Let's Spread Some Holiday Cheer!

Themed Days for next week of 12/17 - 12/21

Monday - Elf Day

Tuesday - Reindeer Day

Wednesday - Grinch Day

Thursday - Santa Day

Friday - Polar Express Day - Wear Pajamas

Around the School

December 21st - End of 2nd Grading Period
December 24th - January 7th - Winter Recess
January 8th - Class Resumes
January 21st - Martin Luther King Jr Day -
No School
January 25th - PTO Movie Night

All Language Arts groups only met on Monday because I was out of the building on Tuesday.

2nd Grade:  The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane:
This week we continued with our Edward Tracker.  The students were excited to discuss their homework from the week because this chapter explained the illustration on the front cover.  It was Edward's dream he was having when all things went black after his head broke. 

 We also saw Bryce make the ultimate sacrifice for a loved one by giving Edward away so he could be mended.  He had to break his connection with Edward by choice to heal Edward.  We see him put the needs of someone else over his own feelings for the good of the other person.  At this point in the story it is important to pause for a moment and recap how much time has passed.  I have heard some students say Abilene may be in her 20's and some even said she may be married with a child of her own. 
 When we come in next week we will end the story with a read aloud.

3rd Grade:  Jane Goodall:
This week we started a new lesson.  It asked us to compare and contrast two different biographies on Jane Goodall.  These biographies are presented as short stories and not a chapter book.  We discussed the difference between a Venn Diagram and a T-Chart for comparing and contrasting topics.  
This lesson asked us to utilize a T-Chart as we analyze the two stories.  The two stories we were asked to compare were The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter and Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell.  First, they wrote down their thoughts to the title and cover.  To end the week, we had just enough time to read the two stories.
  We will continue with this lesson next week.

4th Grade:  A Change in Language:
This week the students were challenged to create some new words with their lists of prefixes, root words and suffixes.  Then, we discussed the different ways our language changes today.  We used their musical performance as a reference to popular words in different decades.  This led us into different inventions and discoveries people make and create a name for them.  The last thing we looked at is as technology changes are language grows with new words.  We wrapped up the lesson on language by watching a clip from the book Frindle by Andrew Clements.  This was just a silly reminder for them of how names are created and can be changed as they become popular or trending!  We will move onto a new lesson next week.

Due to the eLearning day on Wednesday, my math groups only met one day this week.


2nd Grade:  Area:  
This week we explored the idea of halves, thirds and quarters further.  Halves were brought up briefly at the end of class last week by a student.  We took the time to look at each of these measurements in more detail.  We discussed how many of each piece we would need to make a whole and the students saw samples of each of these measurements.  Then, they were introduced to their next activity - Measuring Around the Room.


   Together we measured the teacher's desk and a student's table.  We needed to utilize the half measurement for the teacher's desk.  They successfully converted 5 halves to 2 1/2 square feet.  Then, it was onto measuring the room.  While, they measured the different areas they utilized the different parts when they noticed one whole would be too much.  One group quickly discovered they had a portion that equaled 3 quarters with 9 quarters in all.  It was great hearing them work out the measurements and figure out they had 2 and 1/4 square feet in quarters alone.  We will continue working with area around the room next week.

3rd Grade:  Area:

This group continued on their journey of figuring out the area of their irregular shapes.  They ran into some challenges as they were figuring out the area of some of the larger portions.  One student had a rectangle of 9x18.  This was a challenge, but when asked if we could break that apart into a smaller rectangle - they quickly solved it when making two rectangles that measured 9x9. 


 They were also discovering that one half of their shape was close to 300 square inches.  This discovery led to comments about how far off the original predictions were of their original shape.  This was completely okay because their first one was more of a guess.  We took a moment to discuss this further with what they know now and decided 600 square inches is a better estimate with the information they know now. 
 They will continue looking for the area next week.


4th Grade:  Think Deeply:  
This week we wrapped up our Think Deeply.  All the students have already solved the order of the bags.  They continued explaining their thoughts on the two different methods they chose to order the bags.


  If the students finished early, they were asked to solve the second Think Deeply.  It asked them to compare two fractions using common denominators.  This is not a favorite strategy for most of the students.  However, it is such an important concept for them to grasp, especially when we start to add and subtract fractions that I want to encourage them to keep practicing it.  Next week, we will start a new lesson and have a little fun for the holidays!  

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski