Today in class our lesson was primarily about Christopher Columbus. We discussed how both individual explorers and the countries had reasons why they wanted to explore- so they were able to both achieve their goals by working together. For instance, Spain wanted to expand their empire and spread their religion and Columbus wanted to find a new way to get to Asia by sailing west. So Spain agreed to finance his journey because Columbus agreed to claim lands for Spain and help spread the Catholic religion- it was a win-win situation.
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Today I introduced the new book talk- the new reading skill we are focusing on it is figurative language. I shared with each student the graphic organizer for the book talk and had everyone make a copy (so they are able to edit it) and share it with me. This way I will be able to check in regularly on the progress each student is making so that hopefully we don't run into any situations where kids fall behind or are not prepared. I also assigned each student with a specific day that they will be presenting their book talk to me- they have all written their personal due dates into their planners and I will be posting a calendar on the wall in the classroom and am going to try and find a way to post the calendar on this site as well.
We then spent the last 10 minutes of class reading from Harry Potter (yes- the copying of book talk and writing homework in their planners did take 30 minutes!) Homework: Figurative Language Book Talk (see planners for due dates), IXL: III 1-3 and JJJ1 and JJJ3 Today the kids worked on a figurative language activity- they had to identify the different types of figurative language that were in a short story I provided them. They had a list of the types of language along with examples and definitions to help them out. After they finished this they were given a packet about Explode the Moment (from yesterdays lesson) to refer to as they chose sentences from their narrative rough drafts to explode- they wrote these new paragraphs in their writers notebooks.
While the students worked I was able to listen to, what seemed like 800, book talks so that the scores in the grade book would all be up to date for their trimester 1 report card that comes out tomorrow. Homework: IXL: III1-3 (Simile and Metaphor) and JJJ1 and JJJ3 (idioms and adages) due Friday. Today we started chapter 4 in our textbooks- which is all about the Age of Exploration. Our focus today was on why countries choose to explore....in the case of Portugal we learned they wanted to find a new and faster way to Asia by traveling around Africa...which lead to Portugal making more $$ and therefore getting more power!
Over Thanksgiving break I read all of the Personal Narrative rough drafts that the kids completed. Everyone has a great idea for a story, but now we need to bring that story to life. Today's lesson was called "Explode the Moment" the focus of this lesson is for the kids to be able to slow down a moment and use: snapshots, thoughts, feelings and sensory details to show rather than tell. This week kids will be picking apart their drafts and finding places where they can explode! See an example below that I showed the kids this morning.
Homework: IXL III1-3 (Similies and Metaphors) and JJJ1 AND JJJ3 (no need to do JJJ2 or 4). Original Sentence: “He walked through the doorway.” Moment Exploded: He grasped the cold doorknob and turned it slowly to the right. He pushed the door inward. The hinges squeaked and cold air rushed past the opening door. The room was dark. He darted his eyes to the right. Nothing. He pushed the door open a little farther, and slowly moved his right foot into the room. His shoe creaked a bit as it hit the polished hardwood floor. Students today worked on writing their rough drafts of their narrative stories. They will complete their drafts by the end of class tomorrow so that I can bring them home over break and provide them with feedback.
Reminder- book talks are due a week from today. If students are done they are able to present this week before going on break. We will be loading up the bus tomorrow so bring in any of those cans/boxes of food that have been just taking up space in the food cupboard!
In class today we discussed why Marco Polo's journey was the catalyst for the Age of Exploration- once the kings back in Europe knew the goods that they could get (and sell for $$$) in China they all wanted to be the country that was able to find the shortest/fastest route there!
Homework: Native American projects due on Monday I wanted to be able to provide students with a big chunk of writing time today, so after reading from Harry Potter for the first 10 minutes of class students wrote furiously for the remaining 20 minutes of class. The plan is to have the kids write complete rough drafts on Monday and Tuesday next week before we leave for break- that will give me time to take the drafts home and write feedback on each so that when we return from Thanksgiving the kids can begin working on their final drafts of their narrative stories.
Homework: Subject & Predicate (C1 and C2) and Subject/Verb agreement (I1 and I2) Book talk is due a week from Monday! Students are able to present their book talks as soon as they are finished! |
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