Thrilling Thursday

This morning the students completed the Thursday portion of the vocabulary sheet for our word of the week, contain.  Then, they solved the weekly puzzles and posted their guesses in the comment section.  After the announcements we switched for math.

Today, due to 3rd grade PARCC testing, we traded lunch and recess with 3rd grade.  So, we had our entire math block prior to lunch and recess.

We began math with an error analysis warm up, and then we reviewed the homework from last night.  After that, I introduced and reviewed a project that the students will work on over the next couple of days.  They will create their own coordinate plane pictures.

Next, we began our rotations.

During the small group instruction, we did some review of 4-digit by 2-digit division and adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with unlike denominators.  During math with a partner, the students began working on the coordinate plane picture project.  Finally, during the technology portion, the students completed a session of Xtra Math and then used the Coordinate Blendspace to practice plotting coordinates on a grid.

Math homework is posted in GC.  We will have a formative tomorrow.

After math, we had a social studies lesson.  As a whole group, we used several resources to examine how the early settlers of the New England colonies, adapted to and used the environment to survive.

Next, the children enjoyed outdoor recess and then lunch.  After that, they went to music.

When they returned to class we are snack and began our literacy block with a writing lesson. 

Yesterday we began a new unit about writing poetry.   We began today by defining and explaining some poetic devices used by poets.  Then, we read two poems that used personification.  After that, the students chose a classroom object and did a Quick-Write, brainstorming how the object looks, feels, sounds, and smells, as well as, what it might do if it came to life.

After writing we began our independent work and guided reading block, but it was cut very short, due to the changes in our schedule earlier in the day.

While I met with reading groups the students completed the Thursday section of the reading skills practice sheet which dealt with identifying possible themes of text.  After that, they completed the day 4 assignment (from yesterday) for their book clubs, and then met in their groups.  Next, if they had not already done so, they watched the screen cast and completed the guided practice sheets for the writing skills lesson about using commas in letters.  Finally, they worked on the Flocabulary lesson about the original 13 colonies.  I will be grabbing a social studies grade off of the quiz given in the lesson.

Pink:  We reviewed the Wednesday and Thursday sections of the reading skills practice sheet, since I did not meet with them yesterday.  Wednesdayś section provided practice with making inferences and today´s worked on identifying the theme of text.