~ FOCUS FRIDAY ~

Hello!  Our quote this week was a bit of a challenge. Immediately, people thought it meant a person who is Brave. However, I brought up the idea of thinking about a friend telling you this quote.  Then it led us to think about it as a friend telling us to believe in yourself.  More importantly, for us to have the confidence to believe how brave, strong and smart each of us are inside.

Next week, we will begin with a new movie in the spotlight.  I have had a request from a student and have a feeling a few of my others would really like it if I honored the request.  I challenged this student to tell me what character traits we can learn from Star Wars...I am happy to report that for the month of March we will learn about building our character from Star Wars.  Thankfully, last year my son requested a Star Wars Marathon and it is safe to report I am finally up-to-date on my Star Wars knowledge and must admit have come to love the movies!
For the upcoming month, I am going to change the weekly quote. I will share with the kids the new challenge for Star Wars when I see them in class.

Check back next week to see our characters for the month for February.

IMPORTANT DATES:

February 27th - March 10th:  ISTEP Window (3rd & 4th Grade)

February 27th - March 10th:  CogAT Screener opens for 2nd Grade

March 10th:  Practice IREAD for 3rd Grade

March 13th - March 24th:  CogAT Full Test for 2nd Grade

March 13th - March 17th: IREAD for 3rd Grade

March 17th: End of 3rd Quarter

March 27th - March 31st: Spring Break - No School

LANGUAGE ARTS

My language Arts groups only met on Tuesday because of being off for President’s Day on Monday...

1ST GRADE:  CONNECTING WORDS AND NUMBERS - TEXT TALK:  Today they were introduced to our new concept for this lesson - acronyms. We looked back at some acronyms we read in E-Mergency, to help us define an acronym.  We defined it as an abbreviation or “short-cut” to symbolize a phrase or sentence.  Now we compared our acronyms to a wumber.  We decided that both are “short-cuts” to symbolize or represent words or phrases.  However, a wumber uses numbers to replace a part of a word and acronyms are the beginning letters to a word or phrase.  

Why do we need acronyms?  I took my phone out and showed them how a text message counts each character we type.  Although Ms. Losinski is lucky now, there was a time when the phone company would charge for each message sent and received.  Now they are learning why a “short-cut” can come in handy - to save Ms. Losinski some $$$!  We looked at a sample text message between two friends and translated it together.  This time we also saw a :) in the messages...they were asked what that might represent in the message - being happy!  We will continue working with acronyms next week.

2ND GRADE: THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE:  We are wrapping up our Novel Study.  Today, as an end to our story we played Jeopardy over Chapters 1-5.  They had a lot of fun and answered most of our questions correctly.  Impressive - since it has been a while since we started the story!

They also took home their crossword puzzles we started in class last week.  They have their book at home to help them find the answers.

 Whoever completes the most questions correctly, will get to choose a prize from the prize box.










Next week we will finish our novel study on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

3RD GRADE:  FAIRY TALES - GRAMMAR:  This week we discussed the importance of having different verb tenses.  We learned what they show the reader - a relationship to time. We also discussed having consistency in our writing with one tense.  To help with this I wrote a message on the board and let them edit it for errors.  At first this was a challenge, so I told them to look at one sentence at a time and identify the verb.  Now it became easier.  To end the day, we looked back at our fairy tale we started to read earlier in this lesson - Rumpelstiltskin. This time, as I read the story, they had to decide if the verb tense was consistent.  We paused from time-to-time to look back and check if it was consistent.

 

4TH GRADE:  CHANGE MAKERS:  On Tuesday, all projects should have been completed.  I have 2 students completely ready to go and one making a few adjustments to Prezi.  My other friends are still struggling to put the extra time in after class to complete their monologues.   

They have one week to add any of the adjustments - with only recess time to utilize as class time. The rest must be completed with time at home.

I am excited to see them presented - each student was creative with their thought process while picking their theme for Prezi based on their person.  Our goal is to have 3 students present on Monday and the remaining 3 on Tuesday.  

After presenting, the other students will be allowed to ask any questions they may have.  I will record their presentations  and share them on the blog next week for you to get a chance to see them.  

MATH

My Math Groups  only met on Wednesday because I was out sick on Thursday.

1ST GRADE:  INCHING ALONG - MEASURING WITH INCHES:  We continued with our lesson on length.  Today, we worked on becoming familiar with an inch.  Each student was given a piece of a straw that measured exactly one inch.  Then they switched with a partner to look at their straw.  This was to help us come to a conclusion that every inch is the same measurement.  Then we took our straw and found a benchmark on our hands - each student successfully concluded their knuckle is about an inch.  To end the day, we began to look at our worksheet to introduce measuring with inches.  Each student was given 6 - 1 inch pieces of straw. We measured the length of our book and discussed our number. I showed them an example of measuring the length - this helped those that struggled moving their straw pieces. To end the day, we came up with a class list of items they will all measure around the room - we will continue with this next week.

2ND GRADE:  AREA - SLEEPING BAGS:  To start the week we had a quick review of the term area and dimensions.  I noticed at the end of our last step these two terms were becoming interchangeable by some students - causing some confusion.

Then we continued working with our partner to figure out a good area for a sleeping bag.









Each group took their new range and measured it using square feet.  Some groups were coming very close to a perfect sleeping bag.  

3RD GRADE: AREA - THAT ABOUT COVERS IT:  We were wrapping up our lesson on area of an irregular shape.  Today, the students began their Think Deeply question.  As a class, we looked at the question together and discussed what it was asking of us.  Then we recorded some notes that might help us in answering our question.  

Before they began, they were allowed a few minutes to brainstorm and write down any notes or questions they had.  We clarified any questions the students had and then they were given the remainder of class to write their response.

4TH GRADE:  SPATIAL VISUALIZATION - DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?:  We are concluding our first lesson on transformation.  We started to write our Think Deeply response on Wednesday.  They had to move a shape from “A” to “B” making it end in its original orientation.  After moving it once, they had to come up with another way...this is where the struggle began.    

However, they each came up with two sets of instructions.   

Now to check our work - we switched our steps with a partner and they must be able to move it correctly with only our directions.  Each student successfully completed their partner’s first step - SUCCESS! We will continue with checking step 2 next week.

~ THUMBS-UP THURSDAY ~

 

Hello!  It has been such a busy week at Yost.  We had many different activities around the school this week - Dads & Donuts, Valentine’s Day Parties, the kickoff to Crunchy with our Second Grade class and we have finished CogAT testing for our Kindergartener’s.  I was super excited to buy my first ever Crunchy this week and boy was it yummy!  Second graders you did an amazing job with this project.

We have been learning from Brave in our classroom.  This week we discussed why the Right Path isn’t always the Easiest.  Some groups thought that the right path might challenge us more.  We might also have to make a difficult decision in choosing the right path.  Another thought to this was it might mean that we go against the crowd - it might not be the popular choice, but the right one.

Next week, my schedule will not be affected by CogAT, but the following week we will start with our 2nd Graders.  Again, I am doing my best to schedule the testing with as little disruption as possible to meeting with my groups.  Fingers crossed - it is looking like we will have little conflicts again.

IMPORTANT DATES:

February 17th:  Mid-Winter Break - No School

February 20th:  President’s Day - No School

February 23rd:  Science Fair 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

February 27th - March 10th:  ISTEP Window - 3rd & 4th Grade

February 27th - March 10th:  CogAT Screener for 2nd Grade opened

March 10th:  Iread Practice Test -3rd Grade

~ Happy Valentine's Day~

Each student had a choice of Tsum Tsum Stickers or a Star Wars Pencil as a Valentine Treat!  I have a few students that will receive one next week because we did not see each other on Tuesday.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Being Silly with their Valentine Treats!

1ST GRADE:  CONNECTING WORDS AND NUMBERS - TEXT TALK:  On Monday, we began by discussing our thoughts on what the secret message meant...Numbers can stand for sounds in words.  They had a few ideas to share, but were not quite understanding it.  I shared the sample CR8 meaning create.  This helped them visualize the message and understand the meaning.  Then it was onto our new story Wumbers.  Before we began to read our story, we took a picture walk identifying the Wumbers and translating them to their real word.  We ended class today by reading our story.

On Tuesday,  we looked back at our story and identified more of the Wumbers.  Then  we worked as a class to define the words ornate, content and belated.  We looked back in our story at the pages containing these words to look for context clues to help us with their definitions.  I had one more challenge for them with our Wumbers - an assignment to write a Birthday Wish List to their parents using Wumbers when possible.  We will continue with this lesson next week.

2ND GRADE:  THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE:  We started our week by answering two more questions from our Socratic Seminar.  Then we discussed a few ending questions as a group.  For the remainder of the day, they completed a crossword puzzle over the entire story.  They did not complete their crossword puzzles yet.  Look for those to come home next week as homework.  My friend who completes it with the most correct will get to choose out of the prize box!  Hoping I have more than one friend with this chance.

Due to the 2nd grade class preparing for Crunchy, we did not meet on Tuesday.

Charades

3RD GRADE:  FAIRY TALES - GRAMMAR:
We started with a quick review of what we learned about how a verb changes - past, present and future.  Then I read to them the beginning of a Fairy Tale, while they recorded a list of 10 action verbs from the story.  Now we needed to determine if they were truly action verbs - we switched papers with a partner and asked them to act out any words we questioned.  To end our day,  they took their list of 10 action verbs and wrote then in past, present and future tense.  

We did not meet on Tuesday because of Valentine’s Day Parties.

4TH GRADE:  CHANGE MAKERS:  We are racing towards the finish line to our biography projects.  We have one student that has already completed their project!  At this point, they are onto completing their presentations - their monologue or Prezi.  I pulled a group of students together to review some requirements to the monologue and help in finding the missing details.  Some students were putting their 10 or more facts into one paragraph and thinking this completed their monologue.  I have been reminding them that they are to guide your presentations, but this is where you are to tell us about your person.  I pulled some resources off of Epic for my friends in need of a little more research.  They were to backtrack a little bit and use today as a research day to fill in missing information.

On Tuesday, some students were still filing in information and others were working on Prezi.  This was their day to use as needed.  I encouraged them to take advantage of our 4 day weekend and spend some time adding any finishing touches needed.  Next Tuesday, February 20th, all projects should be completed.  They will use Tuesday as a day to rehearse their presentation.  We will present them the following week - February 27th & 28th.  

MATH

Fun Day

1ST GRADE:  INCHING ALONG - MEASURING WITH INCHES:  As a reward for all of their hard work last week, they earned a day on the Ipads.  Last week we completed two assessments: 1st our Think Beyond to end the lesson and 2nd our Chapter Check-up ending our chapter.  They were rock stars last week and never complained once!  

  This also means we are onto a New Chapter! 

   

   On Thursday, Imi and Zani needed our help to solve a problem.  When measuring with their beaks they are getting different numbers - they need to know who is measuring correctly.  They were using their thinking noodles today!  As soon as they saw the beaks, they solved part of the problem.  1st - they immediately identified the difference was because of the beaks being two different sizes.  2nd - they were able to identify the proper relationship of the beaks without any investigation - 2-Imi beaks are equal to 1-Zani beak.

We worked through some activities to confirm their thinking.  After measuring the same line, we discovered that they were correct!  1-Zani beak does in fact equal the length of 2-Imi beaks.  Now, we needed to come up with a way to help our friends.  After a class discussion, we decided to tell our friends to measure with Zani’s beak as their unit of measurement.  

However, we had a new problem - would everyone else know how to measure with a Zani beak.  What would your teachers say if you told them to measure 10-Zanis???  What’s a Zani was everyone’s response to what their teacher would say...so what could we teach Imi and Zani to use that everyone else uses as a standard unit of measurement - an Inch!  We ended the day with just enough time to read Inch by Inch to introduce our new concept.

2ND GRADE:  AREA - SLEEPING BAGS: We received a new letter from Dru and Teller.  They need are help in measuring out a space for sleeping bags to fit.  On Wednesday, we started with an exercise to introduce the topic.  Just to get us started we read a story about camping. Then the children drawing magnets to find their partner they would be working with for the next lesson.  

Next, we looked at a large piece of scrapbook paper to represent 1 square foot.  This is how we introduced our unit of measurement.  Then we went over some rules to keep in mind when measuring area - No Gaps and No Overlapping. Then  groups needed to decide a number as the total in square feet for one sleeping bag.  This introduced us to a range between 7 and 30 square feet.  It was great to hear their thought processes in coming up with their numbers...groups were drawing out visual pictures and thinking of a person's height.

On Thursday, we learned how to label our dimensions.  This is where some things became confusing for some students.  Now my group who chose 7 took scrap-booking paper and laid out their design.  This group discovered at this point they meant to have an area of 49 square feet - when they asked for more pages to complete their design.  This was a great way to again stress the inside measurement - covering the whole space as our thought process.  We decided that a 1 ft by 7 ft sleeping bag was too small - might be a good length for an adult but way too narrow.  My group of 30 square feet was up next.  They created a 5 ft by 6 ft sleeping bag.  Again, we had a good length, but this time too much room.  This group explained that they meant for it to sleep 2 to 3 children.  This did open up the discussion of sleeping bags coming in different sizes for adults and children.  After viewing two attempts, the groups needed to adjust the range to a better size.  This is where I discovered some were still struggling with area verse dimensions.  We will start with this topic next week.

3RD GRADE: AREA - THAT ABOUT COVERS IT:  On Wednesday, the two groups started out by completing their worksheet.  Both groups needed to take their whole and partial squares to come up with a total for each of their sections.  Then I challenged them to come up with their total overall area of their shape.  We put our two designs side-by-side on the floor to help us in our group discussion.

This allowed us to compare and visualize the numbers we were sharing.  Right away we noticed two problems - 1st one group would always add on a partial square - when at times they should have had half numbers.  2nd: one shape was more than double our other in area. This was such a huge difference we decided we needed to investigate this further.

We looked at one model, and started to check a few areas to see if our numbers matched.  They did a pretty good job with this as our numbers were the same or off by one here or there.  I showed them a way to make squares within their irregular shapes to minimize on counting each individual square.

We decided we should look at the other shape.  The first area we looked at - our numbers matched.  However, we started to notice a lot of squares not tallied.  The mystery was solved!  This group did not divide their body into sections to include the whole shape - leaving off the feet and the torso!.  As a class, we added the feet in with the legs - coming to a conclusion that the legs and feet are about 240 square inches.  We came to a conclusion, that if we than went and added the rest of the squares into our total - our two areas would be much closer this time around.  Next week, I will start by letting the class work together to find the correct area for this shape.  

4TH GRADE:  SPATIAL VISUALIZATION - DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?:  On Wednesday, we took another day to play Flip-Sliding Around.  This allowed us to teach the game to a student that missed the investigation phase last week.  We walked through the game as we did last time - teaching the importance of proper terminology with transformations.

On Thursday we played a few rounds of Kahoot - to end our investigation phase of transformation.  This was a perfect way for us to review our lesson before we look at our Think Beyond next week.  I was pleased to see how well they answered the questions based on the material we covered in class.  In one of our rounds the class answered all of the questions to our material PERFECT!  We will wrap-up this lesson next week.

Enjoy the Four Day Weekend...

Looks like we we have some beautiful weather too!