FLYING-BY FRIDAY

I cannot believe that we are already in the final stretch of the year!  I am sad to say we only have a few more weeks of High Ability left.  My Language Arts groups are finishing up final projects and all my math classes are quickly reaching their final Unit Assessment.  Our last week of High Ability will be May 7th - May 11th.  

It looks like it might be true and warmer weather is on the way!  Hopefully, it will allow for some outdoor fun on
 Earth Day - Sunday, April 22nd, 2018.

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

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:  REBUS PUZZLES:  This week we started our new lesson by solving our new secret message:  Pictures can stand for sounds in words.  This led us into looking at a set of Rebus Puzzles to help them understand the meaning of the message.  They were told to think of these puzzles as a math equation as we see addition and subtraction signs in the puzzles.  We have to combine pictures as the sound with letters to create the new word or phrase.

  They had lots of fun with solving these puzzles!  I allowed them to take some time to create their own puzzles to share with their classmates to solve. 







 Next week we will continue with this lesson.





2ND GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX:  We are very close to wrapping up Book the 3rd!  We reached a point in the story where 3 of our characters are all linked together by the dungeon - Despereaux, Roscuro, and Mig.  The students were asked to write their thoughts on how the three are going to possibly be linked together now that we know they are so close to one another.  One student remembered a key point that Mig is destined to be a part of Roscuro's revenge.  For Homework this week the students were assigned the last few chapters of Book the 3rd.  They are eager to begin Book the 4th and see our stories all meet back up at the same point!

HOMEWORK:  This week the students were asked to reach Chapters 31-33.



3RD GRADE:  BLACK BEAUTY:  This week we worked through a set of questions on chapters 1-10.  They also started to fill in their tracking sheets of interactions throughout the story.  Our story started with hearing Black Beauty's younger years and how he was trained properly to give him the proper upbringing for a positive future.  However, we met a horse named Ginger who had a different demeanor.  We were heard about her upbringing and how it was quite opposite of Beauty.  

Silly pose - Request :)

The interactions she had throughout her life have shaped her for the behavior she displayed now.  However, we have seen a change in her as the new owners are showing her she can trust them.  This is an important idea for the students to focus on - how our upbringing as a child is molding us for our future.  We will continue to study the interactions as we continue our journey with the novel.


HOMEWORK:  This weeks assigned reading was chapters 13-16.


MATH

1ST GRADE:  SYMMETRY:  This week we worked through more of our symmetry stations.  First, they cut-out shapes out of a folded paper.  The focus was on the fold being our line of symmetry.  We looked at some pictures and had to find the missing piece in the mirror.

  This was to help them focus on what they are looking for in the mirror to determine if a shape is symmetrical - the other half of the photo - not a new shape, which can be tricky!  They completed a sheet where they needed to find all the symmetrical shapes and to all the lines of symmetry.  Our last activity was with some tangram fun.  They had a worksheet to complete where they built a shape and then had to determine if three lines on the shape were symmetrical.  They enjoyed working with the tangrams!  They will be excited to find out next week we have one more tangram center to complete.  We will wrap up our symmetry unit next week.





2ND GRADE:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:  This week we reviewed identifying the 2D shapes in 3D shapes based on our view.  We focused on identifying the perspective to which you are looking at it.  How right and left are reversed to the object when we are looking at something.  I shared a funny story with them from my night before  involving on your right or mine when a friend gave me directions and I saw the students get the ah-ha moment!  It clicked!  Then it was time for our Chapter Check-up.  Again, this is a tool to allow me to see if the students understand the material before we move-on to our next topic.  They are doing amazing this year and at a quick glanced rocked out the chapter check-ups.  Onto new things next week!

3RD GRADE:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:  It was time to wrap-up our mental math unit.  This week the students were given their chapter check-up.  Again, this is a tool we utilize to see if the students grasped the material before we move onto our next topic.  This topic was a struggle for us as so many of them were focused on the easiness of adding the numbers rather than the different strategies.  As we continued on many of them started to focus on the strategy verse the answer and I saw a big change with some of them.  However, when looking over the chapter check-ups we did take some time out this week to review the importance of the strategy and not just the answers.  It is not always about the solution, but being able to explain the process.  They seemed to have a better handle on it after we discussed the chapter check-up.  We will move onto our next unit next week.  

4TH GRADE:  MEASURING-UP:  This week we wrapped up our Magic Squares and Triangles.  The students love solving these puzzles!  We looked at our Think Deeply questions were they were asked to solve for X - which was one of the missing squares.

  We discussed the strategies and identified what given numbers would help us find the solution and then the students went to work.  Our next lesson is going to teach multiplying and dividing fractions through the idea of cooking.  Together we completed an introductory worksheet to introduce the idea of fractions and cooking.  We will continue to work with this lesson next week.    


Have a Great Weekend,

Ms Losinski