I scream, you scream, we all scream for FUNCTIONAL WRITING!

     Good evening! Today was a busy day to say the least. First of all, we went over the new vocabulary words and insert them into Quizlet. Then we visited Google Earth to see some of the schools we will be sending our cards to. Afterwards, we read and discussed If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. The students LOVED the story! We followed that up with a discussion of the story and a comprehension activity. As students finished their comprehension activity, they were asked to work on their functional writing pieces about making an ice cream sundae.

     I showed the students a functional writing piece that met the standard on the ELMO. We then selected several pieces and discussed whether or not they met the standard. Since we have just begun functional writing, these pieces serve as the baseline. These pieces will drive my instruction for this genre.

     Math found us solving story problems using separating and combining.  The students seem to have combining down.  They can usually read the story problem and figure out whether or not to combine (add) or separate (subtract).  Separating does seem to be posing some difficulty for the students.  We will continue to work on it more in class.  I will also be posting strategies and methods in the next few days for use at home.

     We are continuing to learn about the weather.  When the students return to school after Winter Break, they will be creating a PowerPoint presentation about weather.  I hope to be able to have them create a podcast to go along with the PowerPoint.  The students enjoy using technology and it is the wave of the future.

     We also made our sundaes after lunch.  I followed the students directions EXACTLY AS WRITTEN and they soon discovered problems with that.  They found that their sundae did not have all of the toppings, ice cream was not scooped, no spoons were given, and so on.  It was a hoot!  The students discovered quickly that their instructions lacked details.  Some of their instructions lacked a clear sequence while others missed one or two steps.  Like I said, they had fun with it and so did I.  It was a fun way to teach them to add details to their writing.

     Well, that is all for now.  Hopefully I can post some pictures later this week.  Have a great evening!