Tuesday September 16, 2014

It was wonderful meeting many of you last night.  I always and enjoy parents night and conferences because it is a time for all of us (teachers and parents) to get on the same page and better understand the expectations.  Again, please feel free to call or email any time.  I love that many of you are enjoying and utilizing the blog, so please continue to do so.  The more connected we are, the more  your child can succeed.

Greek and Latin Root of the week: "man/manu" meaning HAND
Quizlet

This morning Shay told us about her trip to Bahamas and snorkeling.  Very cool!

In the morning we also took the NWEA for reading.

This afternoon we started off with a grammar lesson on declarative (statement) and interrogative (question) sentences.

In writing we continued to write personal narratives.  Today we listened to a couple of mentor texts about times where the clothing we were wearing made a memory.  We listened to a story about a little girl who felt like she did not deserve the nice clothing she was wearing, and I shared a personal story about the green emerald suit that I once wore.  Students shared with partners and brainstormed their own moments in time that the clothing that they were wearing impacted them.  Tomorrows drafts will focus on those times and the emotion that those moments elicited.

(Please note, there are spelling, capitalization, and other grammatical errors because I want students to see that when you are drafting it is all about BRAIN to PAPER.  Later we will revise and edit.  I would rather see a detailed and well developed content than perfect spelling and punctuation at this point in the writing process)

My draft:

I stood looking into the sliding glass double door mirror.  In my 7 year old mind, the emerald green suit jacket looked pretty fly, and not to mention the burning bright white pants that covered my thighs.  As I strutted away from the mirror, I took a peek down at my white carnation pinned to my chest.  “Wow, do i feel special!” i thought to myself.  Suddenly, my dad yelled to me from downstair, “Lets gooooo!  We are going to be late!”  I scampered down into the already running black Toyota 4Runner and off we drove to my first holy Communion at St. Isadore’s church.

Upon entering the tall, hollow, bench covered, kaleidoscope colored building, I noticed that I stuck out like a neon sign in a dark room.  All of my friends looked like miniature businessmen in their black suits.  There I stood, the bright green and white clothed odd boy out.  My brain started to race faster and faster and soon I realized I would have hundreds of people staring at me.  Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and even great grandparents, staring at me; the leprechaun boy.

In reading we got our next set of vocabulary words for our next text. Students found synonyms, antonyms, and other forms of each word in small groups this afternoon. They had about 35 minutes to work today, and again, we are working towards getting to the full 45 minutes of group work for vocabulary. www.thesaurus.com and http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/vocabulary/pdf/prefixes_suffixes.pdf

Homework tonight:
- Math: double sided quick worksheet
- Science: catapults due Sept. 26
- RELA: read 30 min; vocabulary for lesson 2 completely due tomorrow (all synonyms, antonyms, other word forms, and sentences)
- Spelling/vocabulary: spelling due next Tuesday (23rd), "man/manu" sentences due Friday
- Other: graded things signed, planner signed, fall fitness fundraiser ASAP