Too Darn Hot

Yikes! Where did this heat come from? When will it go away? Twenty-seven fourth graders were wilting a bit today and so was their teacher!

Despite this, it was a pleasantly productive day. We did our independent reading and we read another short story in the Open Court Reader, "The Girl who Loved the Wind." Since this story, like "King's Fountain," is a kind of modern folktale, it works well to take them out of the order in the book and read them together. Plus, they're both pretty short.

We continued work on our Thinking Maps writing project, and a couple students have actually finish the final drafts and bound their books. All the rough drafts submitted to me have been returned (well, except a couple which are missing names), and there will only be limited time to work on this project in the classroom in the future. As these are turned in, they will be graded and the grades posted on the gradebook.

We postponed checking homework until after lunch, and we took a lot of time to discuss both types of plots. I have to admit that I doubt the students will ever see a stem-and-leaf plot in real life, but at least line plots are easy and useful. The math homework tonight, as a results, ought to be pretty easy.

Since we have no school on Thursday, our usual art day, we did our art today. This was a hard lesson - watercolor portraiture. Still, as you can see above, many students did a pretty decent job with it. At least the heat was a bit helpful here - our paintings dried in no time at all!

Homework: A little bit light tonight so that students can have an opportunity to watch the debate. (1) Do the spelling scramble. (2) Do the study questions over "King's Fountain." Be sure to use the dictionary or glossary as necessary to properly use the vocabulary words. (3) Do the sections on "Line Plots" and "Stem and Leaf Plots" from the Problem Solving Workbook, pages 25-26.