Yep!! It was a week.

Last week was extremely busy, both at school and at home.  I just couldn't find the time to sit down at the computer and blog.  We had a blast at the Valentine's Day party and the chocolate "puddle" as I called it, seemed to be a hit.  This week is also going to be a busy one with Spirit Week activities for Pennies for Pasta and the black history program on Friday.

Writing Workshop:  This week we are writing to the prompt: Describe a food that is fun to eat.  We discussed how not all prompts are easy to write about and sometimes they really have to think about a topic.

Reading Workshop:  This week's phonics sound is long u spelled _ew and _ue.  We are continuing our learning through practice passages.  This week's passage is a poem.  The students are learning some characteristics of poems such as rhyme and stanzas.

Math Workshop:  We are continuing to practice probability.  We have discussed which events are likely, unlikely, certain, and impossible.

SS:  It is time for reconstruction after the Civil War.  The North has one and now the South must rebuild.  The students created a design today, that was destroyed by me and then had to be rebuilt by others.  We discussed how it felt to have their design destroyed and then the difficulties of it being rebuilt.

Late Start Means a Quick Day!!

Late start days always fly by and this one was no exception.  The day began with the classroom torn to pieces and the culprit was none other than William T. Sherman and his army.  The students had shock and anger on their faces and began to pick up the mess.  We had a class discussion about their reactions to what had happened and applied this to what happened in SC when Sherman actually marched through.  The students then wrote a story about what they would have felt like if they live during this time.  I had some really great stories and I was very proud of them.

Math:  We are finishing up our study of division with fact families.  We practiced creating fact families with three numbers, arrays, and filling in the missing numbers.  We will have a test on Friday.

Reading:  We are looking at the long vowel sounds a and e and consonant blends.  We finished unpacking the questions with the Good Earth Necklace.  This week we have looked at the strategies of Author's Purpose, Drawing Conclusions, Details, and Comparing and Contrasting.

**PTO family night at Wild Wing Cafe this Thursday!  This is the new one in front of Kohl's on Dave Lyle Blvd.**

Division

Our focus has been division as sharing, repeated subtraction, and today we praticed using arrays to solve the problems.  Ask your child to show you how to solve a division problem using all of these strategies.

Writing Workshop:  We are finishing up our hero writings and these will be on display in the classroom.

Reading Workshop:  We are continuing our study of the long a and e sound spellings and consonant blends.

Math Workshop:  Division as sharing, repeated subtraction, and arrays.  We will have a test on division on Friday.

SS:  We discussed the different battles of the Civil War and how different groups were affected by these battles.

Spirit Night has been moved to the new Buffalo Wild Wings.

100th Day!

That's right, it was the 100th day of school today.  We wrote about the most important thing we felt that we had learned in our first 100 days and how it was going to help us in the future.

Writing Workshop:  We are continuing to work on our Hero prompt to practice for the writing test next month.

Reading Workshop:  This week we are working on the long a and long e sounds.  This week's passage is "Good Earth Necklace".  Today we practiced the R of RUNNERS.  R stands for "Read the title and introduction. Make a prediction."

Math Workshop:  We solved division problems using division as sharing and repeated subtraction.  The students are to practice the repeated subtraction strategy tonight for homework.

SS:  Today we read about the war between the states and General Sherman's march through SC.

**We kicked off the Pennies for Pasta campaign and our goal for the class is $500.  I know we can do it.

Ch-Ch-Changes!

We have made changes to our Tuesday and Thursday morning work.  We are no longer doing number of the day.  Now, the students will complete one math word problem and have one sentence to correct.  As a grade level we have noticed weaknesses in students word problem solving, so we will practice this skill for the remainder of the year.  We will continue to write morning journals, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Writing Workshop:  We practiced correcting some mistakes that students had made in their writing.  We are finishing our small moment stories to share on Thursday night.

Reading Workshop:  We continued to practice with the "Make A Boomerang" passage.  Today we began unpacking the questions.  We are looking for key words that will help us to find the answers better in the passage.  Ask your child what a "Right There" question is. (Hopefully they can tell you.)

Math Workshop:  We took our test on odd and even outcomes and multiples of 10, 100, and 1000.  Tomorrow we will begin division.

SS:  South Carolina has seceded from the Union was the big discussion today.  We also had a debate on being in the North versus the South.  There were good arguments for both.

Science:  I did not get to science today.  We will catch up tomorrow.

**Report cards came home today.

**This thursday at 6:00pm is our parent night.  I hope to see you here.

Busy, Busy!!

After being out for most of last week and then us going home early on Friday, this week will be very busy!!!

**Report cards will come home tomorrow!!!**

**Parent night is this Thursday night at 6:00pm!**

Morning Journal:  It is the anniversary of the Challenger explosion.  If I could be an astronaut, I would...  (Must be 7 sentences this quarter.)

Writing Workshop:  We will continue to practice sentence corrections for the PASS test.  We are working on our small moment stories and we will finish these by Wednesday.  All stories will be in the hallway for you to view on Thursday night!

Reading Workshop:  We are working on the /j/ sound, spelled ge and gi_, the /s/ sound, spelled ce and ci_, and long vowels a and e.  This week I am introducing the process of reading a passage and correctly answering the questions.  Today, we just focused on reading the title and introduction and making a prediction.  These strategies will help the students understand how questions are asked on the PASS test and all future tests.

Math Workshop:  We reviewed over odd/even multplication combinations.  I introduced multiplying by 10's, 100's, and 1,000's.  We will review this again tomorrow.

SS:  We are discussing the events leading up to the Civil War.  Right now we are focusing on the North's and South's views on slavary and how this began to separate them.

Science:  We watched a Magic School Bus video all about Animals and Their Habitats.

MLK and Barack Obama

Yesterday was a day of celebrations!  We celebrated the wonderful life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the president was inaugurated yesterday as well.  I was neat to watch how these two celebrations came together as one.

Number of the Day:  2, 222  (next odd, next even, in words, using place value blocks)

Writing Workshop:  We are beginning to practice for the writing portion of the PASS test.  The students will have to be able to identify sentences that are written correctly and incorrectly in a passage.  We will practice this every day over the next couple of months.  We are continuing to write our small moment stories.  Those students that are finished are getting the opportunity to write a make-believe story.

Reading Workshop:  We looked at "Notices" and "Connections" as we read a story today.  Ask your child to show you some notices and connections as they read their story tonight.

Math Workshop:  We finished our multiplication centers and we will take a test tomorrow.

Science:  We are looking at how animals must adapt to their environments and how different animals becoming extinct can mess up a habitat.

SS:  We discussed the similarities and differences between the different ways of life in colonial times.