Five For Friday March 11, 2016

1)  Asking the tough questions!

     After completing our writing assessments for this round of report cards, I was pleased to see what strong, creative writers my students have become.  They clearly have voice and structure.  Recently though, I've seen some slipping up in proofing and re-reading writing.  So I decided to ask why. I wanted first to have the kids help me correct a paragraph and see if we knew where to put the capitals.  They did.  So, just after that, I asked them to think about why we aren't consistently putting capitals in our writing (even though we seem to know the rules of capitalization).  At first, the kids looked a little surprised to be asked this question, but quickly their answers flowed.  I wrote them down as they said them, and they were insightful. Some said that they we weren't rereading.  Some said that we were rushing to be done first.  And, one of my favorites, was from Adriel who said, "Writing is not a race.  It is something that takes time."  I'm keeping this up for awhile and having them walk over to where it's written to read it before they turn in their writing. 

  2)   Plants Week 2!   

      Most of our wheat seeds sprouted, and without soil!  Quite a few of the kids predicted that the seeds wouldn't grow without soil (like the student below) and were so surprised when tiny sprouts and roots began to form in our straws.  We read the article in our unit, researched, and learned the reasons why.  Each day the kids have been excited to see the changes and even more excited to get to the "formal" observation days.  I absolutely love going through the scientific method of discovery like this with them.  I can't wait for next week's plant structure fun!  If interested link for unit is below.

This student was surprised her seed sprouted.

Great news . . . they sprouted!

Loved the learning that they expressed!

bit.ly/1TUKIc4

3) Math This Week

     This week we got deep into the types of comparison problems and I showed them the double tape diagram method.  It was awesome to see it applied to one of my reluctant math learners on her daily practice.  We also represented numbers to 100 on our desks, and one of my little guys started the project of planning and starting a math club for his Daily 5 project!  I love the enthusiasm.

4) Inferential Questions!  

 

      After hours of running records and questioning, looking at data, and making a plan I had to think of a way to improve inferential questioning for my firsties.  We've been working on it a little all year, but this week we came up with this cute chant to help them break it down.  

  5) Thankful!  

     I spent the last week at rehearsals with my beautiful daughter for a huge show a volunteer organization that we belong puts on to raise money for the philanthropies we support.  It is a huge labor of love with lots and lots of hours and time.  I'm thankful that I get to have a backstage look at all the hard work the girls put into it and I'm so thankful that I get to spend some extra time with my teen!