FEELING LIKE FALL FRIDAY

Welcome!  This week I introduced my language arts students to our theme within the room this year.  I will introduce my math friends to the theme next week.  Building off of last year, we are going to have a weekly Super Hero Power.  Our Super Hero Power will come from the board where each student wrote on a star their own Super Power.  A super power is their special character trait.  Next week, I will share our bulletin board with all of our Super Powers on display. Each week we will feature one of our Super Powers for our focus in the room.

Our theme this year:  Be a SUPER, 
Be INCREDIBLE!

AROUND THE SCHOOL

October 3rd: Early Dismissal Day - 1:45pm

October 13th: End of 1st Quarter
October 20th: Report Cards Available Online

October 24th: Picture Retake Day

October 27th - Fall Recess - No School

WEEKLY LIFE GOAL: Truthfulness





LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade: Coat of Arms: This week we took the time to examine our product we created for our Coat of Arms project. To help us add to our definition of a connection, we discussed what each patch should have displayed.
 We were looking for symbols or a representation of what the patch was connecting to the student.

On Tuesday, we moved onto our next lesson. The students were introduced to the secret message. Every time we move onto a new lesson, we will work on decoding a secret message. This week they were introduced to the Caesar Cipher Wheel. After learning how to work the wheel, the students began to decode our secret message.

We will continue practicing this decoding technique next week.

2nd Grade: Eldorado: This week we wrapped up our unit on Eldorado. Last week, the students struggled with defining a theme. So we started with a brief discussion on what themes occur throughout literature. Then it was time for the students to fill in the main idea on their reading analyzer.
After completing the reading analyzer, we looked back at our first attempt of what the poem meant. For a second time, we reflected on the meaning of the poem with much more knowledge to complete this task.

Next, we looked at a VENN Diagram. The students were explained that we use this tool to help us compare and contrast. To learn how to complete a VENN Diagram the students compared our knight from the poem to an image of knight. They all seemed familiar with the VENN diagram, just a little shaky with our topic we used to complete it.

To end the week, the students were introduced to our novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. I explained to the students that this is a book study that will take us until winter break to complete. We began by making some predictions by using the title and cover. We will continue with our predictions next week.

3rd Grade: Human/Animal Interactions: On Monday, we reviewed our human and animal interactions. After a brief discussion, I displayed a page from our book showing a Dog Talk Quiz. They had to match an image of the dog with what they inferred it meant about the dog.
Then, they used the remainder of class time to complete Interpreting Dog Interactions. The students picked one Training Tip from the book and read through the steps. In their own words, they were asked to describe the process. To finish the worksheet, they described each generalization with the interaction of their training tip.

I asked the students to be observers this week. I would like for them to come back to class and share an interaction they observed outside of class and be able to describe it with our 3 generalizations of an interaction.

4th Grade: Changes in Vocabulary: This week we focused on our Greek and Latin Roots packet. They completed some questions based on a selection they read. This packet gave them information on our word parts: prefix, word root, and suffix. It also gave us the history of our words through the Greek and Latin languages and how those languages grew into our English language today. We will continue with our Greek and Latin Roots next week.

MATH

1st Grade: Unit Introduction: To review from last week, we played a matching game identifying the following shapes: triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, & hexagon. Then, we looked at our Think Deeply question.

A Think Deeply question is where the students correspond with Imi and Zani throughout the year. The questions are based on the math concept from the lesson. For this question, we were looking at strategies for winning Zani Lingo.
We held a discussion reviewing what we knew about the rules of Zani Lingo, leading us to our strategies of how to win the game. This information allowed us to respond back to our friends Imi and Zani.
While we wait for a response from them, we used this time to play another matching game. I also used this time to point out our word wall displaying all of our shapes. 1 student has been using this tool as a reminder of sides for our new shapes. I challenged the students to identify how many quadrilaterals were on the word wall. They found 4: a square, rectangle, rhombus and trapezoid.

We will start a new lesson next week.

2nd Grade: Symmetry: This week we worked with triangles and manipulated them into a pattern on a square. Each student was given a 3x3 square and asked to figure out the number of lines of symmetry. They quickly discovered the answer was 4.




We then looked at our square and discovered there were 8 triangles in it. Then, they were given 2 different shades of paper to fold and cut out the triangles, along the lines of symmetry. Next, they had to recreate a design within a 3x3 square using the triangles they cut out. Next week, we will look for our lines of symmetry in our designs.

3rd Grade: Repeating Patterns: EUREKA! We wrapped up repeating patterns! I know it was a long process as we went through the procedures of our first Think Deeply, but they did it! This week we looked at the second Think Deeply with the lesson and answered it together step-by-step.

They have a good foundation of what is expected of them and will improve with their writing throughout the year. They still wont be completely on their own with these. When a student completes a Think Deeply, I will look over it and lead them if they need to add onto their thoughts. Our end goal, is to have them successfully completing them individually by the end of the year. The students were all very excited to know we will be starting our next lesson next week.

4th Grade: Equivalent Fractions: We did not meet on Thursday because of a 4th Grade Presentation. On Thursday, we began our Think Deeply. The Think Deeply will be the wrap-up to each lesson. It is a time where the students are given a question to solve based on our lesson.

This is where they must think like a mathematician because they must explain the math concept by writing out the steps. Before they write, we will always have a discussion reviewing the math concepts. Today's discussion tied the creating of fraction strips together with equivalent fractions. They were all excited to learn how simple it was to find an equivalent fraction the mathematical way.

We practiced the rule of multiplying the numerator and the denominator by the same number with smaller fractions. However, I challenged the group to try one with a larger fraction. SUCCESS! A student gave us the fraction of 15/25 that we multiplied by 5/5 to get our equivalent fraction of 75/125. This allowed them to see a simple way to find equivalent fractions. They were thinking like mathematicians this week as they mastered this concept. They will complete their Think Deeply question next week.

Ms. Losinski

 FALL FEST FRIDAY

Welcome Back!  Tonight is the BIG night - Yost Fest is here!  The event will take place this evening from 5:30 to 7:30.  Wrist bands will be for sale for endless use of the bounce houses.  You may also purchase tickets for games and food.  The weather will be perfect - come out and enjoy a great time with your family and friends!

College Week:  This week the school is participating in college week - the kids are encouraged to wear the favorite College Gear.

AROUND THE SCHOOL

IMPORTANT DATES

September 22nd:  Yost Fest - 5:30 to 7:00pm

September 25th-29th:  Go College Week

October 3rd: Early Dismissal Day - 1:45pm

October 13th: End of 1st Quarter

October 24th: Picture Retake Day

October 27th - Fall Recess - No School

WEEKLY LIFE GOAL:
Trustworthiness





LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade: Coat of Arms Project: On Monday, we had a brief explanation of the rubric for the Coat of Arms project. Then the students spread out around the room and began to assemble their Coat of Arms Project. After they completed the assembly, they practiced their speech around the room.

~ Her Thinking Pose ~

On Tuesday, each student came to the front of the room and presented their project. When presenting to the audience, 1 student also evaluated a presentation. Allowing the students to help in the grading role, will hopefully give them a better understanding to following a rubric and to have a better understanding of their expectations as a presenter. The students did a fabulous job with their presentations!

2nd Grade: Eldorado: This week the students were working with the poem Eldorado by Edgar Allen Poe. After reading the poem once, the students were asked to reflect on the meaning of them poem. As expected, this was a clear struggle for the students to understand the meaning behind this poem. To develop an understanding for their reading, the students were introduced to the reading analyzer.

The reading analyzer is a worksheet the students complete to look for the meaning of their reading. They will be using this source throughout the year - this week was simply an introduction on the proper way to complete the form. We worked through each step as a class to make sure they understood what each box was asking them to complete. It was great to see them begin to understand the poem the further we completed the worksheet. We will continue to work with Eldorado next week as we learn one more tool we will use throughout the year.

3rd GRADE: INTERPRETING INTERACTIONS: This week we began by reviewing the concept of interactions. Then we looked at human/animal interactions. We did this by looking at the book How to Speak Dog: A Guide to Decoding Dog Language by Aline Alexander Newman and Gary Weitzman, D.V.M. We reviewed non-fiction text features to help us navigate to our topics within the book.
Reviewing our text features helped us find the certain selections we needed to complete our worksheet - Interpreting DOG Interactions. As we were completing the sheet, the students began to see the importance of knowing what certain actions mean - as this is the way a dog communicates with their owners. The owner must be able to interact with the dog by responding to its form of communication. This brought up several stories the students were sharing of their personal pets, as now we know what our pets are telling us.
We will continue analyzing human/animal interactions next week.

4th GRADE: CHANGE IN VOCABULARY: We took a few minutes to have introductions and go over the classroom procedures. Next, we defined the generalizations to change. This led us into our discussion with the changes we see in vocabulary. This led us into identifying the different word parts: root word, prefix and suffix. These examples led us right into our lesson on Greek and Latin Roots. We will work through a packet next week looking at changes in vocabulary.

MATH

1ST GRADE: UNIT INTRODUCTION: On Wednesday, we reviewed our terms we learned to define our shapes for What's the Same About These Shapes. Together, we completed a second one defining a group of quadrilaterals. On their own, they defined a pentagon and hexagon. When they finished they were allowed to try and draw another shape to match their definition.

On Thursday, it was time for some fun to end our lesson! We played the game Zani Lingo - Bingo with Shapes. Together, we reviewed the shapes they will see on their Lingo Cards: Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Pentagons and Hexagons. Then we played a practice game to learn the rules. I would announce the number rolled on the cube and the students would place a chip over a shape with that amount of sides.

However, if we rolled a 1 or a 2 the students shout, "Oh! No such shape!" We follow these rules until someone gets a Lingo - 4 in a row. While playing the game, we would stop and look at boards to go over proper strategies of where to place the chip. Winners won a chance to select something from the prize box.







We will wrap up our intro unit next week.



2ND GRADE: SYMMETRY IN ACTION: On Wednesday, the students were greeted with a memo from Dru and Teller. They discovered that it will be their job to create a scale model for a Shape Gallery. Our math concept we will be working with in this lesson is symmetry. I was happy to hear the students already have good knowledge on the definition of symmetry. They were then introduced to the Line of Symmetry. This was new term for most of them.


As a class, we identified two ways to find a Line of Symmetry: by folding the paper or using a mirror. For the first part of the lesson, students placed a mirror in places of a pentagon - identifying if it was a line of symmetry or not. In order for it to be a line of symmetry, the students would see the exact pentagon within the mirror. This was a little tricky at first because they would still see a shape in the mirror. With a few reminders, they were catching on quickly that it must be the original shape.

For additional practice they completed 2 more worksheets. The first one they had to identify yes or no to if the line given was symmetrical. This brought up the discussion of the circle - I was SHOCKED when a student was able to tell may it has an infinite amount of lines! The last work sheet was a bit more of a challenge and now they were in charge of using the mirror to mark the lines of symmetry for the shape.
We will continue to work with symmetry next week.


3RD GRADE: REPEATING PATTERNS: Our introduction into our Think Deeply question continues... We reviewed our 4 strategies to solve a problem with a repeating pattern. Then the students used the remainder of the time to use one of those strategies to solve the problem. On Thursday,we went over a chart that explained what should be included in their writing. We are looking for the students to identify the Math Concept(s) using Math Reasoning within their answer. The last thing they should include is Math Vocabulary.
If a lesson has more then 1 solution we are looking for them to explain the different strategies to solve the problem, so we can identify if they struggled with any of the concepts. This was were the struggle in our writing came into play. Most of them were successful in writing about the strategy they understood the best. Adding onto their writing about all concepts they understand became the challenge in their writing. This is always the most challenging part of the lesson, especially with the first writing assignment. By the end of the year, they will be masters at explaining their ideas. For this being the first


4TH GRADE: FRACTION STRIPS: This week the students created fifths and tenths on their own. We talked about 2 ways to fold the fifths because it is a little more challenging then the halves and thirds. They struggled with these two ways because it was a challenge to get them just right. We looked at all of our fraction strips and identified equivalent fractions.

Now it was time to move onto the investigation portion of our lesson. We have mastered increasing our fraction strips by 2's, but what if I need to turn 1/3 into 1/9 and 1/5 into 1/15. This brought up the discussion of folding a new strip into the unit fraction for thirds and fifths. Now for the challenge, how can I fold my unit fraction to divide it into 3 parts. After a few attempts, I heard the excitement of success! Some students began to figure it out.

I allowed them to share their thoughts with the class. As a class, we were able to conclude that if we took our folded thirds and fifths and folded it with the "s" folding motion it would break each fraction part into 3 more parts. The "s" fold would allow us to multiply our denominator by 3 to get our new fraction strip. 1/3 x 3 gave us our 1/9 and 1/5 x 3 gave us our 1/15. We will wrap up this lesson next week.

~ Ms. Losinski ~