TGIF!!

This morning the students were given an option for their morning work activity.  Most students chose to begin working on their keyboarding skills.  They downloaded an app called Typing Club and will work through it at their own pace.  I only have two rules; they must go in order and they can not progress to the next level until they ear at least 2 stars at the present one.  There were a couple of students who chose to continue reading silently.  I would encourage you to check in with your child and see what they decided.

In math the students took a quiz that covered rounding and addition.  These will be graded and returned to students today.  Look for them in your child's home folder.

After our quiz, we visited the media center to begin our first inquiry project with the help of Mrs. Allaire, the media specialist.  First, the children picked their topic.  Then, the students learned how to come up with "thick" questions they have about their topic.  An "thick" question is one that encourages a lot of information to answer it, not a simple one word answer.  After that, the students went to work....they opened a Google slide that Mrs. Allaire had created and began creating slides with one question they have per slide.  Students were encouraged to write 3-5 questions that they would like to research, about their chosen organization.

Next the students enjoyed lunch and recess.

After recess I shared a Power Point, with the class, about the MAP-R assessment.  This is the computerizied assessment that self-adjusts to personalize to the individual student.  The data is used to guide my planning and instruction.  Then the students took the MAP-R.

I was super proud of the entire class.  They really focused and took their time during the assessment.  I could SEE the children using strategies to answer each question.

After testing, we had our weekly class meeting and our popcorn party to celebrate earning whole class Dojos.  During the group share, students shared one thing they like about themselves...well, they attempted to....it was crazy, almost every single child shared something that they liked about others.  SO we talked about it and I challenged the children to think about it over the weekend...

After that we exchanged thank yous and compliments.

Next we reviewed our old business.  We discussed the changes in our reflection station, the addition of a sign in sheet and an open/closed sign.  The students agreed unanimously that our changes had solved the issue of people visiting the station when they really weren't feeling down or frustrated.

Finally, we turned our attention to new business.  We discussed the fact that some students feel left out and alone during lunch and recess.  The students decided we needed to be alert to this and invite others to join us.  Additionally, students were frustrated that it is hard to use some of the playground equipment.  Again, the children agreed that we need to be aware of others who want a turn and analyze how long we have been on the equipment to decide if we need to move on to something else.

I hope everyone has a super weekend!!!