What I've Squared Away on a Sunday! America's White Table for Veterans Day

I've loved being able to spend a little time today catching up with some of my favorite bloggers!  I haven't had a lot of time to blog or read blogs lately, and I'm so glad I could find an extra hour today to focus on my bloggy friends and read their posts.
My family and my job have been keeping me super super busy.  I know I'm not alone in that crazy feeling. I can't wait to be off on Tuesday to just have that one relaxing day!
Here's what I've got Squared Away as far as lesson plans for the week: I'm going to continue my work with my Smarties about Veterans Day.  We are using an amazing book from Margo Theis Raven called America's White Table.

  The story is all about the small white table that is set for a single soldier in the American Legions and mess halls of American military bases around the world.   Each item symbolizes the American soldier, freedom and peace that is so important to us.  I chose my mentor sentence from this text, and we are reviewing simile and hyperbole using it.   It is also a way that I review symbolism before it gets too hefty in our literature.  I have a pack for Veterans Day using this book, along with the Mentor Sentence suggestion {HERE}.  Of course, I am ALWAYS an advocate for having a mentor text in front of you that children can read, and refer to, but if you want to learn more about this story, or you are in a pinch, you can watch this video which retells the story.

In Math, I'll be finishing up inequalities, and giving an assessment on equations and inequalities.  I am almost done with my Algebra unit.  It has been a long, long haul, but we are getting there!  In my guided math groups, I'll be using my Inequalities Task Cards from this {PACK}.  I've already done the foldable and interactive lesson.  My smarties really get the idea of reading and graphing the inequalities quickly using this.  I'll have a few other stations running, including my Hoppin Round the Hundreds Board activity.  They LOVE using the hundreds chart for this, and I can tell that mental math skills are improving.  Look at these cuties using their notebooks to check the operations words! LOVE!

I've noticed over the past few weeks, my students are not really picking up on having meaningful conversations when they are working in their math groups, so I'm going to start emphasizing more Math Conversation.  I made a few conversation writing prompts that we are going to put into our interactive notebooks as a reminder.  You can get this FREEBIE {HERE} if your students are needing a little prompting as well. I'd love a little feedback on it as well, if you are feeling generous.

So what do you have Squared Away for the week?  Leave me a comment or two and let me know what your working on!