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
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.
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
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!
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.
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!
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