Woohoo another productive day!
We did have one unfortunate incident today but it wasn’t anyone in our class. A third grader at the school went into a group’s garden and picked a tomato off of the vine that was not ripe. I was on my way to pick up the students from specials when I saw this occur. I took the student with me and had them explain to the class what they had done. I will also be contacting the third grader’s parents. The class was understandably upset. All we can do is hope that it doesn’t happen again.
We spent our morning talking about writing persuasive pieces. We went over our graphic organizer from yesterday, and talked about how our reasons should answer a question. Specifically they should answer “Why should schools ban flavored milk?” or “Why shouldn’t schools ban flavored milk?”. If they don’t do that, they’re not good reasons! Our details then support that reason, explaining why it is a GOOD reason.
Students looked over their charts and decided whether they had good reasons or not, and we did some individual conferences. Some students were told to go ahead and begin their rough drafts, but others still need to take a second look at their organizer. The rough draft is due Monday. That means students may work on it tonight if they would like, but the rough draft is not due until Monday.
Next we looked at our science questions and notes again. Many of the students were able to answer the questions strictly from their notes. I felt that it especially helped students to identify the main idea of the passage, which was also very encouraging. We will continue to come up with notes and questions about the science passages that we read throughout the year.
In math today we talked really quick about the place value system, and students took some notes on how the value of a number is determined by its place in relationship to the decimal. As you move to the left, we are increasing by a factor of ten. It takes ten ones to make a ten. It takes ten tens to make a hundred. It takes ten hundreds to make a thousand, etc etc.
Next we did some subtraction problems using our play money again. We did two very solid examples together, and students wrote them down. Tonight students have two more problems to do, using the play money. I have tasked them with wrangling a parent or guardian and forcing them to assist them with this homework. They are supposed to get your signature on the homework as well. Thank you for helping them!
When doing the problems, the parent/guardian will be the banker. The student will be doing the work. The banker will provide them with their starting value, and then provide them with change throughout the problem. As the student works through the problem, they document what they are doing in short sentences. There are two examples students have copied down and we did in class, and it should be fairly straightforward. The examples are given with the homework (below) as well!
If for some reason you do not have time tonight to help your student with this (it should take about 10 minutes) please simply write that on their paper and sign it. I then ask that you please find 10 minutes this weekend and do the two problems with them, and they can turn it in on Monday.
so, tl;dr
Ensure your graphic organizer for your flavored milk persuasive essay is filled out well. Feel free to begin writing your rough draft. Rough draft is due Monday.
Do these two problems (just as the examples) WITH A PARENT OR GUARDIAN. Please parent or guardian, sign the paper, or simply sign saying you didn’t have time, and please do them this weekend.
And read!
Have a good one,
-Mr. Potter
P.S. Tomorrow night is movie night, and the PTA will be showing Inside Out in the Gym from 6:30 to 8:30. Feel free to come out and watch what I hear is a great movie!