September 24th, 2007
Class activities for Monday, September 24
Spelling: None today due to introducing absent folders and selecting new team captains. Hopefully, we are running out of new procedures, so we can get down to business! Students have the Unit 1 spelling worksheets (download here), which will be due at the time of the spelling test. Find more information, including spelling lists, by clicking on the Spelling link.
Cursive: Cursive pp. 20-22 were made available today and are due Friday.
Reading: We started Literature Circles today. We’ll spend some time practicing this as a group before students start reading books individualized to their reading level.
Writing: None today. Technology was scheduled, but we never made it there. See notes below.
Students are also working on decorating their Writer’s Portfolio (manila folder) with pictures, magazine clippings, stickers, drawings, anything that can lay flat. This is due on Thursday.
Math: Today we reviewed naming and drawing angles. But rather than learn something new, the class got sidetracked on debating squares and rectangles. Most of the class was convinced that a rectangle is a square. This same problem happened last week, and is a direct result of not listening and thinking. Maybe listening, but not thinking. See below in the notes for how this problem is taking shape and what we are doing about it. And this did cause us to have homework: Math Boxes 1.4.
Science: We completed the Pulling Through experiment to see if magnetic force can penetrate objects. Homework is to finish the analyze and conclude questions.
Social Studies: We read about coal, one of the natural resources of the Southeast.
- Yellow magnets: 3
- Orange magnets: 0
- Red magnets: 0
Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet.
Notes:
- The class is struggling with making the same mistakes over again, and being slow to correct. And it really is the class, not just a few individuals, so everyone can work on thinking, participating, showing more energy, working together. This was the same thing that showed up last week during math. It’s still happening this week, and usually takes the form of…teacher gives direction…class hears it (maybe)…class does the same old thing…teacher repeats direction…class does the same old thing…class has to practice…repeat these steps a bunch more times. This makes us very slow and inefficient, so improving this is at the top of my list, no matter how many recesses we give away, or how much homework goes home. We can’t continue to function this way. Hear it, do it, that’s what I’m telling the class. Make a mistake, fix it. We’re getting better, but we have a long way to go. Until this improves, expect to see more homework come home that wasn’t finished in class.
- Here is the school supply list. I have dry erase markers for $0.25 and poly envelopes for $0.50.
- Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
- This week’s juice volunteers: Justice C. and Hannah
