what I wanted.  So, I modeled how to write a response and dicussed what additional information means.  After that we identified the main event in the chapter and why Grandma wanted Ariel to draw a picture for the quilt.  For HOMEWORK the children need to reread chapter 2 and write a title for this chapter on a sticky note.

We ended the day by voting for a whole class reward that the class earned last week.  The students voted for a popcorn party.  We will have the popcorn party this Friday afternoon.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time for science.  We will definitely get to the lesson tomorrow!  :-)