Twenty-Eighth Day of School

Today we practiced using a checklist for reviewing our writing. The checklist is a tool devised as a means for writers to check to see if they have everything required in their writing sample in order to pass a writing examination. We will be taking our narrative writing exam next week. Students may be interviewed by their parents so parents may learn which story a child is most likely to tell during the writing exam.

In Social Science today we learned about the United States Independence Day. We learned facts such as:

• Before having an elected President, who ruled what is now the United States?
• From which country was it necessary to declare our independence?
• What did George Washington do before becoming our first President?
• On what day do we celebrate our independence and why that day?

On last night's some students were confused with the part/part/whole when they went to construct the model on their own. When performing subtraction, the model remains with the two parts being above the whole. The difference between subtraction and addition is that with addition, the whole (sum) is the unknown (so the lower space is empty), with subtraction, a part (addend) is unknown and one of the upper spaces will be empty.

In Drama we practiced collaboration on one-scene tableaus.

Twenty-Seventh Day of School

In Writing we revised for closure (CCSS W.1.3).

We listened to a selection on Roberto Clemente and generated the following questions on his life:

1. Where was Roberto Clemente born?
2. What was Roberto Clemente known for?
3. What kind of person was Roberto Clemente?
4. How did Roberto Clemente die?
5. How was Roberto Clemente honored following his death?

Additionally:

• What did Roberto Clemente want to accomplish in Puerto Rico?

Chapter 1 Test Results

Of the 23 students taking the test, all students passed with an adjusted score of 13 or better. One student scored 100% and one student missed only one point.

Twenty-Sixth Day of School

Student writing samples were reviewed this week for progress. Key characteristics were noted which need further teaching. Today we revised for story beginnings as many beginnings failed to include a complete setting. We discussed the strategy of beginning the first sentence of a story with a time:

• One day,
• Last week,
• When I was 5,
• On my 4th birthday,

In tomorrow's writing lesson we will discuss endings/closure.

We completed our Math test. 

The homework sent today is review work.

Reading logs are due Wednesday.

Unit 1 Week 5 Preview

We close out the unit discussing what we like to do with our friends and what we can accomplish with teamwork. Our oral vocabulary words are challenging, charity, admire, focus, offer. We will read, discuss, and generate question for a non-fiction selection about baseball and humanitarian great, Roberto Clemente. We will use our generated questions to conduct expert interviews about Roberto Clemente. Our sight words are help, now, use, very. We will develop our skill of identifying the author's purpose to develop the comprehension strategy of analyzing text structure. We will analyze texts where authors use description to give information. We will focus on final consonant blends (eg. -nk, -nt, -sk, -st, etc.) for decoding, and spelling.

For Social Science we will discuss the significance of Independence Day (HSS 1.3.2) and some national iconic symbols (HSS 1.3.3) (tested).

In P.E. we will be using teamwork to accomplish various goals as well as chasing and learning base running.

In Science we continue our exploration of matter with an investigation of liquids.

Twenty-Fifth Day of School

For your information: Friday afternoons are set aside for Science lessons and there is no make-up. There is often no make-up for math tests either due to the time required to administer. In order to leave time for the Science lesson today, the Math test was cut short and will be continued on Monday.

Reminder: Students should wear socks every day with shoes that either tie or close with Velcro. Shoes with elastic straps are insufficient for safety in our P.E. lessons.

Nice to see familiar faces at our Arts Family Night tonight.

Twenty-Fourth Day of School

Today we edited for punctuation.

In Reading we took a reading comprehension test for a baseline score.

Students including a model on homework problem #11 received a bonus point for their table.

Math test was postponed until tomorrow due to absences.