~ HIGH-FIVE FRIDAY ~

Welcome!  This week some of my classes listed off different words we could use to replace Brave.  We came up with other terms of courage, strength and daring. This led us onto what we can learn from our quote - being brave enough to see our fate.  This brought up an interesting conversation of can we change our fate...It was interesting hearing the children discuss this question.  I also had a student remind us that we learn to respect our parents from this movie.  They were full of ideas to share…

Language Arts

Our winning class for the month of January was 3rd Grade Language Arts.  They are the class in the spotlight for this month for displaying kindness in the classroom.

 

Results are in - Yost finished in 2nd place behind Bailly Elementary school for collecting pop tabs for Hannah’s Hope.  Finishing out the top 3 was Jackson Elementary.  A BIG THANK YOU for all you help in this effort.

IMPORTANT DATES:
February 13th:  window opens for full Kindergarten CogAT
February 14th:  Valentine's Day Party
&  Crunchy Production Kicksoff - 2nd Grade
February 17th:  Mid-Winter Recess - No School - reserved snow day
February 20th:  President's Day - No School




Kindergarten CogAT Testing: 

In Indiana, we identify students who qualify for high ability in reading/language arts and/or math.  We have finished up part one of screening all kindergarten students for high ability with CogAT.    CogAT is a test which has zero reading.  It's a test that will identify your out-of-the-box thinkers . . . those who are able to make connections.  Students who scored a 77+ on the screener, will now take the full test in the upcoming weeks.  Remember, this is only one of two pathways into high ability.  Students who score in the 95th percentile or higher on the full CogAT test, will be identified towards the end of kindergarten.  They will be seen for about six weeks.  For part two of the identification process, we will use the end of the year NWEA scores.  NWEA will identify those students who are performing above grade level . . .are high readers; 95th percentile is used again.  These students will be identified at the very end of kindergarten, so they will begin services in high ability, in first grade.  Students do not need to score high on both tests and often times do not.  If you have questions, please feel free to email me.

LANGUAGE ARTS

1ST GRADE:  LEAVING LETTERS OUT - LIPOGRAMS:  We started the week out by sharing our created lipograms from the story E-Mergency.  Each student shared one of the lipograms they created.  Then as a class we discussed if each student’s lipogram kept the meaning of the original sentence.  Next, the class worked on a worksheet introducing the concept of our next lesson - the students will learn next week our new focus.

 

This worksheet was a struggle, as it was a new concept, so we completed it together.  They have lots of questions that will get answered next week.  To end our lesson with lipograms, we learned about a pangram.  A pangram is a sentence that utilizes all 26 letters of the alphabet.  A quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.  This sentence was the sample we used to learn about a pangram.  I challenged the students to come up with their own pangram to share with class for Tuesday.

We started class sharing their pangrams.  One student successfully created a pangram with all 26 letters - the trick they used was using names!  This was a fun assignment and they were so excited to share their sentences - each student chose from the prize box for completing this challenge.  Next, it was onto our new message to decipher.  They spread out around the room while they worked on decoding the message.  This time they were working on a reverse decipher.  We came back together to share our findings on the secret message.  One student noticed a capital letter at the end of the first line, so we decided to start with this letter.    

We worked through the first line together - we took the letters and arranged them in the reverse order.  This created one long nonsense word.  Then we looked and broke apart words in our line...Numberscanstand quickly became Numbers can stand.  I challenged them to try the second row alone...forsoundsinwords!  Give up?  The children quickly spotted words and for - it took a minute to talk out the middle section - sounds and in.  Our new message Numbers can stand for sounds in words!  We will begin our new lesson by discussing the meaning of this message next week.

2ND GRADE:  CONNECTING WITH OTHERS THROUGH A SOCRATIC SEMINAR:   We began by discussing our final chapters from The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  Then we compiled a list of words to help  describe our story. This is the first step in a project we will be creating from our story.  To end the day, I explained to the students a sheet they will fill out while participating in our Socratic Seminar.  In class the, students will be broken up into two groups.  One group will discuss a set of questions while the other group observes and evaluates their discussion.  Then the groups will switch and group two will discuss a second set of questions.  When observing the students will fill out a sheet writing down positive comments they heard in the discussion, any ideas they wish they could have added onto the topic, and finally any interesting ideas they wanted to write down.

On Tuesday, the children started class by filling out a quick review sheet from our story.  First, I asked them to list all of the names Edward had in our story.  Next I asked them to mark the owner that gave them the name.  Lastly, they were to list the different outfits Edward wore throughout the story.  They were allowed to have this paper with them for their group discussion.  Then we drew magnets to determine our two groups.  Our first group completed their discussion.  However, our second group have a few more questions to finish next week.  This is a great tool the students are learning as a way to share and listen to ideas from their fellow students.

3RD GRADE:  FAIRY TALES - GRAMMAR:

On Monday, we reviewed writing a good paragraph.  I felt this would be helpful to review after looking over the paragraph assignment from our Fairy Tales.  We took our hamburger organizers to help us prepare our sentences.  This helped us organize our thoughts and ideas to then compose them into paragraph format.  I also told them to have fun with this assignment...to think of yourself as the author.  Be creative as they take on the role of the author in recreating the story with a new setting.  To end the day, I had them read their first paragraph out-loud and then switch to the new one...This allowed them to recognize the difference in their writing.

On Tuesday, it was all about grammar.  We first reviewed the definition of an action verb.  To work on identifying these words they each wrote a list of 5 action verbs on the board.  Then we took a word from each list and watched how it changes when we use different verb tenses...past, present and future.  This introduced the term irregular verbs.  We had a discussion on irregular verbs - they were familiar with this idea, just not as much the proper name to identify it.  We ended class, by working on some sheets to review the new ideas introduced today. We will continue with our grammar lesson next week.

4TH GRADE:  CHANGE MAKERS - PREZI:  

On Monday we had a lesson in class to learn all about Prezi. They learned how to log in and we watched a tutorial on the website.  Then I showed them a few separate things to help them navigate through the website. I encouraged them to practice working with the website - so I could answer any questions that might come up.  

 

       On Tuesday, we went through our final timeline of our projects.  We are going to be putting our finishing touches on our project from now until February 21st.  When coming to class on the 21st, the assignment should be completed.  They will utilize the 21st as a practice day to prepare for their presentations. To determine the order of their presentations we will also hold a drawing on the 21st.  On February 27th and 28th the students will present their final projects.

Right now all students are either working on Prezi or putting finishing touches on their monologues.  Some students are struggling with adding the details into their monologues. They are only listing their list of 10 events.  I have explained to them that this should guide their monologue, but this is where they will now add the details to the events they have researched.  I encouraged them to make sure they look back and included their information from the biography summaries. If the information is missing from there summaries, they may need to do a little more research to add  onto their monologues.

    For those friends still needing assistance on adding details, we will use Monday as a research day.  It is also very important that they discuss the importance of change their person inspired on society.  This is a lot of material they are researching and organizing and I am very proud of the effort they are putting towards their projects…

This week I have shared pictures of the students with their completed timelines.  I can see the pride they are taking in their projects - as they ran towards their timeline and held them up with BIG smiles.  Looking forward to seeing the final projects!

Due Date of Final Assignment:

February 21st

Presentations:

February 27th & 28th

MATH

1ST GRADE: CHAPTER CHECK-UP: It was time for our Think Deeply question.  The students were asked to draw 3 shapes being told only two comparisons - Transitivity.  This was an idea we are revisiting because they were introduced to this when weighing 3 objects.  They are able to understand and define it, but we are working on identifying it as transitivity.  

After completing our Think Deeply question, we looked at our Think Beyond cards.  Our first question - can you measure area with a circular unit.  They all answered no.  We discussed that there was no way to cover an area without overlapping or going off the space.

     On Thursday it was time for our second Chapter Check-up.  This time reviewing all we have learned with area.  Again, I will use these results to make sure all children are ready to move on to our next chapter.  

 Based on their scores, if we need a review day on any material we will take one before moving onto our last chapter.  This is a great tool for us to use to monitor their success in the room..

2ND GRADE:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:  

On Wednesday, the class took their first chapter check-up on chapter one.  This is a tool that I will use to monitor how well the students learned our math concept before moving onto chapter 2.  After scoring their chapter reviews, I will identify and review any areas that may be needed.

 

On Thursday, the students earned a fun day for giving me great effort on their chapter review.  First, the students listened to each students directions on building a car seat - we decided if we would be able to re-create each design or not. If we would be able to re-create the design that student was able to pick a prize from the prize box. 4 students were excited when their designs won!

To end the day, it was finally time for round 4 of our car seats!  We will be moving onto our new chapter next week.  I am glad the students enjoyed a day of fun!

                   

            ~ CONGRATS ~

   This team was SUPER EXCITED because they passed all 4 rounds of our egg test!

3RD GRADE: AREA - THAT ABOUT COVERS IT!:  It was time for our investigation phase of our lesson.  We started class by drawing magnets to break into two groups.  Then each group chose a person they traced on 1 inch grid paper.  

     Next, they had to look at their irregular shape and estimate the area.  The last step of this project is counting the area of their person.

Each group filled out a sheet deciding how they will count up their squares.  Then they recorded all of their whole spaces.  Now onto the challenge, counting the partial spaces.






It was great seeing the groups use different strategies while counting their squares. Using the labels of left and right or 1 and 2. Then they color coordinated as they shaded whole or partial. Great Strategies! We will continue with our investigation phase next week.





4TH GRADE:  SPATIAL VISUALIZATION - DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?: On Wednesday it was time to investigate our new math concept - Transformation.  We walked through the instructions of Flip-Sliding Around.  Then they began to play the game.  We went through it slowly - using today just to learn the game.  I was stressing the importance of using the math terms translate, reflect or rotate vs flip, slide or turn.  




This made the game more of a struggle today as they learned to use the correct terminology and not the definition.  This also brought up the importance of using the correct positional terms with our shapes turn verses clockwise.

To challenge them for our game tomorrow - the last few turns they would speak the directions while their opponent would move it.  This made them work on visualizing each move after they got use to the directions.
On Thursday,we played our game all the way through. Our winner was allowed to choose a prize out of the prize box. We will end our investigation phase next week.