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.

How many Mondays can we miss? What a crazy couple of weeks...

Math: As you have likely noticed, we have been adding a homework assignment to your "TO DO" lists each of the last two weekends. Based on what I've seen thus far and considering the fundamental quality of fractions/decimals/percents, I have decided to add this supplement as a means to sure up their basic decimal knowledge as I plow ahead with the rest of my lesson sequence. So far, despite missing some time over the last couple of weeks, I have seen a stronger understanding of these interrelated concepts through the lens of "part of a whole". This underlying knowledge is critical to not just comparing fractions/decimals/percents; rather, it provides the big picture idea that these seemingly different numbers are actually equivalent forms of one another. They need to "get this" in order to "see it". I think we're getting close...

Tonight's homework is p. 420 numbers 2-25.

Language Arts: We're back on the spelling cycle after a hiatus - stay tuned. In addition to spelling, we have begun a new quarter which brings a different focus along with it - figurative language, historical fiction, and biographies. We will likely progress in that order, too...

Both JGB groups will have their discussions tomorrow so please remind them to have their initial responses complete prior to coming to school.

I did meet with parts of the other two groups today to discuss point of view... No homework for these groups!