SPLENDID!!

It was time for our "What's in a Name" project display to come down.  I know most parents saw it at curriculum night, but I wanted to post for those who missed it.  

The name projects came down, so we could make room for common prefixes, suffixes, and bases.  

Thursday was our favorite sports jersey day!  Look at all those Hawks and Bulls fans!  

In social studies, we are using a "flipped classroom" model.  This is where the kids will be assigned readings and/or videos to read and/or watch at home for homework.  Then in class we can do activities and engage in discussions with classmates.  Please be sure your child is doing the assigned reading and that they are reading for real understanding (not just skimming).  We call it close reading.  Because we did not have to use class time to read the first lesson, we were able to spend our social studies period categorizing, organizing, and analyzing our state maps shading activity.  It was honestly the best teamwork I have seen from our class all year.  The kids determined what would be considered a majority and what was the best way to collect the data.  It was one of the kids ideas to have everyone to leave the maps on their desks and then work in teams to collect data for each category.  It was also great for our kinesthetic learners!  We had a great discussion following it which naturally introduced the concept of regions.  We will also use this information for a mini-research project later in our SS unit!

Look at the engagement and teamwork happening with our kids!  I couldn't have been more pleased with what they did with this lesson and what they got out of it.  

Math games during the chorus time.  This week we played "Closest to 100."  It was perfect to help us gain better understanding of the addition, place value, and rounding skills we are working on in math class.  I saw some "AHA moments" while the kids were playing.  I love when I see things start to click!  

And probably the most exciting thing last week was earning our FIRST class reward for compliments received in the hall.  I have to say the behavior our class struggled with the most at the start of the year, was moving through the hallway quietly.  Kids were talking, yelling, and walking in clumps rather than a line.  It was really distracting to classrooms we passed and it was a bad example for the younger kids in the building.  I introduced this incentive program 3-4 weeks ago because the class just did not have that internal motivation to move quietly through the halls.  Within a week of our incentive program, our The Chrystall Miners were moving through the hallways near perfectly.

We took our vote for the reward today and The Witches movie viewing overwhelmingly won (parents, see the email I sent you on Thursday for more details on this).  We will watch the film on Friday.  I am really looking forward to the discussion that will follow.   Seeing a movie after I have read my book is one of my absolute favorite things to do.  I just got the chance to see Gone Girl last night after reading the book a few summers ago- I was talking about the book and the movie the rest of the night (next time I am making my husband read the book to so our discussion isn't so one sided :).  I often hear kids say that they liked movies better than books- I want to teach them young that the book is ALWAYS better than the movie!  It will teach them to be ferocious readers!