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Having a great day with a guest teacher!
Having a great day with a guest teacher!
Whenever I plan to have a substitute, I prepare students, notify you and leave the Substitute Introduction document linked below, among other things, for the guest teacher. It outlines how some things are the same each day, no matter which adult is present. It also highlights how some things are different and are to be expected. Flexibility is needed for days when some degree of change is likely.
When you have a chance, take a look at the document and help students think about the flexibility they will need to make the day work for themselves, their classmates and the guest teacher. I will prepare them on the classroom side of things for scheduled absences, as well as the unlikely event of an unscheduled absence.
Some key points:
Focus on doing what I need to do instead of what others choose to do.
Volunteer when help is needed, but remember, too much help is not helpful.
Friends are not the primary focus during instructional time. Lunch and 2 recesses are the times to hang out, talk about super awesome friend stuff and play.
Know that some things will be different, but that's okay. You've got this!
Ask: What are some other thoughts and/or feelings you have about
Choosing a Just Right Book OR The Goldilocks Rule
Choosing a Just Right Book OR The Goldilocks Rule
How do you choose a just right book?
Too Easy Books
A book is too easy when there is very little or nothing new to learn. No new vocabulary, no new concepts. Easy books are great brain candy, which we sometimes need. However, they don't help us learn so we don't spend time reading them at school.
Too Challenging Books
A challenge can lead to higher levels of learning, but too challenging is just frustrating. When a book is too challenging, a reader may spend so much time trying to figure out the new vocabulary that they struggle to hang on to the meaning. If the concepts are unrelatable, readers don't have the prerequisite knowledge to make sense of the author's message. A struggle without reward... no thanks!
Just Right Books
Bet you saw this coming :) A just right book or text is that sweet spot where the text itself provides support for new learning. When reading a just right text, there will be an new word here and there, maybe one or two on a page, that cause the reader to slow down and consider the context, the part of speech and what would make sense. New concepts, new story situations, different text structures or writing styles all make the reader have to think about meaning and purpose, leading to growth in understanding.
Fun Fact: Within the context of conversations and reading are the #1 way adults learn new vocabulary.
Draw a Place Value Chart
Draw a Place Value Chart
As we expand the place value chart up to millions and down to hundredths for 4th grade and continue down to thousandths for 5th grade, we're using models and patterns to understand how the place value system can be used as a high leverage tool for understanding the relationship between whole and fractional numbers as well as a foundation for building more fluent strategies for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing whole numbers (4th grade) and fractional parts (5th grade).
Asking your child to draw out the place value chart to the places below and through a million (including the thousands and millions commas) helps them build this model which can be used to ground their number work.
Expanding Sentences
Expanding Sentences
Expand the following sentence by adding details using some of the following:
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?
It started to rain.
Example: Earlier this morning, after breakfast, the first few drops of rain started to dot the roof, the pavement, the car and patter against the leaves on the old maple tree out front.
Multiplying by 10s
Multiplying by 10s
What patterns help you find products when you multiply by tens?
Find the product (answer to a multiplication problem):
60 x 30 Answer: 1,800
700 x 30 Answer: 21,000
21 x 5,000 Answer: 105,000
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