~WISHFUL WEDNESDAY~

I would like to wish all of my Yost Families a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you have a wonderful break.  Enjoy this time with your family and I can’t wait to see everyone back on Monday!

Weekly Quote.

This week I only met with my Language Arts groups.  Due to the short week, we did not have a weekly quote.  We will be back to our normal schedule next week and here is our weekly sneak peek.  This will be our last week focusing on displaying the right attitude to get a job done in the room.










Here are our last two friends I have to share with you from our Character of the Month Club.  These are two more of our friends that displayed the qualities of a good leader in our room during the month of October.

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade:  Connecting Letters and Language:  We started class this week reviewing our worksheet we ended with last week.  When we went over it in class, using a different color marker to show the change of one letter in a word. This was a way to help them visualize the change easier. It also made it easier as we worked down the sheet to figure out our next word.  Next, we took a few minutes to summarize what we learned with the hamburger model of writing to persuade our audience.


 We put the words of a song to Mary Had a Little Lamb as a reminder to the writing process we were introduced to.  To end the day, it was time to decipher our next secret message.  This time we practiced the Over Under Substitution Cipher.  After a minute or so of looking at the message - we came to the conclusion we had 6 words in our new message.  Then I showed them how to decipher the first word - after that they were off to decoding and were thrilled to discover our new message - Hip, Hip Hooray for the Alphabet!  As a class, we talked about what we thought that meant and they shared their excitement for letters and how the 26 letters we know as our alphabet create all the words we know how to speak.  Then we related this message back to our worksheet - they were asked to make a connection to what happens when we change just one letter.  This let the children see just how important of a tool the alphabet is to all of us!

On Tuesday, we read a story together The Disappearing Alphabet. This began right were we left off from yesterday - explaining the importance of the alphabet. The book walked us through each of the 26 letters and slowly we would see what would happen without the existence of that letter. We would lose so many words that we use everyday. After reading the story together we summarized that without any letters we could not make any words, which would meant we could not read, or write, or speak. To end the day the children began to fill out a reading analyzer. This is a worksheet the children will see throughout the year to have a better understanding of the materials we read. Since, this is our first time using it we are walking through the directions and completing it together. We will continue working with our analyzer next week.

2nd Grade:  Point of View and Connections:  We started the day by revisiting our predictions from before we read the book.  The children were asked to look them over and either add to them or change them based on what we know now. Then as a class we wrote out two of our predictions and added them to our wall.  We began to look closer at who is Edward Tulane and what do you think he is like.  We wrote what we thought from before the book and then what we know about him now.  Each child added a post-it note to the wall to follow their prediction as it changes.

We began class on Tuesday revisiting - who is Edward Tulane? Some children struggled with defining him further with our new information from the book.  We took what the class knew from before the book of him being a bunny and then made a web of ideas of what we know now - he is fragile, he is a china rabbit, he is breakable, and white porcelain - these were some of the descriptions they were able to say to answer completely and define who is  Edward Tulane now.  Then I explained that these are the details we are looking for them to add to their predictions and thoughts as we travel further through the book.  

The children were introduced to the term point of view.  We wanted to take what they already knew about this idea and relate it to the idea of our connections.  I asked them to think if they have or had a special stuffed animal or toy like Abilene did in our story - and how they felt if they ever lost it.  This allowed each child a moment to share their connection to the story with something they each treasure.  To end the class and keeping our focus on point of view - we read chapters 9 and 10 together.  We shared our thoughts on the change we see in Edward. We will look at this further next week.

3rd Grade:  Fables - Grammar:  We started class off with a little bit of sharing, as we discussed some of our favorite memories with Thanksgiving and the upcoming Holidays.  After, a conversation that had us hungry for some of our favorite yummy treats it was time to work.  They were given some time to finish their reading analyzer from the Lion and the Mouse.  Then we looked back at each box to see what we gathered from the story. We looked back at our box on description and to add more details we revisited the idea of the movie we visualize when hearing or reading the story. This allowed more details to fill this box after clarifying. We also added to the main idea of the story. They came up with the first one, but we talked about sometimes there can be more than one lesson.



On Tuesday, it was all about grammar. To complete today's lesson we used the story The Lion and the Mouse. They went through the passage and highlighted all of the nouns and action words. Then they had to go back and look for all of the adjectives. Next, we added a new part to grammar and we talked about what a sentence needs to be complete - with the focus on a simple sentence. After breaking apart a sentence to a subject noun and verb - we asked if this could stand alone? The answer was yes. Now we shifted our focus and came up with a list to describe the verb and a list for the noun. We quickly identified these to lists as adverbs and adjectives. Then we added one from each to our simple sentence and watched it grow. To end the day we broke the sentence into the complete subject and predicate. This was a lot we added into our grammar day we will re-visit it some next week.

4th Grade: Change Makers:  My 4th graders are continuing to work on their Biography projects.  I only met with some of them on Monday because of NWEA testing.  I am going to start allowing them the option to utilize their lunch recess to come into the room for extra time to work on their projects.  This is just an option for those that would like to utilize more classroom time and resources.  However, if a student misses a deadline then they will be required to come in at recess to work on their project until they are caught up.

I did not get meet with my friends on Tuesday with them continuing their NWEA testing. This will allow the students an extra week to gather their resources for class. We will look at the due dates and adjust them accordingly for missing this week. Next week all students should have their resources selected and will continue to work on the biography summary. We will look over the packet and I will answer any questions the students have as they move onto the next step for this project.

IMPORTANT DATES:

November 23rd-25th:  Thanksgiving Break – No School

December 1st: Early Dismissal Day

December 19th: Holiday Parties

December 21st: Winter Recess

January 4th: School Resumes

~Fun Fall Friday~

Hello!  Our classes are still focusing on our monthly theme of Just Keep Swimming.  This week we discussed the quote “Today is a good day to try.”  This led several of my classes to discuss that every day is a new start or beginning.  We can begin each day with our best effort to make it a great day.  Every day becomes a great day as long as we gave it our best effort!  Due to the shortened week and not meeting all of my friends we will not have a weekly quote for our contest this week - we will keep focusing on a positive attitude in the classroom

Due to a short week next week for Thanksgiving Break, I will not meet with my math groups.  I remembered to wish all of my math friends a Happy Thanksgiving and want to wish their parents one too.  It feels crazy to say this cause the year is flying by, but when my math friends return we will be into December!  I will meet with all of my language art groups next week and I will post the blog with all of our events from the week.

Next week I will share with you are last set pictures from our leaders in the room.

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade:  Silly Speak - Guess My Connection:  This week we are taking what we learned from our lesson on Pig Latin and adding a new element with our opinions.  We decided that our opinion is our point of view or feelings towards something.  This led us into a discussion on persuading our friends to  share our opinions.  The students told me that to persuade someone means to convince them to share your opinion.  I asked the students the question “Should all first graders learn to speak Pig Latin?”  It was interesting to see that some of our students who liked Pig Latin do not believe all students should learn it.  We used this topic to learn the Hamburger Model for writing a paragraph.  As a class, we filled out a model with our introduction, details and conclusion.

On Tuesday, we took our model we made with our ideas and I showed the children how to turn it into a paragraph. When making our paragraph we quickly reviewed capital letters and ending punctuation.  When we were finished we read our paragraph we made together.  Next, we looked at a rubric for persuasive writing and compared it to our model we made.  The children were told this is something we will use at a later time in class - when it will be their turn to persuade me!

2nd Grade:  Connecting by Asking Questions:  This week we worked together to complete three organizers we will use to help us keep our thoughts in order while working through our novel.  Each student has a paper to organize the characters they meet and use some adjectives to describe them.  They have a paper that allows them to track the setting as it changes throughout the story and use a sentence to explain what happened at this time.  Lastly, they have a paper to organize Edward’s feelings as we see him change throughout the story.  We used these papers in class this week to lead us in a discussion of what took place in chapters 5 through 7.  

On Tuesday, they completed a paper to put a list of events in order from 1-10.  As we complete a set of chapters, the students will complete an activity that helps them understand their reading further.  This helps them develop the skill of reading for meaning and a deeper understanding of the events in a book.  To end the day, we read chapter 8 together as a class.  We then began to look back at our predictions and share some of them - leading the class in a discussion of what changed from our original thoughts.  We will work further with our predictions next week.

3rd Grade:  Fables as a Genre:  To start the week we finished up our journey with the Edmond Fitzgerald.  I asked the students to take the chart they made from last week and as the expert write me a letter convincing me of their findings.  After, they submitted their letters to me we took some time to review sentence structure and paragraph format.  Together we went back and broke down their letters and revised them.  We compared our first draft to our final draft to look at the differences we made.  We ended the day being introduced to Fables.  They read “The Ants and the Grasshopper” and decided that our next focus would be a fable.  

On Tuesday, we came in and discussed “The Ants and the Grasshopper.”  We wrote down some the of the elements that define a fable as we discussed the story.  This led us to define a fable as a story that has been handed down over a period of time with talking animals.  We also decided the purpose of the fable is to teach us a lesson or a moral.  We analyzed the lesson we learned from our first fable and the students were surprised to find out that in such a short story we learned so much information.  Then the came read “The Jay and the Peacock.”  We then began to look at a reading analyzer and practiced filling it out together with this story.  We focused on the main idea of the analyzer because this is where we will see the author’s purpose or lesson from the fable.  We will continue to work with our reading analyzer next week.

4th Grade: Change Makers:  This week we took some more time to go over the biography project with the students.  Looking at the chart they received in Google Drive and comparing it with their steps to the project.  Together, I showed them how the steps are broken down into multiple areas so that they are breaking it down into smaller assignments verse one large project.  This will also help them with time management.  As we worked through the steps, they were able to view the documents also shared with them that correlate with each step.  By next week, the students will have completed steps one and two.  As I mentioned from last week, from now to February the students will have class time work on this project.  When a certain deadline is approaching we may have a mini-lesson on what is required and how to complete it - an example this week we talked about determining a credible source for next week’s deadline on resources selected.  We will incorporate mini lessons throughout the project to guide them through the steps.

On Tuesday, we talked further on credible sources.  This was to help them while they are selecting their materials for their project.  They should have 2 to 3 resources to show me for class by next Tuesday - November 22.  Please make sure the students are working on their projects at home as well as in the classroom.  I had some students come to class and not have their person selected.  This is a project that they will need to incorporate class time and home time to complete.  I appreciate your help in this project.

MATH

1st Grade:  It’s Heavy - A Bag of Pennies:  We heard back from our friends Imi and Zani and they have asked for our help again.  They have asked us to come up with another measuring task.  To add a challenge from our previous task on weight we decided to look at weight in groups of three.  This introduced two new terms to the class : heaviest and lightest.  The students learned that when we are comparing 2 items we would still use the terms heavier and lighter, but when we look at groups of 3 or more we now can use the new vocabulary of heaviest and lightest.  Exploring weight today we looked at groups of 50 and had to decide since they all had the same amount if they would weight the same.  There was no tricking this group we made our predictions with our bags and then looked at our results.  They were able to explain to me that the pennies are made of metal which weighed more than our cubes of plastic.  I challenged them to this thought because our paper clips were made of metal too, but they explained the penny was a solid piece of metal.  They had some great thoughts today when comparing weights and materials of items!

On Thursday, we came in and drew our results in our student journals.  They then had to write a sentence to explain their heaviest item.  We moved onto exploring our next concept of weight - about the same.  We looked at our three sets of 50 and had to figure out how we could balance our scale to be an equal weight.  The children wanted to add more of the items to try and balance the scale.  We added 50 more cubes to our bag to try and balance the pennies and cubes.  The pennies still weighed more.  They wanted to add more cubes, but we were out of this item.  Now they had to think of another way to balance our scale.  A student said to remove some pennies.  After we took 10 pennies out of the bag we had a scale that showed the concept about the same.  We will continue to work with this concept after break.

2nd Grade:  Length - Egg Passenger:  Our friends Dru and Teller have purchased a new car, but have asked us for help in purchasing new seat belts.  They asked us to remember they are tiny friends of ours, so we began to look at a new unit of measurement - the centimeter.  We began by correlating this unit back to the inch and half-inch and discussed the pattern in measurements we would see with these three units.  This allowed the children to see the centimeter is a smaller unit than the half-inch.  The students were handed a centimeter cube to help them visualize the size of our new unit.  Then we looked for a benchmark we could use for the centimeter on our hands - we decided our finger nail would be perfect!  Then the students were given a ruler and practiced measuring in their student workbooks with seatbelts.  We looked over our answers and I saw huge growth from the first time we practiced with our other units.

On Thursday, we started class by defining the term circumference.  Some students remembered using this term when learning to measure around a pumpkin.  This was a great start to our class discussion of defining circumference.  We then had a new problem we needed to solve - what is the right tool to use to measure the circumference?  We began to work with our eggs to examine several tools to measure.  We will continue with this experiment next week, until we find the right tool!

3rd Grade: Linear Measurement - In Search of the Yeti: This week in class the children will be constructing our own Yeti.  We chose one student to be our benchmark to use and the instructions for building our Yeti were to double our benchmark.  As a class we measured our student and each person talked us through how they needed to double their part to the Yeti.  Then they spread out around the room and began to use their measurements to draw their part to the yeti.  I walked around and worked with each group as they were beginning their sketches.  Each group came up with a plan and began to work on their part.  

On Thursday, they continued to work through completing the section to the Yeti.  When they were finished we slowly began to fit our pieces together.  Our Yeti is still in need of hands.  As a class, we measured out our benchmark to get the information we needed to construct his hands.  After break, they will break into two groups and the goal is to see if our hands match in dimensions from the two groups.  This will be another way for me to see if the children have grasped the our new concepts.

4th Grade:  The Shape of Things - Triple Play with Shapes:  Games...Games...and more Games...This week the children were introduced to a new game to help us work on sets of three.  We learned the directions to the game by playing the short version.  They quickly mastered the rules and so we added all the cards into the deck.  As we worked through the game, I could see they were up for a new challenge...so we added a twist -the more matches they connected in their sets the more points they could earn.  Soon this too was becoming easy, so we made one final rule -thinking in sets of three, they must find a match of three with three or more things in common.  In this game they were looking at shapes, patterns, numbers and colors.  This was a great game to let them visualize connections to help us when we return back to our game from last week.  

On Thursday, we took what we practiced in visualizing in sets of 3 and played Triple Play all the way through.  They had a better understanding of looking for similarities in sets of three this time around.  After break we will come back together as a class and summarize what we learned about the similarities of our shapes.

IMPORTANT DATES:

November 23rd-25th:  Thanksgiving Break – No School

December 1st: Early Dismissal Day

December 19th: Holiday Parties

December 21st: Winter Recess

January 4th: School Resumes

~ HONOR VETERANS FRIDAY~

I would like to start out the blog this week by Thanking all of our Veterans for serving in the

United States Armed Forces.

Weekly Quote

Keep Moving Forward!  This was our quote for this week and it happens to be one of my favorite quotes.  Our classes talked about how it reminds us to never quit and and to keep on trying.  One of my classes even mentioned that it tells us there is always a solution to a problem, but sometimes we must continue to look for it.  We also said it can remind us that everyday is a new day to try and we have a chance to make it the best day with each new start.  So many different ways we can take this quote which is why it is one of my favorites!

A quick note from around the school: The contest for plastic caps continues on through December 9th. Please continue to support this effort as they are trying to collect enough for two benches. Also, the cookie dough fundraiser is underway and will continue through November 18th.

Here are a few more of our leaders from the Character of the Month Club. Check back next week for the last of our leaders.

These students also made it into the Character of the Month Club too.  These are our friends that can always find a way to make us laugh while we are doing our work.  They add the element of fun into our day!

Language Arts

1st Grade:  Silly Speak - Guess My Connection:  elcome-way ack-bay!  We started the week figuring out a greeting on the board - Welcome Back!  Next we quickly reviewed our Pig Latin rules as a reminder from last week.  Then the students worked on a worksheet and then shared their answers with the class.  We encoded a message together.  For some added practice each student came up to the board and translated their names for the class.  Then we began to encode a song together.  

On Tuesday, we started class by listening to the song we encoded.  Then the children took their connections from the previous lesson and encoded it.  They spread out around the room for this project to keep it a secret.  At the end of class they presented their connections to the group.  We had a fun time guessing our friends codes!

2nd Grade:  Connecting by Asking Questions:  This week the children learned about Paul’s Wheel of Reasoning using chapter 4 to lead our discussion.  I gave the students sticky notes and explained to them that when their inner voice has a question when they are reading they can write it down and stick it in the book. We also talked about this being a great way to take notes when we are borrowing a book and can't mark in it. This is a way for us to develop good reading habits and question our reading.  I re-read chapter 4 so they could practice this technique.  To start our group discussion on the chapter they shared their questions and discussed them.
On Tuesday we looked at three areas on the reasoning wheel to help us focus in on chapter four- the purpose, the connection, and the consequence.  We went through a set of questions for each of these areas helping us begin to get an overall understanding of the chapter.  To finish the day the children completed a reading analyzer for chapter 4.  We take time out to focus on chapter 4 because this is one of the key chapters the children must understand before going forward with the story.  They were asked to read chapters 5-7 for homework.  They have until Monday and the chapters are very short so this shouldn’t take much time.

3rd Grade:  A Modern Legend:  We began by hearing a poem and discussing the mood of the it.  Then I read the poem again this time having the children close their eyes and paint a picture in their mind.  Then they were asked to draw what they visualized.  I read the poem for a third time this time allowing them to add the details to their drawing while I read it.  I allowed them a few more minutes to finish their drawing this time making sure all of the white was filled in their picture. Then we discussed what type of music you would expect to hear with our poem and concluded it would be sad reflecting the fear.  The students listened to the “The Ballad of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  To end the day we had to decide what the genre of the ballad would be and decided that a legend would be a good fit.
On Tuesday, we started class watching a video that explains the history of the story behind the Edmond Fitzgerald. The video also gave the students many different theories to explain what might have been the cause to the sinking of the ship. After the video, they were given a worksheet to complete. They were an expert and had to provide evidence for a museum opening to honor the Edmond Fitzgerald - answering if it should be referred to as a legend. After some time working on it alone, we took the definition of the legend and looked for evidence from the story to see if it fit into this category. This cleared up the big picture for the students of learning about today's modern legends. Our experts decided it would be safe to name the museum "The Legend of the Edmond Fitzgerald."

4th Grade: Change Makers - Part 1:  On Monday they came in and finished up their biography organizers.  Then we took time for each student to present what they learned about their biography.

On Tuesday, they were introduced to their biography project.  We went over each step and viewed a sample of a presentation from a previous year.  The students were given a copy of what is to be included in their project.  We then looked at google drive and went over some documents shared with them.  One of the most important documents we discussed is their chart tracking their due dates throughout the project.  To break down the project and make it easier for them it is broken down into steps.  We will work on this project in class and they will need to spend some time on it at home.  The final presentation is not due until February 14th.  From now until February they will receive class time to work individually on their projects.
The first deadline is this Monday - the students need to select a person for their biography project. The key in choosing a person is it must be someone who contributed change to society.

MATH

My math groups only met with me on Wednesday because I was out of the building on Thursday.

1st Grade: It's Heavy - Heavier or Lighter:  This week we finished our first lesson on weight!  We finalized our letters to send to Imi and Zani, but before we wrote our final response we summarized what we learned over the weeks.  We started out by looking at our scale we were describing and the kids told me how to describe the scale in two ways.  Then I asked them to tell me how we can describe to Imi and Zani how we know when something is heavier and lighter on our scale.

 When something is lighter we said the side of the scale will go up.  When something is heavier the scale will tilt down.  They said the scale will not move if it is about the same.  After we came up with our description to the scale, the students wrote on sentence strips to describe our two sides of the scale.  To end the day we were ready to write our response to Imi and Zani - I showed them a sample letter from Sebastian and then they began to write their own response.  I have sent our fax over to our friends and we are hoping to hear back from them soon!

2nd Grade: Length - Marble Crash Test:  We had a quick review over what we learned about with our two units of measurement: inch and half inch.  They came up with a great list and had all of our ideas we have focused on over the past weeks.  Then I passed out two sentence strips to each group and asked them to write one statement about the inch and the reverse statement of the half inch.  

An example being 1 inch equals 2 half-inches and the reverse being 2 half-inches equals 1 inch.  Another great example we had was an inch is a larger unit resulting in a smaller measurement and the reverse for the half-inch is a smaller unit will give us a larger measurement.  After that we looked back over our responses from last week for Dru and Teller.  




Then we went over a rubric to show what we are looking for in our responses and I displayed sample response that demonstrated a response for the rubric.  To end the day, I allowed the students to use the rubric I gave them to score their own response.  I wanted the children to get a chance to grade and see if they included all parts of the rubric in their responses.  

3rd Grade: Linear Measurement - In Search of the Yeti:  We began our investigation phase this week for our new lesson.  We are preparing to create our own Yeti!  We are still focusing on the term benchmark and how we can use it to help us enlarge our Yeti. This idea had us add our new concept of doubling to our math wall. As a class we decided that we could use our benchmark and double it to create our Yeti. We then started to work on our plan of creating our class Yeti.

4th Grade: The Shape of Things - Triple Play with Shapes:  Let the game begin!  My 4th graders are into the investigation phase of our lesson and our playing a game called Triple Play.  Today we walked through the directions and then slowly played the game while working through the rules.  They are dealt 18 cards and must find a match of 3 of a kind in 6 categories: square, rhombus, rectangle, polygon, parallelogram, and trapezoid.  They then have 2 minutes to make as many matches as they can.  When the time is up they display all of their non-matches and the person with the least amount will begin the next round.  They will have 10 seconds to look at the mismatched cards and make a match of their own.  The trick to the game is that certain categories are worth higher points so the boys were challenging themselves to find the highest points possible when looking for their matches...First player to 100 points is the winner.  They caught on quickly and are excited to get to play it all the way through next week!

IMPORTANT DATES:

November 1st-18th:  Cookie Dough Fundraiser

November 16th & 17th:  Camp Goodfellow – Sloan

November 23rd-25th:  Thanksgiving Break – No School

December 1st: Early Dismissal Day