~ SHARING SUNDAY ~

AROUND THE SCHOOL

November 22nd - 24th: Thanksgiving Break

December 7th: Early Dismissal Day at 1:45

December 22nd: End of 2nd Quarter

December 25th - January 7th: Winter Recess

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade: Persuasive Writing: This week we focused on two things: writing to persuade a reader and forming a paragraph using the hamburger model.

First, the students were asked to form their own opinion to the question: Should all first graders learn Pig Latin? Our class was split and could not convince the other side to write about their opinion. So we split into two groups and began to write our opinions.

Before writing our paragraphs, each group wrote down a list of details to convince the reader of their opinion. Then we looked back over our hamburger model of composing a paragraph. Each group came up with their introduction sentence. Then they took their details to form the "pieces" of the hamburger: the lettuce, tomato and burger. We will finish our persuasive writing next week.

2nd Grade: Text-to-Text Connections: This week we took a step away from Edward to read the Velveteen Rabbit. Our focus was on a text-to-text connection. This will help them develop another way to connect to a story and ultimately develop a deeper meaning to the text they are reading. Our focus this year is on connections and how a good reader develops different connections to their story:

Throughout our novel story, we will focus on these one at a time to develop a better meaning to our reading.  We then made a Venn Diagram to compare our two stories together.  We compared the main character, the setting and the plot.  We will examine our Venn diagram further next week.

3rd Grade:  Beatrix Potter:  This week we compared the different stories of Beatrix Potter we have heard so far.  We looked back at her biography to discuss how her interactions, especially with her pet bunnies, influenced her writing.  Then we read her first two short stories as a group:  The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tail of Squirrel Nutkin.  

They were able to make great connections between Peter Rabbit and Nutkin.  Her characters in her writings are mainly animals.  We also shared how the settings of her stories were usually in nature.  The students did a great job seeing how Beatrix Potter connected most of her stories together.  They became focused on her references of her characters and how she included them in her other stories.  We found an image of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle buying soap in Ginger & Pickles shop.  

They also found what looked like an image of Peter Rabbit within that same story.  We heard a reference to a lot of her characters in The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. 

 This week they also shared their stories about the interactions in nature.  Some students had a few questions about interacting with nature, so we glanced back at our 3 requirements of an interaction. 

 I told them to think of their examples and answer our 3 questions: 

 Was it an accident or on purpose?  

Was it negative or positive?

Was it fleeting or deep and lasting?

I will add a model of this going forward with their homework to allow them to see if it qualifies as an interaction.  We will start a new lesson next week.

4th Grade:  Change Maker:  The students are pushing on with their research.  We are approaching the end of our class time for this step and I have encouraged them to work on finishing touches at home.  After next week, the research portion will become assigned as homework.  

MATH

1st Grade:  What Happened???:  Welcome Back!  A few of my friends needed to finalize their Think Deeply.  As children completed their Think Deeply, they were allowed to work on a matching game of our polygons.  They completed a puzzle by identifying a polygon name with the definition and a picture.  

They were encouraged to use the word wall to help them with this game. Our friends Imi and Zani also sent us another game they would like for us to test! This time we are playing the game What Happened.  The object of the game is determine how a shape changed and if it is a new shape.  Our shapes change by spinning one of three choices:  MOVE one shape, TAKE OFF one shape, or Do nothing.  The teams take turn as the spinning team and the guessing team.  

The guessing team draws a card from Grupo and recreates the shape.  They have about a minute to memorize the shape and then turn the card over.  Now the spinning team takes over.  They spin to decide how they must change the shape.  Our guessing team comes back and must answer two things:  What did the spinning team do and how did the shape change?  

This week we did a practice round for each group to learn the rules.  Each team completed their turn successfully!  Next week we test the game What Happened for our friends and share our results.

2nd Grade:  Transformers:  We had a quick review of the terms we learned to transform our shapes.  I was happy to see they remembered all of our terms!  This week we were introduced to the next part of our concept - tiling.  They had a strong background knowledge on the idea of this concept.  

They made a great references to tiling a floor.  Our focus was going to be on the transformation we use while tiling a surface.  To practice identifying the transformation, we completed a worksheet identifying the movement of the triangle.  They had to identify whether the triangle transformed by a flip, turn or slide as it was moved around the page.  We will continue to work with tiling next week.

3rd Grade:  Patterns:  This week the students were introduced to our Think Deeply. 

 We looked at what the question was asking and discussed what they should include in the answer.  They were given information to a pattern including only the first 4 numbers.  It was going to be their job to find the 10th number and explain their thinking.  We referred back to our investigation phase.  We decided that in order to answer the question properly the students should identify both the pattern and the function. 

 They should also think about and explain the magic calculator number for their pattern.  It is important for a students to identify the calculator number because it may be needed to solve the function rule.  This is not always the case, as we have seen in the past, but it allowed them to understand the importance of identifying this number.  As a class, talked about the first step to solving the problem.  They decided to draw our chart to display the term and number.  Organizing our information in this way will allow us to identify the function rule.  Next week, they will write their response to their Think Deeply question.  

  

4th Grade:  Converting Fractions:  We are quickly approaching our Think Deeply for this lesson.  The students defined some of our important vocabulary: a proper fraction, mixed number and improper fraction.  Before our wrap-up, I wanted to have the students work on the skills of converting mixed numbers to improper fractions and improper fractions to mixed numbers.  

A mastery of this concept will help them when answering their Think Deeply question.  We walked through the steps for each of these conversions.  Then they used the remainder of class to practice this skill.  We will finish this lesson next week.

Ms. Losinski