Wonderful Wednesday

This morning, after the announcements, we began our literacy block.  First the students completed an independent guided reading group assignments.  Then they worked on their genius hour project.

Before meeting with guided reading groups, I met with several students to discuss their informational paragraphs and research.  I am trying to emphasize that students should be putting time and effort into the research.  They need to become experts about their topic.  Many are struggling with this aspect.  They want to rush through without learning the necessary information to answer their driving question.  I attempted to guide students to see this for themselves, but many got frustrated (angry?) with me.  Please ask your child to tell you their driving question and have them tell you what they have learned so far.

Pink:  Independently the children reread pages 4-9 and, in their RRJ, explained what Eric Kimmel meant when he said, "Choose where you sit carefully.  It may change your life."  In group we discussed this and revisited the text to find details to support our thinking.  We also read pages 10-13 and identified who had the most influence in Kimmel's life.  For HOMEWORK the children need to read pages 14-21 and list unknown words on a sticky note.  They should also focus on books he wrote due to his grandma's influence and why he calls his work space the hobbit hole.

Green: Independently the children reread pages 3-5.  Then they identified the meaning, using an online resource, and use the word in their own sentence, for the following vocabulary words; crevice, debris, and obscured.  In group we reviewed their unknown words from last night's homework.  Then we reread pages 3-5 and wrote a summary.  After that we use the summary to identify the main idea.  Our lesson focused on using the topic sentences of each paragraph to help identify what it was mostly about and then using the summary to help figure out the main idea.  For HOMEWORK the children need to read pages 7-13, stopping at the end of each paragraph to think about the big idea.

Blue: Independently the children read chapter 3, and, in their RRJ, identified the main idea and 2-3 key details.  In group we reviewed chapter 1.  Then I modeled, through thinking out loud, how to read chapter 2, stopping along the way to identify what sections of text were mostly about.  I also demonstrated how I tied the "mostly abouts" to the chapter title in order to determine the main idea of the chapter.  For HOMEWORK the children need to read chapter 3, stopping at the end of each paragraph, or page, to recall what the section was mostly about.

After our literacy block, the students enjoyed outdoor recess and lunch.

When the children returned to class we began our math block with a Train Your Brain.  Then we began our rotations.

During the small group instruction we focused on using on identifying the knowns and unknowns to help us represent and solve multi-step word problems.

During math with a partner, the students engaged in math discourse as they represented and solved multi-step word problems together.

Finally, during the technology rotation, the students completed a problem set pon Prodigy which focused on solving multi-step word problems.

HOMEWORK is posted on Google Classroom.

The students ended their day in music with Mrs. Graf.