Marvelous Monday - Welcome to MP 3

This morning, the students commented about their weekend on our morning message.  Then, they completed the Monday portion of the vocabulary sheet for our new word of the week, conclude.  Those who finished early found a comfy place to read quietly.  After the announcements, we switched for math.

We began math with a Challenge 24 warm up.  Then, we began our rotations. 

During the small group instruction, we used decimal notation to represent fractions with denominators of 10 or 100.  During math with a partner, the students played Four in a Row to practice identifying parallel and perpendicular lines in shapes.  Finally, during the technology portion, the students completed a session of Xtra Math.  Then, they watched two Learn Zillion lessons about converting fractions to decimals with denominators of 10 or 100.  Those who finished early practiced converting fraction s to decimals by playing an online game called Shape Shoot.

In between the second and third rotations, the students enjoyed lunch and outdoor recess.

Homework is posted in GC.

After math, we began our literacy block with a writing lesson.  Today we began a new writing unit, so we selected new writing partners.  After that, we had a brief discussion about fiction writing, sharing what we already knew, and then read, and discussed, Tar Beach, by Faith Ringgold.  This is a well-known fictional story that includes both events that can happen in real life and those that can only happen in your imagination.

Next, the students went to PE with Mr. Smith.

When they returned to class, they ate their snack and began drafting a fictional writing piece.  After writing silently for 20 minutes, they shared their drafts with their new writing partners.

Next, we began our new reading unit  using Green Myths to help us understand change in stories.  First, though, the students worked in their table groups to list things that change and put them into groups/categories.  Next, we tried to come up with a list of things that do not change...and we discovered that was more challenging.  Finally, after agreeing that most things do change, we reviewed the characteristics of traditional tales, especially myths.

After that, we read the Greek myth, ¨Persephone,"and discussed how the characters and setting changed.

Next, we wrapped up some loose ends from last week by going over the weekly puzzles, last weekś vocabulary sheet , and trying to finish the student made Kahoot games (with no luck on that end).

Then, we ended the day by identifying and defining the Earthś main systems; the geosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, and the atmosphere.