Glad to see all the smiling faces this morning. We had a bit of a "zigger zagger" day today. We started right away with math and reading instead of writing due to an assembly with the Artist in Residence. In reading this morning, we began to discuss elements of genre. I read a mystery story on Friday and used that as a reference for what actually makes up a mystery. In talking about characters, setting and plot, students took notes on what makes a story a true "mystery". I then did some book talks on some good mysteries that I think the students might like. Students then had time to Read to Self, Respond to Reading and/or confer with an adult. Reading logs will be collected on Wednesday due to the day off tomorrow.
In spelling, we discussed how to find words that are antonym pairs. The focus of the lesson was adding prefixes to root words that make opposites. We came up with eight prefixes (such as "non", "in", "un", etc.) that made root words opposite. Then students began to brainstorm in groups opposite pairs using this method. We will continue this lesson on Wednesday.
This afternoon we had writing. We worked on revising and editing our fall benchmarks using the knowledge we've gained throughout the last writing unit. I collected these for a grade today.
Tomorrow is Parent/Teacher conference day so there is no school. If you did not get a conference slot and would like to meet with us, please let me know.
