Fun Friday!

 FINALLY FRIDAY

Around the School

November 2nd - PTO Movie Night
November 4th - Daylight Savings:
Fall Backwards
November 6th - E-Learning Day
November 11th - Veterans Day
November 15th - 4th Grade Music Program
at 6:30pm at Chesterton Middle School
November 19th - Grandparents Day at Yost
More Information Coming Soon
November 21st- 23rd - Thanksgiving Break - No School
November 26th - School Resumes

FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT
for Yosties
Friday, November 2nd 
Doors open at 6pm - Movie will start at 6:30pm
Entry to Movie Night is FREE along with FREE popcorn.
*Drinks and Candy available to purchase for $1

Come Kick Off November!

2ND GRADE:  THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE: 

 This week it was time to take a break from our novel study.  First, the students revisited their prediction tracker and  modified their thoughts from the beginning.  I stressed to them that they should be able to share more details now that we are 14 chapters into our book verse just hearing the title.  Next, we focused on a text-to-text connection.  The students listened to the story The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.  Then we completed a Venn Diagram comparing the two stories.  We focused on the setting, character and plot for our chart.  The students did a GREAT job finding connections with the two stories!  

Next week we will continue on our journey with Edward.

3RD GRADE:  BEATRIX POTTER:    This week the students completed a journal response on nature and how they have utilized it in imaginative play.  Their writing prompt was similar to how we saw Beatrix Potter take her interactions and write them into children's stories.  Next, it was time to look at The Flowers by Robert Louis Stevenson.  We took a few moments to discuss how a poem is composed.  We discussed lines, stanza rhyme and scheme.  Then, we read through the poem.  This was a perfect time to introduce the reading analyzer again to help us better understand the meaning behind this piece of literature.  We completed the reading analyzer together to help us become more confident in utilizing this tool.  This poem really stressed the importance of understanding the vocabulary.  When the children first try and define the poem they can really struggle, until they realize that those tricky words are all names of flowers.  Then, you see that aha moment where they can now understand what is taking place in the poem.  It really teaches them the importance to stop and look a word up if you are struggling with the text.  

We continued through the analyzer together and will wrap this lesson up next week.

4TH GRADE:  MONEY, MONEY, MONEY:  

This week we began a unit on the system of money.  First, the students completed a writing prompt on if they received $20 what would they purchase.    This led us into a discussion on needs verse wants.  We defined our needs as something we must have to survive.  Our wants were something we had for fun or entertainment.  They did a great job coming up with a list of items for both sides - I was super impressed with the thought that food is need, but junk food is a want.  I did have a few friends try to convince me that Legos were a need - it is always great to let them debate their ideas.  Next, the students completed a chart on what they think their needs and wants cost in today's world.  This led us into our next project of how the value of money has changed over the 19th century.

We will continue with this topic this week.

Due to Halloween festivities on Wednesday, some of my groups only met on Thursday.

2ND GRADE:  CRASH TEST:  These guys are rocking out the crash test!  We might be ready to run the test next week.  The students put the finishing touches on their designs and submitted them to quality control.  At quality control, another classmate would make sure their design met all the requirements to the project. 

 We had a few students that needed to go back and modify their seat belt design because of utilizing too much of certain materials.  They are allowed the magic number of 50 centimeters of supplies, but are also restricted to certain limits of each of the materials.  Next, the students had to draw their designs.  Their drawing must include labels of the materials and the amount they used.  

They needed to make sure to use as much detail as possible because these will be utilized for a class prediction next week. 

We will continue with the crash test next week. 

3RD GRADE:  CREATING THE YETI:  

We have finished the Yeti!  The students did a great job working together to make our model of the Yeti.  When it came to adding details they understood this well when we needed to create a face for the Yeti.  They had to keep taking measurements to find out where to place the eyes, nose and mouth in relationship to one another.  Our final step for the Yeti was to create his mittens.  For this project the students each created their own mitten.  This allowed me to assess and see if they were each understanding the concepts of this lesson and able to apply them on their own.  I am happy to report that the mittens were almost identical in size!  This let me know they both mastered the idea of measuring and doubling.  The biggest struggle was their need to perfect the design.  As a treat for Halloween, the students did so well creating the mittens we allowed that to be their Think Deeply for this lesson, which meant no writing for this lesson.  

We had just enough time to start the introduction to our new lesson.  Our first task was for two students to measure out an area that was 8 steps by 20 steps.  Quickly, one of my students identified a problem that this would not be fair if someone shoe size was bigger than the others.  They caught me before we could create this activity!  This led us into a discussion of using our foot as a benchmark to a foot could work if you were an 11 or a 12 (in women's sizes).  They also concluded we could utilize a size 6, but would need to double it.  Awesome idea - tying in our last lesson into our new one!

We will continue on with our lesson next week. 

 4TH GRADE:  THINK DEEPLY:

  It was time for our Think Deeply to wrap up mixed numbers and improper fractions.  This week we took a break from the writing being our focus and worked on the solution.  The students were given a number line unlabeled in sixths and had one of a frogs jumps labeled on it at 1 and 1/3 feet.  They had to figure out where to place the other two jumps of the frog 5/12 and 1 and 3/4.  Right away they noticed a problem of 3 different denominators and none of them matching the given number line.  We looked at the three denominators of 3, 4, and 12 and found a common denominator of 12.  This was also a perfect time for us to switch the mixed numbers to improper fractions.  Now that we had improper fractions we could create equivalent fractions using our new denominator of 12.  

Now it was time to look back at the number line.  We had to figure out where to place 1, which would let us see how to label the number line.  Right away we counted out twelve lines, but that would have us placing one past our 1 and 1/3 that was already labeled, so we knew that was not the solution.  A few students came to the board with different strategies that unfortunately did not work.  Finally, one student decided we should cut each of the sixths in half which would now allow us to label the number line in twelfths.  Now the students were able to label our number line and place the other two jumps on the line.

We will start a new lesson next week.

Have A Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski