Preparing for the Geometry Test

The Geometry test will take place on Thursday December 13th. To help the boys and girls prepare for the test, I've made two review videos that I hope they'll find useful.  We've watched them in class, but it's a good idea to watch them again! 

What's an angle buddy?

We had a great time this week creating our angle buddies! As part of our geometry unit, students have learned about the three types of angles. Click here for a helpful post about angles from 2017. That day we also had some fun working with Tangrams and tried very hard to put them back together to form a square. We used the Tangrams to create the angle buddies, which students were asked to label.

As part of our ongoing discussion about non-fiction text features, we also talked about the purpose of a diagram, which is to help a reader better understand the specific parts of a bigger picture.  We talked about when we label something, the information needs to be crystal clear to the reader, otherwise, we're really not creating a helpful resource.  It was a great math lesson and one that I hope helped my students understand better the three types of angles and why presentation is so essential to creating an effective diagram! 

Nana's Shortbread

This week's Text of the Week is a story called Nana's Shortbread.  As part of our daily review, we're looking at the following aspects of the text.  As with all TOTWs, students are asked to read the story aloud each night.  This week, I'm asking parents to prepare your child for the test on Friday by reviewing the following items: 

• What are some adjectives we can use to describe Christina? 
• How are the names in the story related to Christmas? 
• What does the idiom, "making ends meet" mean? 
• What message is the author trying to send the reader through this story? 
• How do commas make a difference in a long sentence (see last paragraph)?  
• What's a dozen?  How much is 3,4,5 dozen? 
• How does this family contribute to the greater good?
• What questions do you have after reading this story? 
• What can you do that might be surprising?  Christina can make shortbread cookies.  
• Do you know anyone who has overcome a challenge?  

Poster Problem Part 2

Last week, the text of the week was all about two brothers who were creating a poster and having a really tough time getting along.  We talked a lot about compromising and ways the boys could resolve their problem.  

As our Fun Friday activity last week, the boys and girls were charged with working with a teacher-selected partner and creating their own poster for a pretend food drive.  
All week we had continued our talk about author's purpose (P.I.E: Persuade, inform, entertain) along with the 5ws.  
Prior to starting this activity, we talked about: 

• What's a food drive? 
• What happens to the food we donate?
• What food is appropriate to donate to a school-based drive (canned goods yes, dozen eggs, no) 
• What are the features of a great poster?  
• What does a poster advertising an event need to include? (The 5Ws) 
• How will we compromise when problems arise?  

Students began the posters on Friday and then on Monday, I asked them to revisit their work with a more critical eye.  Did they meet the success criteria we had created as a class on Friday? In many cases, students found their work did not and they asked to start over.  

We likely won't finish the posters (perhaps at indoor recess one day), but the exercise was very effective indeed.  I believe every child has not only a good understanding of six points indicated above, but also a better understanding of why we establish expectations prior to starting a task, that rushing doesn't produce better results and that sometimes after setting things aside for a bit, you can look at your work with a more critical eye and see how your work can be edited, modified or "sparkled-up".  

It's geometry time!

It's time to shape up! ← Get it? "Shape" up?! 
We're starting Unit 3 of the Math program and it's all about describing two and three dimensional shapes.  
Here's a bit of an introductory video I made in 2016 that would be super-helpful for students to watch.  Students will also learn all about the word "congruent".

You can read all about the learning goals and big ideas for this unit here. 

Who's ready for PIE?

It's a busy one for the kids and teachers this week! Report card writing is underway and we're...gulp...at the tenth week of school already!  
This week we're talking all about the author's purpose. When we talk about the author's purpose for writing, we're talking about PIE: persuade, inform and entertain. Here are the slides from Morning Message that I've used to help support my instruction.    

We're reading a variety of books together this week to explore the different purposes author's have for writing.

We also have a set of reference posters in the room to help us remember that pie isn't just for dessert anymore! 

Together we became compound word superstars this week!

Our Text of the Week was a great one for compound words, so we made them our focus all week long! 

We worked with partners to brainstorm a list of compound words, then we played a "find your partner" game with Halloween compound words, and then on Friday, we capped off a great week with some delicious-ness! We had a pancake breakfast together! Because of course, pancakes are a compound word! 

We'll also use the lesson in preparing the pancakes to begin procedural writing on Monday. Students will be asked to use transitional words to explain how we made our delicious breakfast.  Thank you to Miss Doria for all your help in making this surprise activity such a success! And thank you to the boys and girls for being such wonderful and polite diners at our "restaurant"! It was certainly a Fun Friday to remember! I don't think anyone will ever forget what a compound word is now!

Fun Friday: Dem Bones!

There were no bones to pick with this Fun Friday activity! It was all treats and no tricks! We read the storybook called "Dem Bones" by Bob Barner (I even found a video version of it, which was even more lively than the book!). Then, there was silence in the room (like pin-dropping silence), while everyone got to work planning and creating their own super-adorable dancing skeletons!  

As you can see, the boys and girls put a lot of hard work into their characters! I love this activity because it requires students to do some careful advance planning, and at this grade-level, it's hard to find quick-to-do activities to support this important skill. 

I'm sure you'll agree, these skeletons have some impressive dance moves!