Friday, January 31

I was out this morning for an eye doctor appointment and hanging with a sick kiddo so a substitute was here in my place. She worked with them on their circuits and electricity inquiry for Science and helped them with fractional parts in Math. After recess, I was here and we finished City of Ember! The city was created in case of demolition/destruction on land and was made UNDERGROUND! Lina and Doon are now out and experiencing trees, birds, the sun and moon and even an encounter with a fox. This was such a good book and it has a sequel, People of Sparks, that starts at their arrival to the above ground world. After that, we Dropped Everything And Read for January's spirit day. Finally, we completed our day working on our brochures.

Thursday, January 30

Wow! We had a whole day of learning! :) We began our day with Science and continuing our work with circuits and electricity. Then, after gym, we took a pop-quiz over fractions! Hopefully, they'll show that they are right on track and secure with at least the first 3 fraction standards: equivalent fractions, comparing fractions and adding and subtracting fractions. The 4th standard, multiplying fractions by a whole number should still be developing. Keep your fingers crossed! After recess, we worked on our circuits a little more before reading City of Ember, to get caught up. Lina and Doon made it to the Pipeworks and got the boat into the water! In Reader's Workshop, we read silently and worked in our Storyworks magazines. In Writer's Workshop, we worked on our brochures-these are how we are representing our research this time around. Finally, we sorted our spelling words and found that they all have either a prefix or suffix.

**Blizzard Bags: The district has decided to use Blizzard Bags to help keep up with this arctic winter! If we have another snow day, I will post some assignments that kiddos can do from home. They can find these on my eCampus website. I will show them how to get to it but wanted you to be aware as well. Go to ecampus.hboe.org to access my page. From there, students should enter their login and password that they use to access all district computers and programs. They should find my course listed under my name within Alton Darby. The enrollment key is lucky (our class pet.) They will only need to enroll one time. After this one time enrollment, after logging in with their name and password, they should only have to go to My Courses at the top left to find our page. [I didn't get around to showing this to them yet. Hopefully, we'll have time tomorrow but you are welcome to have your kiddo try it tonight.]

**Here are some real world fractions for you... 13/21 students failed the pop quiz. 8/21 students passed-some barely. 1/21 students scored an A on the pop quiz. 4/21 students scored a B. Students are bringing this home so that they can correct the problems. This is due Monday.**

Monday, January 27

What a short day! We did things a little different but actually got quite a bit completed. We took the morning to reiterate how important it is to give our personal best in everything we do. Each morning, we warm up our brains with Math 4 Today. It is only 4 problems each day with lots of different math topics and on Friday is a "test" over the skills practiced throughout the week. Last week, the scores on the "test" were horrible! So, we took a little extra time today with going over our work. Then, we had a shortened-non letter day special and then lunch and recess. After recess, we read from City of Ember and Lina was captured by the guards! Then, she broke free and is about to meet Doon to leave Ember... The children were so upset when Read Aloud was over today! We then, worked with on electricity inquiry project for Science, read, created a layout for our brochure to showcase our research on our favorite place to visit and ended the day with a Word Study pretest. Whew! I'm ready to head home now... Stay warm!

TGIF but Brrr!

Today was a rough day, behaviorally. The class as a whole was talkative, chatty and didn't seem to follow directions too well. We began our day not with what was planned-electricity-but with getting caught up and re-doing some things. In Math, we started the day with an exit slip and I'd say that the majority of the class did great (with a little help and explanation) on this. Then, we completed a performance task about a cookout and played a game. MOST of the class can use lots of flexible application with fractions. This is why homework this week is to find and use fractions in the real world. They are doing fairly well with the activities in the class but need to have a plethora of opportunities to practice using these skills. We had 2 birthday treats during Read Aloud today. Thank you so much for helping to keep these healthy this year. One student today, made homemade granola bars! How creative, healthy and yummy! In City of Ember, Lina and Doon are being hunted down by the security guards for spreading vicious lies about the mayor. Gasp! What will they do?! Finally, we finished our day in the computer lab typing up our informational report/narrative about our favorite place. Some kiddos are struggling with the conventions of typing: indenting (use TAB), space after a period, just continue to type-don't hit return at the end of a line, etc. If you can, help them with these things at home when they are on the computer. Maybe you could dictate something for them to type?

Thursday, January 23

Brrr!! I was out yesterday for Professional Development and there was a substitute. Hopefully, your kiddo was able to talk about their day with you. They learned a little more about what led to Ohio becoming a state in Social Studies, worked with fractions by using Tangrams in Math, learned about Ohio's Inventors by reading about them and creating resumes for the inventors and the day ended with research. Today, we began our day with Guidance. Mrs. Vidic was working with them to discover who they are and what their likes are to help guide their futures. In Math, we completed our Tangram work. Their exit slips looked good although the actual Tangram task proved problematic for some. This is the problem they have shown in Math: they understand skills singularly and solitarily but when asked to apply, combine or use the skill in a way other than they learned, they cannot make it happen. I think we might have a pop quiz next week to see where these misunderstandings may be before going any further. After recess, we participated in a webinar with/from Antarctica! Time For Kids hosted a webcast live from Antarctica which was very cool! Ask your kiddo about it. Afterwards, we worked on our Ohio Inventors Resumes and research. Stay warm!

Tuesday, January 21

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! We began our day with Science and our electricity/circuits inquiry projects. Students are feeling much more secure and confident with completing the circuits than they did last week. In Math, we played two games, Fraction Match and Fraction Of as well as found fractions of liquid volumes in what the kiddos said was a "gross way." In City of Ember, Lina and Doon found the way out! They also discovered some "candles," "matches," and a "boat." They did not know what these things were and had to infer and discover their uses. In Reader's Workshop, we read about the Cool Inventions in 2013 and read a timeline to learn about some of Edison's inventions. Finally, we completed our day with researching about our favorite place to visit.

TGIF!

We worked with our inquiry project with circuits and electricity today in Science to begin our day. In Math, we practiced multiplying fractions with whole numbers. (Students that didn't finish, brought it home and it was suggested that they work on it over the long weekend--this can count toward their Math homework.) In City of Ember, Lina got some help from Clary about the Instructions and Doon had an epiphany about some rocks he's seen along the river. Some students from Miss Cross' class came in and performed a Reader's Theater about Martin Luther King, Jr. after Read Aloud. Then, for Reader's Workshop, they used the information they got from reading about MLK yesterday, to answer the question as to why we have Monday off and a whole day observance for him. In Writer's Workshop, we began researching a place. This place comes from their favorite place to visit that they described yesterday. They had a tough time coming up with questions for this research.

Thursday, January 16

We started our day with Science and our first day of electricity. Today's challenge was to use a wire, battery and bulb to complete the circuit and get the bulb to light up. After about 30 minutes of them complaining that the batteries were dead or that I gave them an impossible task, bulbs began lighting as students figured out how to complete the circuit! (Perseverance...) Below are some pictures. In Math, we made colored fraction bars and wrote clues to have partners try to guess the colors in our fraction bars. Students should be making connections between fractions and multiplication and division. It might take a few more lessons and application to different situations for this to occur so keep them challenging themselves at home. I've re-submitted the challenges on mangahigh as they had expired and there's always the games and websites from the packet I sent home at the beginning of the unit. When reading City of Ember today, we learned that the mayor is stealing food and supplies and keeping them all to himself! Lina and Doon shared this information with the guards. I wonder what will happen... In Reader's Workshop, we continued our work with taking important details and information from two different sources on the same topic. Today we learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. Finally, we ended our day with our Electronics Party!

January 13-15

Sorry for not keeping up~my kiddos are sick! Luckily, Mr. Lambright was able to stay home with them today. :) In Science, we fixed our Earth's Processes assessment as a review to keep up with what we've learned previously and then today, took a pre-test over electricity. Some tricky words for them--which we will be learning--were conductors, insulators and electromagnet. No worries, tomorrow we will begin our inquiry study on circuits and electricity. We also worked a little with Ohio's road to Statehood. In Math, we have been focusing on fractions of sets and the connection with multiplication and division. I think they are finally realizing how important those basic facts are! I don't like for substitutes to read our chapter book during Read Aloud (I guess I'm stingy and subs don't do the voices as well...) so on Monday, the substitute read Miz Berlin Walks by Jane Yolen and yesterday, she read The Stupids Die. The book yesterday with the crazy title dealt with a family that went through a blackout and thought they were all dead. This was just a comical short read that they were able to connect to City of Ember. In Reader's Workshop, we compared two different informational texts about the same topic and completed a chart to show the most important information within the texts. Today, we made these connections and discussed why we may need to consult two texts about the same topic-validity. Finally, in Writer's Workshop, we continued learning about researching by completing an Ohio Studies Weekly on the basics of researching. We also described our favorite place to visit using details.

TGIF January, 10

Happy Friday! Today, we met with our first grade buddies to make 2014 calendars. We made a crazy mess but had a lot of fun! After special, we continued our review of fractions. Students showed a ton more understanding and security with what we've learned so far. I feel much better about moving forward next week. After indoor recess, Lina and Doon explored the Pipeworks and found someone else down there...Also, Lina's grandmother passed away. :( The students, while yelling at me for picking books where an animal or person always seems to die, made some great connections to other books that we've read this year. Kudos for that! In Reader's Workshop, we completed our 2013 Year in Pictures timelines and then finished the day reminiscing about 2013 while looking ahead to 2014.

Thursday, January 9

Happy Thursday! Kiddos were a little less chatty today so if the pattern continues, we'll be back to usual tomorrow. We had Guidance with Mrs. Vidic today~ask your kiddo what life lesson they discussed today. In Math, we discussed that we've been doing a lot of problem-solving, inquiry and self-discovery but some are still struggling with making it all make sense so I took today to instruct them directly on what we've learned and help them to make the connections, especially with common denominators. Then, they had time to practice and apply. I feel that they did much better showing their understanding and actually seemed to persevere and problem solve more than with the activities that are supposed to promote problem-solving...hmmm...My game plan for the future is to mix the two types of instruction more and hopefully, we'll have a better balance. Your child should be able to find equivalent fractions, make common denominators, add and subtract fractions with like denominators and compare fractions. Next week, we're moving on to multiplying fractions. Please help your child to review their basic facts as this will make this skill much easier for them. After indoor recess, Lina showed Doon the "Instructions" that she found and he was definitely excited and thought that they were important too! In Reader's Workshop, students created their "Year in Pictures" for their 2013 and in Writer's Workshop, we wrote our SMART goals for this trimester. They will be bringing them home to share them with you tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 8

Welcome Back! I hope you had a good break. We picked up right where we left off~with a few reminders! :) We started our day discussing our break. I figured that if we got it all out of our systems, we wouldn't be talking all day long BUT some still talked throughout the day... In Math, we reviewed what we had learned of fractions. Unfortunately, kiddos are not showing the security of the skills as I'd liked so we are going to take the rest of this week to help solidify this understanding. After indoor recess (I got our classroom a Rainbow Loom!), we read more from City of Ember. Lina found the Instructions! But to what? Is it to get them help? In Reader's Workshop, we read about 2013 in Time For Kids through a Year in Pictures article. Tomorrow, students will create their own Year in Pictures using things from their personal lives. In Writer's Workshop, we watched a video on history.com about New Year's and the customs and traditions of the past and present. Then, we discussed resolutions and goal writing/setting. We talked about how our goals should be SMART--does your child remember what each letter stands for? Tomorrow, we will be writing academic goals to complete this trimester.