~ 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.