Writing in Passages of Thought

Due to the potential of inclement weather, the Marquette Mile is postponed until Friday!


The students took a big step in with their writing this week.  We learned that writers organize their writing in chunks of sentences that are related (called paragraphs.)

 Students learned ways to determine when to create a new paragraph. (See above chart)  They then learned that good paragraphs include many elements (we call details) that help the reader picture what the writer is trying to communicate.  Students used this information to divide their personal narratives into paragraphs.

 They then used the information about what a good paragraph includes (like action, dialogue, setting, thoughts,etc.) to elaborate their paragraphs in their personal narratives.

The students have done a lot of hard work with their writing and we are seeing the results! We plan to start the editing these pieces this week and will publish  next week.

Math Problem Solving Groups

Over the past 4 weeks students have been working in problem solving groups.  Within those groups students are working on the elements of the Math 4 Block.  They work on developing number sense (how numbers working together and look at numbers in relationship to each other), work on inspecting equations (looking at equality and work on algebraic thinking), work on fluency (keeping up with concepts they have worked on over the weeks) and of course problem solving, which is the biggest chunk of our math block. In the next few weeks we will start a unit on data collection and measurement.  However, we will continue to spend a few days a week in our problems solving groups.

Junior Achievement
Students had fun today placing their businesses, farms and places of residence in the appropriate zones.

Matt also lead the students through an activity that helped them think about some of the things people need to consider when creating a small business in their town.  Student groups created a restaurant.  They were given information about costs of running the business, a survey of residents about the type of food they preferred, etc.  Student groups decided the type of restaurant they would open, the price they would charge for each meal, who they would hire and how they would advertise their restaurant.  We had some lively and animated debates!