We had our first lit circle meeting today. Groups mostly figured out what pages to read for each session and began reading.

Groups meet again on Friday. We will make journals in class tomorrow.

Today is library and word study day for LA. We have a new word study model. We complete all of our  sorting on Monday. Those who do win! Those who don't are runners up and finish during comptuer times later in the week.

In social studies we move from designing our agricultural societies into looking at some actual ancient societies. We began with the Aztecs. We viewed a video and practiced note taking.

We have improved greatly with our group work! Tomorrow we will present even if we are not perfectly finished.

By now everyone should have an I-search topic and worksheet one completed. If not, Ms. Lamb will assign a topic tomorrow.

We worked on handwriting and sentence writing today. We are really improving.

Ms. Lamb feels the need to police homework for while as before vacation, many journals were not complete. Therefore, she will check daily and collect each Friday. Be ready. Journal entries should be one full page of writing. We write M, T, W and Thursday. Monday is always about your reading, Tuesday is finishing or continuing work from writing workshop, Wednesday is an assigned topic based on work we are doing and Thursday is free choice. It is very important to be writing and reading at home daily. This is how we improve writing and reading skills including handwriting and reading fluency (speed and accuracy).

Today was reading day for LA. We read novels for a short time, then got our I-search organized. The first worksheet shoudl be handed in to Ms. Lamb. A few students have incompletes on this and need to get it to Ms. Lamb ASAP.

Today, some students were finishing word study in class. Since most of us finished in one day (on Monday), people who did not finish by this second day needed to finish during recess. Amazingly enough, almost all of us finished.

In social studies we all got our agricultural projects moving foreward. The hope is to present what we have on Friday.

Today we had writing workshop. We worked on word choice and painting a picture with words. We started with a description of a room.

Remember that we changed word study to be completed in class on Mondays. We have more time for writing now.

On Thursday we will practice handwriting and grammar.

We are off to a busy start. We started a new word study work model today. Basically, we finish all work in class on Monday. Ms. Lamb has takent the sentence writing into grammar/handwriting which we will complete in class on Thursdays.

Students should focus on journal writing for homework. Make one full page for each entry.

In social studies, we are working to complete our agricultural projects by Friday. We will present to class (done or not) on Friday.

Happy New Year everyone.

Today we started round two of Adapt. Students chose a location for an agricultural society. To get us thinking about what agricultural societies are like we read Weslandia by Paul Fleishman and watched a Discovery video about Ancient Sumer.

We also enjoyed some partner reading with picture books.

Tomorrow is all Ms. Lamb day. We organize our party stations for Wednesday and do Adapt all day.

I apologize to loyal readers for not writing for two days. Things have been a bit hectic around here.

Today we tried to finish some coputer work just as the internet crashed. So instead we practiced some cursive handwriting and map coloring for geography.

Tomorrow we will have a bit of work time to try to wrap up old isearch papers, istation assessments, maps and new isearch. In social studies we plan to start Adapt Round 2. This time we are an agricultural society. What happens when we throw crops and domesticated animals into a society?

2010 is quickly drawing to a close. We have our last word study of the year this week. Please remember that Ms. Lamb expects the entire packet done and handed in on Friday.

Remember that there are three journal assignments each week. Mondays are always to write about the novels you are reading, Thursday is always free choice and Wednesday is a topic related to our studies.

Second round of I-search has begun. Students must have a topic chosen by this Friday. Remember that you must have a books source in order to have the topic approved by Ms. Lamb.

Next Wednesday we will celebrate all of our hard work first trimester and the completion of round one of I-search. Students who volunteer will bring a snack to share. We will have five activity stations in the morning, eat our regular lunch, spend some time outside and come in for hot chocolate at the end of the day.

It is a busy day on Team Inifinty. In LA we tried to get organized. A few kids are not done last week's word study. This is a problem. They need to finish today during recess (they were warned on Monday). In the future, it must be completed by Monday (It is due on Friday) each week to prevent extreme pestering from your teacher.

Also, journal writing started again this week. We have writing assignments on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Monday is always write about your reading to help us stay organized with our Reading Records. Wednesday varies and Thursday is free choice.

Note: There will be regular homework next week and no homework for the short week.