Thriving Thursday

It was so great to see so many of you at last night's Back to School Night.

This morning we began our day with math rotations.  While in small group with me, the students took notes in their math journals, on the partial sums model for addition.  I demonstrated two different models; the first based on expanded notation and the second relied on drawing base ten blocks.  We also practiced solving problems using these strategies.

Note:  Students have been told it is my job to introduce as many strategies as possible and make them try each one out.  BUT when it comes down to test taking, they should use the strategy that makes sense  and works for them.

While practicing math with a partner the children played the rounding card game, again, and recorded their answers in their math journals.  Students were very excited that the technology round had them using the Sumdog site to practice adding multiples of ten to 3 digit numbers.

***Tonight's math homework is in the student's math journals.  First they need to use one of the partial sums methods to solve 365+182 and 129+346.  Then they need to round 457 to the nearest 100 and to the nearest 10.***

We will have a math formative (quiz) tomorrow covering rounding to the nearest 100 and nearest to 10.

***I use formatives/quizzes to assess what the students have learned and retained and what needs to be retaught.  Groups may change based on data from these.  They will also be graded and added to the grade book.***

Following lunch and recess we analyzed 3 examples of student work and identified what the child did well and how we could improve upon it.  Then we took a quick Go Noodle brain break before I modeled how to use the graphic organizer, for the common good personal narrative, to begin writing my rough draft.

While I continued the informal reading assessments, the students read Boxes for Katje and put the events in order (remember they also had to utilize tech skills to make a copy of the shared document and then share it back to just me).  They also finished rehearsing for their writing and began their own rough drafts for the common good personal narrative piece.  If time permitted, they read with someone to practice fluency and comprehension skills.

Time ran out before we got to science.  This continues to be a pattern so I will be looking at ways to integrate science and social studies into our literacy block, as I did last year.  This will ensure students don't miss out on these essential subjects but frees me up for more time with small groups.  As always, I will keep you updates through the blog.

The students ended the day in art.  They should be coming home with a half sheet of paper today explaining an assignment they will do in art next week.  Please look for it.  In short, Mrs. Daniel has requested students bring in pictures and magazines for an All About Me project.