365 and 1/4 days!

Today's morning journal was: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that there would be no more segregation. What is your dream for our world and why? All morning journals must be written in eight complete sentences with good details. For our morning math we had place value, subtraction with regrouping, putting numbers in order, place value blocks up to the 1000's place, patterns with numbers, and elapsed time. Start practicing elapsed time with your child at home by having them tell you how much time elapses between them starting and stopping their homework. Or you can give them an amount of time to do something and ask them what time they need to be finished by.

We did not have specials today and we took a timed multiplication test. Mrs. Zancanaro came in and taught the students a lesson on debate. In the new Common Core Standards, the students will have to learn how to present an argument and back it up with facts. Today, they had to argue whether or not they thought cursive writing should still be taught in schools. They had to use the article to try to figure out a reason for why they believed what they did. The students are very good a stating their opinions, but they still struggle with the why behind their argument. We will continue to work on this strategy, so they can be prepared for the upcoming Common Core Standards.

In math, we identified a point, line, line segment, ray, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and intersecting lines. We played a game where the students had to find a person that matched up with either the name or the picture of their concept. After the second round, they were partnered up with that person to create a flip book of the terms, definitions, and pictures.

In Imagine It, we looked at adding -ity and -less to the ends of words. We previewed our story "The Moon Seems to Change" by looking at the clues, problems, and wonderings. We also did a picture walk of our story and looked at how much the pictures are going to help us with our story. We will continue this story through next week in conjunction with our science unit.

The third quarter ends this Friday and so will our chance to make our third quarter AR goals. Ask your child if they have made their goal. If not, read an AR book with them each night and have them come in the next day and take a quiz.

In science, we looked at how the Earth's rotation creates day and night and the Earth's revolution creates the season's of the year. The students could not believe that a year is actually 365 and 1/4 days. I explained to them that they take that 1/4 day and every four years is a leap year and we have an extra day in February. It just so happens that this year is a leap year, so they will get to discuss and understand the way it works.