Terrific Tuesday

This morning, as students practiced reading or keyboarding, I worked with several students to help them draft their personal narratives.

After the announcements, we reviewed Dojos, the Tass skills for the first marking period, and today's schedule.

Then we began our literacy block.  First, I did a mini-lesson about punctuating dialogue.  Then I reviewed today's independent tasks.

The students began with a guided reading assignment.  Then they completed a header sort, with their word work cards, independently.  Next the children watched a lesson, via the third grade web site, about proper punctuation of dialogue.  They then used the flip chart, and the lesson to add 1-2 pieces of dialogue to their personal narrative.  After that they chose an inquiry topic and listened to the story, Ooka and the Honest Thief.  Finally, they chose between practicing their reading, exchanging books in the media center, practicing keyboarding, or completing unfinished work.


Orange:  We began group by reviewing the vowels and consonants.  Then we identified nouns as we began reading the third chapter, "The New House".  I charted and sorted the nouns and we discovered that proper nouns are names on people, places and things. Finally, we used the text and illustrations to infer how Annie was feeling as she moved into her new house.

Pink:  Independently the children read pages 13-28 and wrote a prediction of what they think will happen next, justifying it with support from the text.  When they got to group, we discussed pages 13-28 and reviewed and identified nouns, from the text.

Green:  Independently the students reread the chapter called, "On the Avenue", and confirmed their prediction from yesterday.  In group we reviewed their lists of unknown words and identified nouns from the text.  We also discussed the events in the chapter, "On the Avenue" and predicted, orally, what hill happen next, using the text to justify our thinking.

Blue:  Independently the students reread chapter 4 and confirmed, in writing, their prediction from yesterday.  In group we reviewed their lists of unknown words.  Then we identified nouns from the text and sorted them  as to whether they were proper or common nouns.  As we discussed the chapter we inferred the feelings of Willy and Clifford Snyder using the text and illustrations.

We did get a few quick brain breaks in this morning, including a game of Simon Says and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

After our literacy block the children enjoyed outdoor recess followed by lunch.

When the students returned to class we took the MAP-M.  This is the self-adjusting, computerized math assessment that is given three times a year.  Just like the MAP-R, this is not a grade on their report card. The purpose is to provide data to help drive my planning and instruction.  This took the entire math block...and then some.  :-)

After the MAP-M we turned our attention to Science.  We reviewed words that describe the relationship between two objects and then explored how surface texture impacts the motion of an object.  We learned that friction can slow down the movement and change the direction of an object.

There is NO homework this evening and NO school tomorrow, due to the Jewish holiday.