Math: We took a formative today had I think they realized (me too) that they need some more practice with long division. I know that many of them worked with an adult on the previous night's homework which is great - now I need them to try and apply what they know on their own - the formative illustrated this to many of them. The tough part is gauging when to "let go of the bike" so we'll need to use our best judgements. Tonight please take sometime to review their formative and last night's homework. If they are being pulled tomorrow regarding one of the homework concepts, I circled the question and/or addressed the problem directly.

Language Arts:

Heavyweights - We predicted and previewed prior to listening to the story the first time. I have to admit, I was extremely surprised by how well they read the story aloud in the afternoon...the vocabulary is pretty tough! With that in mind, they have relatively in depth RRJ to complete tonight regarding the similarities and differences between common and pygmy hippos.

Charlotte's Web - Besides listening to chapter 17 and having another prompt, we spent the bulk of our time addressing the quality of their responses. What I am beginning to find is that as our readings get more difficult, many times their writing isn't illustrating some of these subtle changes. I hope I made my point today that the basics of reading responses (spelling, complete sentences, capitalization and punctuation) are expected at this point...And in fact, I am actually expecting them to find ways to incorporate text-relevant vocabulary into their work while finding ways to vary their sentences - getting away from the pattern language that sometimes runs rampant. I think my talk created a better awareness of the expectation...we shall see.

William and Mary - Interesting "thought-grenades" thrown my way in group today! Hopefully what they left with was a clearer understanding of the importance of their audience and how best to light that fire in them... This is what Nick tried to achieve in Frindle by tapping into Mrs. Granger's love of dictionaries...

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.