We are tired of being cooped up inside! We want to get out and play. That was the statement made today by many students.
Today's morning journal was, "If I were president, I would...". I got some really interesting answers from this one. Some students would let us do anything we wanted and there would never be any more school. Sounds like a scary world to me. On morning math we put numbers in order from greatest to least, changed numbers from word to standard form, subtracted with re-grouping, and looking at how much something weighs on a scale.
During math, we reviewed over our homework from last night and then took our test on coordinate points. Almost every student passed this test! Look for these scores in your child's Friday Folder.
In Imagine It, we discussed how to make an inference in a story. We took the clues from the text+our own knowledge=inferences. The students are also writing their own folktales. Each folktale must teach a moral or lesson to the other students. They must use animals that have very interesting characteristics, similar to those in our story this week. Today, we brainstormed a title, beginning, middle, and end of story. Tomorrow we will begin writing our story with details.
In science, we were going to do a shadow experiment, but of course it rained all day. We took our test on light and then watched a short video on shadows which all the students loved! Hopefully it will dry up tomorrow and the sun will shine for us to complete our experiment.
So I will end the way we started, "Rain, rain go away."
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Let there be light!!
Today's morning journal was if I could be any animal what would I be and why? On our morning math we had a very complicated pattern problem, addition and subtraction fact family, telling time to the five minute (please review telling time with your child), and an addition problem.
During science lab today, the students completed an experiment called the bending pencil. I know we all remember this one! You place the pencil in a cup of water and it looks like the pencil has been bent in half. All due to light!
In math we reviewed coordinate grids and which one is the x and y-axis. We pretended that we were going on an egg hunt and had to place eggs at a certain ordered pair. I taught the students how to move around on a coordinate grid either right, left, up, or down. We also discussed that they may use the directions north, south, east, or west. We practiced moving around the coordinate grid and counting our steps by doing "bunny hops". We will have a test on coordinate grids tomorrow after a short review.
Ask your child what they are learning in their work shop groups. All of our students are doing such wonderful things in their groups and creating some great projects.
During Imagine It we finished reading "Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun". We focused on making predictions and making connections. All of the students completed a t-chart where they had to find a sentence in the story and then make a connection to that sentence. They had to complete five in their reading journals. I sent them home with their Imagine It books to re-read the story. Ask your child to stop and make a prediction, then have them either confirm or deny their prediction. Make them explain why their prediction was either right or wrong.
In science today we studied light and the different characteristics of light. We looked at four types of light: flashlight, candle, lamp, and sunlight. After the students observed the different kinds of light, they wrote down the characteristics of each type. We discussed each type of light and its characteristics. We focused on how light reflects off of objects and that is the only reason we can see everything around us. Tomorrow we will look at our shadows and how it moves throughout the day.
Make sure your child is studying their multiplication flash cards every night!!
During science lab today, the students completed an experiment called the bending pencil. I know we all remember this one! You place the pencil in a cup of water and it looks like the pencil has been bent in half. All due to light!
In math we reviewed coordinate grids and which one is the x and y-axis. We pretended that we were going on an egg hunt and had to place eggs at a certain ordered pair. I taught the students how to move around on a coordinate grid either right, left, up, or down. We also discussed that they may use the directions north, south, east, or west. We practiced moving around the coordinate grid and counting our steps by doing "bunny hops". We will have a test on coordinate grids tomorrow after a short review.
Ask your child what they are learning in their work shop groups. All of our students are doing such wonderful things in their groups and creating some great projects.
During Imagine It we finished reading "Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun". We focused on making predictions and making connections. All of the students completed a t-chart where they had to find a sentence in the story and then make a connection to that sentence. They had to complete five in their reading journals. I sent them home with their Imagine It books to re-read the story. Ask your child to stop and make a prediction, then have them either confirm or deny their prediction. Make them explain why their prediction was either right or wrong.
In science today we studied light and the different characteristics of light. We looked at four types of light: flashlight, candle, lamp, and sunlight. After the students observed the different kinds of light, they wrote down the characteristics of each type. We discussed each type of light and its characteristics. We focused on how light reflects off of objects and that is the only reason we can see everything around us. Tomorrow we will look at our shadows and how it moves throughout the day.
Make sure your child is studying their multiplication flash cards every night!!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Coordinate Grids!!
Today's morning journal was, "If I were a snowflake I would...". On our morning math we practiced the value of numbers, adding three-digit numbers with re-grouping, polygons, and subtracting. Many of the students struggled with polygons, I will be formally teaching this later in the week.
We had double specials today! First, the students went to media and got to check out some new books. Don't forget to ask your children some of the strategy questions located in the FROG binder. Then, they went to PE and played a game that got them hot and sweaty.
After physical activity, we look at adding the suffixes -ful and -able to words. We discussed how it changes the words and gave examples of our new words in sentences. Our reading skills this week are predicting and making connections. When we make predictions while reading a story, we are making an educated guess from the clues in the text. As you continue reading, you need to either confirm or deny your prediction and then say why. There are three types of connections you can make to a story: 1. Text to Self 2. Text to World 3. Text to Text. Ask your child to try and make connections as they read a story to you at home. We read the first part of our story "Grandmother Spider Gets the Sun". This is a folktale and tells how many different animals got their characteristics and how we got day and night. We discussed how the Native Americans created these stories to explain different occurrences in the world.
During math I introduced Coordinate Grids. When looking at an ordered pair you always find the x-axis first and then the y-axis. I explained to the students that first they need to crawl and then they need to climb. An ordered pair looks like this: (x,y). The x-axis is on the bottom (horizontal) and the y-axis goes up and down (vertical). We practiced finding ordered pairs and labeling them on a coordinate grid. The homework that was sent home tonight has some great examples on it.
Tomorrow, we will work on moving through directions and going from one ordered pair to another on a coordinate grid. The test will be on Wednesday.
We had double specials today! First, the students went to media and got to check out some new books. Don't forget to ask your children some of the strategy questions located in the FROG binder. Then, they went to PE and played a game that got them hot and sweaty.
After physical activity, we look at adding the suffixes -ful and -able to words. We discussed how it changes the words and gave examples of our new words in sentences. Our reading skills this week are predicting and making connections. When we make predictions while reading a story, we are making an educated guess from the clues in the text. As you continue reading, you need to either confirm or deny your prediction and then say why. There are three types of connections you can make to a story: 1. Text to Self 2. Text to World 3. Text to Text. Ask your child to try and make connections as they read a story to you at home. We read the first part of our story "Grandmother Spider Gets the Sun". This is a folktale and tells how many different animals got their characteristics and how we got day and night. We discussed how the Native Americans created these stories to explain different occurrences in the world.
During math I introduced Coordinate Grids. When looking at an ordered pair you always find the x-axis first and then the y-axis. I explained to the students that first they need to crawl and then they need to climb. An ordered pair looks like this: (x,y). The x-axis is on the bottom (horizontal) and the y-axis goes up and down (vertical). We practiced finding ordered pairs and labeling them on a coordinate grid. The homework that was sent home tonight has some great examples on it.
Tomorrow, we will work on moving through directions and going from one ordered pair to another on a coordinate grid. The test will be on Wednesday.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Oh no! The SMART Board!
The SMART Board finally gave out on us today. The bulb has been threatening to go out for a couple of weeks and it finally gave up. I have already put in an order for it to be fixed, so hopefully it won't be to long before it is up and running. It is back to the old school for my classroom and we will be using chart paper for our board.
This morning's journal was about your favorite sport on wheels. Are you a skateboarder, biker, roller skater, etc? We had some very challenging problems on our morning math, with two multi-step problems, place value, and a picto-graph problem. We will have our weekly morning math test tomorrow.
During math, we reviewed for our multiplication and division test. I gave the students examples that are just like the problems on the test to solve in their math journals. All of the students brought their math journals home as a study guide. We will take our test tomorrow. I will walk the students through un-packing the questions and they will solve them on their own.
During Imagine It, we reviewed for our test tomorrow and focused on drawing conclusions. We practiced taking clues from the text, putting it with our own knowledge, and then drawing a conclusion. All of the students took the AR test on Sun and everyone got either a 90 or 100. Almost everyone has made their goals. We have exactly two weeks from tomorrow to make AR goals.
During science, we were going to watch a video about light as an introduction to the sun, but as soon as I got it on DiscoveryEducation.com, the SMART board went black. Instead, I read a book about light and how it is made by electricity and the students wrote ten facts they learned from the story. Tomorrow, we will complete a lab with different kinds of light and compare how they are alike and different.
Thank goodness it will be Friday!
This morning's journal was about your favorite sport on wheels. Are you a skateboarder, biker, roller skater, etc? We had some very challenging problems on our morning math, with two multi-step problems, place value, and a picto-graph problem. We will have our weekly morning math test tomorrow.
During math, we reviewed for our multiplication and division test. I gave the students examples that are just like the problems on the test to solve in their math journals. All of the students brought their math journals home as a study guide. We will take our test tomorrow. I will walk the students through un-packing the questions and they will solve them on their own.
During Imagine It, we reviewed for our test tomorrow and focused on drawing conclusions. We practiced taking clues from the text, putting it with our own knowledge, and then drawing a conclusion. All of the students took the AR test on Sun and everyone got either a 90 or 100. Almost everyone has made their goals. We have exactly two weeks from tomorrow to make AR goals.
During science, we were going to watch a video about light as an introduction to the sun, but as soon as I got it on DiscoveryEducation.com, the SMART board went black. Instead, I read a book about light and how it is made by electricity and the students wrote ten facts they learned from the story. Tomorrow, we will complete a lab with different kinds of light and compare how they are alike and different.
Thank goodness it will be Friday!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Half-Way There!
Some of the students couldn't believe it was already Wednesday! They said the week had move by very quickly. This morning when they came into the room they wrote about different ways they can impact the environment in a positive way. On our morning math sheet, we looked at three-digit addition, patterns, and place value. We do not have specials on day 6 so today we took our bi-weekly reading formative test. The students did really well on this test and I was proud of them.
During math, we went over our math homework from last night and made sure everyone understood the concepts. We completed our daily SOLVE problem and talked about why we use multiplication instead of addition and how to determine if a problem is multiplication or addition. Ask your child to try and tell you the difference on a given problem! Our math test has been moved to Friday. I sent home a study guide today, but there will not be Order of Operations on the test.
During Imagine It we looked more in depth at adjusting our reading speed and why we would need to do this when reading an expository text. We also had a concept web contest! The students had to create a concept web about the sun and the student with the most correct concepts won a lunch with me in the teacher's lounge. During phonics we looked at putting -tion and -ment on the ends of words and how it changes the word. We created sentences using these words.
During AR, we read a book about Kwanzaa and discussed the different principles of Kwanzaa and how we can apply them to our own lives. All of the students took an AR test and everyone got a 90 or 100! Almost everyone in our class has made their AR goal!
During Science, we finished our KWHL charts for Sun, Moon, and Stars by filling in the Know and Want to Know sections. Tomorrow, we will look at how light is created in many different ways.
See you tomorrow.
During math, we went over our math homework from last night and made sure everyone understood the concepts. We completed our daily SOLVE problem and talked about why we use multiplication instead of addition and how to determine if a problem is multiplication or addition. Ask your child to try and tell you the difference on a given problem! Our math test has been moved to Friday. I sent home a study guide today, but there will not be Order of Operations on the test.
During Imagine It we looked more in depth at adjusting our reading speed and why we would need to do this when reading an expository text. We also had a concept web contest! The students had to create a concept web about the sun and the student with the most correct concepts won a lunch with me in the teacher's lounge. During phonics we looked at putting -tion and -ment on the ends of words and how it changes the word. We created sentences using these words.
During AR, we read a book about Kwanzaa and discussed the different principles of Kwanzaa and how we can apply them to our own lives. All of the students took an AR test and everyone got a 90 or 100! Almost everyone in our class has made their AR goal!
During Science, we finished our KWHL charts for Sun, Moon, and Stars by filling in the Know and Want to Know sections. Tomorrow, we will look at how light is created in many different ways.
See you tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Brrr!!! It's cold out there!
This was the comment from every child as they entered the classroom today. I was glad to see almost everyone back today at school. We had a fun day as we entered the exciting world of sun, moon, and stars.
As the students entered they completed the morning journal of: If you have won an award, what was it and why did you win the award? If you haven't won an award, what award would you like to win and why? It was wonderful to read how many of our children have won awards. We completed day two on our morning math sheet. This covered finding the missing number in an addition equation, counting and subtracting money, place value blocks with regrouping, and adding.
During math, we learned how to solve a division problem using repeated subtraction. For example if you are dividing 12/3=, you would start with 12-3=9, 9-3=6, 6-3=3, 3-3=0. Count how many times you subtracted three and that is the answer. So 12/3=4. We also checked our answer by multiplying 4x3=12. The students practiced using this strategy at their seats and some of them got to go on the computer to work on their multiplication facts. Tomorrow we will play a multiplication and division review game for our test on Friday.
During Imagine It, we learned that when you put -ly on a word it becomes an adverb and when you put -y on the end of a noun it becomes an adjective. We previewed our story "Sun" and worked on adjusting our reading speed, clarifying, and asking good questions. The students are going to read the story "Sun" tonight for homework.
During Science, I read "Papa, please get the moon for me" by. Eric Carle. It was such a class favorite, that I ended up reading it twice. All of the students in the class took an AR test on the book, and everyone got 100!! The students created a KWHL chart for sun, moon, and stars. The K stands for Knowing, the W for Want to Know, the H for How you want to learn it, and the L for what you Learned. We will finish the KWHL chart tomorrow before beginning our study of light.
Thanks for another great day and stay warm!!
As the students entered they completed the morning journal of: If you have won an award, what was it and why did you win the award? If you haven't won an award, what award would you like to win and why? It was wonderful to read how many of our children have won awards. We completed day two on our morning math sheet. This covered finding the missing number in an addition equation, counting and subtracting money, place value blocks with regrouping, and adding.
During math, we learned how to solve a division problem using repeated subtraction. For example if you are dividing 12/3=, you would start with 12-3=9, 9-3=6, 6-3=3, 3-3=0. Count how many times you subtracted three and that is the answer. So 12/3=4. We also checked our answer by multiplying 4x3=12. The students practiced using this strategy at their seats and some of them got to go on the computer to work on their multiplication facts. Tomorrow we will play a multiplication and division review game for our test on Friday.
During Imagine It, we learned that when you put -ly on a word it becomes an adverb and when you put -y on the end of a noun it becomes an adjective. We previewed our story "Sun" and worked on adjusting our reading speed, clarifying, and asking good questions. The students are going to read the story "Sun" tonight for homework.
During Science, I read "Papa, please get the moon for me" by. Eric Carle. It was such a class favorite, that I ended up reading it twice. All of the students in the class took an AR test on the book, and everyone got 100!! The students created a KWHL chart for sun, moon, and stars. The K stands for Knowing, the W for Want to Know, the H for How you want to learn it, and the L for what you Learned. We will finish the KWHL chart tomorrow before beginning our study of light.
Thanks for another great day and stay warm!!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Where were you?!
That is the big question from our class today! We only had fourteen students at school today, but we had a blast with our learning. The students began the day writing a morning journal about, "What was the best thing you did over the holiday break?" (Please remember if your child is out, they are still responsible for the morning journals they missed.) We then completed morning math day one which reviewed over place value, value of numbers, adding and subtracting money, three digit addition, and patterns.
During math we completed a SOLVE problem which had us divide 54/6. We drew out six groups and then divided out the fifty-four things into the groups. We found out that there were nine in one group, so 54/6=9. We checked our answer by multiplying 9x6-54. We discuss every day that multiplication and division are the opposite of each other and they create a fact family. We then played multiplication BINGO, to practice our multiplication facts. We had two winners and they received a piece of candy and NO laps at recess.
During Imagine It, I introduced the Sun, Moon, and Stars unit and read the story Galileo's Journal. This is an historical fiction (ask your child about this genre) story and the students really enjoyed learning about the first telescope was invented. I always enjoy reading this story to the students, because they are so shocked that people did not understand how outer space worked. We practiced clarifying things we did not understand in the story. Ask your child to help you clarify something as you read with them tonight.
Today the students participated in a "Gallery Walk". They walked through the halls and wrote positive comments on other student's heritage projects. Everyone enjoyed seeing how all of the projects were created and so different! I will be recording the students doing their presentations over the next few days and then we will watch the video together as a class.
Tonight for homework they had one math sheet, that had a review of multiplication and division concepts. They need to read 30 minutes and study their multiplication flash cards.
See you tomorrow!
During math we completed a SOLVE problem which had us divide 54/6. We drew out six groups and then divided out the fifty-four things into the groups. We found out that there were nine in one group, so 54/6=9. We checked our answer by multiplying 9x6-54. We discuss every day that multiplication and division are the opposite of each other and they create a fact family. We then played multiplication BINGO, to practice our multiplication facts. We had two winners and they received a piece of candy and NO laps at recess.
During Imagine It, I introduced the Sun, Moon, and Stars unit and read the story Galileo's Journal. This is an historical fiction (ask your child about this genre) story and the students really enjoyed learning about the first telescope was invented. I always enjoy reading this story to the students, because they are so shocked that people did not understand how outer space worked. We practiced clarifying things we did not understand in the story. Ask your child to help you clarify something as you read with them tonight.
Today the students participated in a "Gallery Walk". They walked through the halls and wrote positive comments on other student's heritage projects. Everyone enjoyed seeing how all of the projects were created and so different! I will be recording the students doing their presentations over the next few days and then we will watch the video together as a class.
Tonight for homework they had one math sheet, that had a review of multiplication and division concepts. They need to read 30 minutes and study their multiplication flash cards.
See you tomorrow!
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