Thriving Thursday: Another Day, Another Test

It's that time of year...as we come closer to summer, we gather data to assess our instruction and prepare for next year.  So, with that in mind, today, after reading quietly, exchanging books in the media center, or practicing keyboarding, the students took the third installment of the MAP-R.  This is the computerized, self adjusting, READING test, that students take three times a year, beginning in third grade.

This assessment took the entire morning, and I am so proud of the entire class.  They put forth great effort.  The data shows a lot of growth, across the board, so it was quite fun to collect the scores!!  :-)

As a reward for their efforts, there is NO HOMEWORK this evening and we will NOT have a math quiz tomorrow.  Since we only had 2 math lessons, so far this week, and we have a short week next week, due to a holiday on Monday and field day on Thursday, we will have a quiz NEXT Friday, covering this week and next.

Following lunch and indoor recess, we voted on a class Dojo reward (movie afternoon-next Friday), and then began our literacy block.

Due to our visitors yesterday, we had a very short literacy block.  Therefore, there wasn't much change to the independent work assignments.

Today, the children began with a guided reading task.  Then all groups completed a header sort using their new word work words.  After that, the students viewed an Econ and Me lesson about production and, in their social studies journal, they explained what a producer is, list the three types of resources and give an example of each, and describe a choice the children had to make during the production process.  After that, they continued revising their inquiry project.  Finally, they viewed a diagram depicting the life cycle of a plastic bottle, and then created a diagram of the life cycle of either newspaper or an aluminum can.

Panthers:  The children turned the second heading from the EB: Robots article, into a green, right-there question.  Then they read the section of text and composed a main idea statement that answered the question.

Tigers:  The children read their new book, The Cat or Dog Debate, and marked places, using sticky notes, that surprised them with an exclamation point, and places that confused them or made them wonder with a question mark.

Leopards:  We met to go over the green, right-there questions they wrote using the last two headings in the EB: Robots article, and the main idea statements they composed after reading the text.

Lions:  We met to go over the green, right-there questions they wrote using the last two headings in the EB: Robots article, and the main idea statements they composed after reading the text.

F&P:  The children revisited their book, Gabe and the New Teacher, focusing on character traits to describe Gabe and the author's message. After they were finished we discussed the events in the story to determine the message of the book and then explained whether we would rather  be friends with a good sport or a sore loser.

The children ended their day in art with Mrs. Daniell.