Life skills

Yesterday, a kiddo kept saying over and over that school doesn't teach life skills so he shouldn't have to come. Although I completely disagree with him, I decided to make sure he understood the connection and did some blatant life skills work this afternoon. We began a mini-unit on financial literacy! Today, they took a pre-test and then began with the lessons. This is more of an independent study type of thing that they can do on their own or with a partner. They seemed to enjoy not just the material but also the freedom to go at their own pace so this may be a way some other content is learned too.

After special, while 5th graders had their vision and hearing screened, in meeting, we shared Language of the Discipline--video game/Fortnite edition. They all enjoy sharing video game and especially Fortnite stories so I put my spin on it. Language of the Discipline is another Depth and Complexity tool where there is language/vocabulary used specifically for that subject that wouldn't necessarily make sense outside of the context or unless you knew about/were studying that context. They had a lot of fun when they said a word I knew nothing about-which was most of them! Then, we played, Fact or Fiction and they enjoyed this game too, although some were better than others at creating their statements. Then, we finished Counting by 7's. They really had some amazing things to say about Willow's transformation in the book. It was like we were at an adult book club-the conversation was great! For literacy, they worked on their Kidblog post about Counting by 7's, worked on writing their informational report, began their ABBC task for tomorrow's meeting and then also began looking for 3 words specific to their historical setting/event from their ABBC book (Language of the Discipline). Next, 4th grade had our culture museum (and 5th graders visited)! It was so much fun--thank you to those of you that made it! In math, 4th graders finished up their one-pagers (assessment on fractions and decimals) and decorating their food truck while 5th grade kiddos worked on fractions with Mrs. Clay and Mrs. Kelly. Also, in lunch today, it was Taste Test Tuesday! Students got to try fresh pears and edamame!