TGIThursday, April 17

(Sorry that there isn't a blog from yesterday. My mom was rushed to the hospital and I had to leave early.)

We began our day with test preparation. Some of the things we discussed was the vocabulary of testing, common mistakes made by students and that both the math and reading tests really test reading ability too. We watched some testing parodies yesterday which were clever, cute and funny. Some students have decided to create their own parodies too! Here are the links to some of the ones we watched: Thrift Shop Testing Parody
Test Me Maybe
What Does the Test Say?
All the Harman Students

After gym (Mr. Burkhart said that our class is too competitive for school gym...this leads to poor sportsmanship.), we took the 1/2 length Math Practice OAA...ugh! Their stamina was icky and they seemed way too stressed out to give their best effort. This was only a practice test! We will be working to build stamina, work in a silent work environment and persevere and problem solve over the next couple of weeks. Recess was beautiful! (I hope it stays around this time.) Bud had his first kiss today which was a big LOL moment for the class. Our brain break was a fire drill but at least we got outside for a few more moments. Then, we read, silently and independently for 20 minutes solid. This was EXTREMELY hard for some students! Please help to build the stamina. It should be nothing for a 4th grader to read for 20 minutes at one sitting. After reading, they wrote a summary of what they read. Their summaries are getting better. Finally, we ended our day in the computer lab writing our personal narratives.