Math: We have a monster unit assessment a week from today - fractions, probability, division, multiplication, money, decimals...whew! We are full speed ahead with some challenge content the next few classes. Tonight for homework, they have a two-sided review sheet that requires not just solutions, but evidence how they can check their work using inverse thinking. This way we can tackle multiple skills in short, practical task. Look for long division - lattice multiplication and mixed numbers - improper fractions.

Language Arts:

Busy as a Bee - Today they picked up yesterday's reading and discussion by responding to the following prompt: Do you think bees are important? Explain using the information from the text and your background knowledge. I had a chance to conference with each group member and the common thread I found was that the content was decent, but the basics of sentence construction (capitalization, end punctuation, complete thoughts...).

Charlotte's Web - We read chapters 15-16 in preparation for the following prompt: In chapter 16 it said that everybody went to sleep early except Charlotte. Explain why. I conferenced with most students today but I have not graded them. It is up to each to look over my feedback and make any necessary revisions - most of the feedback revolved around the notion that it isn't just that Charlotte chose not to go to sleep early, but why did the others decide to? I'm trying to get them to see the situation from different perspectives here...

William and Mary - We continued reading Frindle. In addition, I have already made a change to the activity schedule. Tonight's question asks them to consider how they could ask a "thought grenade" in our classroom to achieve the same goal that Nick is so far in the story. FYI, a "thought grenade" is intended to distract the teacher before he/she assigns homework for the night... I'm extremely interested in hearing their thoughts!

Science: We visited the lab and played with the computer microscope. We explored the different magnifications while looking at two bee-like specimens.