~ FABULOUS FRIDAY~ 

AROUND THE SCHOOL

March 2nd:  Read Across America
March 11th:  Spring Forward
March 12th-16th:  IREAD *3rd Grade
March 15th:  Family Nature Night
March 16th:  End of 3rd Quarter
March 23rd:  Reports Card Day!
March 26th - March 30th:  Spring Break
April 2nd:  School Resumes

LANGUAGE ARTS


1ST GRADE:  ANAGRAMS:  We started our week by translating wumbers from our charts.  Next, it was onto reading a dialogue in speech bubbles.  The conversation was full of wumbers and anagrams.  A student stated that it reminded them of a conversation through a text message.  This led us into a discussion on why we use these 2 different "shortcuts."  Another student brought up a great point on wondering how people know what the letters stand for in acronyms - this was while discussing the meaning of TTYL.  This was a perfect time to bring up the next assignment - Should parents buy first graders cellphones?  We had a brief reminder that to persuade someone means to convince them to believe your idea.  We practiced by having them persuade me that we should have dessert for dinner.  I must say, it was easy to persuade me to this idea!  As for the cellphones, it was becoming clear that the class was becoming divided.  Some were quick to get excited about the thought of having a cellphone and others started thinking about them being too young.  We will continue with our persuasive writing next week.


2ND GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX:  This week we began with a discussion on discussing what it means to conform or follow the rules.  Then we listened to some more chapters from our story - we have a copy of the book recorded, that they are really enjoying listening too.  For the remainder of our time this week, the children spent time completing a packet on Book the 1st up to chapter 6.  

They did a very good job working on the questions and taking the time to find the answer if they did not remember it from our reading.  This packet will serve as a study guide to help us keep our information from each chapter organized.

Homework:  Please read chapters 7 through 9.

3RD GRADE:  SPARK:  This week the children were introduced to the SPARK Problem Solving Process.  It is a great process that lets the students work towards finding a solution or look for opportunities.  We discussed that it is important for them to remember that it doesn't always follow a perfect step-by-step perfect formula.  They will find themselves with the need to revisit steps and run into road blocks along the path to find the solution.  

This is okay and we want that - so when they find the perfect solution - all of the problems will have worked themselves out by the end.  Our goal is to find an opportunity for the older and younger students to interact more within our school.  Together, we worked on defining the parameters to our dilemma.  Things the students must consider are the school day, interests of the younger and older students, the cost and any materials their idea would need.  From there they broke into two groups of two.  Each group has a scribe responsible for taking all their notes.  For our project, each group needed to come up with 10 possibilities.  After reaching their 10 possibilities, they needed to decide their top 3 ideas that we will discuss and work out the rest of the SPARK process as a class. 
We will continue with this project next week. 


MATH

1ST GRADE:  NEGATIONS:  This week we began by practicing our negations.  Each student got to display their Yes - No paper on the board.  Then each student took a turn adding a shape.  The student whose paper it was decided if the others filled it out correctly.  Then it was onto beginning their Think Deeply.  Imi and Zani needed our help in completing a Carroll Diagram and filling in labels using our negations.  We will continue with our Think Deeply next week with the writing portion.

2ND GRADE:  FLOOR DESIGN:  This week it was all about the Floor Design project.  We briefly reviewed the requirements from what they were introduced to last week.  Then students worked on their designs.  When they were done they evaluated their designs with the checklist.  



The checklist did make some of our friends go back and redesign until, they met all the requirements to our project.  We did have two students master their designs on the first attempt!  When they had a completed floor design they would join me to go over our Think Beyond cards.

3RD GRADE:  REVIEW & FUN:  We decided to delay starting our new chapter until the students finished ISTEP.  We took a moment to look at one problem from their Chapter Review.  


We discussed making sure we answer all parts to a word problem.  This was the one area I saw a consistent error.  I told them this is why we work so hard on our Think Deeply to help us explain our math in words.  We will take the time to focus on this with our future Think Deeply questions. 
 For the remainder of the week, we completed 2 different puzzling puzzles worksheet for some added practice - they really liked that lesson.  Then for a challenge they worked on another logic puzzle.  I was super proud - 3 students figured it!  We reviewed 2 different strategies to solving the puzzle.





4TH GRADE:  LOGIC FUN:  Our class time fell right after ISTEP for this group.  By the time they came to my room, it was obvious they needed to get some energy out.  We quickly reviewed one problem from our Chapter Review from last week.  Then I gave them a quick preview of our next lesson - adding fractions.  Our introduction called for the Thumbs-Up Game -which we played together introducing the idea of visualizing adding fractions with unlike denominators.
  Thinking of their fractions strips they were supposed to decide if it would be less than 1, equal to one or greater than 1.  To end our week, they took another go at a Logic Puzzle.  This time they are responsible for working it out on their own.  For 15 minutes they completed it individually then they were allowed to work with a partner.  


Enjoy the Weekend,

Ms Losinski