Thursday, November 19th 2009

Today was a very busy and productive day. In the morning, our question of the day was: Cual es tu comida favorita para el Dia de Accion de Gracias? (What is your favorite food to eat for Thanksgiving? We learned that most of our friends like turkey the best, and we showed this using several mathematical equations. We showed this with 23 > 4, and 6 > 2, and used the words mas and menos to compare the two numbers.

After that, we practiced making words. Our english word for the day was volcanoes, and we made several words using the letters in the word volcanoes. In Spanish, our word was camisas, and we practiced making words like casa, masa, misa, etc. using those letters as well.

During Writing Workshop, the Green Gators got their very own personal word walls that they can use during Writing Workshop. We practiced looking for sight words on the word wall and using the correct spelling in our own stories! THe Red Rhinos practiced identifying describing words and we brainstormed our own for different things like a chair, the sky, and a day. We then read through our own writing and tried to find places where we could add a describing word.

In Math today, the Red Rhinos continued to practice solving word problems, using comparisons such as more than and less than, and showing them using proof drawings and equations to show our work. The Red Rhinos' number of the day was 41, and we practiced showing this number using coins and different addition and subtraction equations. The Green Gators number of the day was 26, and we showed this number using coins and addition and subtraction equations as well. We also practiced making number sentences and using the strategy of counting on by combining the total number of pancakes (paperplates) of two different classroom "chefs." We then practiced following physical directions and doing body and space activities, while also using the counting on strategy.

During Social Studies, we continued our discussion of communities. We sang the "All Around the Town" song and pointed out the different businesses and buildings that are part of a community. We then read a book called "Our Community" which described all different kinds of jobs and businesses that we can find in our community. In this book we used matching cards to group the different community members with their jobs.