March 30, 2012

Today was awesome we got through all we needed to.  We did reading and had trouble showing proof for character traits.  This means reading my books and finding text support to back up the character trait.  We completed our unit in writing for leads to our story.  Then moved into math and completed our unit in geometry.  The class had a fantastic time in science and we wrapped up our unit for weather.  WOW! It was an amazing day, I can not believe how much we got done.  Also we even had time to play with our buddies and have lunch bunch!!!

March 28, 2012

WOW, another quiet day in the halls. The class as been fabulous both days for the fourth and fifth graders.  I am the proudest teacher alive.  They are working hard to complete their work too.  During reading we partnered up to practice our main idea strategy.  They read a paragraph and state the main idea of the paragraph to their friend.  Please have the students model it for you.We continued our leads for writing and the students found leads and wrote leads to their personal narratives.  Ask them to give you the names of the five different ways to lead off their compositions?  We continued geometry in math by describing the three dimensional shapes and comparing them to their regular or flat shapes.  They partnered up to state the attributes of the shapes and explain their findings to a friend.  Then we finished our vocabulary in science for weather.

March 27, 2012

Today fourth and fifth graders were STARR testing, I am PROUD of my little monkeys they were slient in the halls and chose to fallow the behavior in the halls to make sure the older kids could not be interrupted by noise.  We received tons of compliments every time.  I am amazed at their willingness to show what everyone else in school that secondd graders are leaders not followers.  we managed to cover reading groups and continued to discuss the big idea and what details support my main idea.  Then we moved into writing and wrote different leads to our personal narrative.  During math we discussed shapes and what attributes describe shapes.  We learned we can describe shapes using shape, size, vertices, faces, and edges.  We continued our unit on weather and discussed how clouds, seasons, and the position of the sun can change our weather.  Also how low pressure and high pressure can also affect the weather outside.  We will begin the water cycle and then wrap up weather to begin our unit on government.  What do you want to learn about our government?

March 26, 2012

STARR testing will be happening to morrow in the building, so please do not come to eat lunch with the students.  There is not to be any outside visitors.  The students were back in full working order because we got through everything we needed to.  We did reading groups and began discussing how books compare to one another.  Also the big idea or main idea of a section.  The main idea helps the reader understand the story.  During writing we looked at chapter books and discussed how excellent writers lead off their compositions to grab or hook the reader.  We discovered there are five ways to begin a composition.  We are writing personal narratives and trying to lead off our writing with excellent leads.  Then we did spelling and began our unit on SPL, SPR, and words with sent in them.  The students are amazing and we have almost completed our weather unit. What has fascinated you so far in our weather unit? 

March 22, 2012

Today was a fantastic day, because we had to visitors.  First in came Mrs. Shanahan dressed in a suit with body parts.  She guided us in a lesson about stress.  She showed us how to control our stress, by showing us a breathing strategy.  You might want to ask your child to demonstrate this for you.  We then continued reading and writing for a bit, when all of a sudden in walked Mrs. Doyle.  She started her reading by describing to us about the survivor tree in New York city she saw at ground zero.  Ms. Wolfean showed us a video and we thought it was interesting how different the tree is.  Then we had math and continued with our shapes posters.  We had science, but we had to design our calendar for April.  We had a productive day with lots of learning.

March 21, 2012

Today was a productive day, we had visitors come observe us during reading.  They reported they were excited to see all the connections, visualizations, wanderings, questions, and special moments my students were having to their books and informational texts.  They enjoyed listening to the students give them information about their reading.  I have to say, "I WAS PROUD OF MY MONKEYS!" I was also impressed with all they are doing and listening to them, and love to hear their reasoning behind their answers. I was excited to move into writing because we had a mini lesson on how to add details to our writing.  We discussed adding similes and metaphors to our own writing because it gives the reader a visual of what we are discussing.  We had a blast in math because we mingled with our Friends trying to discover who had our matching flat shape to our three dimensional shape.  Finally we ended with our science discussing weather and how we can measure our weather.  We learned water, wind, and heat can be measured using different instruments, what were those instruments?

March 20, 2012

It was a busy day filled with loads of learning.  We had library and was upset to see Mrs. Wallingford was absent.  Her sub was excellent is read our class a foltale and we all giggled at the book.  Soon after this Mrs. Doyle stopped in to give the class a surprise, BOOKS!!!!  She hand delivered new clss library books from her last story she shared My Lost Dog, she made sure we had all the copies of the next books.  We even recieved the newest one number six.  We had math and started our new unit on geomentry.  Then moved onto science to continue our weather unit.  I hope everyone had a safe Spring Break and you got lots of rest.  what was the number one thing you enjoyed about you time off from school?