~ RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY ~

WELCOME!  We are so close to the end.  The students have 2 more weeks of HA!  Many classes will wrap up their units next week allowing us the last week in HA for some fun activities.  We have movies planned, Kahoot, and one grade will act out a mystery!  I am looking forward to these activities with the classes. Our last week of HA will be the 15th-18th.  Time is needed that final week of school to finalize the list of students qualifying for high ability for the 2017-2018 school year.  Students who qualified through CogAT in kindergarten will remain in for first and second.  Those who qualified through CogAT in second will remain in for third and fourth.  Students who qualified through NWEA need to qualify each year.  We use the end of the year NWEA scores across all grade levels which keeps us consistent.  

SIGN-UP TODAY FOR HA SUMMER PROGRAM

Searching for educational enrichment this summer? Consider Duneland's High Ability Summer School! With the theme of "Do What the Romans Do," the 13-day program in June will focus on reading strategies and literature comprehension. It is open to current 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade HA students. The gold sign-up flyer went home last Friday. Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!

 ~ Enjoy some pictures

 from our Star Wars fun on

 May the 4th ~

IMPORTANT DATES

May 9th:  PTO Meeting at 6:30

May 10th:  Title 1 Night at 6:00

May 11th:  WIS Open House at 6:30

May 12th:  Muffins with Mom 3rd Grade at 7:45

May 12:  Yost Fest

May 19th: No School - Reserved Snow Day

May 26th:  Field Day

May 29th:  No School - Memorial Day

May 31st:  Last Day of School & End of 4th Grading Period

LANGUAGE ARTS

KINDERGARTEN:  WEMBERLY WORRIED:  Due to NWEA testing, we did not meet on Monday.

On Tuesday, we opened our new lesson by reviewing fact vs opinion.  They each wrote 1 fact and opinion on animals.  Then we listened to our new story Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes.  After finishing our story, we walked through a set of our 4-level questions.

We will continue working with our story next week.

1ST GRADE:  HIEROGLYPHICS:  On Monday, we began to explore our new story Hieroglyphs by Joyce Milton.  We read through 3 sections in our story introducing us to the history of Hieroglyphs.  The children were encouraged to track their thinking while listening to the story. After reading each section, we would look back at our charts and add-on to them.  

It was great to see them excited as their new learning chart began to grow only after reading three sections!

On Tuesday, we began by answering their questions they were wondering about while reading from the previous day.  We talked about ways to look up words we did not know and how to research a topic we want to learn further about.

Then we read about the cracking of the code and learning how each picture represents a sound from the alphabet.  We ended the day by writing our name in Hieroglyphics.  We will revisit this next week, as they represented them to the picture and not the sound.

2ND GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX: On Monday we did things a little mixed-up in class.  Those that I met with on Tuesday of the previous week - enjoyed silent reading time during class.  For those that I did not see last Tuesday, we discussed Book the Third.  First they completed a sheet on Comfort.  As a class, we looked at question 2 and discussed it in depth because the students weren’t familiar with the phrase “to hold a grudge”.

 After defining it together, they were quickly able to respond with how you might feel if someone held a grudge against you.  We also discussed a few solutions to solving it - with the simplest being to talk about your feelings before possibly overreacting - causing further problems.  We tied this question to our character Roscuro - who is holding a grudge against Princess Pea.  If this group finished early they were allowed to read chapter 38 in class.

On Tuesday, we discussed Book the Fourth up to chapter 38. We had a lot of action take place as Roscuro’s revenge is in action.  We then continued with our read-aloud stopping as our inner-voice has a thought or idea to share.

They were assigned to finish reading Chapter 41 from pg 212 (time ran out in the middle of a chapter on us) and to read on through Chapter 44.  

Next week we plan on finishing up Book the Fourth - leading us into our final activity - comparing the book to the movie.  On Tuesday, we will start watching The Tale of Despereaux.

3RD GRADE:  CINDERELLA:  We began our final unit on comparing a Fairy Tale to how it is told in many different cultures.  Before we can go further into this unit - we must first explore many different versions of Cinderella from different cultures.  We read the classic version out-loud on Monday.  

Tuesday they picked a culture they wanted to explore further taking notes on differences while reading their copy.

We will read one more version on Monday, before we end this unit with our discussion.

4TH GRADE:  IT’S A MYSTERY:  They have been rock-stars, as we race to the finish line. They have really enjoyed studying mysteries.  For both class periods, they were allowed class time to write their story.  They worked hard and seem excited to complete this step in our unit.  I can’t wait for them to share their mystery with the class next week.

If they did not complete their mystery in class, it now was assigned as homework.  They should be prepared to read them on Monday to the class.

We will end our time in HA this year by re-creating our own mystery in the classroom.   Be on the look on for a part to come home with each student next week.   The plan right now - is for each person to take home a character with clues to familiarize themselves with their character. The better they can prepare for the role the more fun they can have as their character!

MATH

KINDERGARTEN:  ALL ABOUT GRAPHS:  On Wednesday, we finished creating our questions for a partner to answer.  Then we traded with a partner for them to practice reading the data we created.  We created a list of the different types of graphs there are to represent data.  They were slowly catching on that each seems to be named on how the graph is represented.  This led us into the introduction of the Pictograph.  We walked through a sample of a pictograph together on the board.

Then on Thursday we worked through a few worksheets reading data on a pictograph.  They were catching on quickly with this material.  To end the week, we took some worksheets to practice reciting numbers.  The timer was set for one minute and they try read through a whole worksheet of numbers. Our first sheet was numbers 1-10 - they were so close to completing the whole sheet!  The second sheet was numbers 1-20 this was a little more of a challenge, but they still read three-quarters of the page.  They were allowed to choose a prize from the treasure box for all of their hard work!

1ST GRADE:  ENRICHMENT:  Due to early dismissal, we did not meet on Wednesday.

On Thursday, we began class by an enrichment game.  Each student selected 4 cards.  One person has the start card with a clue to the next card that another classmate has  and then read out-loud.  It continues on till a student states I have the last card.  This game worked on quickly adding or subtracting 10 from a number in their mind.  They had lots of fun with it, so we played it twice!  Then I introduced them to some fraction fun!  From the worksheets they completed last week - I thought some enrichment on fractions was needed.  

We will continue working with fractions next week.

2ND GRADE:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:  On Wednesday it was time for our Chapter Check-Up on Area.  We read through the packet to make sure everyone knew what each question was asking of them.  Then they worked through the packet from Chapter 2.

On Thursday, we had some friends that needed to finish their chapter check-up from the previous day.  When everyone completed the check-up, we went over the answers as they were excited to see how they did.  I was able to grade them as they were being turned in and most students did a very good job with area.  We focused on one page when we reviewed it, as some struggled with this concept.

3RD GRADE:  LIQUID VOLUME - YUMMY YETI LEMONADE:  On Wednesday we completed our worksheet selecting Lemonade to purchase that will equal 72 cups.  We needed a refresher on conversions before they could complete the independent assignment.  Some students were to work independently after our review.  Other students needed a little more support with this assignment.

Those students met with me at the back table and while they began their worksheet I would support them when a question came up.  I was very proud of them, as their confidence grew, when they realized they knew what they were doing! Sometimes they just need that extra encouragement to boost their confidence! This worksheet took us both days to work through.  My students that worked through it faster, were challenged to come up with more combinations to add to their sheet.

We will wrap up this lesson next week.

4TH GRADE:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:  On Wednesday we took our Chapter Check-Up on Spatial Visualization.  We reviewed what would be on the check-up last week.  Before they began, we read through each question.  

Thursday, a few students needed some more time to wrap up their check-up.  My other students used this time to look over vocabulary for our end of the year assessment they will take next week.  

When everyone was finished we went over answers from the check-up together.

 Overall, they did a great job with this chapter.  We needed a little of some of the information from lesson one on rotation. To end the day, we went through some information they will need to know for end of the year assessment.

They will complete the end of year assessment next week.  We then will compare it for growth from their beginning of the year results.