~ THANKFUL THURSDAY ~

We are quickly approaching one of my favorite times of the year.  I am going to challenge the students during the month of November to fill up leaves with something they are thankful for... I hope we can fill up the wall with our
  Leaves of Thanks!

AROUND THE SCHOOL

November 1st & 2nd: Parent Teacher Conferences

November 3rd: No 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

HALLOWEEN
FUN

TRICK 
OR 
TREAT 

 

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade: Silly Speak: We started with a few practice words in Pig Latin to review our rules. Then, the students went right back to work on encoding a sentence from English to Pig Latin. For some added practice, the students translated Lead Belly's Pig Latin Song from English to Pig Latin.

Then, we listened and sang along to his song. They had lots of laughs with this activity. For some independent practice, the students took one of their connections they spotted from outside and turned it into Pig Latin. They presented them to the class, as the rest of them tried to guess their connection.


Next, the students were introduced to persuasive writing using the Hamburger Model. 2 students shared their thoughts on Pig Latin - 1 who thought it was easy and another who thought it was difficult. This introduced us to the term opinion.

In persuasive writing it will be the students job to convince the reader of their opinion. We will continue to walk through the steps of persuasive writing while answering the question: Should all first graders learn to speak Pig Latin?

Extra, Extra...

Some extra photographs this week when they shared their connections in Pig Latin. This is where the students are working on their presentation skills. I hope to see their confidence grow from our coat of arms projects in the beginning of the year. I will try to share some of these moments throughout the year.

2nd Grade: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: This week we began with our discussion on their assigned reading. As we discussed the chapters they read, we added the information to our chart.

As a class we, looked at different points of view from some characters on a scenario: Edward being lost at the bottom of the ocean.

Next week we will shift our focus to a text-to-text connection as we begin to listen to the story of the Velveteen Rabbit.

There is no homework this week! Enjoy the 3 day weekend!

3rd Grade: Beatrix Potter: They finished working with their partners completing their reading analyzer. Then, we came back together as a class to share our stories.

Each group gave us a summary of what their story was about and talked about the main idea from the story. They were allowed to use their reading analyzer to help them present their story. One group read the classic The Tale of Peter Rabbit and our other group shared The
Tale of Ginger and Pickles.







Next week, we will look at all of the stories we explored from Beatrix Potter and look at what they have in common.  

4th Grade: Change Maker: This week they added in their secondary sources. We had a discussion on selecting credible sources on the Internet. Then it was back to more research. The students have down a great job on finishing their reading! They are now beginning the process of filling in the information. If they complete this packet properly, the rest of the project will be easy moving forward. They will receive plenty of class time to work on it - the goal is 1 day per question. If they don't finish it with the allotted class time the rest of it will become homework.

MATH

1st Grade: Polygons: Due to early dismissal this week, we did not have our weekly groups. Our schedule will be back to normal next week.

2nd Grade:  Transformers:  This week the students were introduced to the concept of transforming a shape.  They were introduced to our 3 movements:  flip = reflection, slide = translation, and turn = rotation.  They were introduced to both terms, however at this point they may use either term for the movement.  

We moved our books around our desk using the different transformations.  They were introduced to the line of reflection for a flip.  Immediately, some of my friends quickly identified our new line as a line of symmetry.  

We looked at this line and distinguished the differences between the purpose of it verse our line of symmetry. We also created a hint for a flip - we are making pancakes and need to "flip" it over!  To practice our new math terms we completed some worksheets together identifying the different movements.

3rd Grade:  Patterns:  We started the investigation phase for our patterns.  For this unit, we are combining our last two lessons to look at the bigger picture while exploring  the pattern.  The children completed a series of questions while evaluating patterns by completing  What's Next.

  

First, they finished the table by filling in the missing numbers.  This hopefully allowed them to identify the pattern they saw with their answers.  Then they needed to think of our Magic Calculator Rule and decide what number we would start the pattern with on the calculator.  This made them start to think of the function rule the table was following.  

To finish a problem they solved for the 15th number without extending the chart.  By this time, they could hopefully answer the last part of the question by explaining the function rule.  They also saw the importance of the calculator rule - sometimes the starting number is needed for our function rule.  They are doing a much better job solving these patterns algebraically rather then using a picture.  

This week they did a great job of thinking like mathematicians and solving our problem the algebraic way.  They seem to have a better understanding of the pattern verse the function rule.  It helped that they were identifying both the pattern and the function rule in their answers.  We will wrap up patterns next week.

4th Grade:  Frog Jumping Contest:  This week they finished the first part of the investigation phase.  For independent practice, they completed Frisky Frog Leaps.  This sheet focused on them continuing a fraction strip while renaming a mixed number and locating the improper fraction for that number on a number line.  

The challenge to the worksheet is on one number line they were working with eighths and fourths or thirds and ninths.  They had to find equivalent fractions with 1/4 = 2/8 and 1/3 = 3/9 to properly label the fraction strip.  Next week we will begin our Think Deeply with this lesson.

Have  Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski