Wonderful Wednesday

This morning the students completed the Wednesday portion of the vocabulary sheet for our word of the week, obvious.  Then, they played an online Mad Libs type game to practice generating different parts of speech.  After the announcements, we switched for math.

Math began with an online game practicing coordinate graphing.  Then, we went over last night's homework.  After that, we began our rotations.

During the small group instruction, we used a new online tool to help visualize the use of number lines to add and subtract fractions.  During math with a partner, the students played a "3 in a Row" board game to practiced subtracting, and simplifying, fractions with unlike denominators.  Finally, during the technology portion, the students completed a session of Xtra Math and then practiced adding fractions with unlike denominators, using online games, or revisited the warm up to practice coordinate graphing.

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

Math homework is posted in GC.

After math, we began our literacy block with a writing lesson.  Today, we used the book, 1-2-3 Draw Cartoon People, to explore audience and purpose in functional writing.  We read selected sections, followed the directions for drawing a cartoon head, and then discussed the audience and purpose.  Then, students drew 2-3 more cartoon characters, worked on writing a new recipe, and explored other examples of functional writing using sites linked in GC-Writing.

Next, we read chapters 5 & 6 of Shiloh.  After reading chapter 5, we summarized it as a group and listed the important events/details.

While I met with guided reading groups the students worked independently on the following tasks.  First, they completed the Wednesday section of the reading skills practice sheet.  Then, they reread chapter 6 of Shiloh, wrote a summary, listed important events/details, and identified a theme.  Finally, they re-watched the run-on sentences screen cast and completed a worksheet identifying run-on sentences.

ALL reading groups:  We reviewed the Wednesday portion of the reading skills paper which provided practice with making inferences.  Then, we shared the themes each child generated for the portion of Shiloh we have read thus far, and discussed, as a group, which was the best, using evidence from the text to support our thinking.

The students ended the day by visiting 4 hands-on stations to explore the transfer on energy using static electricity.