CookShop Lesson 3 - Vegetables

Wacky Wednesday

We had such a crazy schedule today....

HOUR Blocks of  ELA and Math...

Awards Assembly.....

CookShop.....

Lunch...

Music Class....

It was a busy day, but it was a good day!

We started the day reading a picture book called "TRAIN".  Then the students took an AR test on the read aloud. Afterward, they did their independent reading before I collected homework.  Our class activity was allowing them to select between two News Articles (one on air pollution, the other on child slavery).  Both classes picked childhood slavery (in India).  We read the article from the interactive whiteboard and then went over each question together so they could answer it.

We also went over conjunctions some more as we worked on combining sentences.

Then we had the awards assembly.

Finally we did CookShop where we talked about vegetables and getting our cup and 1/2 a day to stay healthy and strong.   We finished with groups working together to make a creamy kale salad with yogurt dressing.

Homework:

• Reading: IR for 45 minutes, log, sign
• Reading Comp:  The Rise of the Common Man
• Lang Arts:  Conjunctions ( fix the 8 sentences)

Rain Rain Go Away....

Lots of rain and wind today.  When the weather is yucky the students always want to talk and not do work.  NOT TODAY!  I broke my toe yesterday so I was not having the talking today.  I guess PAIN is a good motivator for work!

We finished reading about Cesar Chavez today - pages 86-98 and did a lot of work with cause and effect.  Students also had to go back to the text to find evidence to answer comprehension questions.  Finally, we brainstormed issues that we were interested in doing our speeches on and students were given a ballot to take home and pick their top 3.  I will take the top 4 vote-getters, collect articles on those topics, and allow students time in class to do research before writing our Unit 2 A PBA - Speech on a Social Issue. 

Oh, I almost forgot.  We started the day with another short story called "Words Set Me Free".  This is the story of a young Frederick Douglass.  After reading, students took an AR test on the book.  We are getting down to the last 3 weeks and some students have not met their goals.  You can ask your child to sign into their AR accounts (link is on the blog on the right) and look at their bookshelf and their goals.  

I ended the day with putting a ton of papers in the online gradebook, having students file their work in their work folders.  We ended the day by calling many parents to discuss concerns we are having with students.  

Homework:

1. IR Reading:  45 minutes and summary log 
2. Reading Comp
3. Topic Voting

Tomorrow is our awards ceremony at 10:45.  I have already told the parents, I only give our awards to students who earn them.  Not all students will get awards tomorrow.  If you do get an award tomorrow it is because you worked hard and earned it.  Everyone else, start working hard now so you too can get an award at the next ceremony!

Equivalent Fraction are FUN!

Hope everyone is doing well on this rainy Tuesday!

As we continue to explore Fractions with unlike denominators it important that students 

practice generating equivalent fractions. 

Please see below:

As you can see, learning your multiplication facts can really help the process! Fluently knowing your facts will help you identify common multiples of the denominators which will help you when generating  equivalent fractions.


Remember--Finding the common denominator means that the fractions share the same unit
(animals + animals  vs  dogs + cats ) . You can now add and subtract the fractions!


You can also use a multiplication table to find equivalent fractions! See below!

As always-- Keep up the great work! :-)

Tuesday  - Student practice book page 6.2

Wednesday- Student practice book page 6.4

Thursday- Student practice book page 6.5

*HW pages are tentative, 

*Students may have differentiated homework and tasks.

Monday, January 23rd

My apologies for the late blog.  The internet at work would not allow me to post today so I am doing it at home.  I am sure you understand.

First, parents.... please check the blog each day. Check in with your child to make sure that homework is done and they are engaged in learning.  Today many students showed up without homework and notes were sent home to be signed.

We started a new text today about famed worker's rights activist Cesar Chavez.  We focused on the parts of non-fiction and learning new facts about our new activist.  The students are able to make the connections between all the texts and all the activists and how they faced injustice and how they dealt with it.  They are not however reading closely and trying to remember what they read.  They need to take classwork and topics seriously and work hard to use the information and remember it.

We also read a short story called "Two Friends" about two other activists and took an AR test on that as well.

We looked at parts of a speech and then watched America Ferrera's speech from the Woman's Walk on Washington this weekend and talked about how she made the listener pay attention by using repetition and hand movements and by using her voice to make points.  We stopped the speech and talked about key points and how they should start to see a speech as more than an essay, but as a way to persuade people about a topic that they care deeply about.

We did some sharing of essays using the document camera.  We saw some good examples of essays and some that had bad information or were missing information and talked about how to really buckle down and make a strong case using a simple formula.

Finally, I passed back PBA's and we discussed grades and next steps through conferencing.  Three students still have not completed or turned in PBA's that were due before the holidays.

Homework:

• Read 45 minutes - log - only 3.5 weeks left in AR Contest
• Writing: One Opinion Paragraph "Should Cesar have quit school after eighth grade to help his family?"
• Reading Comp (4 questions)

PS 8 - PS 8 - PS 8

Oh my goodness...

My babies got picked to go watch the basketball game today during lunch.  So when I went to pick them up and take them to specials, we decided to just watch the game.  OUR KIDS were soooo good!  I was so proud of my fifth graders and several of my third grades (now fourth graders) who were tearing up the court.  WOW!  WHO KNEW that I liked sports so much!  They won 44 to 36!  I kinda knew we would win because our coach was cool and quiet... and the opposing team had what looked like two dads who just yelled and had mini-strokes the entire time.  

Great Job PS8 Players!!!

Fun Friday - January 20th

I really like Fridays....  We use them to finish up things we are behind during the week, we do our independent reading and AR testing, we do our skills work to focus in on things we need to improve, and then we do social studies content.

It was a good day!

We started off with our Independent Reading.  Then we did our class read aloud for the day, still with the theme of injustice, civil rights, and segregation.   The book was called The Other Side about two girls on different side of fence who are not supposed to like each other because the fence separates the blacks from the whites.  Great story and kids earned more AR points.

We then did our skills work in groups before rereading portions of Chapter 3 and then taking a chapter test on European Explorers.  We reread it because with Winter Break and the last few weeks being so busy, we might have forgotten some of the content.  Students were allowed to use their books to finish the test.

We also practiced Longitude and Latitude and checked how good we were by then putting the coordinates in the computer and having the map ZOOM to the location.  If you haven't done it before, give it a try!

Congratulations to Angel in class 502 for reading enough books this week to collect over 7 AR points... and congrats to Jason in class 501 for reading some really challenging books that earned him... GET THIS... over 21 points in just just five days!  Way to go boys!  Keep it up!!! I hope you enjoyed your pizza lunch with me and Ms. Cruz today.

I also wanted to congratulate Mya, Gabriel, Ciomara, Kimberly, Lisanna, and, Emely for having either PERFECT or most improved FIZZLE of the week.  We had such a great time talking and eating lunch.  Congrats kids!!!!

Homework:

1. IR: Read 45 Minutes, fill out reading log
2. Reading:  NewsELA article on Jim Crow Laws
3. Writing:  Fix your three paragraph essay

Thursday, January 19th

Today was a "thinking day" and the students were able to take what they learned in the last two texts we have studied and use the knowledge they have gained to do some higher level thinking about comparing and contrasting the theme of each novel and how they were alike and different.

We also did a class read-aloud about Muhammad Ali and his struggles with the same injustices that our original texts dealt with - equal rights and the struggle to get them.  The picture book was entertaining but also allowed us to see the struggles of another African-American trying to get their civil rights and be treated fairly like everyone else.

Finally in writing we reviewed what a 3 paragraph essay should contain... 

1. Introduction with a hook and topic
2. the body (all your thoughts and proof)
3. Conclusion where you sum it up and prove your point

For homework they have the following writing task to do in their writers journal:

Homework

1. Read 45 minutes, summarize and get log signed
2. 3 paragraph writing prompt in writing journal (Share in class tomorrow)