Fabulous Friday!

This morning, after practice keyboarding skills, reading quietly or visiting the media center, the students took a math quiz covering subtraction and solving for unknowns in various positions.  These will be graded and returned to students before the end of the day.

Speaking of grades--as stated in my email this morning, interim reports will be coming home this afternoon.  Look them over (and keep them) but understand that this reflects only a couple of weeks of graded assignments.  There will be plenty of tasks for the students to prove what they know.  :-)

After the math quiz it was time for our literacy block.  First we reviewed root words and how we can add affixes to make new, related words.  Then I quickly demonstrated how to use dictionary.com to learn the pronunciation and/or meaning of unknown words in text.

Next the students worked on independent literacy tasks while I met with guided reading groups.  Today students focused on writing a hook for their inquiry project,  finding the meaning of common root words, and listing related words by adding affixes.

Panthers:  We met and and the students practiced using dictionary.com to determine the pronunciation and/or meaning of unknown words from their reading last night.

After enjoying lunch and outdoor recess, the students continued working independently while I met with more guided reading groups.

Tigers:  Half of our group was absent so I worked with the rest on using root words to identify the meaning of related words.

Leopards:  We met and reviewed how to write main idea statements.  Then the students shared their main ideas for pages 2 and 3.  We discussed each and improved those that weren't quite right.

Lions:  The students used dictionary.com to identify the pronunciation and/or meaning of the unknown words they listed for homework last night.  We began group by sharing some of the new words they learned.  After that we reviewed how to identify the main idea in a section of text.  We had a good discussion about what is a main idea and what is a key detail.

After our literacy block we defined the idea of a democracy and the concept of civic engagement.  Then we watched a video clip about the role of the community government, different types of community governments and how we elect government officials.

After that we did a really fun activity to help demonstrate the importance of being an informed voter.  In short, the students voted for a fake student government president 6 different times.  Each time they voted they had to choose between the same four candidates.  What made it so awesome was each time they voted they learned one new fact about each candidate.  So, the first round of voting all the class knew was the candidates names.  By the end of voting the students new 5 facts about each of the candidates.  In the end, the students really got a good understanding about why it is important to know the candidate for whom you plan to vote.

We ended the day with our weekly class meeting.  I had intended to have students begin writing personal academic goals but we ran out of time.  However, with that in mind, our group share was to state something you are good at academically.  After that we shared compliments and thank yous---and there were a lot!!!!  Finally, we turned our attention to electing a classroom SGA representative.

Here's the run-down, in brief, on the SGA class representatives....
Each class will elect one representative via a secret ballot.
Officers will be fourth graders.  Our class can not run to be an officer.
Meetings are the first Wednesday of each month from 3:15-4:15.
No transportation is provided.  Students must have their own way to get home.
If elected  you must attend all meetings for the entire year.
Students must turn in an application to me by TUESDAY, 10/7.  NO EXCEPTIONS!
Candidates will read a 1-2 minute speech, they write, in class, on Wednesday and then we will have a secret ballot vote.
The first SGA meeting is on MONDAY, October 13 fro 3:15-4:15.
Applications were handed out today!

I hope this provides the information you need!  :-)

Have a great weekend!!!