Risks and Consequences

Today was really sort of the first day of school. It's the day that we start the routines that will define our class for the rest of the year. And I'm happy to say that everything looks great!

Our first unit in Open Court Reading is called "Risks and Consequences". It would be better called "Cost/Benefit Analysis" but maybe that's a little too much like Econ 101 for fourth grade. We started the unit today by getting the students to think about the theme. This is what teachers call "front loading". I gave the students pictures of people involved in a variety of activities. For each activity the students, working in pairs, had to identify the possible benefits and risk. For instance, one group had this famous picture.

Lots of people are on an I-beam. They are building the Empire State Building. The risks are falling and getting badly hurt. They could also die because they are very high off the ground. The risk is worth is because they are building the Empire State Building.

We also talked about how to figure out words from context and reviewed the Circle Map. We started to get ready for our first Science investigation tomorrow. We started to learn about correct breathing and posture for singing and did some activities to learn about beat and meter. So, all in all, a very busy and productive day.

Homework:  (1) Complete the circle map about yourself. Write about paragraph about yourself using the ideas from the map. Be sure you have a good topic sentence. Skip lines. Staple on top of the circle map. (2) Do the spelling scramble. All the words are in the box at the bottom of the page. (3) Do the cursive review sheet. (4) Do "Thousands", envision Math pages 5-7. Use the answer sheet provided. Also do the "Changing Places" section on the back of the answer sheet.