~ WINTERFEST FRIDAY ~

Around the School

December 7th - Winterfest 
from 5:30 to 7:30
December 12th - E-Learning Day
December 21st - End of 2nd Grading Period
December 24th - January 7th - Winter Recess
January 8th - Class Resumes

Come to Yost's

Friday, December 7th 

 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM

$5.00 per child

*Price includes all activities and a ticket to receive one hot chocolate.

Food can be purchased at an additional cost.

Event Details:

Make your own Bead Ornaments

Customized Yost Ornament

Candy Cane Fishing

Make your own Reindeer Food

Pictures with Santa and Mrs. Clause

Hot Chocolate Bar

& Food

We hope you can make it!

2nd GRADE:  THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE:

This week the students finished looking at their predictions for the final time.  Then, as a class we defined the word miraculous together.  This allowed them to share some of their thoughts from their predictions on miraculous.  Some of the students related the term to being wonderful and magical.  Many of them thought it could be exciting, to which we decided that when something miraculous happens a feeling of excitement may be associated with the person at the time.  To end class this week, we discussed the reading assignment.  We again see Edward have another vision of seeing Pellegrina.  This time he is screaming at her that she got her wish and he has learned to love.  Edward has learned to love, but he is still figuring out how to handle all of the emotions that come with love.  He wants her to help him because he has learned to love, but he is broken.  The kids were left with many questions from their reading this week because their last chapter ended with a CRASH, as Edward's head hit a counter.  They were curious to read on to see what has happened to him.  We should finish reading the novel this week.

This week the students were assigned Chapters 22 and 23.

3rd GRADE:  ANNOTATIONS:  This week we practiced using our annotations with a close reading on a biography of Jane Goodall.  We worked together on a biography to model the proper way to annotate.  We were going line by line to decide is this important information I need to think further on or not.  It is important to remember that each time you mark or highlight something, that you should include a few notes next to it to explain why or what was important to you.  Then, it was time for them to practice this skill independently.  They did a great job finding important information and needed a quick reminder to add the notes in the margin.  
They were extremely excited to share a Disney fact with me that David Greybeard, a famous chimpanzee Jane Goodall studied, is carved in the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  We decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to assign Ms. Losinski some homework - I am going to look through our pictures to see if we have captured a picture of this on our vacations.  To wrap up the lesson, this week the students wrote in their journals.  They had to pick from a set of quotes from Jane Goodall and write about a time it applied to their life.  We will start a new lesson next week.

4th GRADE:  CHANGE IN LANGUAGE:

  This week we continued looking at the history of the origin of the English language.  We finished the questions and shared some of our answers.  This sheet allowed them to look at the first people to speak Latin, the beginning languages it spread to and then end with how it became a part of the English language.  It also introduced us to our word parts. The students were already familiar with the terms prefix, root word and suffix. We did add onto the definition of these words by stating that when added they changed the meaning of the words. 
 Then, we started defining words based on their word parts.  We started with a set of words with Latin word parts and then looked at a set with Greek word parts.  Each time the student divided the word with a line to show the separation of the prefix to root word or root word to suffix.  Then, they created a definition for each of these words based on their word parts. 

 We will continue looking at the change in language next week.

2nd GRADE:  AREA:  This week we continued exploring area.  We worked with our range from last week of 15 square feet to 25 square feet.  First, we revisited our estimate of 15 square feet and concluded it was a good size, but a student could probably fit into a slightly smaller area of 10 square feet.
  Then, we measured out 25 square feet and quickly concluded that this would be too large for one person.  Some of my students were getting confused thinking we were looking for a tent to fit a group of people, but for the moment we are only looking for how much sleeping space a student would take up in a tent. 
 Next, it was onto measuring actual sleeping bags. The class was split into two groups.  First each group needed to estimate the area of the sleeping bag in square feet.  Then, they took our scrapbook paper and measured out the actual area.  Both groups quickly noticed a problem - they each had gaps!  It was more than 2 feet, but less than 3 feet.  One student quickly worked the problem out and said it looks like we are missing half a sheet of paper.  This introduced to them we can measure with a half sheet to create whole feet.  They each had 6 halves which they determined would equal 3 whole feet.

  We will continue to work with area next week.

3rd GRADE:  AREA:

This week the students finished finding the exact area of their fried egg. Then, we moved onto exploring area of a large irregular shape.  The students traced their bodies onto wrapping paper with a 1-inch grid on the reverse side of the roll.  This gave us an irregular  2-dimensional shape to explore with area. The students first recorded an estimate of their shape. Then, we broke the shape down into portions: arms, hands, legs, torso, and head. 
Together, I worked with each group modeling with the hand on looking for a square within our irregular shape.  Then, we added in the rest of the whole squares within the shape and recorded this answer.  Next, they looked at and recorded the partial squares and converted them to whole squares.  Finally, they would add their two totals together to get the total area for this section of the irregular shape.  They will continue this process throughout the partitions until they find the total area of their shape.  We will continue working with area next week.


4th GRADE:  THINK DEEPLY:  This week we had a final review on ordering fractions.  The students completed a worksheet with various problems ordering fractions to continue practicing their different strategies.  Then, we moved onto our Think Deeply.  They were asked to place in order from least to greatest a set of 3 fractions.  Then, they had to explain at least 2 of the strategies they used to order the fractions. 


We looked at the set of fractions and decided the three strategies that could be used were benchmarks, common numerators or cross-multiplying.  After deciding which two steps they preferred, they needed to explain the process of using that strategy in their own words.  To help them with their writing, I reminded them to write it as if they were the teacher explaining it to someone that knows nothing about the topic.  I also told them to remember to use their keywords when referring to parts of the fraction.  We will wrap up this lesson next week.
  

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski