Refreshed and Ready to Roll!

I hope you all had a fun-filled February break!  We had a great start to our week and I am looking forward to continued awesomeness!

We started our day talking about why we make the choices that we make.  We discussed what motivates us to do our homework, help out our classmates, and to do our best work.  This led to a great discussion about The Six Levels of Thinking which is based off of Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development.  For more explanation of the levels, please click on the link below the photo.  The link will take you to the Prezi presentation I created to facilitate the discussion.

Six Levels of Thinking Presentation

We discussed each level of thinking and the characteristics of a Level 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 thinker.  This expanded to a  discussion characters in our read aloud and what level thinker we thought they were and why.  We rounded out the discussion with thinking about what level each of us are currently at, and what level we would strive to work toward.  In our class, we have talked a lot about being leaders in our own lives and having a choice about what kind of person we want to be.  We will continue to discuss these levels and how we can work toward being the best we can be.

Our discussion of level 6 thinkers lead us perfectly into a discussion of Martin Luther King Jr. and the fact that February is Black History Month.  This week, we acknowledge Black History Month by learning about poet Maya Angelou and using her poem Life Doesn't Frighten Me as our fluency poem.

Students participated in our first session of Book Clubs today.  All students will now be apart of a small-group book club in our class.  Book Clubs will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays each week.  During these meetings, we will discuss our literature and our assignments.  I absolutely love seeing students huddled in groups excitedly discussing literature!  During the beginning of this process, students are taught not only how to complete their book club assignments effectively, but how to communicate and actively listen to their peers in book club discussions.  These skills are explicitly taught so students know exactly what is expected of them.  I will be sending home more information about book clubs this week.

Speaking of discussing literature,  Junior Great Books are underway!  Students will be bringing home their second reading this Wednesday along with an assignment.  Due to TCAPs, we will be moving our discussion from the original 9:40-10:40 time to 10:50-11:20 on Thursday.  Feel free to join us if you'd like!

In writing, we are just getting into the heart of our realistic fiction pieces.  I am so impressed with our students' writing so far.  They have done a marvelous job pulling techniques taught in our mini lessons and from what we've noticed from published authors and implementing them into their own writing.  We will be finishing up our rough drafts this week and start moving through the writing process next week.

Math:  What did the acorn say when it grew up?  Geometry.  Get it?  Gee, I'm a tree?  Okay.  I won't quit my day job.  But that is what we'll be studying in math this week, geometry.  For many, this is a nice break from computation (although we still will have a small amount of daily practice).  Students will begin with lines, rays, and line segments, parallel and intersecting lines, and move into angles and turns by the end of the week.

As you may have heard, we will be starting TCAPs this week on Wednesday and Thursday 9:00-10:30.  Please see the note I sent home for more info.

Before this blog turns into a novel, I will wrap it up with a few dates to remember.  Please know that I will send home more information about all of these events, this is just a heads up.

Next Tuesday, we begin our Nordic Ski Program.  Our class will go on Tuesday afternoons for three weeks from 12:30-3:00.  We will be walking to and from the Nordic Center and skis, poles, and boots will be provided.  So we will be participating on March 4, 11, and 18.

Writing TCAPs will be Tuesday March 11 and Wednesday March 12 from 9:00-10:30 and Math TCAPs will be Tuesday March 18 and Wednesday March 19 from 9:00-10:30.  

Lastly, since it is the middle of the year, I decided to cancel spelling this week in order to reassess. Spelling will resume next week.

Thanks so much for reading.  As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

-Melissa

Valentine's Day & Powder & Break! Oh my!

February break is just a week away!  I am amazed at how fast this year is flying by!  Here's what we'll be up to this week in Melissa's class:

Reading Workshop:  

We've been working on reading responses through our literature circle jobs.  Literature circles (or book clubs) will begin after break, but we decided to practice the jobs (Connector, Illustrator, Discussion Director, Word Wizard, and Literary Luminary) with our self-selected texts.  This week, we will expand on our learning with the introduction of Junior Great Books.  We will read one story from JGB each Tuesday in class.  Students will read the story again at home Tuesday night and will have a written homework assignment starting after break.  On Wednesday, students will participate in a discussion where they will share their insights and interpretations. This is called Shared Inquiry.  Shared Inquiry is a way that students can achieve a thorough understanding through discussion.  Books will come home this Tuesday along with a note with further explanation.

Writing Workshop:  The time has finally come for fiction writing, realistic fiction that is!  This is challenging work and it is not taken lightly.  We have been studying published realistic fiction to see how the pros do it.  We have learned so much from our class read aloud Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

This book is not only shaping the way we think about realistic fiction, it is changing the way we see the world and ourselves in it.  Pretty powerful stuff huh?  Our explorations didn't stop there.  We also delved into many realistic fiction books by one of our favorite authors, Patricia Polacco.

Here's some things we learned:

We have worked hard to take what we've learned and apply it in our own writing.  Last week, we created believable characters with interesting problems.  This week we will begin to draft our pieces starting with amazing leads!

Math:  We are plugging away on our unit on fractions and decimals.  This unit can be challenging, but we have been enjoying the idea of breaking chocolate bars into tenths and hundredths!  We will continue work with decimals this week as we wrap up this unit.  After break, we will be moving on to geometry.  

This week we have our last ski day on Thursday and of course Valentine's Day on Friday.  I have included Valentine's Day information with this week's homework plan.  Progress reports will be coming home on Tuesday!  

As always, thank you for reading and feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Melissa