Wednesday Wrap Up

The talking today was much better.  It was focused around instruction!  It was about figuring out problems in math and answering questions in ELA.  This is the type of talking that makes teachers happy!

• 1st and 2nd - Math Block
• Today we had breakfast from 8:15 - 8:30.  After breakfast, students copied down their I can statements and we did our number talk activity for the day.  After number talks, we moved to the problem of the day.  We then had a Shelter In drill.  Students handled it really well and we continued with our lesson.
• Today's focus was breaking objects into equal groups based on need.  For example, if you had 4 people and two pies, how would you divide the pies equally.  The problems were a little harder than that, but we looked at ways to think about this by looking at multiples.  When it gets tricky, look at how many you start with, and how many you have to divide by... do the multiples, and it will tell you how many pieces you need to end with.  For example, you have 6 people trying to share 8 pans of brownies...  the multiples of 6 are 6, 12, 18, 24... the multiples of 8 are 8, 16, 24... since both have 24, you know that you need to divide those 8 pans until you have 24 pieces... so that way you can evenly divide by 6 to get (4 each).  We have been telling the students that fractions really is about multiplication and division (making groups).We worked through the On the Spot video and the interactive lesson before breaking into individual groups.
• 3rd and 4th - Literacy Block
• Today's focus in literacy was using illustrations to understand the text and asking and answering questions to understand the text.  In writing, the focus was using linking words to show comparing and contrasting.
• We wrote down our I can statements and then moved to the sharing floor.  We looked at the vocabulary words for the day and practiced them.  Then we looked at the focus questions for reading before reading pages 20-23.  Then we worked together to go back into the text to answer our reading questions.
• Finally, we talked about comparing (things are similar) and contrasting (things are different).  We focused on two basic types of communities - Urban and Suburban.  We talked about how they were alike (had homes, had places to eat and go for entertainments), and then how they were different (population, congestion, space, crime, etc).  The students then were tasked to write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the two using the compare and contrast linking words we discussed.
• 5th - Lunch
• 6th - P.E
• 7th - Science
• We went into Chapter 15 by looking at the vocabulary and discussing the photos.  This way they could connect again the concept of illustrations helping to explain the text and build understanding. We started reading lesson 1 of Chapter 15 - Patterns in the Sky.

Homework:

• Math
• Go Math Lesson 8.2 Homework (pp 453-454)
• Division Practice #21
• Literacy
• Finish Writing Paragraph (Compare and Contrast)
• Reading Comp Practice Wk11 Day 2
• Reading Log - Wednesday