~ SHARING SUNDAY ~

Around the School

October 1st-2nd - Camp Goodfellow (4th Grade - 3 Classes)
October 12th - End of 1st Grading Period
October 12th - PTO Tailgate
October 15th-16th - Camp Goodfellow (4th Grade -1 Class)
October 17th - E-Learning Day
October 24th-25th - Elementary Parent Teacher Conferences
October 26th - Fall Recess

2ND GRADE:  GRAMMAR FUN:
Before starting our novel, we took some time to introduce or review some parts of speech. Our end goal will have the students dissecting sentences throughout the novel.  It works best to review each part of speech before working up to the final task of dissecting the sentences.  This week we looked at a noun, adjective and pronoun.  After having an understanding of the definition of these words the students completed a worksheet to help them identify these items in sentences.  Next it was onto starting our novel.  In class this week we had just enough time to read chapter one together.  We will continue on our journey with Edward next week.

HOMEWORK:  This week the students were assigned to read chapters 2 & 3.
  It is imperative the students stay up-to-date with their reading at home to participate in the class.  If they do not read, they will be sent back to class to complete their reading.  This is due to the fact that the material we will be working on in the room will be centered on their reading and they are not prepared to stay in the room.  

3RD GRADE:  INTERACTIONS THROUGH CHARACTER TRAITS:
This week the students were introduced to character traits.  Character traits are not characters feelings, but defined by actions of the character throughout a story.  To help us focus on this concept, we read a biography on Paul Goble, the author of our next story.  While reading the biography, if a character trait came to their mind we would stop and look at what information led them to this conclusion.  They identified two character traits immediately for him - artistic and creative.  As we read through the biography, we found even more interactions in his life to confirm these two traits.  Next, we read the story The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble.  Next we went back and looked at each page to look for any interactions in the story that displayed a character trait for our characters.  They have been able to identify information on almost every page.  We will continue with this project next week.



4TH GRADE:  PROCEDURES AND SYSTEMS:
This week the students were taught two important acronyms for the revising and editing process: ARMS and CUPS.  As a class, we discussed the steps of these two procedures.  Next, we added in one more step for editing Peer Editing.  


The children were allowed to switch their papers and allow a friend to circle any areas that might need attention.  We briefly discussed how ARMS, CUPS and Peer Editing were procedures we were following in the system of writing.  Next, they wrote their final draft.  We had just enough time for the students to share their reports with the class.  Next week we will begin a new lesson.

2ND GRADE:  MARBLE CRASH TEST:  
This week we looked at the data from each group.  Seeing that each group didn't have the same answers, led us into a class discussion on different variances affecting our results.  Last week, one of our groups had to move their set-up to a different area because the marble kept rolling backwards - this led us to discuss a level floor.  We also saw that the using the special paper to keep the marble straight also affected the results verse just letting it go onto the carpet. 
 This led us to conclude that the different surfaces the marble landed on will affect the data.  Next we had to help Dru and Teller.  They needed our help in deciding who measured right -Dru who had 7 inches or Teller who had 14 half-inches.  After we concluded that they both had the same answer just with different units of measurements, the students explained to our friends the relationship between inches and half-inches.  We had just enough time at the end of class to test out the crash test on the table.  The students saw that the marble kept flying off the table with each level of books.  They concluded that the smooth surface contributed to the speed of the marble.

3RD GRADE:  LINEAR MEASUREMENT:  
This week it was time for the students to learn how to complete a Think Deeply.  The Think Deeply is a writing assignment that the students complete at the end of a lesson.  It is a tool we use to see if the students mastered the concept of the lesson.  The students are given a question to answer and then they must explain their thinking to the problem.  It is a way for the student to teach the lesson back to us in a writing assignment.  In math, if a child can explain and teach the lesson to another than we know that they have mastered the concept.  Although some of the students have completed these in the past, we completed the first one together.  From 2nd to 3rd grade there is a change in the way they are completed, which require more independent writing on the students part.  It is important that they understand how to complete them properly now, so they can complete them on their own throughout the year.


4TH GRADE:  EQUIVALENT FRACTIONS:
Some students needed a little more time to complete their Think Deeply.  If they finished their writing, they were asked to complete a worksheet making equivalent fractions using the identity property of multiplication.  The worksheet also showed the students that they can create equivalent fractions using the identity property of division.  To end the day, I started to see to how much information they know about adding fractions.  

This is something they will need to know going into our next lesson, so I like to make sure they have the foundation before moving forward.  Adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators was okay for most of them.  When I asked them to add two fractions with unlike denominators was when I saw a struggle.  Next week we will learn about common denominators before moving onto our next lesson.

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms Losinski