Math test tomorrow

Hello,

We had a good day. We ended with a challenge to get my thousands of cuisinaire rods into five bins with equal numbers of each size in each bin. Every student in the class had to participate. After a little debating about strategies, the class started sorting and counting, and occasionally complaining. While not completely finished, I saw a lot of great communication, teamwork, and problem solving. They should finish the challenge tomorrow morning, but I felt like some major lessons were being learned. There were many possible ways to go about solving the problem. Did the loudest get their way? Was there two way communication? Was everyone's input heard? Good stuff.

Our heroine in The City of Ember heard from the mayor about possible "slushuns." It is just like me to pick a book about corrupt leaders. I'm a sucker for the dystopian novels. This one keeps getting better. Ask your child about the box that was found.

We spent some time writing the alphabet four ways this afternoon. You would have thought I was torturing them. I asked for alphabets printed and in cursive, in both lower case and capitals. For the majority, writing cursive was a huge struggle. Well, now we have a starting point.

Math test tomorrow. Ms. Hill put together a Jeopardy! game for us today to review the chapter. It was a spirited contest that came right down to final jeopardy.

The fourth grade team met after school. I decided that our class will not be grouping for math. Tomorrow's test results may make me want to go back on that decision, but I feel like I can challenge everyone who currently stays in our class for math. We have twenty students from our homeroom of twenty-three. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about that decision.

I just got a text from my wife with a picture of my usually white dog covered in raccoon crap. Wonderful. That's when it becomes my dog.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea