Tuesday, November 5

I was only at school for the first part of the day today as I had an appointment this afternoon. Here is what we did while I was there along with what I left in my plans for the substitute to complete.
It was technology Tuesday and I got the iPads today instead of the iPods. Students LOVED working with them. Unfortunately, more than 1/2 the class left for testing with Mrs. Nelli so instead of doing Science or Social Studies, we continued technology Tuesday and got more familiar with the iPads. After special, we finished our work with the school newspaper algebraic thinking math problem. Then we completed an exit slip to see if this knowledge transferred over. Unfortunately, it did not. Tomorrow, we will go over these exit slips, discuss, practice and try again. Students needed to find the pattern and continue it and then come up with the rule. I'm not sure why they weren't successful because they showed understanding during class yesterday and today. :( After recess, students went to the library to vote for the Buckeye Children's Book Award. If there was time left, the substitute read This Is Not My Hat, which is a nominee for K-2 students but a really cute book. In Reader's Workshop, they worked with vocabulary, read silently and began looking at Greek mythology. The way they need to understand this language is figuratively. For example, if when reading, they read that something was someone's "Achilles Heel," they need to understand what that means just as we learned about idioms, similes and metaphors. This is something new for 4th grade so hopefully, they will be able to apply this understanding to their reading. In Writer's Workshop, they either finished their "Diary of a 4th Grader" stories or collected research. Finally, the day ended with puzzles for our Word Study generalization, silent letters.