Monday

Hope everyone had a wonderful 3-day weekend! The teachers spent Friday learning more about SmartBoards and developing fun educational activities!

Math: Today we worked on place value more. Students used manipulatives in small groups to get the largest number, the smallest number, and odd and even numbers with both.  We also played a few fun SmartBoard activities! Ask your child about it!
HW: page 8 in workbook - there is a verbal part for you to participate in!
Maldonado Math HW: finish review questions from chapter 1
MY math group's test is Thursday.  We will begin the study guide tomorrow

Reading: Today in reading we reviewed context clues through an activity and began our new way of decoding unknown words-inferencing.  Students worked hard in pairs to figure out the inference of short stories! Some of these were hard!  Students also received their new Lit. Group books. As I explained last week - these books fit better with your child's Lexile score.  Most students will read all the books by the end of the year and of course the books I chose are challenging and mostly slightly above your child's Lexile score since I went off the 3rd grade Spring MAP.  ALL students will be working on the same core content but with different books! Please email if you are concerned with this.
HW: Everything on a Waffle-finish chapter1; Watson's-finish chapter 4; The BFG-finish chapter 2
If you want to get ahead, look over on the right-side of the blog under Check it Out.  The author study project is up. The kids will be getting this Thursday!
Maldonado Reading: no HW

Science: We continued learning about classifying animals and plants and how they are made.  We worked a lot of different adaptations including the look of animals but also mimicry, hibernation, migration, and coloring.  Students were able to play a fun game on the SmartBoard.  We also completed an ORQ orally.  The students are to come home and answer the ORQ verbally to you, too! :) I want to make sure kiddos can actually talk and use what we've learned, not just be able to write it in an ORQ format!
HW: Answer the ORQ verbally to an adult.  Have the adult sign the page when you are finished. 

Writing: Today we worked on our 5 senses! Yes, we related how our 5 senses could help us with our writing. We brainstormed and made a list in our Writer's Notebooks about 'better' words to use for common words like ~ look, hear, tasted, etc.  We will finish the list tomorrow!

*We were not able to walk or have outdoor recess today due to the issue you've probably seen on TV.  The safety of our kids was number one, so Mrs. Sharp asked us to stay inside. Of course, the convict was caught at 1:30 today. Our recess was already over :(.  Your child may need a few extra minutes outside today to get their energy out! :)

Today I had one of those 'feel good' teaching moments.  A boy in my class told me how he's been "so much better behaved this year than in previous years". I asked him why and he stated that the expectations were clear for him from the beginning and he can trust that I will keep my word.  My heart about busted after I heard this. What a great thing to happen on a Monday.  It's true for adults and kids, when expectations are clear and do not change it is easy to do what is expected! :)

Have a great night,