I was absent yesterday and came back to a long list of things that the class was having trouble with. So first thing today, I spoke about how disappointed I was, when usually I get a note that everything was great. I guess there are some things we need to work on...and YES, lining up is one of them.
Today we started of with the morning message and then we went to write in our Journals. The topic was to tell of a time when you tricked someone. I once again was focusing on having a topic sentence and then giving really desriptive supporting details to make the paragraph interesting. I was also looking for a summary sentence for this paragraph. I checked some but as I class I sent them home to have a really good look at their writing to make it better. I am trying to get the class to revisit their writing as a habit. Many write it complete it, and don't go back and look for small errors in spelling, punctuation or missing words.
I then introduced two new measurment topics, mass/weight and capacity. We talked about the words and what they mean and we wrote the definitions, wrote the units used to measure mass/weight ( mg, g, kg) and capacitiy ( ml, L) and also talked about the tools used to measure. It is important to be familiar with both mass and weight, but I will be asking students to "weigh" objects. Scales for mass, and measuring spoons, measuring cups, graduated cylinders for capacity. A great way to build an understanding of these concepts is to have your children play and experiment with measuring utensils at home either in the tub or helping cooking a recipe.
After recess, we completed the Math review that was handed out yesterday.
Here is a great link to practice lots of concepts we have covered in Math.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures/capacity.html#Capacity
After lunch we had our DPA and when we returned to class we did our Literacy activities. I gave a brief lesson on how to write important information from a nonfiction text. I then, worked with one group reading a story, while one group did penmanship, one group worked on Grammar and the final group read non-ficiton books on Matter and took jot notes about important things they read.
We then read more from the novel "Shipwrecked". Today we were introduced to 3 more people that are on the Charting New Course boat for "troubled" kids. The character that our attention most was J.J. the son of a very rich Hollywood actor who was very upset he had to leave his laptop and cellphone behind to be part of the crew.
After recess we did some science. We talked about how when something is a solid, if you add a force you can change it. In our example we were using paper. When I pulled it, it ripped and when I pushed it, it crumpled into a ball. I then asked the question.. " Can you change paper in different ways to hold a stack of books? If so, how? We then made a hypothesis from this question. I then folded several pieces of paper in different ways. I made rectangular prism, a triangular prism and also a cylinder. The students had to make a prediction as to which shape, if any, would hold the most books and why they thought that.
We found that the cylinder could hold 12 books, the triangle could hold 4 and the rectangle could hold 6. We had to quit the experiment before debriefing, because too many students were not following the expectations. We will try again tomorrow to follow up on why the cylinder is stronger.
HOMEWORK: Journal: complete response and revise to make it better.
" A time a tricked someone..."
Spelling Lesson 27 ( optional)
Read.
