Math: About 10 instructional days left until the unit assessment! We have about 5 days of probability lessons yet to come so you should begin to see this in about a week. Today we had a comprehensive lesson on the purpose of estimating, rounding decimals, and adding them. The concept of estimating is somewhat paradoxical in that we spend all year looking for the exact answer yet now want something that is "about" the right answer. In the end, it's more about why we estimate and how it can be used in everyday life. They have some book work tonight encompassing today's lesson - notably, they are asked to estimate sums and differences but the book fails to identify which place column to round to so I showed them how I expect it to be completed today. First, round each decimal to the nearest whole number - second, add/subtract accordingly...

Language Arts: Outstanding work with the importance of mood in stories. I've been encouraging them to think about "bigger" or "deeper" ideas in a story rather than focus on their initial thought. Too many times students get off on the wrong foot with their thoughts as a result of thinking too simplistically about a story...the deeper you think initially, the stronger your supporting details become. For example, rather than work with the idea that a mood is "happy" in the story, think about why he/she might be happy - could it be he/she was "encouraged" by something...empowered...go deeper. This makes good readers into great ones.