Terrific Tuesday

This morning, after reading quietly, exchanging books in the media center, or practicing keyboarding, we voted on a whole class Dojo reward.  The students voted to be able to use the Chrome Books during recess.  So, next time we have indoor recess, the students will be able to play on the Chrome Books.

Then we began our math rotations.

During the small group, teacher-led instruction, we worked on comparing fractions with the same denominator.  Students played, "Go Darth", a Go Fish type game using equivalent fractions, during math with a partner.  Finally, during the technology rotation, the children watched a Brain Pop Jr. lesson about equivalent fractions and then practiced identifying equivalent fractions using Sumdog.

Remember...due to PARCC testing...there is NO formal HOMEWORK this week!

After math we reviewed today's independent tasks and then I did some troubleshooting (answered some questions students had regarding their work).

Today students will complete independent guided reading assignments.  Then they will finish writing the beginning of the realistic fiction picture book using my model Educreations lesson and their own screen-cast of them telling their story.  Next, the students completed an assigned task using their word work words.  After that, they read about culture (social studies) and answered some questions about their own culture.  Finally, they worked on the fake Facebook page representing their assigned African American.

After enjoying lunch and outdoor recess, the students began working on their independent work while I met with guided reading groups.

Leopards:  We began by rereading chapter XXI together and discussing the importance of taking breaths at punctuation marks to make sure we are using correct phrasing.  After discussing the chapter in general, we identified the key ingredients in a summary and the students took notes in their RRJ.  Then I modeled how to write a summary of chapter XXI and the children copied it into their RRJ for future reference.  Independently, the children did a meaning check with 10 more of their word work words.

Lions:  The students read chapter 22 independently and marked one place they were surprised and another place they were confused.  They also did a meaning check with 10 more of their word work words.  In group we used the places they marked, in the text, to discuss the chapter.  We focused on why Herr Holm was angry, why Peter's mom left the ship abruptly, and the surprise at the end of the chapter (Peter is face to face with a German soldier).

Panthers:  Independently the students read chapter 6 and then, using an online dictionary, identified the meaning for nursery and piece, as the words are used in this chapter.  Then they wrote a sentence, of their own, using each word, to show they understood the meaning.  They also did a syllable sort using their word work words.  In group we shared the definitions and sentences they wrote.  Unfortunately, most of the students didn't choose the correct meanings.  So, to learn from our mistakes, we reread the chapter and then redid the entire assignment, together, so that we could see how to complete it correctly.

Tigers: This group worked with Mrs. Hostler on reading and writing skills today.  I WILL get to them tomorrow!!

We ended the day with a whole group science lesson and experiment.  First we read a non-fiction text about heat energy.  We learned that the faster molecules move the warmer the temperature of the matter and vice versa.  Then we investigated what would happen to the temperature of water when we mixed hot and cold water.  We discovered that the heat transferred to the cold water making the temperature, of the mixed water, in between the original temperatures of the hot and cold water.