Today was a day straight out of the twilight zone!
We had some problems with talking out and following directions today. We had been doing very very well lately, so today was a bit of a shock.
We also had some trouble with students copying down their centers correctly, and we had traffic jams all over the place moving around the room. It was chaos, but hopefully tomorrow will go much smoother!
In math, we talked more about equivalent fractions, and what we can use them for. Today we focused on how equivalent fractions can aid us when we are adding fractions. Since it is difficult to add fractions when they have unlike denominators, we can find equivalent fractions with like denominators, and then we can add them easily.
In that vein, tonight’s homework is an adding fractions worksheet. Students must still show me what form of one they are multiplying or dividing by in order to find equivalent fractions.
In language arts, we played a Smartboard game identifying similes and metaphors. The students got a *little* excited about that one. Ask them about it……if you dare. I hope we can eventually add similes and metaphors to our own writing, so tonight students are asked to finish a simile worksheet where they write their own similes.
We had good discussions today about The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Who is the main character of this book, really? Are there good guys and bad guys? Hopefully we can come up with some kind of answer for these questions as we finish up the book this week. Tonight students should have at least read through chapter 15.
Today I also passed out your student’s login and password information for our messageboard. We talked about posting to it, and what is and is not appropriate. If you would also have a talk with your student about what you consider appropriate behavior in a public venue like an internet messageboard, I would be much obliged.
The students posted a simple hello message in our general chat, and made sure that their forum was visible to only themselves. After looking at what our students have posted, I may have to disable smileys on our site. Just…..so…..many…….smileys. We will definitely have a talk about that tomorrow, as well as revisiting what makes a decent post, and what is just essentially noise. This looks to be a real learning experience for many of our students.
I have not populated the individual forums with their homework and grades yet because I wanted to make sure the settings were correct and nobody could see another person’s sub-forum. I will now start filling them in with daily homework updates, and grades. It will take a few days to get caught up with what we have done so far, so I beg your indulgence.
Please also make sure your student understands that this login and password are for themselves and you the parents ONLY. If you discover your student knows another student’s login and password or has told their login and password to another student, please let me know immediately.
As always, the tldr;
One adding fractions worksheet
One simile worksheet
Read chapter 15 in TLTW&TW
Thanks, and I will see everyone tomorrow!