ask me about wednesday and thursday, march 30 and 31

What a busy two days!  We have been finishing up the third marking period with reading assessments that are done one on one, which means they take a lot of time!  I'm fortunate to have such great workers in my class!  They were able to work independently while I listened to children read and talk about the book.  
Yesterday we read another Mo Willems book as part of our author study.  We read Should I Share My Ice Cream and talked about sharing.  Elephant is wondering if he should share an ice cream cone with his friend Piggie, even when she isn't with him when he gets the ice cream.  We talked about what we thought and took this problem through the problem solving process.  We named the problem, thought of possible solutions both good and not so good, thought about the consequences and finally chose what we thought Elephant should do.  Ask me to tell you about the beginning, middle and end of the story.  We have learned that the stories Mo Willems writes often include problems that kids have and always have a  message in them.  
Today we read a story from Benchmark that also has a message.  We read The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  The children were quick to identify the message in this story.
In math we have been working with subtraction story problems.  We have been drawing the problem and writing a number sentence to go with the problem.  We are also working with a 100 bead Rekenrek and using the five groups and more beads to tell how many.  For example I move 2 rows of 5 red and 5 white beads to the left, then 4 more in the third row.  The children are learning to skip count by tens and look at the group of 4, with one red bead being left on the right, and know the number is 24 without counting each bead. 
Of course, we continue to check up on the eagles.  There is, what looks to be, an eel on the nest right now.  Mmmm.  I really didn't know eels are in the rivers around here, but one of the moderators in the room suggested that's what it was.  DC9 is a feisty little eaglet and is working hard to balance and keep his head up so it can eat better.  Lotus is doing a great job as a first time mom, with help from Mr. President.  And of course, Mr. President continues to bring back sticks and fuss with them to get them into the railings.  
Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe