Field Trip Tuesday

Hello,

Just a quick note about our walking field trip to the election polls at BJHS on Tuesday. We will leave at 10:40 and be back by 11:30. We will still have lunch at school. If a couple parents would like to volunteer to go along, that would be great. You could vote while you are there, if you'd like.  A permission slip went home tonight, which I realized was not a great idea, sending it home on Halloween weekend, but it snuck up on me.  (Please don't ask how election day could have possibly snuck up on me.)

Have a safe Halloween.

Mr. Shea

Bad teacher day

Hello,

It wasn't an overly impressive day for me. One of the great things about teaching this age is the immediate feedback. We were attempting to classify minerals and many things went wrong. Mineral kits were incomplete, Mineral info card packs differed from pack to pack. I thought I had set up a fool proof system with the minerals, so I didn't do a very effective check of all the moving parts before passing everything out to the class. I'll make sure the next teacher is given a better launching point, which is me not taking the responsibility that I should, but I'm still mad about it. I should have checked every kit like I did with our rock identification, but I didn't. And it was a bit of a mess. My patience grew short. Everything took longer than it should have. Just not good.

I also messed up on the homework. At the end of math class, I handed the homework to a student and asked if they would please pass it out. At the end of the day, kids were approaching me and asking if I was going to pass out the math homework. The child that I gave the task to, said "I thought you said to take one and pass it."  Somewhere there is a stack of math sheets that never found their recipients.

I became aware of the math mess up as we were writing down our homework in our assignment books. Suddenly my mind loss track of the other assignment I was planning on giving them. My mind was a complete blank. I'm sure it was something that connected their learning from prior days... yes, it had to have been fantastic. I just couldn't think of it.  And the clock was ticking. "AAAuuuugh!" I yelled. "No other homework because I can't think straight right now!" At least that got most of them smiling.

We did play an eventful game of Androscoggin. It is a game where you make up words using the letters of another word or words. I'd played the game for years, before finding its description in a 1908 book of games. The book titled the game Androscoggin.  I usually introduce the game, using that title as the word that we use letters from, but we kept with the geology theme and used METAMORPHIC as our word. We built on our homework from Monday night.  I play it as a four team game, but I may change it to five, due to the size of our class.

My busy season has definitely started. I've got to get more organized (and plan better for my lessons) if I'm going to make it through with flying colors. I've also got to make sure I get enough sleep. I woke up at 3:00am last night and couldn't make it back to sleep. I was thinking about all our missing objects in class and my suspicions that some items were also stolen from CREA. We need some maturing to happen quickly in our class. It is difficult to have several groups running at once without trust and independence. I put some more things in motion to help speed up that process.

I'll be asking for some help with next Friday's Harry Potter Sorting. I may need some help with some wizardy snacks and some sewing of some black material into robes. More to come.

Mr. Shea

CREA

Hello,

As usual, the people at CREA were knowledgeable, friendly, and provided a great field trip experience for the kids. The class was split into two groups as soon as we arrived. One group walked to a quarry and discussed the mining of Topsham feldspar. After much discussion about the bedrock of our planet, we walked to the Cathance River where we noticed many examples of weathering and erosion.  We took a soil sample and talked about the make up of soil.

The other group sat before some beautiful mineral samples and learned about the three minerals that make up granite, the most plentiful rock in our state. They learned about the variety of places that we find and use minerals in our day to day lives.  A major highlight for most of the kids came after this discussion, when they were able to get a cup of crushed rocks and search for their own minerals. Most students came away with muscovite, feldspar, tourmaline, quartz and a garnet. After the first session, both groups switched and got to experience the other session.

Upon returning to school, the energy was low and I think we all felt like a nap. We ended our day with silent reading, art class and some CREA reflection/thank you notes. Energy ramped right back up when it was time for free play for the kids staying after for homework club.  For the kids, anyway.

Thank you to our chaperones and the CREA staff for making it a successful day. Our kids represented themselves well, except for a line dispute as we were getting back to the bus.  If only the trip ended at 12:44!  We talked it out.  We'll do better next time.

I'm once again falling asleep at the computer.

Until tomorrow,

Mr. Shea

Field Trip tomorrow

Hello,

We have our field trip to the Cathance River tomorrow.  We will leave around 9:15 and get back around 1:00.  I'm hoping we can be singing our Rock Cycle Song as we get off the bus.  They do a great job at CREA and I always look forward to seeing their friendly and knowledgeable staff.

We started making flash cards for our multiplication facts today. There should be some nightly practice starting soon. I'll go over some of the better strategies on how to use the cards in our next math class.  That will be on Wednesday due to the field trip.

On Friday in math we used the Dragon Box app.  This is a great free app that teaches algebraic principles through a mini-game.  You start an easy game and the next thing you know, you are solving for x in a complex equation.  We'll do it from time to time and suddenly they will be amazed at how much they have learned.  I'll introduce several games this year and will make note on the blog. Games are a fantastic way to practice and learn math. I credit my ability to add quickly to all the games of "99" and cribbage I played as a child. I hope you will encourage these games at home.

We grouped up this afternoon to try to classify minerals.  Students tested many properties of minerals, including color, feel, streak, hardness, light, luster and shape. We'll finish up with this activity tomorrow. I bet many will change some of their answers tomorrow after visiting the feldspar mines of the Cathance River. They will know the three minerals that make up granite very well after tomorrow's session in the outdoors.

I've got my Bowdoin Women's Hoop practice schedule for November and December. Based on the schedule, I think Tuesday, Nov 4 will be our last Tuesday homework club.  We'll move it to Thursdays that next week.  Thursday the 13th of November will be the first Thursday homework club.  Thursdays will work for both Nov and Dec.  I'll decide about Jan and Feb when I see my coaching schedule for those months.  Sorry for the inconsistency.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Ms. Hill's last day

Hello,

Tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to our student teacher, Ms. Hill.  As strange as it was to start the year with another adult in the room, now it will be strange to not have her here.  We wish her the best in her next placement at the sixth grade in Yarmouth. Students gave her cards this morning and we'll have some kind of farewell tomorrow to give the kids some closure. She mentioned tonight how great they are and how much she will miss them. They are definitely the reason that we all do this job.

The rain kept on coming today, so I adjusted our plans a bit to fend off the four walls closing in. Kids read little mini-skits in front of the class. They were all quite humorous with jokes like, "Waiter, there is a fly in my soup."
"Would you prefer a spider?"

Good stuff.  Ask your child about their skit.

We also did some rock classifying.  Each group of two or three students was given twelve rocks to classify as igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary.  This is a very difficult task and I was pleased with their efforts.  Tomorrow they will get those same twelve rocks along with twelve rock identification cards. They need to match up the rocks and cards. Remembering today's information will be a big help with tomorrow's task.

In math, we will be making multiplication flash cards tomorrow.  Progress in Rocket Math has slowed. Extra time now needs to be spent at home before we will see the major progress.

I'm hearing that some parents are enjoying the weekly challenges.  Remember to let your kids struggle with them. I can send an extra copy or two every week if you would like.  I have some good ones up my sleeve coming up.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Go away rain

Hello,

We worked with cuisenaire rods in conjunction with learning LCM (Least Common Multiple). Many students had trouble making the connection. We'll be back at it tomorrow.

We had a discussion about bullying. This was spurred on by news that I recently received about a family friend being mistreated by her junior high classmates. It is such a sad story that I may have dropped a tear or two in front of the class. Very few things make my blood boil more than seeing behavior that is just downright mean.

Ms. Hill continued to conference with students about the personal narrative unit, while I met with groups about the common elements of fairy tales. We have a bunch of loose ends to tie up as we near the end of Ms. Hill's stay with us. Friday will be her last day. Kids wrote notes and cards to her yesterday under the guise of "Algebra" homework. They passed in their "Algebra" to her today.

We introduced the Rock Cycle Song.  (See below)

Rock Cycle Song
(Sing to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

SEDIMENTARY rock
Has been formed in layers
Often found near water sources
With fossils from decayers

Then there's IGNEOUS rock
Here since Earth was born
Molten Lava, cooled and hardened
That's how it is formed

These two types of rocks
Can also be transformed
With pressure, heat and chemicals
METAMORPHIC they'll become.

Our class will be learning to identify these types of rocks in the coming days.  I showed examples of each today, but we will be getting back to the hands on geology unit tomorrow.

The Harry Potter Club voted to have a night time sorting dinner for new members from other classes. Like me, they want to do it up big. I will need some parent volunteers for this. The night is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 7 in the music room. We only have eight from the class in the club, so I'm hoping our big plans get more kids interested. More to come on this.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Potluck tonight

Hello,

I'll make this quick.  The fourth grade potluck dinner is in just 30 minutes.  It is tonight (Tues) at 6:00.  Maybe I can score some mac and cheese.  I honestly had forgotten about it until I saw the reminders to go home with students tonight.  I quickly put it on the homework calendar.

Ms. Hill completed both her lead teaching and her personal narrative unit today. Teaching is exhausting enough, but she finished up her day with a meeting with her professor and then came back to help out during homework club.  She should sleep well tonight. I hope your child knows what a personal narrative is after her week long unit.

We have our first continents and oceans test on Friday.  We'll add more to the map every month.  At this point, it is bare basics: seven continents, five oceans, and an equator.  I literally just fell asleep at the keyboard after I wrote five continents.  Since I've fallen into a bad habit of not proof reading my blog and just hitting publish, the falling asleep was a mini-blessing.

I just fell asleep again.  I need to end this.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Ms. Hill's lead teaching

Hello,

Ms. Hill was lead teacher for the entire day.  I felt that it went well.  She had them doing a variety of activities throughout the day.

In math, I took our new students from Miss Feigner's class and worked on number lines and estimation.  Miss Feigner had taken her class in a different direction when we worked on this in our homeroom.  Miss Hill worked with the rest of the students on using a T-model to find factors.  Miss Feigner's class had already covered this.  Tomorrow we will split them up again.  This allows Miss Hill to lead teach, and at the same time we can try to get all of our math students on the same page.

After phys. ed, recess and lunch, our class had our 90 minute literacy block.  Miss Hill has been working with them on writing personal narratives.  It is nice to see how much more understanding that they have in just a few short days.  Their writing stamina has also increased.  While we still have a few stallers and pretenders, it is getting better every day.

Despite being interrupted by a fire alarm, Miss Hill's afternoon lesson on artist Andy Goldsworthy was still successful.  Mr. Goldsworthy is an artist who uses the natural world as his canvas and materials.  Miss Hill showed a couple of clips of his work and some pictures from one of his beautiful books.  I tried to cut and paste the clips here, but it isn't working.  They paste, they just don't work. Sorry.  Here are some images.

 

 

The kids went out and tried their hand at art with nature.  I'm hoping that they will try this at home too.  We had some really cool ideas and results.

I like introducing the class to Andy Goldsworthy before taking our annual fall field trip to the Cathance River. That would be a great place to do some work inspired by Mr. Goldsworthy.  Our field trip is next Tuesday. A permission slip went home tonight.  Two parents have already asked if they could chaperone.  I'll try to give everyone a chance before the year is out.

Finally, I sent a note home to students staying with me for math, or new students coming to us from Miss Feigner's class.  It is cut and paste below.

Thanks for reading.  Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Hello,

          My name is Mr. Shea and I am your child’s math teacher.   The fourth grade team did our best to place your child in a math class where they will be challenged and yet have a good chance for success.  Changes can be made, and if we feel there may be a better fit at a later time, we won’t hesitate to make those changes.  You are welcome to provide input at any time for this process.  I’m hoping to start some math procedures that will become regular habit for both you and your child.

          Fourth grade has always been a year where the math work is ratcheted up a few notches.  This is especially true since we have started the Math in Focus program.  It goes at a quicker pace than our old program.  For example, the program includes long division and multiple digit multiplication in the first couple of chapters.  Many fourth graders don’t have their facts down, let alone have a solid concept of what multiplication and division means. 

Because many students are not automatic on their basic facts, we will be doing Rocket Math every morning.  We are currently working on our multiplication facts, but will be hitting division, addition, and subtraction before the year is out.  I like Rocket Math because everyone can be learning at their own level.  Each child has their own test, with their own goals, based on their writing speed.  You’ve probably seen some of these come home.  It is important that they learn these basic skills before heading to fifth grade.

We will have math homework every night, except on weekends.  The homework will be a review of what we have done in class.  That said, your child should always have a good idea of what to do, and shouldn’t need too much assistance from you.  Your child is responsible for bringing work home, completing it, and then bringing it back to class the next day.  You may want to review with your child how they plan on making this happen.

          Each Monday I will also give out a weekly challenge.  This isn’t due until Friday, and this will be work that they may be a bit unfamiliar with.  I will introduce the challenges to get them started, but they are designed so that most students will struggle a bit on them.  These challenges are graded on effort only.  I am much less concerned in the right answer than I am in how students react when they don’t immediately find the solution.  I want students to come in on Tues, Wed, and Thursday and keep asking questions.  I will gladly help those who are putting in the effort.

          I hope you will help them as well, but please don’t just give answers.  Allow them to try different methods.  Allow them to struggle a bit.  Ask what they have tried out so far.  If they can show you what they have tried, then you can help, but “I don’t know what to do!” or “I don’t get it!” shouldn’t cut it.  Judging from the first couple months of school, these challenges are sorely needed.  Many students have learned to yell help at the first sign of confusion, often before reading any directions.    

         

          I give these challenges for a reason.  I subscribe, in part, to Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion that this is largely cultural.  He states, “Asian culture has a profoundly different relationship to work. It rewards people who are persistent. If you take a random group of 8-year-old American and Japanese kids, give them all a really, really hard math problem, and start a stopwatch, the American kids will give up after 30, 40 seconds. If you let the test run for 15 minutes, the Japanese kids will not have given up. You have to take it away.” 

          Research shows that there is validity to Gladwell’s tests.  A more recent test showed that American ten year olds give up within ten seconds!  This is a major problem.  A country’s math ability ranking so closely correlates with the time its students will give to a problem before giving up, that the assessment tests are hardly needed.    

          So what can we do to get them to be more persistent?  I think that many kids are never allowed to struggle.  Many American adults, including teachers, do what they can so their children are never uncomfortable.  I’m asking you to let them be uncomfortable on these challenges.  Make them come in and ask for help.  If we can get them to achieve a bit of success after struggling, they won’t be so averse to it the next time. 

          One last thing that you can do is play games with your kids.  Dice games and Card games are great for their addition skills and number familiarity.  I am always surprised at how many fourth graders have to count the dots on dice.  I will be introducing games throughout the year and will send directions home.  So please, have fun and help them learn at the same time. 

          I promise to do my best to prepare your child for the math challenges of fifth grade and beyond.  I post the homework every night on my daily blog at www.mrsheasclassblog.blogspot.com.  Please email me at sshea@brunswick.k12.me.us , call 841-2599, or drop in if you’d like to speak to me about anything.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea  

Thursday

Hello,

Sorry about no blog yesterday.  I was on a bus going to a funeral up to Bar Harbor and while my assumption that the bus would have wifi was correct, the signal was so weak I couldn't get my blog page to come up.

Here's the daily rundown: We worked on multiples in math.  Students colored in multiples on hundreds charts to notice patterns.  Most students need to finish this work at home.

We learned more factual information about Columbus from a picture book by Demi.  Late in the day we got a Taino perspective from Jane Yolen's book Encounter.  The Taino were the tribes people that Columbus and his crew first encountered.  Jane Yolen speculates what they might have thought and writes a book through the eyes of a Taino boy.

We finished the day separating the class into four tribes.  Each tribe was given a strange language of gestures, a goal, and some pattern blocks which represented different things to each tribe.  Some tribes had goals to make friends.  Some tribes had goals to try to find servants.  I let them loose, no oral language allowed.  There was lots of frustration.  No tribe could understand what the others were saying or why they wanted them to do what they were trying to get them to do.

In the end, the tribes with friendly goals went along much more willingly with other tribes' requests. The tribes with sordid goals, refused to cooperate with any other requests, including the ones from the friendlies. I hoped to give the kids a glimpse into the difficulties of those first meetings and I also wanted to give them a sense of the plethora of false assumptions that were made.  In our case, most behaviors and assumptions were based on a simple goal that I gave each group.  In each case, they made assumptions that all tribes had similar goals.  Ask your child what silly things they were doing in their tribe, but also ask to see what they got out of it.

Book orders go in this Sunday.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

short posts today and tomorrow

Hello,

Homework club just ended and I'm late for a meeting so this will be short.  I have a funeral to go to tomorrow afternoon so that post will be short as well.

Five students from our class will be going to Mrs. Feigner for math.  Ask your child if that involves them.  We added five students from her class to ours.  Mrs. Feigner gets more RTI support in her room, so were moving some of the students who could benefit from that added help.  My math class will go a little deeper into the concepts.

Ms. Hill started her unit on personal narratives.  Ask your child what that is.

We will be reading about Columbus this week, as well as doing a few activities so students will understand the difficulties of two completely different cultures coming together for the first time.

Sorry to have to run.

Good night

Mr. Shea

Islands all over

Hello,

A colorful archipelago sprung up in our class today.  Islands are on every desk.  I was pleased to see some fiords, arches, caves, lagoons, swamps and deltas.  It was a high energy day.  Thanks to everyone who made dough. I left my phone and batches of clay at home. I wasn't a happy camper upon arrival at school. All of you and your extra batches saved me.  Thanks so much.

Students met my mentor teacher from when I student taught back in Portland over ten years ago.  Pat Whitney worked with students on telling time today. I think some students said they needed help so they could get a chance to go out in the hall and be part of a small group. Pat will be joining us for a couple days a week for the whole year, and hopefully next. It is great to have such a knowledgeable and trusted partner.

Students did more map work with real DOT Maine maps with Ms. Hill.  This was a continuation of yesterday's work.  I also introduced another strategy for their writing idea books.  Between Pat, Ms. Hill and I, we had literacy covered.

We estimated volume in math.  Students cut out paper and taped and folded them into rectangular solids.  Then they estimated the number of cubic centimeters that would fill the prisms.  Finally they filled them up with plastic cubic centimeters. They did a nice job of estimating and I felt like it was a good intro to volume as we head into multiplication.

No school tomorrow.  I'll write a blog up on my professional development day if anyone is interested.
That was a joke.

Have a great weekend.

Mr. Shea

Island building tomorrow

Hello,

Sorry about no blog yesterday.  My wife and I are staying down in Georgetown this week and I had to get home to see friends from Maryland. We were also celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday.  I rushed out of here when I realized that it was close to 7:00.

Our island plans are made.  We currently have eleven batches of play dough made.  I'm hoping for at least 23, so any and all is welcome.  Thank you to everyone who has donated thus far or is planning on making a batch or two tonight. The recipes are on Monday night's blog.

Book order notices went home yesterday with a special five dollar book voucher. I bought these last year, but between my lack of organization skills, summer birthdays and overall incompetence on my part, over half of the vouchers expired without being handed out. My solution to that is to not wait around for birthdays and to use them before I lose them. So "Happy Birthday!" to everyone in the class. Don't expect anything later. The voucher is for one book, five dollars or less, and cannot be used as a coupon for a more expensive book. Our next book order will be made next Sunday.

I want to remind you that this is a four day weekend for your child. No school on Friday due to a teacher's workshop.  No school on Monday due to Christopher Columbus.

Idea books were passed out today in literacy. These are blank books that many authors, including past visiting author Jack Gantos, highly recommend for all writers. Ask your child some of the ideas that they wrote in their books today.

We spent a math class estimating area.  Yesterday we spent more time estimating distances. Tomorrow we'll add the third dimension and do some volume estimation.

The homework tonight is a dot to dot. It is a unique one in that it reinforces some of our map skill work. Each dot is a coordinate.

Tomorrow should be a fun day of creation. It is time to show off what they have learned. If all I see are mountains and volcanoes, I won't be impressed.

Have a good night.

Mr. Shea

Two four day weeks in a row

Hello,

I wanted to remind you that Friday is a professional development day for teachers. Students will not have school while teachers are developing. Monday is a holiday, Columbus Day.  No school on Monday either.

We estimated inches and feet in math today.  Students were coming up with strategies that were more accurate than guessing. We made lines of chalk on the playground and then came inside to work on the shorter distances. There is some estimation homework tonight.  Multiplication is on the horizon.

We finished up our geography picture dictionaries.  Island making starts on Thursday.  A note went home that I'll cut and paste below:


Dear Parents,

We will be making islands in class this week to show off our knowledge of landforms.  I am hoping that some of you will be able to donate your time and effort (and some household supplies) to provide our class with the necessary playdough.  I am providing you with two different recipes.  They both have their merits.  Thank you for providing our class with a batch or two.  Don’t worry about adding color.  We will be painting our finished products. 

You may send your dough to school in Ziploc bags starting on Tuesday.  We will begin our island making on Thursday.

Thanks in advance.  I know it is a bit of a pain.  I’ll be making some too. 

Mr. Shea

 

Traditional Play Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of baking soda
1 and a half cups of water
1 cup of corn starch
Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and boil over medium heat. Once doughy, remove from heat.  Takes about ten minutes.

Cream of Tartar Play Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of colored water
1 Tbsp. of cooking oil
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup of salt
Directions:

Place all of the ingredients in a medium size or large pan. Cook slowly on medium-high and stir it until the play dough thickens.  This recipe takes less than 10 minutes.

Mr. Weafer was nice enough to bring in his slide projector.  We looked at many examples of erosion from Death Valley National Park, Arches NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Grand Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, and Antelope Canyon, among others.  I tried to skip many of the stories that the pictures remind me of, but I failed a couple of times.

Book orders came in today.  We'll get another round of flyers out tomorrow. You can always order online at scholastic.com/readingclub using class code J36TM.  I generally order every two weeks. The next order will go out a week from Sunday.  I have received a class listening center with eight headphones that I was able to get using book order points from this year and last. Thanks for supporting your child's reading habit and our class library.

Have a great night.  Homework club tomorrow.

Mr. Shea

Erosion, take two

Hello,

We had some nice erosion experiment proposals which led to some interesting set ups this afternoon. One tray had clay obstacles and random coins placed in the dirt. A big mountain of dirt had a narrow canyon go through it with a quarter jammed in the canyon to dam up the flow of water. The sides of the canyon didn't last long and the quarter went down fast.

The other tray had a giant mound with its sides shaved down, Lego walls and some random Lego men, along with a unique hole in a cup way of dispensing the water onto the tray. While most students predicted the Lego guys to go down, they actually got their legs stuck in more dirt as the river passed. It was like standing on the shore of a sandy beach as waves bring sand in and the water loosens sand beneath your feet causing you to sink deeper in.  Very cool and quite interesting. Thank you to our experiment proposal writers. I was also happy with the class participation. Every new prediction gave us something more to look for and/or think about.

We started estimating addition problems in math.  For example 483 + 1234 is about 500 + 1200, so about 1700. We talked about knowing when our estimate may be high or low. A majority of the class did these exercises with me, while students still working to grasp the rounding concept worked with Ms. Hill on those skills. Our fire alarm/bus evac drill, (They get on the buses and get instructions, but don't actually go anywhere,) cut into our math time significantly. I was disappointed that our class didn't go out our proper exit. Since this is our third drill of the year, I had a talk with them about "just following" and speaking up when you know the people in front of you are going the wrong way. I'm all about speaking up.

Our silent reading time was fantastic today. At one point, I caught the eye of Ms. Hill, our student teacher, and gave her a very satisfying "take a look at this" wave of my arms. Good stuff.

We had a long union meeting tonight. I joined the union last spring. This was my second meeting ever. It was nice to meet with so many colleagues.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea

Erosion experiments

Hello,

We filled a couple of trays with a few different types of dirt, put them on a slant, and poured water on the high ends. The result was some winding rivers.  Deltas of silt and the smallest dirt particles formed pretty quickly. The grassy patch kept all of its soil, the sandy parts weren't so fortunate. The water carved canyons and ate away at the "mountains." Lots of predictions and questions made it an enjoyable lesson. We were joined by a couple of teachers from the visiting Chinese contingent. The language barrier made it difficult for me to understand whether they were able to take in all the facets of the lesson, but I think they got the main point.

We had a there/their/they're mini lesson today.  If they're there, ask your child if they're able to remember some of what their teacher taught them about their, they're and there. They may ask you if they are your heir.

More rounding was covered in math.  The math sheet that went home was the easy half of the intended two-sided sheet.  I was pleased with the progress today and I'll take a group that is ready to move on tomorrow and do just that.

Reading teams met today. Your child is on a team with the goal of reading a learning about fairy tales, legends, and fables. Coming up with team names was a bit of a chore this afternoon. It made me suspect that some of them might want to take the whole reading period to come up with a name, rather than reading. Hmmm.

We've been doing capitalization sheets and yoga for our morning work. I can say with 100% certainty that the yoga is more popular than the capitalization.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. Shea