With Labor Day behind us, the sun greeted the class start of our second week of school. The first activity I had prepared for the class will be an ongoing exercise each day that we call Daily Exercises. I use the Evan-Moor series for Daily Language Review, Daily Math Practice, Daily Handwriting Practice, and Daily Geography. We will either use these during the days we're in guided reading groups, or possibly as the first thing students pull out when they come to class. It is standards-based review of a variety of skills that may or may not be our current unit of study. It keeps students thinking ahead as well as remembering important standards that we have learned throughout the year. Because we missed a day of school this week, I assigned Monday's problems this morning which we largely did together. For homework tonight, students were assigned the items for Tuesday in each area.
At 9 o'clock I turned on C-SPAN for a special broadcast by the President of the United States broadcast from a high school in Virginia. President Obama shared his struggles growing up in a single-parent household. He challenged students to never give up, and most importantly, to turn failures into successes.
Most the questions from our class focused on the Secret Service that we saw surrounding the president as he entered and exited the assembly. So I am going to try and uncover some answers tonight to share with the class tomorrow.
After the broadcast we spent time correcting the Daily Exercises. Students shared their work and volunteers read their answers aloud to the class. By 10 o'clock, we were ready to go to the science lab.
This morning in science, Mrs. Foy-Couche focused on fresh water. Students should be able to communicate to you the experiment they participated in involving the water cycle. The class was split into small groups outside the lab. Their objective was to observe as water evaporated from their black, plastic trays. Between the heat from the sun and the dark color of the tray, their water evaporated quickly and left behind salt, separating it from the water.
The class updated their assignment papers in the lab before returning to class where I had them reflect on what they learned in our science journals.
In between the Science Lab, students had a recess break.
After recess, we returned to class and updated the science journals. Following the reflection, it was time to share a very exciting story from our reading series theme (Nature's Fury) entitled, The Wreck of the E.S. Newman.
We began by first discussing shipwrecks. Many students recalled the Titanic, but others shared shipwreck stories and tales I was unfamiliar with including the Britannia and Lusitania.
For visual aids, I had overhead slides of the actual crew, captained by one Richard Etheridge, located at the Pea Island Rescue Station on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was there in October of 1896 that his crew led a daring rescue of all passengers aboard this schooner, the E.S. Newman.
Ten times Captain Etheridge sent two of his strongest men, lashed together with rope, to swim against the tide out to the boat to retrieve stranded passengers. We learned about a coston signal and lyle gun, shoals, and hurricanes.
The skill that was the objective of this dramatic rescue was sequencing, which seemed to resonate with the class as they were able to quickly understand how the events of this story unfolded. Several students articulated the sequence of events in this true story.
At the conclusion of this lesson, it was time for lunch!
After lunch, students returned to class, it was time for D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read). While students were independently reading, I continued the oral reading fluency testing with individuals.
By 1:50 P.M. I transitioned into today's math review of rounding numbers and our problem of the day. Leo and Elliott were chosen by our class president, Bella, to come to the board and share out their solution to today's problem of the day.
The problem involved "Wendy," a made-up character, whose teacher gave her digit cards from 0 to 9 and challenged her to come up with two five-digit numbers with a sum that is close to 90,000. Both Leo and Elliott used strategies involving basic math facts (6+3=9; 5+4=9) to organize their solutions. They explained their thinking before the class and the students in class signaled agreement to each of their answers.
After today's math review on rounding, we turned our attention to the first unit of social studies: The First Americans. I displayed a poster of the First Americans and called on students to share their observations of what was going on in the poster. It appeared to the class that the clothing, hairstyles, homes, modes of transportation, and just about everything was different for the Native Americans. That was important to note as we launched this unit because we are going to focus on the similarities and differences between Native Americans of five different cultural regions in Unit 1.
We watched a brief video detailing the Pacific Northwest, Desert Southwest, Eastern Woodlands, and Great Plains Indians.
After the DVD presentation, it was time to write down tonight's homework. Our inspector, Kannen, surveyed the cleanliness of the room. Our line leaders gave me the names of select students whose behavior in line today was exemplary. Then, it was time to stack our chairs and head for home.
Students also received graded work (last week's two math homework assignments) which our secretary, Elliott, filed away in mailboxes. They should have that in the math section of their binders as a reference sheet for the chapter test.
We did not have a Quiet Seat today as the student on my schedule was not present today. Hopefully he or she will have another chance, perhaps tomorrow.
I greeted students at the door on their way home to make sure they had their materials for homework tonight. I am anxious to add our first five paper clips to the Paper Clip chain for 100% class completion of homework.
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