TGIF :) Nov 15th Friday...

It has been a busy and productive week in our class (and school I guess as I haven't had a great deal of time to see what is going on in other classrooms).

I showed up to school this morning and had my head full of the day ahead and what I was going to do first when I got into the building when I was greeted by a welcoming committee of some students who were happy to see me and it made my day. My heart grew three sizes. I had to go there first and tell them how much their happy 'hello' made me feel. Thanks to my welcoming committee- you know who you are!
These are little things that make a BIG difference for kids and adults alike.
Thanks for making my day!

Reminders

enjoy the weekend (I have about three more reports to complete but the majority are into Mrs. Paxton for checking and signature)
no new homework although I have encouraged my students to take their novels home for some home reading time (they didn't seem too impressed!!
** you might be surprised to hear some of the excuses as to why there is absolutely no time to read at all this weekend!!)

Our Day

This morning we completed our spelling tests and I have them all collected
I would have to say that the students seem to be getting more comfortable with the 'testing' process (not so much anxiety)

FYI I have three levels of spelling programs currently and Mrs. Dawson's help to keep it all organized
most students are making good progress at their level - a few are still challenged by any kind of organized study or test preparation

Mapping Skills: Deserts of the world (no, not desserts - although that doesn't sound like a half bad idea for research :) yum!)

We continued work on identifying continents and location of the worlds 'hot, 'cold' and Arctic deserts. Ask your son/daughter about the Bactrian Camel and its habitat. We learn a little something every day.


From there we worked in groups on a science puzzle focused on Ecosystems and finding the correct food, habitat, and water sources for six desert type animals including the alligator lizard and Road Runner (no, not the cartoon version although we did have to watch some Warner Brother's Road Runner cartoons over our morning break!!)
Such classic cartoons- you can't help but get caught up in them! The students seemed to enjoy them.

Math 7

tangram puzzle as a percentage quiz- was a bit of confusion about the questions but most knew the answers - may have to use this one for practice only- I'll see how they do generally.
We did some problem solving examples for a variety of arithmetic skills including working with decimals and reading a graph. We were using the TPS strategy of T Think for yourself, P pair with another peer, and S share solutions together to guage individual success on the multiple choice answers.
Good start- the FSA numeracy assessment will be next Feb 2014
these problems and solving strategies are intended to help them feel ready to show what they know when they do the on-line FSA Numeracy assessment.

read to self
record

computer session
Secluded Mansion narratives
started to word process the story ideas from the Secluded Mansion activity and create stories. I obviously have to re-visit the final structure of a story - some students took their ideas and wrote a paragraph instead of creating a story so I reckon an introductory paragraph can be follwed up and a second paragraph added- maybe I need to do a guided wrtie for the next section- other students have a real sense of story and have created a complete structured story from the activity.

15 minutes free time (because they really have worked hard this week.)

Art
finalization for the Remembrance Day competition entries- the entry forms are going home this weekend (I was worried if I gave them too soon they would lose them!!)
Pick up from the Legion will be Monday Nov 18th.
I am very proud of the 10 students who have decided to enter the contest. They are all winners in my opinion!

Continue work on the decoration or design of the Soda can labels

and for the 'half done', I-am-finished crowd, a drawing activty called Complete a Cheetah- a half completed cheetah face which they were supposed to copy and complete by sight and drawing skills
(interesting that they discovered immediately a way to be a "cheetah' on the activity!! By folding and copying instead of analyzing the symmetery of the 'design')
It is Friday...the best laid plans...

no time for Word Nerd tonight it was too close to the dismissal bell by the time we had tidied up and discussed reminders for planner

Thank-you to all my end of day helpers with the chairs - doing it really helps the custodian, Maria, to get the broom around and under the desks at the day's end. She says, "gracias" to you too :)

Have a great weekend (maybe see you at the soccer field?)
Mrs. J.