Tuesday

Ms. Simpson has strep throat. She'll be back tomorrow. Please monitor your child's health. Ms. Simpson was diagnosed yesterday afternoon.

We had Four Winds today. It was about Conifers. Please inquire about it.

December Portraits

Monday was Whirlwind!

Today we had a pretty regular morning. Jacob is the new assistant so he did a great job leading meeting. Math was a bunch of stations where we work on addition and subtraction strategies. We are working on self control using the ticket method in anticipation of having one less adult every day.

In literacy we reworked our quilting essays and looked at the assessment rubric for those pieces.

We did not get to all spelling groups and we did not have our regular read aloud. Here's why: We had to work on something for Ms. Simpson, and I can say no more because she reads the blog!

At the end of the day we sang two African songs together as a team in the Kiva.

Don't forget: Make and Take Craft Night is THIS THURSDAY at 6:30!

Thursday Letter

My hope is that several posting each week will eliminate the need for a separate Thursday letter.

Today students worked on using a graphic organizer to plan their Quilt Essays. They will write essays tomorrow if they haven't already.

After going to the library and having Quiet Reading, we worked on cursive and DLR (see below). We wrapped up our day in the Technology Lab learning how to organize our files (File Management is a 3-4 Grade Level Expectation).

I was doing Daily Language Review at my desk at school. I looked out the window of my classroom and this is what I saw. Big, black, huge clouds right with the sun. I said, "That would be a good picture to take!" and Ms. Stewart told me to get the camera and take a picture of these clouds for our blog. And that's what this is.
These black storm clouds were right above us pouring down rain last night. Everywhere I looked on the ground there were puddles an inch deep.

Late Wednesday Night Post

Whew! It's been a busy day. In math we worked on "finding the difference" in a variety of ways in number stories. Students presented their work on the white board and described their thinking.

In writing we looked at the GE's for writing narratives. Students reflected on their skill levels in these areas in their writing notebooks. It was impressive.
We also worked on a graphic organizer talking about the learning done in the quilt unit. Students will begin their essays tomorrow.

In the afternoon we did independent reading activities, planned a party for Ms. Simpson on Thursday afternoon (more on that via email), and finished our read aloud book with 'tracks.' We'll discuss it tomorrow. Since we've only learned one way to use tracks, students are to carry out the Reading Homework instructions for Monday and Wednesday every day this week. Never mind the Tuesday Thursday directions. Sorry for the unforseen delay.

Tuesday Highlights

This morning, during literacy we talked about goal setting, and what to make of the idea of meeting or not meeting one's goals. Setting useful goals is difficult. Students spent time writing about a goal they had identified in September. They also identified goals to work on in school in December. Some of the ways we are thinking about them is "How will this goal help you as a student?" "What strategies will help you attain this goal?" and "What will be better for you as a result of having worked toward this goal?"

I was amazed at how well these students were able to think, and further to write about this relatively abstract topic!

The big excitement today was in science. Ms. Ward and I teamed up (she did ALL of the prep and set up)to demonstrate a very lengthy experiment involving 'earth materials' (sand and humus) and water. Which of these materials would you predict 500 ml of water would go through faster?

If you read this post, please add a comment. I'd like to be able to show students how that works. They'll be posting soon too.