Wonderful Wednesday

This morning the students completed the Wednesday section of the vocabulary sheet for our word of the week, dispute.  Then, they practiced generating different words that fit a given part of speech to complete a Mad Libs type activity.  After the announcements we switched for math.

Math began with a missing number logic based warm up.  After that, we reviewed the homework from last night.  Then we began our rotations.

During the small group lesson we used used strategies to calculate the volume of rectangular prisms.  Durrng math with a partner, the students played a different Around the World Bump boardgame that helped the children practice calculating the volume of a rectangular prism using V= LXWXH.  Finally, during the technology portion, the students completed a session of Xtra Math and then chose an online site to practice calculating the volume of a solid.

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

Math homework is posted in GC.

After math, we began our literacy block.  We started by reviewing similes and metaphors.  Then we read chapters 17, 18, and 19, identifying siomiles and metaphors along the way.  For each, we added it to a class chart, determined what two things were being compared, and explained the interpretation.

Then we took a Go Noodle brain break.

After that, we began our writing lesson.  Today we focused on revising our writing for correct punctuation of dialogue.  We used two ecerpts of text from stories we have read in class.  We analyzed each to determine who was talking and how we could tell which words they actually spoke.  Finally we noticed how the speech was punctuated.  Then, as the children at snack, they reviewed their drafts to make sure they used dialogue and that it was punctuated correctly.

Next, the students worked indepdently while I met with individual students to continue the bi-monthly informal reading assessments.  FIrst, they completed the Wednesday portion of the reading skills practice sheet.  Next, they used the graphic organizer from yesterday to write a summary of the Paper of Happiness, from WTMMTM.  After that, the children reread pages 105-109 in WTMMTM and identified and explained 3 similes or metaphors.

We ended the day by reading and discussing the settlement of St. Augustine, the first in the new world.  We learned that Ponce de Leon and his men faced many challenges including pirates, hurricanes, and disease.