The Daily Blog (Sept 2) - Mr. McMurray

I greeted the students on the upper playground at 8:05am and led them down the stairs towards the Arts Center where fifth graders sit for the traditional Wednesday morning flag salute assembly. Ms. Garcia led the pledge of allegiance and made a few announcements about Back-to-School Night. Mrs. Zoffada made an announcement about the book fair that begins on Friday. After the announcements we were excused to go to class.

I shared our Daily Blog with the class when returned to class. I read what I had written last night and reviewed the rubrics and guidelines for being the Daily Blogger. I will continue as the Daily Blogger through next week before we calender in the class beginning with Hailey on September 14.

Once we arrived at class Isabella reviewed the new items on our bulletin board regarding P.E. and music schedules. Then she excused students to turn in their Parent Surveys and Code of Conduct forms. All but five students turned them in and have made arrangements to do so tomorrow.

I then explained how our Paper Clip Chain works. Every day homework is due, if the entire class brings their finished assignments to school, I will add five paper clips to a chain above the white board. Once that chain reaches the ledge of the board, we will earn a Fun Day for the class. However, if a student misses an assignment or has incomplete homework, I will not add paper clips to the chain.

It was then time for our language arts. I distributed a packet focusing on reading strategies. We discussed that all readers can add tools to help them strengthen their reading skills. Today we had time to focus on two of six strategies covered in this packet: predict / infer, and phonics / decoding. I began reading about the adventures of a girl, Charlie, and her friend, Billy, in a short story called "The Pumpkin Box." Students took time to predict what they think the pumpkin box is, and in the phonics / decoding section, were asked to describe how they would teach a students to pronounce a word (munching). We discussed that helping another student when they get to a word they don't know does not mean saying the word for them. Rather, we should help other students learn to use their own reading tools so they'll be able to handle more challenges in their personal reading.

Once we finished the reading workshop it was time for recess. Everyone adjourned to the upper playground. Our Ball Patrol, Kailani and Nathan, made sure to check out and check in balls before and after recess by the ball cart.

After recess, I had set up a DVD to kick off our year in math. The video was entitled "100,000 Computer a Day" and featured the DELL headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. We learned how they take orders and assemble computers and focused on what the workers need to know to do what they do, and how they are using math in their job every day. We brainstormed as Bella called on students for feedback.

Then, I split up the class into "executive teams" to answer questions on a chart paper called "Computer Choices." We learned important words like RAM (random access memory) and CPU (central processing unit). Students worked with big numbers into the billions to answer questions using operations like addition and subtraction, and comparing and ordering.

After math, I assigned a few problems from lesson one in the first chapter and gave a page from the practice book for tonight's homework. I also gave an assignment in science to take home the vocabulary flash cards for chapter 5 (Water on Earth) and instructed the class to either write or type the vocabulary words and their definitions on a separate sheet of paper.

Before we went home, I distributed the McMurray Bucks checkbooks and had our Treasurer, David, help me pass out $25 (a $10 bill, two $5 bills, and five $1 bills) to each students in the class. I trained the class how to update their ledger and make sure to have their current balance at $25. Tomorrow I will look forward to adding more money to student accounts for good behavior, and many other reasons listed on the sheet I gave to the class on Monday.

At the very end of the day, I was pleased to announce the student in the Quiet Seat - Brandon, who recieved $5 McMurray Bucks. Tomorrow, we'll have another student in the Quiet Seat.

By the time everyone updated their binder reminder with tonight's homework and had their McMurray Bucks put away, it was nearly 12 o'clock and time to go. We didn't even get to Terabithia today!

Maybe tomorrow...