Too Talkative Thursday!

I can tell that the students are excited about a lot of things right now.. not sure if it is Valentine's Day... or going to The American Museum of Natural History,,,, or maybe even the fact that Mid Winter Break is almost here...   They are full of energy and super talkative... I wish the playground was dry so we could go to recess and run off some energy...

• 1st / 2nd - Literacy Block
• We started the day as usual with our 15 minute breakfast in the classroom.  We have a nice routine where the students pick up their breakfast at the door, sit down and eat.. on literacy days they have a "WORD LADDER" to work on while they eat, on math days they have a 1 word problem math "entrance" ticket to complete.  After breakfast we complete, we went over our word work word ladder.  The students are getting much better at coming up with the words for the clues!  That's a good thing!
• Today we did ReadyGen Lesson 2B.10 and 11.  Our focus was being able to ask and answer questions to show understanding, and to use illustrations to better understand the text.  We read pages 28 - 32 and looked at text features and asked questions to check for understanding.  Then students worked on the questions in their RWJ for the reading sections covered today.
• During this time, about 12 students (3 at a time) went to the back of the room to re-take their STAR Reading test.  Monday when we took it, the main office did our schoolwide stress relief exercises, and the kids scores dropped.  Fingers crossed that retaking it today, in the back, with headphones, their reading levels will come back up!
• 3rd/4th - Math Block
• Today the students worked on their STAR Math test.  We reviewed the concept of subtraction with regrouping, place value, and the steps you take to solve a multi-step problem.  After about 15 minutes of reviewing, we passed out laptops, students pulled out paper and pencil to do the problems, and off they went.  I will say I was quite happy with the length of time it took many of them to test.  The longer the test takes, the more difficult the problems are becoming.  The program re-calibrates after each successful question to a higher level until it calculates the exact level of the student.  
• After students were done with the STAR Math Test, they were told to quietly sign on to WAGGLE to practice ELA or Math until the other students finished.  This was a way to keep everyone quiet while they tested.
• After everyone was done, we collected computers and then went over the homework from GoMath 8.2.   It seems that students are doing pretty well understand the basic concept of what is a fraction and making equal parts. 
• 5th - Lunch
• 6th - P.E
• 7th - Valentine's "FRIENDSHIP" Card exchange and refreshments.  
• The students exchanged cards and enjoyed cookies and juice while they watched A Charlie Brown Valentine.  

Homework:

• Math 
• Division Practice #22
• Math Mid Winter Vacation Packet
• Play with Fraction Kit
• Literacy
• Reading Comp Wk 11 Day 3
• ELA Mid Winter Vacation Packet
• Field Trip - AMNH
• Bring healthy bag lunch (no glass bottles or soda)
• Leaving promptly at 8:45
• Returning by end of school day