We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! It was great to see you at conferences! Now, we are back to work... Full time!

Today, we wrote about one fun or exciting moment about our break, and shared them aloud. We also reviewed our book project for the quarter and shared some songs we'll be using for these projects. Students were then given time to start their homework - Gettysburg Solo #1 HW.

Homework:

* Gettysburg Solo #1 Work

* Read 20 min / Q2 book project

Ahhh... After the week of hard work tackling nonfiction text, we stopped to enjoy our second quarter books. First we discussed theme, so students could more easily find a song to correlate to it, and then we discussed how to start looking for songs for their books. We then were able to read silently for a bit... Ahhh... Have an excellent week off, and be thankful for all we have!

Homework:

- Read 20 min. each day of break, or 200 minutes total!

- Look for song ideas (for Q2 independent reading project)!

Block 3/4 - Conquering the difficult Willingham text again today, we completed a lengthly phrazecloze activity to see how much we have learned of the text. We then compared our answers and evaluated which were the closest to what Willingham meant.
Blocks 5/6 & 8/9 - The spelling bee was conducted today, and then we caught up on our feedback for the iPad pilot, and discussed our book project for Q2.

Homework:

- Read for 20 min.

Block 3/4... Today we worked on finding the main idea in portions of the excerpt from David Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School? It was difficult work, but we got through it by using what we discovered by re-reading.
Blocks 5/6 & 8/9... Conquering the difficult Willingham text again today, we completed a lengthly phrazecloze activity to see how much we have learned of the text. We then compared our answers and evaluated which were the closest to what Willingham meant.

Homework:

All classes:
- Read 20 min.
- Bring your independent book tomorrow
Per 3/4:
- Solo #3

Today we worked on finding the main idea in portions of the excerpt from David Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School? It was difficult work, but we got through it by using what we discovered by re-reading.

Homework:

- Block 3/4 = Solo work #2
- Blocks 5/6 & 8/9 = Solo work #3

- Novel Approval Form due TOMORROW
- Bring your independent book tomorrow

We started our WEX pilot program today, using the iPads loaned to us for the month! We got set up, and then started deciphering an excerpt from David Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School?

Homework:

- Finish reading pgs. 7-14; complete next three cards

- Novel Aproval Form due Wednesday

Student groups finished teaching our next story in the Literature book - "A Retrieved Reformation."

Homework:
* PERMISSION SLIP due BY MONDAY!
* Novel Approval Form due Wed.
* Read 60 minutes of your Q2 book!