Bee-ing Creative

Grammar-  Today, the class learned how to diagram contractions!  They all know what contractions are, and how to make them.  But, they had never thought I'd as being the pronoun "I" and the verb "had" or "would".  When diagramming these sentences, they had to split the contraction across the subject/verb line.  At first, it was tricky, but they seemed to get the hang of it!

Writing-  Ms. Bev has hung the students' personal narratives (based on true stories) on the wall, showing off their hard work!  They have been working to revise and edit their "creative" (fictional) narratives.  Ms. Bev began class by discussing character development.  The class used the Feather Tales books again.  They each read a story, chose a character, and began writing a paragraph describing that character's traits.  Many of the students finished this paragraph in class!  Those that did chose to write an additional expository paragraph on the type of bird in their story.  As the class worked on today's in-class assignment, Ms. Bev was able to go around the room and discuss each child's progress on their creative narratives.  This model of group work and individual attention seems to be working great for the class!  Ms. Bev edited their paragraphs in class.  They will work on making changes at home, and bring them back to class on Tuesday for another look!

Math-  The 4B math class continued their work with decimals today.  It's not easy to switch your thought process from whole integers to answers that include decimals and fractions!  The 3B class continued their work on converting units of measurement.  Each class is just plugging away!

Literature-  The class began a new book today, the classic, "Where the Red Fern Grows".  They read the first few chapters, as a class.  Ms. Gail stopped to point out some idioms and similes along the way.

Science- In science class, Ms. Gail and the class discussed amphibians, specifically, the life cycle of a frog.  The students read about amphibians in their textbook and began working on the corresponding handouts. 

Social Studies-  Ms. Dennis discussed all of the answers to the at-home assignments.  The class made corrections as they went along.  They also stopped to discuss important topics, such as labor unions, monopolies, and profits.  They broke up into small groups to answer questions on "The Rise of Big Business".  In this handout, they were given a political cartoon and were asked which economic concept it illustrated.  No easy!  They are constantly having to apply the knowledge that they learn in their reading in different ways in this class!

Agriculture- As promised, I had an exciting activity today!  The class learned, at home, about the stages of honey bee development.  They took what they learned and put it to action!  I split the class into teams of three.  Each team was given a bag of props and a huge sheet of paper.  It was up to them, as a team, to come up with a clever way to act out the stages for their classmates!  It was a bit wild, a bit crazy, and a bit loud... but WAY fun, especially on a rainy day!