Mighty Monday!

Today was a productive day though we do not have much time together on Monday mornings.

 We are coming to the end of Charlotte's Web. And though I know the children know the storyline whether by having the story read to them or by watching the movie, they really seem to be enjoying the read. I even have our own Reader's Theatre ready to go once we have completed reading the story. We are doing a great deal of vocabulary detective work and word work activities that I feel has really helped with the understanding of the story. Before they may have heard a person read the word, but now they are responsible to finding the word, understanding what it means, and how it impacts the story. Later on this week, the children will have a writing assignment as if they are a reporter from either the Zuckerman's farm or from the County Fair. They will be expected to use details from the story in their report as well as some of the vocabulary words that they have learned. We will also continue our work on Thick and Thin Questions.

Also today, the children worked in small groups and made paper bouquets of flowers for our sweet friend, Dawn Weinman. We sent her a card last week that had pop up flowers in it. I learned yesterday that it has been one of her favorite cards since she is not allowed to have flowers in her room. So we decided to stay with the flower theme.

This week, our spelling words are all words that are October/Halloween words. Tonight they are to write a story, not just a paragraph, using at least 10 or more of the words on this week's list. I did tell them that the story is not to be full of  "blood and guts". They have some special stationery on which to write the rough draft. They will be paired with a writing buddy tomorrow and given time to help each other proofread their work.

In Math, we are beginning our Unit 3, Linear Measures and Area. You should find a Parent Letter in the homework folder tonight that will give you an idea of the concepts we will learn. However, we are continuing our work with the adding and subtracting strategies. We spent a great deal of time today, continuing to review the strategies. Tonight they have the remaining 8 problems on a practice sheet that I hope they will be able to do on their own. They are to only use the Trading Strategy..traditionally known as borrowing and carrying. I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised when I graded the math tests that many of the children did not accurately answer the questions of ballpark estimate and the adding and subtracting. During the practice test they all seemed to understand and very few asked questions. I think that was a learning lesson in itself. The children were much more vocal with their questions today. In all fairness to the children, I plan on giving them a little quiz sometime this week to help their grade a little from their test. After another day or so of practice, I think we will be completely confident!

The children do have a reading comprehension assignment, Senor Coyote, the Judge. There are 4 short questions they need to answer. I suggested to the children that they focus on the questions first before they begin reading. Please don't forget to sign the paper as soon as they have read it aloud to you.

We will have a Wordly Wise test on Friday. Don't forget to ask your child to show you the symbols for our words. This is a new technique that I am finding is a great way for the kids to make associations with the words.

In Computer Lab this week, the children will begin a new project.. I will let them come home and share this with you. It is VERY exciting!  Also, the Simple Machine's projects are awesome. We were able to have our Museum on Friday. We have a few children out today, and so I decided to hold off the presentations until tomorrow.

I also wanted to share that the children can bring their library books back to school when they are finished reading. They do not have to wait till a Thursday to return their book. In fact, it helps if they are returned early, then they have more time check out a book on our library day.