~ FANTASTIC FRIDAY ~

AROUND THE SCHOOL

 February 2nd:  Wear your Favorite NFL Jersey
February 7th:  Early Dismissal at 1:45
February 19th:  President's Day - No School

*We will be in school on February 16th, as a make-up snow day*


WANTED:  Pop Tabs!

There is still time to bring in your Pop Tabs.  
This year all proceeds will go towards families of the Ronald McDonald House in Indianapolis.  Our school is competing against the other schools in the district.  Final day to bring in the pop tabs is February 1st.  Thanks for your support in this effort!


LANGUAGE ARTS


1ST GRADE:  LIPOGRAMS:  This week the students were introduced to our new activity with words - Lipograms!  We defined the meaning of lipograms by looking at the word parts:  lipo = lacking  gramma = letters.  A lipogram is challenging you to create a piece of writing without using a certain letter.  We brought back the paper that they had to replace words with synonyms that did not have an "E" in them - which is the most popular letter we use in our writing. 
 We used their new words to rewrite the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill.  This is where we brought up the idea of when using lipograms you must make sure the new word does not change the meaning of the original thoughts.  Next we had just enough time to watch a movie trailer on the next book we were going to be reading. 
 On day two, we read our new story E-Mergency by Tom Lichtenheld & Ezra Fields-Meyer. This story is told to them in two parts: first the narrator and then the letters.  This is an important concept they must understand to grasp the ending of the story.  We looked back at the pages and identified when the narrator was telling the story and when the letters were and then it all made sense!  At the end of the story, there is a chart that shows us the most popular letters we use from greatest to least.  This let us discuss what letters would be a challenge to create  lipograms and which might be a little easier.  Next week, they will create their own lipograms!  



2ND GRADE:  EDWARD TULANE:  To conclude our novel study on Edward Tulane the students completed a crossword puzzle reviewing the story.  Jeopardy was a perfect review for them leading up to this project!
  
Next we discussed what message or theme they learned from our story.  This was a struggle for some as they wanted to tell a recap or refer to specific details from the story.  It was a perfect time to review a theme.  A theme is the main message of the text the author is trying to teach to the reader by telling a story.  We filled up different examples on the board with what the students will remember from our story:
Love, Hope, The journey is part of the reward, Keep going forward, even if it is painful...
We ended our unit with this thought is a connection with someone you love lost if they are no longer in your life?  They are to reflect on this thought over the week and will write a paragraph with their final thoughts next Monday.  



3RD GRADE:  COMPARE & CONTRAST:  This week they began by persuading me on one of my favorite debates this time of your - Winter or Summer - which is the better season?  Each student wrote and presented their ideas to persuade me to their side.  My winter friends brought up some strong points - Winter brings along my favorite holiday and being snowed in is a perfect excuse to  have a movie marathon with my kiddos! 
 Summer allows me to not shovel snow and to have the ability to be outdoors way more.  They did a great job and I was pleased that my winter friends were able to make me say without winter I wouldn't get to enjoy those moments. 
 Then it was time to compare and contrast our two stories on Jane Goodall:  Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell and The Watcher:  Jane Goodall's Life with Chimps by Jeanette Winter.  Without opening the book we discussed the details on the cover and the titles to each.  This has already divided the class - making me look forward to when it is their turn to persuade me on the better book. We went through and read each story and already noticed a big difference from story to the other with the details, content, and length.  We will complete our T-Chart next week.  

MATH




1ST GRADE:  ATTRIBUTES OF SHAPES:  This week it was time to prepare for our Think Deeply question for Imi and Zani.  We took some time to review by looking at the labels within our game and understanding how to identify them better - the angles being the tricky ones.  This let us have time for a few practice rounds after this discussion.
We looked at our Think Beyond cards to prepare us for our Think Deeply question.  Our first card let us take a good look at the labels to help us identify those characteristics better while answering a question on adding a new shape to the game.  The second one was our BIG challenge it introduced the 3-Loop Game.  The students were very intimidated by this at first.  However, they quickly worked together to solve two of the loops.  After visualizing the third loop as one, they were able to narrow it to two and use the other two loops to decipher the correct label.  They are even excited to try another one next week.  We will work on our Think Deeply responses next week.



2ND GRADE:  BUBBLE FUN WITH SHAPES:  This week it was time to prepare and set up our bubble experiment.  First we took a day to build our 3D shapes.  The children did an excellent job with this task.  This helped us discuss and see the differences between a prism and a pyramid.  Then it was finally time for some BUBBLE FUN!  The kids were excited to observe and see what would form inside their shapes when submerged in the bubble solution.  We will finish our bubble fun with 3D shapes next week.  Enjoy some pictures from our experiment this week.  

3RD GRADE:  PUZZLING PUZZLES:  This week we started by discussing a part of their Think Deeply responses  from last week.  We looked at a set of numbers and discussed together what they had in common:  all being even numbers, repeating the same numbers in the 1's column and all the numbers being divisible by both 2 & 3.  
This helped them have a better understanding of ways to look for things in common with a set of numbers.  Then we went into a quick review of defining an array.  They had a strong understanding of this concept, as they have worked with them in class this year.  We did emphasize that an array is organized in equal columns and rows.

  
Then we looked back at our 100's chart to look for patterns.  This time our focus was on patterns with numbers.  Some things we discovered were seeing the same number in the 1's place in a column.  This rule was similar for the rows of the repeating number to the row, but in the 10's place - with the exception of column ten where it introduced the next number for the next row (as column 10 counts by 10's - 10, 20, 30...).  

We observed the ones place and tens place increase and decrease in the diagonal rows.  Lastly, we looked at one number and the surrounding numbers by it.  This let us look for solving it by doing some simple math.  Going up or down our number would be plus or minus 10, moving in one direction of the diagonal would be plus or minus 11 and going the opposite direction would be plus or minus 9.  Moving to the right or left would be a plus or minus 1. 
 We tested this theory by filling in a puzzle while solving for a certain number in an area - when they were only given one number to solve it.  This introduced them to our investigation phase.  They would use the same concept, but this time they had to solve puzzles with missing numbers all around using the 700's charts.  They enjoyed this project and were up for the challenge.  We will continue working with puzzling patterns next week.




4TH GRADE:  FRACTIONS:  This week we began by looking at a tangram.  We decided last week that the pieces could not represent 1/7 of a fraction because each part was not equal.





Our challenge was to figure out what each portion represented to the whole tangram.  They worked together to figure out each piece and did a great job.  After figuring out that the smallest triangle was 1/16, we worked on converting each section into sixteenths.  This would help us see the representation of the pieces in the same unit.  Then it was time to investigate this further.  The students had to plan the layout of the Weekly Gazette.  On different grids, they planned a layout for 3 different articles each being an equal amount of space.  The catch was each layout had to be a different design.  It was great seeing their creativity with this project!

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski

DOUBLE THE FUN - FRIDAY!

I have combined the past two short weeks into one blog.  Last week my Math and Language Arts groups utilized our first day back - Monday and Wednesday - to catch up on winter break.  The students had lots they wanted to share! By day two, all my groups were back in the swing of things.

AROUND THE SCHOOL

January 19th:  Reports Available in Skyward

 February 2nd:  Wear your Favorite NFL Jersey
February 7th:  Early Dismissal at 1:45
February 19th:  President's Day - No School


*We will be in school on February 16th, as a make-up snow day*

WANTED:  Pop Tabs!

It is that time of year again - Pop Tab Wars!
This year all proceeds will go towards families of the Ronald McDonald House in Indianapolis.  Our school is competing against the other schools in the district.  Final day to bring in the pop tabs is February 1st.  Thanks for your support in this effort!



LANGUAGE ARTS


1ST GRADE:  MAGICAL ANAGRAMS:  After our time away, we took a moment to review an anagram.  They also reminded me why we call them "magical" - how with the same letters we can make two different words with two completely different meanings.  Then it was back to completing our packets on anagrams.  They continued using their letters to help them complete the pages with 5 letter words.  Then they completed a challenging worksheet that led into our next lesson - they needed to replace a set of words or phrases with a synonym without using the letter "e".  They gave it their best effort, we will re-visit this in our next lesson.  
It was time to move onto our new lesson by solving our next secret message.  This time our cipher was The Spy Pie Cipher - I was proud because we had a lot of them who were able to break the code!  Our new message stated:  The Letter E is used most often when we write!  We will begin to work with this message next week with our new lesson.

2nd GRADE:  THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE:  These guys impressed me these past two weeks!  I was pleased that this group set a good pace with the novel study and we were able to complete the story before our 2 weeks off.  

However, I was not sure how Jeopardy would go with such a long break - they were up to the challenge of starting the game with chapters 6-10 and remembered most of the details.  We used our next two class periods to complete all of the rounds of Jeopardy.  
We have just a few more activities to complete with our Novel Study, but I already shared with them that we will begin a new one when we finish.  They are super excited and are trying to get hints to our next story.
It is top secret - but I am thinking they will learn about it in a few weeks!


3rd GRADE:  COMPARING AUTHORS:  We began a new lesson, but we are still focusing on Jane Goodall.  This time we are going to compare 2 different biographies on Jane Goodall presented in picture books.  We watched the video Jane Goodall Showing Us a Better Way to lead us into our new lesson.  We went into a discussion on the song playing in the background of the video titled "Why Shouldn't We?" by Mary Chapin.  They struggled with the understanding that we can all make a difference and do our part.  We took a step away from the lesson to discuss that they can make a difference on important causes to them now and we don't have to wait to make a difference in the world.  Each of the students chose a topic that was important to them and then brainstormed 3 ways they could try and make a difference.  

This led us into a class discussion, as we listed the causes the children shared and strategies to help them.  A lot of them focused on giving up their own stuff to get the money for their cause. This brought up how our school has had fundraisers for different causes and how that could be a solution for most of them, instead of giving up their own toys.  Taking a step away from our lesson to focus on the bigger picture helped get the students focused on the meaning of our lesson.  We will start back with our lesson next week. 


MATH

1ST GRADE:  Our one-loop game has grown to the two-loop game!  Our two loops now over lap - think Venn diagram - making us now need to figure out two labels!  They did a great job with this working as a team.  One student would get one label and that would help another student figure out the next -  Great Teamwork!  When they needed to answer the whole solution on their own is when they admitted this was a challenge for them.

  We discussed the strategy of focusing on what you see in one-loop at a time and then see if those labels match the overlap area.  This was a big help with them - especially when it came time to try it independently on a worksheet.  
We will continue with this lesson next week!  



2ND GRADE:  We have moved onto Chapter 2!  Dru and Teller requested our help in exploring 3D shapes.  We started out by defining and developing a strong understanding for our 2D shapes.  We discussed that our 2D shapes our "flat" and have 2 measurements: length and width.  This led us on a shape hunt around the room.  
We then switched gears to develop a definition for our 3D shapes.  Our 3D shapes are "fat" and have 3 measurements: length, width and depth.  Again, they went around the room looking for our 3D shapes.  Next it was time to construct some 2D shapes.  Each student used straws and pipe cleaners to build a different 2D shape.  Then the students went around the room completing a chart on each shape.  They had to write down what they observed by looking at the different shapes.  We had just enough time for them to share their observations.  
They did great observing attributes such as: parallel lines, right angles, polygons, sides and vertices.  Next week we will continue to explore 3D shapes. 


3RD GRADE:  It was time to review our knowledge with the 100's chart, as we prepare for our Think Deeply Question.  We took the time to review the terms we should see in their response for describing a pattern: columns, rows, diagonal.  We also discussed that they should describe how the pattern moved - down 1 to the left 2. 
 Due to a field trip, we did not write til the following week.   We utilized this time to work on some Think Beyond cards to explore our 100's charts further.  
These cards had us extend our chart and find common multiples of 3 different multiples.  After allowing them to solve them on their own, we would work through the solutions together.  
This week it was back to our Think Deeply Question.  We looked at the question and discussed all the details that should be included in their answers.  This time I allowed them to choose between Think Deeply 1 or 2.  They did a great job staying focused and completing their responses.  I was also pleased how well they answered the question with the break falling in the middle of our lesson.
  We will move onto a new lesson next week.   

4TH GRADE:  It was time to wrap up our lesson on comparing fractions.  We reviewed our different strategies 1 at a time as we listed them on the board:  same numerators, same denominators, using benchmarks, 1 away, common denominators, and cross-multiplying.  

Then the students needed to find the order of 3 different fractions using our different strategies.  This led us into the discussion of combining different strategies as you look for the solution.  Due to winter break interrupting our lesson, the students first looked for the proper order.  As a class, we discussed their solution and the different strategies it took us to find it.  Then the students wrote their responses on their own. 


To end the lesson, the students completed a worksheet comparing two different fractions.  We worked through problems 1-6 together showing the different ways our strategies applied and then they completed the rest on their own.  We had enough time to begin our next lesson.  They were introduced to the concept of a fraction representing equivalent parts by first assembling a tangram.  Then we had to decide if each part represented 1/7 of the square.  After a little debate, some students quickly changed their opinion and concluded that the parts cannot equal 1/7 because they are not equal.  
We will explore this concept more next week. 

Hope you Enjoyed the Warm Weather this weekend!

Ms. Losinski