Productivity feels great

I love the feeling when everything is cruising along and work is getting completed. That's what I felt today. Most students are in a groove right now where they are effectively and efficiently working in class, however, it still seems that they feel school stays at school so aren't continuing this work at home as needed...

In meeting, we shared our favorite footwear and then played a fun partnering game where we found a partner and met them, "Toe to Toe," or "Knee to Knee." Some were repeated and we needed to remember who we had partnered with which body part! I had trouble remembering... :) In our content areas, 4th grade practiced reading nonfiction text and identifying the text structure the author used to convey the information but also had lots of time to work on their citizenship project due Monday. In math, we continued presenting/teaching our math lessons.

We concluded our day practicing executive functioning skills but also recognizing which skills are our strengths and which are our weaknesses.

Executive Functioning

This week, we are practicing and strengthening our executive functioning through playing games. It's a fun way to identify and understand what it feels like to be proficient in these skills.

In meeting this morning, we only had time to share about our weekend. During our content time, 4th grade students learned about nonfiction text structures before spending time working on our citizenship project. In math, we started presenting our lessons. 5th grade kiddos continued on with Journey North and force and motion.

cough cough

I had a rough week that ended with barely a voice... some said I sounded like a man while others thought I sounded more like a robot. Either way, it is not very fun nor easy to teach without my main instrument.

Thursday--In meeting, we shared what we like best about field trips and the consensus was that it was getting out of the building and doing something different. We also had a "controversial" discussion about video games in preparation for our electronic party. I have always shared that I do not like how blasé they are talking about "kills" and weapons with Fortnite and Rainbow and other games. We agree to disagree. I shared that I did not want them playing Fortnite for our electronic party which caused some big dissonance with some. We finally looked up the ages on the games and decided that only games for their age were allowed at the party. 4th grade kiddos worked on their citizenship/civic participation project and then met with their teaching group to plan for their math lesson. We ended the day discussing prioritizing our time and organizing using the calendar app on our ipads.

Friday--We began with an Arrow team meeting where we played pictionary! Next, 4th grade worked on our citizenship projects and practiced for our math lessons. 5th grade students continued their work with Journey North, book groups (some are reading what they call, "Willie Shakes" even! *Shakespeare) and light. During recess, we had a ton of fun in the gym playing Gaga, Just Dance, ping pong and corn hole. Our day concluded with our electronics party!

It's Wednesday already??

Sorry, friends! I've been a little lax on my blogging...

This week, in our morning meetings, we've shared about our weekend, shared our favorite breakfast foods and orange objects and played Alibi and Sparkle. We've also finished UNgifted and LOVED it so much! Ask your kiddo which character(s) they related or connected to and why. I only have one copy but they are all wanting to read the sequel, Supergifted. :) Also, in order to become more independent with our WEP goals, we added to our action plans~ask your child to see what they added.

In 4th grade Literacy/Science/Social Studies, we have been practicing adding dialogue to our narratives as well as a collaborative story we're working on, practiced our understanding of government with some games on iCivics and today began a learning activity about Civic Participation. We are also now able to make connections between characters in our read aloud, The Ability, and had a really neat moral discussion the other day. In Math, we had some fun exploring Exploding Dots and then are excited to get a turn to teach! Students are planning 20 minute lessons to teach to the class!

5th grade students went on a field trip today to Ohio Energy Workshop in Worthington. It's been pretty quiet around here...

Arrow Team Meeting

Today, we had an Arrow team meeting where we read nominations and presented our friends with SHARP awards. We had 3 out of the 5 recipients from our class and all of the winners were 4th graders this time! Congrats Nick (both!) and Luciana on receiving this award from your peers! After awards, we played a little game of "Don't UMMM at me!" You had to talk for 20 seconds straight without saying umm. It was fun! We also got all set up with Apple Classroom-an that we, as teachers, can use to help monitor screen time and what students are doing on their ipads while at school.

In Science/Social Studies/Literacy time, 4th graders read silently, some visited the library, we organized our Google Drives and spent time revising the writings we've been working on. In Math, we finished and/or completed extensions on our Tiny Houses.

Our day concluded documenting highs and lows of our week. It's always good to stop and reflect and realize that some of the lows became highs as well as recognizing that even though there may have been some lows, they weren't that low. (Here are some pictures of our representations.)