I'm Back!

I apologize for the lack of blog post yesterday but I began my day, in a staff meeting, at 7:30 am and didn't finish my day until 4:30.  I wanted to prepare for today, therefore, I didn't blog.

With that said--

It is SO good to be back in the classroom with the children today...that is where my passion lies!  The planning, yesterday, was quite valuable and will benefit the entire class, but I do prefer working directly with students.  :-)

This morning, after reading quietly, exchanging books in the media center, or practicing keyboarding skills, we began our math rotations.

While working in small group with me, the students drew models and wrote equations, using a variable to represent the unknown, in order to represent and solve division situations.  I told the children they are growing up in the math world...instead of using a box or line to stand for the unknown, they will now use a letter, or variable.

During math with a partner, the students played a Toss and Talk math game where they had to explain how to solve a division situation in order to win a spot.  The winner was the first one to win four connecting spaces.

Finally, during the technology portion of math, the children visited  Thinking Blocks on the Internet.  This is a cool site that focuses on solving word problems.  It breaks down math situations into sequential steps , providing students with feedback along the way.

For HOMEWORK students will visit Google Classroom and solve 5 problems using the Thinking Blocks web site.

After math we took an extremely quick Go Noodle break and then reviewed the list of independent literacy tasks for today.

Today the students will visit an inferencing riddle site to practice making inferences.  Then they will listen to a lesson about adjectives and take notes , in their writing journal using a 3-2-1 format.  After that, they will identify two adjectives in their opinion paragraph OR add 2 to their writing.  Finally, they will listen to reading or read to themselves (free choice).

Tigers:  We reviewed the sound y makes at the end of a word and then practiced naming the 2 sounds each vowel makes.  After that, we discussed what we had learned about polar bears from our reading yesterday.  Then i reviewed an inference as being an understanding we gain from reading what the author says and applying our background knowledge.  Then I explained how I could infer, from yesterday's reading, that the mother cub focused on her cubs for 3 months after birth.  Finally, we reviewed two words; enough and through.  For HOMEWORK the children need to read pages 8 and 9 and list any unknown words on a sticky note.

Following lunch and indoor recess we visited Mrs. Allaire in the media center.  Today she showed us how to use a cool app called Powtoon.  We will be using this to present the information we learned during our research for our inquiry project. After we had some time to explore the app, we returned to the classroom and continued with our literacy block.

Students will focus on watching the Learn Zillion adjective lesson and taking notes using the 3-2-1.  Then they will find or add adjectives to their opinion paragraph.  After that, then they can begin working on the Powtoon presentation for their inquiry project.

Leopards:  First we reviewed the concept of an inference using pictures.  Then we revisited page 8 and identified an inference using what the author wrote and our background knowledge.  For HOMEWORK the children need to read page 10 and write a comprehension question to ask their group, in class, tomorrow.

Lions:  We met and shared and discussed their main idea statements for page 4, from homework last night.  This is an area which requires more practice.  :-)  For HOMEWORK the children will reread page 5 and write a main idea statement, with out using the words "how" and "about", in their RRJ.

Panthers:  Unfortunately, due to our lesson in the media center we were unable to meet.  BUT they DO have HOMEWORK.  Tonight they need to read pages 8-11 and list unknown words on a sticky note.

The students ended their day in PE with Mr. Benco.