Fortieth Day

Sixteen students have completed seminar and 8 students have completed their Unit Projects. We began our own Flow Map to provide instruction for a family chore after completing a practice map to retell the events of The Little Red Hen. The best of these maps may be saved to be displayed in the office for Room 11's turn at the bulletin board.

We will likely take our Topic 7 math test on Monday. That makes for a busy test week in math.

Thirty-Ninth Day

Thirteen students have now completed the seminar portion of their Unit 1 Writing Project. Three students have shown me their final revisions. A number of students have yet to turn in both reading logs which are now past due.

Today we "share" wrote instructions for raking leaves and discussed the need for leaves to fall from trees during this season as an aside and current event. We selected a chore for which we will begin to develop instructions.

Thirty-First Day

If memory serves correctly, (we had several false starts) 2 students made it through seminar today before our earthquake drill. Behavior (from our class) was very good during the drill. That brings our total to 10 through seminar. We listened to our weekly oral vocabulary story "Roberto Clemente" today and learned why he was a true American hero. We used clues from the story to determine the author's purpose for writing the story. We blended words with final consonant blends. We read a high-frequency word story called I Like to Help. We wrote a personal narrative journal entry about doing something with a friend.

We took the Topic 5 test today. With 24 students taking the test, 21 passed with a score of 16 or better. Three students earned a perfect score, 3 earned 21, 7 earned 20, 2 earned 19, and 4 earned 18. Tests will be in backpacks tomorrow.

P.S. Slip-on shoes still coming off.

[U1/Wk5/D2]

Thirtieth Day

We are up to a total of 9 for seminar. We discussed teamwork and why it's important. We revised earlier statements about pets. We began work with final consonant blends.

We will take our test on Topic 4 tomorrow.

Conference forms are in backpacks; please return as soon as possible.

Twenty-Eighth Day

Two more students made it to seminar for a total of 4. We read our main selection of the week Flip and analyzed for plot. We read a decodable about how things were made in the past. We continued work with initial consonant blends with 'l'.

In math we discussed parts of 10 using a tens frame.

For social studies we again discussed traditions and tolerance for other cultures.

[U1/Wk4/D3]

Twenty-Seventh Day

Two students were brave and ready enough to take on seminar today. We've been concentrating on initial consonant blends with 'l' this week (cl-, sl-, etc.). We listened to a Puerto Rican story about a naughty boy and his pig and analyzed that for story structure. We used Along Came Toto as a model for descriptive language and tried our hand at some as well.

You should find our Topic 4 test results in backpacks along with some student's unsatisfactory notes. Please sign and return to indicate you received the notice. Conferences will be scheduled the week of the 24th of October. There were a few students who were just barely borderline in a subject or two so I sent a notice as simply a 'head's up." Again, your child needs to know nothing about the contents of the unsatisfactory notice at this point. We can keep the particulars between the teacher and the parent.

In science we put are hands on and used our senses with various samples of solids to observe properties (vocabulary) including temperature.

Twenty-Sixth Day

Today I recorded one student being completed with the Unit 1 Project. Soon students will be ready to go to "seminar." This means they are ready for the revision step of the writing process of their personal narratives. I will be reporting regularly how many students have completed the seminar process. During this process they will receive positive and constructive feedback of their writing from their peers.

Today we analyzed the structure of a fantasy selection. We discovered the elements of a plot.

We began Topic 5 where we will explore the utility of the the "tens frame." We also took the Topic 4 test and of the 24 students taking the test 17 passed with a scaled score of 14 or better. Two students earned a 23, 1 earned a 22, 2-21, 2-20, 3-19, and 2-18.

[U1/Wk4/D1]