Blogging on a Monday 

&

Snow on April 12th

Sorry for the delay on the weekly blog.  We have had a busy weekend and I had to put some finishing touches on the blog from Friday...

AROUND THE SCHOOL

April 16th - May 4th: ISTEP 3rd & 4th only
April 16th - April 20th:  School Safety Week
April 27th:  Book Fair & Ice Cream Floats
April 27th:  Deadline for Summer School Registration
May 2nd:  Early Dismissal at 1:45

Second Grade CogAT Results

Letters went home  on Friday with the results of their CogAT test.  No one has been identified as qualifying for high ability just yet.  End of the year NWEA data is needed before final decisions are made.  Please remember, CogAT is a test with zero reading.  It covers nothing that is being taught at school, nor is it something you can prepare your child for.  It is a test which shows how students think.  CogAT often identifies your out-of-the-box thinkers and those students who can make those connections between different examples.  If your child did not do well on this test, no worries.  Click here for a link to help explain the results.  Remember, this test is only one of two ways into HA.  

The other research based test is NWEA.  It is an achievement test where we use their end of year score.  This is the other pathway into HA.  NWEA is unique, in that it adjusts as the student answers.  If they answer a question correctly, then it gives them another challenging question.  This allows them to go above grade level which is why it's a perfect assessment to use for HA identification.  To clarify, you do not need to do well on both tests.  While waiting for the NWEA scores, a good suggestion would be to look at your child's past NWEA scores for Fall and Winter.  The score you need to look at is the middle one similar to the highlighted snip above.  The middle, bold number needs to be 95 or higher in order to be considered for HA.  The window for NWEA opens April 19th and goes until May 18th.  As with any test, students need to take their time and do their personal best. 

FREE High Ability Summer School

This is a wonderful opportunity for your child to be immersed in the study of Medieval Times.  There will be projects, reading, presentations, guest speakers and a chance for students to present what they've learned in the packed full three weeks!  Students who have attended have raved about the experience!  This is the unit that usually has the most students attend.  It sparks the most interest from our students.  I know there's often an overlap between other summer programs; DON'T LET THIS STOP YOU!  Mrs. Pethes welcomes any and all even if you need to miss a week or so.  It's worth it plus it's FREE this year!  Your child will still get so much out of this!  Please ask if you have questions.  Friday, April 27th is the deadline for registration!!!!  I have more copies of the brochure if you need one.  Dates are as follows: May 31, June 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21.

LANGUAGE ARTS


1ST GRADE:  PUNCTUATION:  We concluded our lesson on Punctuation this week.  First, we read the story Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka.  This story is about two boys who become friends.  My students were quick to point out there weren't many words, however the punctuation and illustrations help to tell us what is going on in our story.  They let us know feelings and emotions at the different points throughout our book.  
The students each took a turn reading the pages of our book to practice reading with expression.  Then we had to add in all the punctuation to a paragraph.  They did a very good job with this assignment.  We ended this lesson by completing a paper that shows a connection that they have with a friend. 

 Next week we will start our new lesson.

2ND GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX:  This week we finished reading Book the 2nd.  The kids were able to make a great connection back to Book the 1st.  After gaining the knowledge of why soup is banned from the kingdom, the children now understand why all the spoons, bowls and ladles were thrown in the dungeon.  We also discovered why our character Roscuro's heart is filled with revenge.  We learned his heart was broken, but mended crooked. This allowed us to take a moment and connect back to Edward's Journey. 

 I reminded them that these stories were written by the same author.  We compared the broken heart from Edward and how it could mend and heal to Roscuro's heart that healed crooked.  We are now presented with our character that has a broken heart filled with hate and revenge.  They took a moment to reflect on their thoughts on his revenge.  



We will continue on with our novel study next week.











3RD GRADE:  BLACK BEAUTY:  This week we dove right into our novel study of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.  We were introduced to our main character as a calf named Darkie with his original master.  During our novel study, the students will be completing 2 different tracking sheets. 



 One will track Darkie as his name changes through his life's journey.  The second will be tracking his interactions throughout the story as he moves from owner to owner.  This will be our final unit for the year and is a perfect way for the students to observe and note all of the interactions they see throughout the story. 


 They then will be able to refer back to our 3 generalizations on interactions and apply those to what they are tracking.  The students will be assigned homework throughout this unit and it is imperative that they stay up-to-date with their reading.


HOMEWORK:  This week the students were asked to read chapters 7-10.  *The chapters are marked in Roman Numerals, so the students know to read through chapter X - A Talk in the Orchard.





MATH


1ST GRADE:  SYMMETRY:  This week we continued working with symmetry.  They started on the  first of 3 different centers they will complete.  This week they cut out different shapes and had to fold them to look for lines of symmetry.  If the shape was symmetrical, they would trace the line on the fold - the line of symmetry.  They could check their work with the mirrors.  These guys were not fooled, as some shapes were not symmetrical.  They immediately brought that shape up to me letting me know it!  We will work complete our next two centers next week.

*Missed pictures of this group because of the field trip this week - will have extras posted next week.

2ND GRADE:  2D VIEWS OF 3D SHAPES:  This week our focus from Dru and Teller was to describe our 3D shapes so another person would be able to replicate our playground designs.  That means we had to look at a 3D design and first identify the different views to 
our shape.  


Then we went back to focusing on the faces we see in each view.  Since we were identifying faces, our drawings would have 2D shapes as the description.  We worked through one design as a group.  Then it was time for them to try it on their own.  Each student created a 3D design and created the different views.  




We will wrap up this lesson next week.

3RD GRADE:  THINK DEEPLY:  This week we completed our last lesson on mental math.  The students completed their partner game.  Then we looked at the think deeply question together.  It asked a similar question to the game the students played.

 They looked at 3 numbers and had to explain 2 different strategies to add the numbers together.  We took turns with different students coming to the board and sharing their strategy they used.  They filled up our board with all their ideas.  Although some are very similar, it just shows the different ways the students can put the numbers together.  

We will wrap up this chapter next week!








4TH GRADE:  MAGIC TRIANGLE:  This group continued to work on their magic triangles.  We reviewed the steps to take to solve the magic triangles.  The students must remember to look for all 3 solutions before placing them in the triangle. They must remember when looking for the solutions they are looking for 3 ways to add up the fractions to the magic number.  This will allow them to identify the numbers used only once and place them in the triangle correctly.  This was causing some students a little trouble, as they wanted to start with filling in the triangle first.  After our review, it went much easier for the class.   We will wrap this lesson up next week.
*Missed pictures of this group because of the field trip this week - will have extras posted next week.


Have a Great Week,

Ms Losinski