~ SPRING FOR FRIDAY ~

Hello Spring!  How can it be that we have already reached Spring Break???  I hope everyone has a wonderful week off.  I can’t wait to see everyone when we return because we have lots of fun activities left, as we finish off the year.

I have saved one of my favorite traits for us to learn from for the end of the year.  I am excited to announce that we will be learning from Mulan!  Earlier in the year, one of my first graders said to me you really want us to be unique...She gathered this information from some of the decorations around the room.  A few other times it has come up in other groups, I always explain to them I want each one of them to be them.  I don’t need 20 of the same students in the room.  

When we return from Spring Break, I will welcome my Kindergarten Friends to HA. Looking forward to meeting everyone on April 3rd!

IMPORTANT EVENTS

March 17th-April 5th: Read-a-Thon

March 24th:  Report Cards Available Online

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

April 3rd - 1st Day of HA for Kindergarten

April 4th - Early Dismissal

April 6th - Kindergarten Round-up

April 13th - Spelling Bee/ Book Bowl

May 1st-5th: Teacher Appreciation Week

May12th: Yost Fest

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st GRADE POETRY, PUNCTUATION, & FRIENDLY CONNECTIONS:  We started the week with a fun game...the students drew emoticons on white boards. Then a partner tried to guess the emotion.  Next the question was how does an author show feelings or emotions to a reader?  Punctuation of course!  We read 4 poems to introduce to us the !, ., ?, and the ,. We discussed that each one helps tell the reader how to bring the author’s words to life - with expression!  

On Tuesday, we read Yo! Yes?.  A simple, silly story to teach us the importance of punctuation.  The first time through, I read it with no expression - like a robot - a student replied. We listened to the story a second time, this time with expression. What a difference punctuation makes! We also discussed how the illustrator also showed us some of the emotion if we looked at the characters.


We ended the day looking at a paragraph - with no punctuation. In one long breath I read the paragraph to the students.  They quickly figured out we needed to add punctuation marks so the story would make sense.

After Spring Break, we have a little more to work with on punctuation.

2nd GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX: We used Monday as a day to catch up on our story from the weekend.  They continued to work through their packet and we have everyone caught up to where we are in the story.  It is great seeing them keep making text-to-text connections with our last story.  We have already noticed Kate DiCamillo teaching us the theme of love again in this story.  

On Tuesday, we continued to read and discuss chapters 10 & 11.  They only had to complete one question from these chapters.  As spring break is approaching, I wanted us to come to a good stopping point.  I have asked them to read chapters 12 & 13 by Friday.  As they complete their reading, I have asked them to return their books to the classroom - this way no one will risk losing it over break.

We ended this week by quickly turning back to The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We have cleaned out our folders of the different activities they have completed with our last story and those papers are coming home.  They also each got to pick a word cloud created from the different messages we learned from our book.  I took the responses each student shared and thought this would be a perfect keepsake for them to remember this story.

3rd GRADE:  THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN - PROSE OR POETRY?:  On Monday, the children discovered what a Prose is in literature...to their surprise it is a written piece of literature they use almost everyday!  A prose is simply a piece of literature that is not poetry.  We also discussed the history behind our story. We learned there are many different theories to the ending of our story this led them to quickly believe we were reading a legend.  Now onto the tough question, do they prefer the poetry or prose?  One student was quick to choose the prose because in this case it was easier to understand - leading us to discuss when the poem was written and why the literature was difficult to understand.  My other student was in between because they like poetry, but maybe not this particular poem.
 

On Tuesday, we looked at one more way to hear our story - through a video.  However, we discussed what is missing when we take a book and turn it into a movie.  We don’t always get all the little details.  We don’t always get to hear the thoughts of the characters.  Also, the movie tends to leave some parts out - sometimes it might be one of your favorite parts.  We also discussed that what the movie portrays may not be the picture created in our mind when reading the story.  These are the many reasons why - although it is nice to see the movie - it is not the best option for literature.  

When we return from spring break I have pulled some of my favorite poems to share with the children because I would like them to hopefully grow their appreciation for poetry.  They are excited to work with these poems!

4th GRADE:  IT’S A MYSTERY:    This week we finished our short-story.  We started by recapping our list of suspects and clues - this was also a perfect way to catch a few of our friends up with the story. Before the last chapter, we took a poll of who we thought was the suspect.  We had one friend in the class not get tricked by our red herring clues!  Each student filled out a character analysis from the story.

On Tuesday, the students finished up their character analysis.  Then we listened to a new short story from a group of mysteries called Solve-It.  The catch to these stories - the reader is the detective and must solve the ending.  While I read the story they kept notes and came up with their suspect.  I had each student write down who they originally thought was the guilty party.  Then they came together and discussed and shared their ideas.  Convincing classmates to switch to their suspect.  

At the end of class, they were all on the same page with the same guilty person. Eureka - they solved the case! It was great seeing them work together. In the beginning, no one suspected Maria, but after coming together they found the guilty party. There excitement for mysteries continued as they left the room - they are looking forward to working more with mysteries!

MATH

1st GRADE:  INCHING ALONG - MEASURING WITH INCHES:  On Wednesday, we took our unmarked rulers and turned them into marked rulers.  We attached our rulers to a piece of constructions paper and placed tally marks where two inches met.  Then we labeled them from 1 to 12.  The next big question - where should we put 0 - at the beginning or course! 







We then practiced measuring different crayons.  This is where we discussed the importance of counting the spaces and not the tallies.  This was tricking some of my friends and we will add some practice with this when we return from break.

On Thursday, they completed the worksheet Measuring Me.  This was an activity to have them practice measuring with a marked ruler.

2nd GRADE: AREA - THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE:  On Wednesday, we completed an activity to figure out how many sleeping bags would fit into a tent.  They first were given the two measurements to use for the child and adult.  Then they cut out templates to help them moving forward with this activity. Next, we used a worksheet to represent our tent.  t was their job to figure out how many child sleeping bags could fit into the tent.

Then how many adult sleeping bags would fit into the tent.  The child sleeping bag was pretty simple for them to figure out.  However, it was tricky for them to figure out the adult sleeping bag.  We had a tent that had an area of 40 square feet and the adult sleeping bag has an area of 18 square feet.  At first, the thought was two sleeping bags because the total area would be 36 square feet.  However, every way they tried to fit two into the tent they would overlap. So the answer was surprisingly 1!


On Thursday, we looked at our Think Deeply question.  The question to solve followed our activity from the previous day - with the adult sleeping bag.  We looked over the question and identified the important information. Then they worked through and prepared their responses for Dru and Teller.

Luckily we just finished wrapping up this lesson - a perfect stopping point for spring break!  We will move onto our next lesson when we return from Spring Break.

3rd GRADE: AREA - YOU BREAK ME UP!:   On Wednesday, we looked at our Think Deeply question.  We went through the question pulling out all of the important information.  After we pulled out all the details, we discovered we had all the keywords from the lesson on the board. We walked through each term and defined it. Then we walked through one more problem working through the distributive property and writing equations.  For the remainder of class, the students worked on their response.

On Thursday, we took time to walk through the distributive property one more time.  I noticed some students were struggling with their writing. So before we moved forward, I wanted to make sure everyone was ready.  After, a few more exercises to practice I noticed their confidence increase as they worked through some problems!

After Spring Break, we will move onto our next lesson.

4th GRADE:  :  On Wednesday, we wrapped up our lesson on translating a shape on a coordinate plane.  They marked an original shape on their plane recording the points and then translated it.  Next, they recorded a statement explaining the translation.  To end the day, they switched original shapes and translations with a partner.  hey completed one last translation using their partner's information.

On Thursday, they answered a Think Deeply question to end our lesson.  They were all looking forward to answering this one because it involved them plotting points. They quickly worked through their Think Deeply question - allowing us to end the lesson with a little fun.  For added practice, we played Battleship with graphing paper. They really enjoyed this exercise!  They are enjoying working with planes as they were not wanting to move on from this subject. Luckily for them our next lesson will continue working with coordinate planes.

~ HOPE YOU'RE WEARING GREEN FRIDAY! ~

Hello!  Another week has come and gone...I still cannot believe how fast this school year is going.  This week the children have the option to complete a packet for the month of March - for a chance to pick a prize from our prize box.  The first page is a list of quotes from Walt Disney - they are to try and match the quote with the trait it could describe from the word bank included.  I am excited to see them complete this page to see what they have learned from us working with character traits this school year.  The rest of the packet included some Star Wars fun for them to complete.

 There is no rush for them to complete it, as they have til the end of the month to turn it in.  However, we have already had some completed packets turned in this week!  I was also excited to see some students participate that don’t always try the challenge question - that was my ultimate goal to mix-it up and give others a chance to try too.

I wanted to highlight these three this week, as they celebrated Girl Scout Week.  It was fun seeing them share the different shirts each day.

CogAT Update:

We are finishing up CogAT testing this week,  so the informational packets will be ready to go home after spring break.  You will be able to see how your child did on the CogAT using the resource cogat.com.  We need to wait until end of the year NWEA scores before making all final decisions.   Using the results from CogAT plus end of year NWEA will determine your child's eligibility into HA for next year.  Remember, it's not necessary to do well on both assessments.  They may qualify through one pathway or the other.

Kindergarten CogAT Packets:

All kindergarten students will receive their CogAT packets in their Thursday folders today.  Those who qualified through CogAT will need to return their permission slips.  We will begin the week after we return from Spring Break.  End of the year NWEA scores will be used to qualify students at the beginning of first grade.  It is very typical for many of your high readers to enter at that time.

IMPORTANT EVENTS

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

March 17th: End of 3rd Quarter

March 24th:  Report Cards Available Online

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

LANGUAGE ARTS

1ST GRADE:  CONNECTING WORDS AND NUMBERS - TEXT TALK:   We started this week by finishing up our Emoticon Exercise.  I shared a few more samples with them and used my cellphone to show how they work in a text message.  Then we used the end of Monday and some of Tuesday to look at a video of the book CDB! by William Steig. This was a fun exercise for us to wrap up our lesson on Text Talk.  Each page displayed a message with acronyms and with the help of the pictures we worked through the story together.  We ended class on Tuesday, by decoding our next secret message.  I was happy that with the title of No Spaces - they were able to figure this message out without any hints!  We will start our next lesson next week.

2ND GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX: We began this week with our last introduction sheet for our new story.  We compared ourselves to Wesley from the story Weslandia using a VENN diagram.  This was opening us up to the idea of a character who was different from us.   Then, using the format of the VENN diagram they looked for traits they had in common with Wesley even if he was different from us we found ways we were alike too.  Then we listened to chapters 1 & 2.  

On Tuesday, they came in and we listened to chapters 3-5.  Then for the remainder of class they had time to work through their questions on the story.  It was great seeing them look back for context clues or use the dictionary as they worked through the questions.  

Reading:  They were asked to read Chapters 6-9 before class on Monday.

3RD GRADE:  THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN - PROSE OR POETRY?:   Due to IREAD, we only met on Tuesday.

We finished working with our poetry version of our poem by listening to an audio tape of it, Then we had just enough time to introduce the prose - I read them a story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

We will discuss the story next week.

4TH GRADE:  MAPPING CHANGE IN MYSTERY STORIES:  This week we started out with a brief discussion on the question we ended with last week.  How did their person influence them to change?  It was such a great discussion! Hearing them share their dreams they want to achieve and realize they can began to work towards them.  From sharing this past year with them, I know they have the ability to reach any of their goals and look forward to visiting their bakery one day, purchasing the latest technology they created, seeing them change the world in politics, or reading of the discoveries they made in the field of medicine whether for people or animals.

Then we spent the week being introduced to our new topic - a mystery.  I shared a poem with them giving them the opportunity to guess our new genre focus.  On Tuesday, we began to read a short mystery together as a class.  While I read the mystery, they began to fill out a paper on the main character while hearing the clues in the story.  It was great seeing some of them track the characters for our guilty suspect.  We will finish the story next week.

MATH

1ST GRADE:  INCHING ALONG - MEASURING WITH INCHES:  We ended our lesson this week by beginning our Think Deeply question.  Imi and Zani were measuring a stick, but again have different answers this time because they used different sized ants.  It was our job using 4 words from a word bank to explain to them what we learned about inches - as a unit of measurement everyone is familiar with as a measurement.  

Determined to Complete their Think Deeply question - even though the challenge was hard at times. The smile shows the pride in their work!

After they completed their response, we worked on two Think Beyond activities.  First, they were introduced to a yard stick.  They then measured around the room finding different objects that were 1 yard.  Our second activity, they worked together to see how many yards long our classroom measured. They measured about 11 yards one way and 10 and a half the other distance.  We had a few minutes left - the challenge who could stretch their name out on the board to measure one yard.  

We had two students succeed on their first attempt!

We will begin a new lesson next week.

2ND GRADE:  AREA - THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE:  This week we had to finish a few more measurement around the room. Then we shared our measurements with the class.  We had to double check one measurement together.  

On Tuesday, I shared with the students our measurements for the sleeping bags - for an adult and child.  Now our goal is to figure out how many sleeping bags we can fit into a tent. We started by using masking tape to lay out the area of the tent.  

Then they figured out how many children sleeping bags could fit in that area and then adults. Each child was also given a layout of the tent on a worksheet to complete.  

We will continue to look for our solution next week.

3RD GRADE:  AREA - YOU BREAK ME UP!:  This week we finished up our investigation with the Distributive Property.  As some were still struggling with forming the equation, we worked through the different ways to write the equations.  To continue practicing this idea with the help of measurements from the Yeti’s Pen - we used the distributive property to break-apart large numbers when multiplying.  

However, the focus was also on the different ways to express the equation - so after they completed one way they would switch with a partner for them to check and then solve it another way.

We will begin our Think Deeply question next week.

4TH GRADE:  :  As they requested, we used Wednesday for extra practice on plotting on a graph.  Before we began, we went over the ordered pairs and plotting the x-axis and then the y-axis.  They practiced this by solving a riddle - to find the answer they had to plot points on the grid.

“Why was the stadium hot after the game?”  - because All the Fans Left.  

Their confidence with plotting grew as they worked through the worksheet.  On Tuesday, we went back to our lesson.  We plotted a scalene triangle in quadrant 1.Then they had to shift it 7 to the left, 7 down and 7 to the right.  This would continue to move the triangle to each of the quadrants - continuing our practice with plotting points all over the plane.
Next week they will create and plot their shape and then translate it to different quadrants on the plane.