November 4th, 2009
Class activities for Wednesday, November 4
Spelling: We reviewed the homophones there, their, and they’re and students practiced matching the correct homophone to sentences.
Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 18-20 are available and due Friday.
Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.
Writing: Students reviewed the grade they received on their most recent piece of writing. Check SnapGrades and click on “writing” to view your student’s grade and suggestions for improvement.
We talked today about how much time would be needed to complete an average piece of writing. Many students guessed 30-90 minutes. But it’s much more:
- If an average student works on writing for 10 minutes per day at school, 4 days per week, and,
- If an average student works on writing for 10 minutes per day after school, 4 days per week, and,
- If students are allowed 3 weeks to complete each piece of writing…
- That results in 80 minutes per week, 240 minutes for a 3-week writing piece. In other words, an average piece of writing takes a total of 4 hours to complete.
- If a student works 20 minutes per day at school and home, that would add up to 8 hours of work!
The important message is that an average piece of writing takes more than 4 hours of work, and the easiest way to do this is to work on it a little each day. Students who only work on their writing at school, or who try to finish up a late piece of writing only at recess, are bound to earn unsatisfactory grades, because they’ll never have the opportunity to spend the time it takes to write a quality piece of writing.
You might want to ask your student how much time they have been spending on writing each day.
The next piece of writing will be a personal narrative that has been slightly fictionalized, or, in other words, a personal narrative based on a true story. This piece of writing will be due Friday, November 6. This will be the final writing piece of the first marking period. Students should be editing by now.
Math: None today due to extra time with writing.
Science: None today due to library.
Social Studies: None today due to art.
- Yellow magnets: 0
- Orange magnets: 2
- Red magnets: 0
- STAR Awards: 0
- Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 4
Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?
Notes:
- The end of the First Marking Period is Friday, November 6.
- Need to make, change or check your Fall Parent Teacher Conference time? See here.
- Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
- View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.
Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.