Super I

Super I flew into the classroom today. She worried about her arch nemesis, puny i. puni i is trying to take over the world and infiltrate Milaca Elementary ...

 She talked to the fourth graders, looking for some side kicks to help her ... eradicate puny i.

 puny i is serious business. When we write with the pronoun I, it needs to be capitalized all the time.

 Our first step was to make our own Capital I emblems

 Super I showed us that when we write the pronoun I, it doesn't matter if it is in the beginning, end, or even middle of a sentence, "I" needs to be capitalized. The only time it is lower case, is when "i" is part of a word.

 Then, Super I's Army marched out to the playground to take a group picture.

Super I showed up again for the next set of classes. Mr. Meyer, our assistant principal, happened to be in the hallway, so Super I invited him in to hear about the concern of puny i.

two more of Super I's sidekicks - Mrs. Arens & Mr. Lyon - STOP puny i

When we returned to our room, we practiced some writing, using capital I.

Fourth graders committed to writing capital I today, and Super I couldn't be more relieved! She is off to another school and her efforts to eradicate puny i!

Tie-Dye and Neon

Today was Tie-Dye and Neon Day in the element for Homecoming Week. I was only able to capture a class picture of Ms. Leom's class (... Mr. Greninger's class were rock star readers today, doubling their reading stamina to 14 minutes, and I was so in awe, I didn't have the heart to stop their progress for a picture). I had a few extra minutes with my group to capture this moment in time.

Turn and Talk

We tied up a lot of details today. One was the "Turn and Talk" strategy. Students sit with partners. One partner talks for one minute. Then the other partner talks for one minute. Finally, both partners discuss, asking questions and answering. Having one minute to just talk and just listen has benefits and disadvantages. One benefit, every student develops his or her voice and every student develops his or her listening skills.

We could use a little more practice ... changing partners will be important ... and we know we had to start somewhere. 

Notes

Today, Ms. Leom's class started their Social Studies notes in class (Mr. Greninger's class will begin tomorrow).

First, Ms. Leom had our high school helper pass out our materials: a manilla folder, a pink, yellow, green, and blue sheet of paper. She told us to cut out the shapes and put the examples on the board so we could see.

Our examples

We got to work right away.

 Next, she had us refold the folders with "doors".

Together, she had us assemble our notes.

Then, we began to fill in our notes. Someone in the class asked her about our learning ... why?

She said, that students LIKE to create, craft, and be active learners. Many students are visual learners, colors and pictures and MAKING things, even TALKING as you work matters. Instead of writing down details in a notebook, she developed this active, visual, opportunity for students. As they cut out the pieces, reading some of the key words, and she walked around the room, monitoring, supporting, she could ask pointed questions, and help steer the conversations to what we read and discussed in class on Monday. We were so busy cutting, getting up to recycle our scraps, and moving, we didn't even realize we were on track and learning! We decided it was WAY MORE FUN than "just taking notes" (which will happen and has its time and place too).

Just another part of our learning day ... taking notes.

Peer Check

We had our first Peer Check in Spelling today. Students worked with a partner and prepared for the Spelling Test on Friday.

First, we read through the week 1 words in our blue HERO Home folders.

Next, students took turns reading the words to their partner, while the partner wrote down the words. Then they switched. After that, students wrote down the correct spelling in the third column.

We talked about how to tell if you need to study. YOU determined. If you have 0-1 wrong, you should probably "look over the words" before Friday and learn from your mistake. If you have 2 or more errors, you should circle "Study Spelling" in your planner and study. The Peer Practice paper was placed in their "homework" side of their HERO Home folders this morning. Parents are welcome to peek at them and see if your fourth grader is being responsible and studying. The papers need to come back tomorrow. They will have a new (the plan) partner tomorrow, to try again, (with a plan to improve) on the middle column.

Pictures from our learning today. (If you don't see your fourth grader, his/her name tag or the partner's name may have been showing, and I try to limit identifying students in pictures).

Teacher / Student

This morning we made a list of what makes a successful teacher and a successful student. Students brainstormed their ideas on sticky notes. Then we gathered them together.

Both classes shared their ideas. All ideas were completely generated from the students, with some rewording and spelling help from Ms. Leom

It was interesting what was repeated:
a teacher helps, has a sense of humor, is fun, is nice, is happy, is creative

Now that we have some expectations, we are ready to begin!!

Mini Lessons

Our Daily Language was perfect for several mini lessons this morning! After using our editing marks to edit the following sentences and labeling the type of sentences (both declarative), we took the opportunity to develop some other grammar ideas.

First, Ms. Leom talked about quotation marks. According to her, quotation marks are speech bubbles that don't fit on a line in a novel, so writers "cut out" pieces of the speech bubble and place them before the first word someone says and after the punctuation mark of the last word they say. There is also a comma that represents the speech bubble itself. It made a lot of sense. Soon, she will have us USE quotation marks, and add to our understanding.

Next, she had a lesson about how when we write lists, we often write them vertically, or up and down. That doesn't work in a novel either, so writers will list names horizontally, going across, and use commas in between names. Without the commas, Jordan might be called "Jordan Grace Tyson Seth" - the student with four names!

We also learned that when writing in a list, you only use "and" before the last item in your list. If you used "and" between everything on your list, you would wear it out, and the reader/listener would get bored and stop listening.

Our last lesson was the "mint lesson". Ms. Leom had a BIG bag of spearmint Lifesavers. She opened it and put one in her mouth! Then she kept talking! Talk about rude!! As a class, we talked about when you have something, you should share it first (and not speak with something in your mouth). She talked about manners ("thank you" if you wanted one and "no thank you" if you don't want one), then passed them out. It turns out that serving yourself last is important in writing too! When you are talking about a group of people, and you are a part of that group, you should always name yourself last. This year, this idea is called the "mint lesson".

All of these are mini lessons. They are learning opportunities that open up and develop on the spot with little or no formal plan. They are important to our fourth grade learning and fit in the standards. These mini lessons, four lessons, within ten minutes out of our morning are difficult to "reteach" or send home when students are absent. Our entire day is filled with these opportunities. How they develop with one group may take more effort to share with the second class, but matter.

Just another mini lesson shared in our blog. :)