Lamb Biryani

Hi there folks!

We did a bunch of awesome stuff today!

We started it all out with some creative writing/freewrite awesomeness!

We also continued to work on our narrative writing piece today. I discussed with the students:

1. How to combine simple sentences into compound sentences using and, but, or, and so
2. How random characters should not pop out of nowhere in the story and that minor characters should have some significance as to how the story unfolds.
3. Adding further details or reasoning to the story by asking why, what, when, where, how.

And then we really focused today on doing close reading of informational texts:

The text we're using.

The first time we read the text was to get a basic understanding and to find the main idea of whole caboodle. We then read the text a second time to find sub-topics or "mini ideas" that support the main idea (which is bike safety). We then read the text a third time to look for reasons, details, and facts that support the "mini ideas" which in turn, support the main idea! Easy enough right? Well, I had to model it first, and then gradually release the workload to the collaborative groups that the students were in.

The modeling.

In collaborative groups, pulling reasons, details, and facts that support the main idea.

Here are two words that needed clarifying while reading the bike safety comic (see if your child remembers the meaning of these two words):

etiquette (noun)- polite behavior or good manners.  
Johnson had such good dining etiquette while at the restaurant!

hazard (noun)- a danger or risk.
It was a big hazard walking on the hot cement with only your bare feet.

And we finally got done with our multiplication arrays today! Yay! We're going to be using those arrays for the next few math activities this week!

Click for a video on multiplication!

And that's the lowdown for today folks! Cheers!