Holiday Celebration - Winter Wishes!

Reading Reading Reading

Hard at Work!

PBA's and Typing...

Seems like that is the only thing we have been doing since Friday.  I am so glad we are done (except a few people who need to finish and print)... but for the most part.. DONE!

We are starting Unit 2 tomorrow.

We went over the Unit today. That means we looked at the essential questions, practiced all the vocabulary, and thought about the big idea "OBSTACLES" and another key word "INJUSTICE".

Homework:

• Read 45 minutes, write summary, get reading log signed.
• Writing:  Think about an obstacle you have encountered and write a paragraph about it in your writing journal.

MISSING COMPUTER

MISSING COMPUTER!!!!

There is a Macbook Missing.  It has a PINK #1 taped on the cover.  It was here on Monday for sure, but now it is missing. With both classes typing PBA's... being pulled to other classrooms, it has slipped out of our room.  Please check around the house to see if it accidentally made its way home. 

Multiplying with Decimals!

Chapter 3 - Adding and Subtracting decimals went very well!  Performance Tasks and Multiple Choice scores are complete ! Students scored fairly well on both parts :) YAY

Chapter 4

BIG IDEAS:
• Students will understand that the placement of the decimal is determined by multiplying a number by 10 or a multiple of 10.
• Students will understand that multiplication and division are inverse operations of each other.
• Students will understand that rules for multiplication can also apply to decimals.


Wednesday- 4.7 Place the decimal point in the product when multiplying decimals.

Thursday- 4.8 Zeros in the Product.

Friday- Guided Friday & Chapter REVIEW

* Chapter 4  Assessments will be administered next week Tuesday-Wednesday
*Please continue practicing Multiplication facts

Have a wonderful Week & keep up the great work!

Rainy Monday

Today was a pretty good day.  We actually got quite a lot of work done.  It was nice to see students using their PBA checklist to check over each other's work and then make corrections as needed.  I can't wait to read them!

The only homework they students had this weekend was to finish their PBA.  I was very upset that a handful of them came in today and didn't have it done.  Excuses were made, but their job was to do it.  It is this type of behavior that worries me that they will not be ready for middle school.  You have to be productive, take control of your learning, and be responsible.  Middle school is 5-6 different teachers in 5-6 different rooms and they will not care about your excuses.  It is either done or not not done.  It is time to break these patterns NOW so that middle school will be a great experience.

After breakfast, we went over the difference between a 3 and 4 on their writing assessment.  They were then given 90 minutes to work on their PBA's. They had to meet with three classmates to read their PBA, check it next to the checklist, and make changes as needed so they can get the highest score possible.  Many students met with their classmates and started typing.

Tomorrow we have end of the unit comprehension and vocabulary assessment.  That should take between 30-45 minutes.  Students will have the remainder of the period to finish and print their PBA's.  After that they have to give up their lunchtime to get it done.  We are starting Unit 2 Module A on Wednesday.

Homework:

• Read 45 minutes, write summary, log
• Finish PBA if you haven't

Friday MashUp

Today we had what seemed like a million things going at once.... but we got it done for the most part!

We started the day by watching a little bit of The Magic School Bus in the Rain Forest while 502 at their breakfast!  We got to about 13 minutes into it, so I guess we will watch the rest on Monday.


After breakfast we moved into our Cyber Safety lesson for the day.  Today we focused on stereotypes in the media and how to be a smart consumer and pay attention to what the media and marketing are trying to do to you when you are online, watching tv, or playing video games.  We had a really good discussion and then looked at two websites from Lego.  It was very interesting to see the different color choices, art, and even font that were used to make it more "girly" or more "boylike"....

We then went into our homework and discussed how they collected evidence for their reasons for their body paragraphs and then I modeled how to take your reasons and evidence, along with some explanations and transitions, and craft a solid body paragraph.

Sample Body Paragraph with REASONS, EVIDENCE, EXPLANATIONS, and Transitions.

After that we looked at how to make a good Conclusion.  We went over the slides and talked about how the conclusion is very similar to the introduction, only it is kinda reversed and also does the job of making sure the reader knows exactly what they should have gotten out of your essay.  

I then modeled how easy it was to review the introduction and write your conclusion.  I showed them some techniques we discussed in our slides.  Afterward I gave them a checklist to check their essay to make sure they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do.

Students had more than an hour to work on their PBA's in class.  The ONLY homework they have this weekend is to finish their PBA's and be ready to publish (TYPE) on Monday.  The only thing we are doing Monday is typing for 2 hours.  This is it!  Tuesday we start Unit 2!

Sample Conclusion

Checklist for Informational Essay

Homework:

1. Read- 45 minutes on Friday, Saturday, Sunday - Need to AR test on Monday - Log!
2. PBA - Finish, revise, edit and publish your PBA so Monday you just TYPE!

Thursday/Friday - PBA TIME!

After today's Cyber Safety Lesson "What is CyberBullying?", we had our last lesson in Unit 1 Module B.  We compared the three texts we have read and looked for the common thread between them.  After discussion, we moved into modeled writing for the PBA.

Yesterday our focus was on the different types of HOOKS (Generic Statement, Question, or Quotation).  Then we followed that hook with an opinion statement.  Finally we followed that with our THESIS STATEMENT or road map for the three topics we would be discussing.

Today we modeled how to do a Generic, Question, and Quotation introduction for review.

Today we focused on the three topics.  We brainstormed reasons for each of our topics.  Then we practiced going into the text and finding evidence that supports our reason.  Finally, we worked on explaining how that evidence supports our reason.  After modeling how easy it was to come up with reasons, students broke off independently to work on finding the evidence they need in the book to support the reasons. 

Tomorrow we will have our last cyber safety video and our lesson for the day will be on writing a closing paragraph for an informative essay.  The rest of the day will be used on finishing up the hard work for the PBA.

Here are two examples of reasons, evidence, and explanations.  Pick one more and do the same!

here are six possible reasons for the topic, pick 3 and then find text evidence and explain how the evidence supports your reason.

here are four reasons for this topic... you need to pick 3, find text evidence, and explain.

Homework:

1. Read 45 minutes, write detailed summary, have reading log signed
2. Writing - continue to gather evidence and explanations for each category above
3. Lang. Arts - Synonyms (two sides)
4. Vocab - Cooking on a Campfire Vocabulary Work