The Daily Blog (Sept 3) - Mr. McMurray

I was greeted before school by three students who kindly helped distribute the first assignment of the day and took down chairs before the first bell rang. They each earned $1 McMurray Buck for their service. That was a great way to start the day.

School began promptly at 8:10 this morning and we welcomed a new girl and boy to Room 16: Yanatzeli, (who goes by Zeli ) and Brandon. I took a their pictures outside of the room while the rest of the class was working on their book fair coloring project. This was also the time in which I had students check in their homework. We nearly had 100% completion on homework for the class, except for one student. I was not able to add to our Paper Clip Chain this morning. It looks we will have another chance tomorrow.

After a few minutes of decorating the book fair fliers, we turned our attention to our Back-to-School reading workshop.

This morning we read the rest of "The Pumpkin Box" while focusing on our four remaining reading skills: (a) monitor / clarify; (b) questions; (c) evaluate; and (d) summarize. Several students were called upon to read the sections of the story aloud. For each reading skill, we discussed elements of how to develop the skill and why good readers do what they do. At the conclusion of this activity, the class president, Bella, led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Because the lesson was a bit longer than usual, we spent the remaining 15 minutes prior to recess reviewing McMurray Bucks and just having an open discussion. "Now that you have your checkbooks," I told the class, "you will have many opportunities to earn McMurray Bucks."

In fact, I awarded everyone who arrived to school on time today $1 McMurray Buck, and I also gave $1 McMurray Buck to all who completed their homework last night. A few students would have to turn in McMurray Bucks for bathroom breaks and/or talking during instruction, but otherwise, most students are beginning to add to their initial $25 deposit.

I went to the upper playground for yard duty during morning recess. Everyone was lined up and waiting for me to bring them back to class afterwards. I was very impressed!

Upon returning to class, we got right into our math unit on comparing and ordering whole numbers. For starters, I had Bella choose two groups of nine students to come up in front of the class. Each student in both groups had a card with a digit between 0 and 9 on it. I assigned Julia and Kannen to be in charge of their respective group. The first challenge was to build the largest number to the millions place. The groups looked at their digits and formed the biggest number they could.

Once they lined up their number and held up their digit cards, the class had to begin comparing. The students in the millions place stepped forward and we noticed their cards both read "9." We then had to go to the hundred thousands place to make further observations. Ultimately, the class recognized the number that was larger and we held up a card with the comparing (greater than, lesser than, equal to) signs on them in between the two numbers.

We did a few more exercises with the other kids in class that were unable to participate in the first round. Through this hands-on learning activity, I felt that the class had made a concrete understanding of comparing numbers to the billions place.

I turned on the overhead and displayed the Problem of the Day, which also featured finding the greatest and least number from a set of digits. We continued on the overhead with a few review problems. And then, for independent practice, I assigned a number of problems from the textbook for students to do in their notebooks.

After math, we were ready to go to lunch. Right before lunch, I had the students take out their chapter books or pick one from the class library in order to be ready for silent reading after recess.

I walked the class to the cafeteria for lunch and met them at 1:10 on the upper playground. This time, I had assigned our Line Monitors, Brandon and Angelica, to pick five students who were totally cooperating in line and doing what they were supposed to. I recognized these students back at class with $1 McMurray Buck and encouraged the class to continue their good line behavior so that they might be recognized tomorrow.

The class then jumped into silent reading while I worked on oral reading fluency assessments at my round table with individual students. By 1:45, we had read for 30 minutes and I gave the class a heads up to finish the paragraph they were on. I then opened my laptop and recorded the titles and author of the books they're currently reading for our soon-to-be digital bookshelf on our blog.

By 2pm it was time to start our final activity of the day: symmetrical name creatures. I shared my example with the class, and they were eager to get started. They each chose a color of construction paper and wrote their name in pencil on a half side of the paper. Then they traced with black crayon, making sure to press hard and leave a lot of crayon on the paper, before closing up their name and tracing over the crayon writing with a pencil. When they re-opened their name, there was supposed to be a symmetrical impression of their name on the other half of the paper. For a large portion of the class, it seemed to work just fine.

After making the impression of their name, they began designing - symmetrically, of course - the letters of their name into Name Creatures.

Around 2:40, we stopped to reveal today's Quiet Seat - Julia. I passed out tonight's homework ditto and magazine (Scholastic News). Students also took home a worksheet (page RW 2) from their math practice workbooks on comparing and ordering whole numbers.

By 2:50, the room looked clean and chairs were stacked and I said good-bye to the class. A couple of responsible students stayed behind momentarily to make sure they had their homework assignments before going home.

I can't for tomorrow as we wrap up our first exciting week of school!