~ FREEZING FRIDAY ~
AROUND THE SCHOOL
December 22nd: End of 2nd Quarter
December 25th: January 7th:
Winter Recess
January 15th: No School - Martin Luther King Jr Day
LANGUAGE ARTS
1st Grade: Word Ladders: This week was all about word ladders! We went over the history and steps to completing them last week. We had a quick reminder and they completed a packet for independent practice. They zoomed through most of the packet! The last page was a little tricky so we worked through some of them together.
Next, the students completed a worksheet where they cut out four letters and created a word. To complete this, they spread out around the room to keep their new word a secret. Now onto decoding our secret message. In order to decode this message, the students would need a mirror.
First, they looked at the message on their own. Next, they turned around and looked in the mirror. They were shocked to see the message reflecting back at them! I showed them another trick to use if they don't have a mirror - holding the paper backwards and up to the light. Like magic the message would appear!
I shared with the students that Leonardo De Vinci used mirror language to keep his notes to his inventions a secret. We regrouped and I placed four post-it notes on the board with the letters: T, P, S, & O. One at a time the students came to the board and arranged the letters to show the word they created earlier. I was surprised to see they all came up with a different word: POTS, STOP, and TOPS.
Together, we shared that we could also make the words SPOT and POST. I explained to the students that an anagram is a word or phrase made by rearranging the same letters of another word or phrase. To end the day, we discussed why anagrams might be magical. We will continue to explore anagrams next week.
2nd Grade: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: We are so close to the finish line with our novel study. Before finishing our reading, the students revisited their predictions one last time. They now had 23 chapters to help them answer these questions.
They took their time filling them in using all of the information up to this point in the story. To end the week, we had just enough time to read our story together. It was exciting to see the shock and delight in their faces after reading some of their predictions.
It was magic to my ears hearing all the students tell me they enjoyed the story! Especially since some were not as excited for the project in the beginning.
Over the next few weeks, we will complete some assignments with our novel.
3rd Grade: Jane Goodall: The students needed some more time to finish their rotations on Jane Goodall. Then we took some time to research Jane further. Before moving onto our next lesson, it is important the students have a strong background knowledge on Jane Goodall.
Next, the students were introduced to annotations. I shared with them that they will be working with close reading and using annotations to mark up their pages. The students were given a bookmark to help them remember some symbols they will use in class to code their annotations.
We looked at a biography on Jane Goodall and used it to model close reading using annotations. For the second paragraph, the students raised their hand when they had an annotation to add to our paper. Next week the students will practice using annotations on their own.
MATH
1st Grade: All About Angles: We started our week by defining an attribute. An attribute is a characteristic we can give something. We looked at ourselves and discussed our hair color as an attribute. This became a little silly because of the debate of some of our hair colors!
Then we switched gears to math attributes. We discussed how sides and vertices are two math attributes that help us to classify shapes. We used those two attributes to identify the 5 polygons on the floor. Then we switched gears to focus on our new attribute - angles.
We discussed that the vertex is a point where two sides meet on the outside of the shape and came to a conclusion that it does not move. The angle is the measure of this area on the inside of a shape and it is a attribute that changes. This led us into identifying our 3 types of angles: acute, obtuse and right angles.
Some students became a little confused thinking the right angle had to be on the right side of the shape. This led us into a discussion on how it was just a name given to describe this attribute and the position has nothing to do with identifying it. We identified that acute angles are small, obtuse angles are large and right angles form an "L".
Now they were ready to investigate angles. We went on a hunt for angles around the school. We discovered that we are surrounded by right angles everywhere! We started to focus on searching for acute and obtuse angles. Enjoy some pictures below from our angle hunt.
2nd Grade: Smile Gallery: This week they finished their murals for Dru and Teller. After completing their murals, each student displayed their design for us to discuss them. We identified the basic unit with the shapes they used and discussed if it was a true tessellation. We discovered that no one had a true tessellation because each design had gaps! As a group, we identified a basic unit that we could have used to create a true tessellation.
We also discovered that the triangle grid limited the way they could start their shape affecting the outcome of the tessellation. To end the week, it was time to answer our Think Deeply question.
Dru and Teller needed us to answer some questions about a tessellation another student sent them. We had a discussion on basic units and our different transformations. Then it was time for the students to respond. We will continue with their responses next week.
Our Smile
Gallery Murals
3rd Grade: 100's Chart: This week we started to look at patterns with a 100's chart. The students will create a chart for their multiples from 2 to 9. Together we colored in our multiples for the 2's. After identifying the multiples, the students will look for and write down the patterns they see with the their charts. We discussed the different ways to identify columns and rows on the chart. This way we will have a universal way to discuss our patterns as a class.
I displayed my next chart with part of the multiples filled in for the 3's. After identifying the pattern, we used that information to complete the rest of the chart.
The students continued to identify and color in the multiples for 4-9 independently. We will continue to work with these patterns next week.
4th Grade: Comparing Fractions: This week we reviewed the first two rules we identified when comparing fractions. Then, we discussed a new strategy of comparing fractions with benchmarks. The students discovered that we could use 0, 1/2, 1, and 1 1/2 to place a set of fractions in order without numerators or denominators in common. They completed an activity by creating fractions ranging from 1/99 to 98/99.
Then each group had to place 5 fractions in order from smallest to largest using benchmarks. When finished the teams switched sides and decided if the other teams fractions were in the correct order. We discussed the results together. Then they began to complete their independent practice using the benchmark strategies.
Taking some time to evaluate the other groups order of fractions.
Have a Great Weekend,
Ms. Losinski
Winter Recess
January 15th: No School - Martin Luther King Jr Day
LANGUAGE ARTS
1st Grade: Word Ladders: This week was all about word ladders! We went over the history and steps to completing them last week. We had a quick reminder and they completed a packet for independent practice. They zoomed through most of the packet! The last page was a little tricky so we worked through some of them together.
Next, the students completed a worksheet where they cut out four letters and created a word. To complete this, they spread out around the room to keep their new word a secret. Now onto decoding our secret message. In order to decode this message, the students would need a mirror.
First, they looked at the message on their own. Next, they turned around and looked in the mirror. They were shocked to see the message reflecting back at them! I showed them another trick to use if they don't have a mirror - holding the paper backwards and up to the light. Like magic the message would appear!
I shared with the students that Leonardo De Vinci used mirror language to keep his notes to his inventions a secret. We regrouped and I placed four post-it notes on the board with the letters: T, P, S, & O. One at a time the students came to the board and arranged the letters to show the word they created earlier. I was surprised to see they all came up with a different word: POTS, STOP, and TOPS. 
Together, we shared that we could also make the words SPOT and POST. I explained to the students that an anagram is a word or phrase made by rearranging the same letters of another word or phrase. To end the day, we discussed why anagrams might be magical. We will continue to explore anagrams next week.
It was magic to my ears hearing all the students tell me they enjoyed the story! Especially since some were not as excited for the project in the beginning.
Over the next few weeks, we will complete some assignments with our novel.
Next, the students were introduced to annotations. I shared with them that they will be working with close reading and using annotations to mark up their pages. The students were given a bookmark to help them remember some symbols they will use in class to code their annotations.
We looked at a biography on Jane Goodall and used it to model close reading using annotations. For the second paragraph, the students raised their hand when they had an annotation to add to our paper. Next week the students will practice using annotations on their own.
MATH
Then we switched gears to math attributes. We discussed how sides and vertices are two math attributes that help us to classify shapes. We used those two attributes to identify the 5 polygons on the floor. Then we switched gears to focus on our new attribute - angles.
We discussed that the vertex is a point where two sides meet on the outside of the shape and came to a conclusion that it does not move. The angle is the measure of this area on the inside of a shape and it is a attribute that changes. This led us into identifying our 3 types of angles: acute, obtuse and right angles.
Some students became a little confused thinking the right angle had to be on the right side of the shape. This led us into a discussion on how it was just a name given to describe this attribute and the position has nothing to do with identifying it. We identified that acute angles are small, obtuse angles are large and right angles form an "L". 
Now they were ready to investigate angles. We went on a hunt for angles around the school. We discovered that we are surrounded by right angles everywhere! We started to focus on searching for acute and obtuse angles. Enjoy some pictures below from our angle hunt.
2nd Grade: Smile Gallery: This week they finished their murals for Dru and Teller. After completing their murals, each student displayed their design for us to discuss them. We identified the basic unit with the shapes they used and discussed if it was a true tessellation. We discovered that no one had a true tessellation because each design had gaps! As a group, we identified a basic unit that we could have used to create a true tessellation. 
We also discovered that the triangle grid limited the way they could start their shape affecting the outcome of the tessellation. To end the week, it was time to answer our Think Deeply question. 
Dru and Teller needed us to answer some questions about a tessellation another student sent them. We had a discussion on basic units and our different transformations. Then it was time for the students to respond. We will continue with their responses next week.
Our Smile
Gallery Murals
3rd Grade: 100's Chart: This week we started to look at patterns with a 100's chart. The students will create a chart for their multiples from 2 to 9. Together we colored in our multiples for the 2's. After identifying the multiples, the students will look for and write down the patterns they see with the their charts. We discussed the different ways to identify columns and rows on the chart. This way we will have a universal way to discuss our patterns as a class. 
I displayed my next chart with part of the multiples filled in for the 3's. After identifying the pattern, we used that information to complete the rest of the chart.
The students continued to identify and color in the multiples for 4-9 independently. We will continue to work with these patterns next week.
4th Grade: Comparing Fractions: This week we reviewed the first two rules we identified when comparing fractions. Then, we discussed a new strategy of comparing fractions with benchmarks. The students discovered that we could use 0, 1/2, 1, and 1 1/2 to place a set of fractions in order without numerators or denominators in common. They completed an activity by creating fractions ranging from 1/99 to 98/99.
Then each group had to place 5 fractions in order from smallest to largest using benchmarks. When finished the teams switched sides and decided if the other teams fractions were in the correct order. We discussed the results together. Then they began to complete their independent practice using the benchmark strategies.
Taking some time to evaluate the other groups order of fractions.
Have a Great Weekend,
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