We had a wet but wonderful day today! Students began writing in their writers' notebooks. We, then, had a lesson on the make up of a paragraph. We discussed topic sentences, detail sentences, and closing sentences. I asked students to then identify these types of sentences in their 2 written paragraphs for the compare/contrast essay. This was difficult for some. Those who couldn't identify got help and some students needed to craft one or more of these sentences for their paragraphs. We will continue to work through these essays tomorrow.
In reading today, we took notes on the genre of narrative poetry. I book talked several books in this genre. Next, I handed back the blog entries from last week with feedback on them. Students needed to take the feedback and use it to improve this week's entry. I also showed them how to respond to others' entries. During reading workshop time, students chose to read to self or blog. We conferred with a few readers as well.
In science today, I went over the appropriate unit of measurement sheet (4.8) that they did for homework last week. We talked in more depth about choosing appropriate units depending on what you are measuring. Next, we worked on 3 science scenarios where students needed to identify the parts of the experiment. We will go over these on Wednesday. I assigned the Scientific Method test for November 23. Students had time to run their ideas for their science experiment by me during class.
