~ HEY, HEY IT'S FRIDAY ~

Around the School

February 15th - ELearning Day
Make-up day from 1-31 
 It is available online now.
February 18th - Mid-Winter Break
Presidents' Day - No School
March 7th - Kindergarten Round-up
March 15th - End of 3rd Grading Period
March 22nd - Report Cards Posted

NO HOMEWORK for all of my language arts students.  Please enjoy the 4-day weekend!
2nd Grade:  The Tale of Despereaux:
  This week we came in and started with a class discussion on The Tale of Despereaux.  This led us into a discussion on what it means to conform, as Despereaux is struggling to conform to being a mouse.  He won't scurry and won't nibble the pages of books.  In fact, he was able to make words and read the pages verse just see scribbles.  We discussed why we have rules and related it to school.  This led us into a text-to-world connection.   The students were able to understand that sometimes we have rules in place to keep us safe.  The students also shared two different text-to-text connections with Despereaux.  We compared the description of Despereaux and his big ears to the story of Dumbo.  They also remembered the story of Weslandia and stated that Wesley and Despereaux are similar because they are both different.
We will continue on our journey with Despereaux next week.


3rd Grade:  BLACK BEAUTY:
  This week our class discussion was led by modeling how to complete the in-class worksheets.  Throughout the novel the students will look at how past interactions have affected the different horses behavior.  We will track this throughout the story by looking at the different owners of Black Beauty and track interactions they had with him.  We will also look at other horses and pay attention to their temperament - we may not know their owners, but they share some stories with us on how they were treated.  This will allow us to see how our interactions and up-bringing help to define our character, which will be a focus throughout the novel.

4th Grade:  WESTING GAMES:
  This week our class discussion was led by modeling how to take the chapter notes.  We filled out the notes for chapters 1& 2 together to give them an idea on how to complete this section independently.  The students were given their folders.  There are 3 different areas to complete to help them solve the case.  Each week they should fill out their own chapter notes with their assigned reading.  This should be completed as homework.  In class, they will have a set of worksheets to complete that have different activities from solving the jobs of the characters, deciding who lives where and tracking all of the suspects.  They will also have a set of questions for each chapter.  These activities will help walk them through solving the mystery.  They will be given class time for those two areas, but must use their time wisely to complete it.  I will meet with each student weekly and make sure they are on track and help with any questions they have during their independent study.  Each student is their own detective and will follow their clues and case study to try and solve our mystery.  When they have their guess (but not too early, as the focus is on following the clues of the author) they will be allowed to submit it.  We will wait to look at them until the end of the story, but want to give them an opportunity to solve it - with a prize on the line for correct guesses!

2nd Grade:  AREA: 
 This week we took some extra time out of our lesson to review how to add fractions.  We took on this challenge of adding fractions with the same denominators.  Our answer gave us an improper fraction so we used our denominator to pull out whole squares.  This was to help us figure out the area between two shapes that were VERY close together - both falling between 17 and 18 square feet.  We had just enough time to start the next worksheet - How Big.  This had them first work with square inches to predict, find the actual area and mark their difference between the two with four different shapes.  After completing the chart, they were to place the shapes in order from the smallest to largest area.  
We will continue working with area next week.


3rd Grade:  BREAK IT UP:
   We have continued working with the distributive property of multiplication.  This time we looked back at the dimensions from the Yeti's pen.  All of these had the same perimeter of 56 ft.  Now we got to use our new strategy to look for the different areas of the pens.  They took turns choosing a pen and breaking it apart for another student to solve it.  Our big focus, while mastering this skill, is to break it apart to simplify the math.  We did see some problems that allowed the students to practice the regular formula for area - multiply the length and width.  This was a faster strategy with dimensions like 1x27 and 2x26.  We ultimately are working towards applying this strategy to simplify working with larger facts.  The students saw the more they applied the steps to a problem the more their confidence grew with this property.
We will continue working with the distributive property next week.



4th Grade:  INTRODUCTION:

  This week we took a moment to review their chapter check-ups.  We only had a few areas to talk about - with one problem as the main focus of our review.  It was a perfect topic because it led into our next lesson.  It was reviewing how to find the missing part to a whole fraction when adding a set of fractions with different denominators. 

 We had mixed answers with this question - some have mastered it, some solved it visually using the newspaper to find the answer and a few needed to review the steps again.  I also wanted to make sure my visual friends had an understanding for the mathematical steps to solve it because they may not always have a picture when solving this type of problem.  Next, we moved onto the game thumbs up.  This game makes them mentally add up fractions with different denominators to either being less than, equal to or greater than 1 yard. 

This theory is a way for them to judge their answers when working out a multi-step problem. When they can quickly identify where the answer falls in relationship to 1 whole, it lets the students know if their answer is on the right path.  However if the answer is not where they predicted it should fall, they would know to try again.  It is a great tool to use for checking their work.
We will add on another strategy next week. 

Enjoy the Weekend,

Ms.Losinski

...AND WE'RE BACK

After some crazy weeks, we were finally back to our regular schedule for High Ability.

Around the School

February 14th -  Zumba Parties 
Valentine's Day
February 15th - ELearning Day
Make-up day from 1-31 
 It is available online now.
February 18th - Mid-Winter Break
Presidents' Day - No School
March 7th - Kindergarten Round-up

It has been a crazy, busy week in language arts!  All 3 of my classes are starting novel studies at the same time for the second semester.  Please be on the lookout for your student bringing home a book on Tuesdays (4th graders will have a folder too) for required reading.  The only exception will be the week prior to spring break. 

2nd Grade: The Tale of Despereaux:

  We are off and running with the new novel study!  This week we finished brainstorming a definition of a hero.  After students shared their ideas, I saw the definition of a hero change and grow into some wonderful ideas.  At first, we had some ideas that went along with your typical superhero - a hero must save someone or have superpowers.  However, now they said that a hero must be good and kind.  Some students still believed that a hero must save someone, so we will save that idea to discuss when we finish the book.

Next, the students listened to the story Weslandia by Paul Fleischman.  This story was used to model the three connections a good reader makes:  text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world.  The book is broken into 4 parts and for the first two sections we are going to focus on making connections while we read.

To end the week, I shared with the students their new novel - The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.  They quickly discovered that it was the same author from our previous novel.  They made a prediction that our story will have adventure from looking at the cover.  They also made a connection with the author from our last story and think that adventure is a theme she might continue to use in her stories.  We shared a read aloud on Tuesday to begin our new adventure with The Tale of Despereaux.

Please read chapters 2-4.

3rd Grade:  BLACK BEAUTY:
  This group began their novel study this week.  We first listened to a short clip that previews the novel for the students.  Then, we looked over the student packet.  Throughout the novel, the students will track the owners and their interactions they share with their horses - we will track how this affects the horses' temperament throughout the story.  We also have the story divided into 4 sections - with each section the students will answer a set of short response questions.  This week we listened to chapter 1.  After hearing the story, the students completed a question that focused on the piece of advice Beauty was given by his mother as a colt.  We will focus on this advice throughout the story, so it is important the students pause and reflect on the idea of good advice.  We had time left this week to continue the read aloud by hearing two more chapters.  We will continue with our novel study next week.

Please read chapters 4-6.

4th Grade:  THE WESTING GAMES:

  We have solved our short mystery - the nephew did it!  Some students were excited because they predicted him from the start.  This led us into the introduction to our novel study.  The students were introduced to their novel The Westing Games by Ellen Raskin.  We went over a Detective Packet the students will be responsible for while solving the case.  The packet is divided into activities to complete and help track notes as they work towards solving the mystery.  The students will each have a folder that will go home on Tuesdays with their book and these materials should be returned with them for class on Monday.  We ended the week with just enough time to read chapter 1 together.

Please read chapters 2 & 3.  They do not have their folders for this week because we ran out of time to demonstrate how to complete them with chapter 1.  We will complete these together for chapters 1-3 on Monday.

2nd Grade:  AREA:
  We are now exploring area with square inches.  The students completed the activity Putting Things in Order.  This activity asked them to first predict the area of 3 shapes from smallest to largest.  Next, they were allowed to cut the shapes out and manipulate them how they wished to help determine  the correct order of the shapes.  To check their answer, they were asked to measure the shapes with square inch tiles.
  They discovered the tiles were not a perfect fit for one of the shapes.  Our last step was to use a square inch grid to measure the three shapes.  They were surprised to see that it was actually 2 of our shapes that the tiles did not fit into properly.  



This led us back into a discussion on adding up partial squares or fractions.  We will take a few minutes next week to begin class with a mini-lesson on adding the partial squares (fractions) before continuing on with the lesson. 

3rd Grade:  BREAK ME APART: 
 These guys jumped right back into their lesson.  We quickly reviewed with the small arrays from 2 weeks ago the formula for the distributive property.  Next, we switched it up and started to work the property with larger arrays.  This definitely gave them more of a challenge.  We decided to take some extra time working with the larger arrays and continued to practice applying the distributive property while looking for the area.  It is important that they master this step before moving onto their independent practice with this lesson because it is our big concept we will build on throughout the chapter. 

Next week we will continue with the lesson.



4th Grade:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:
  These guys are troopers!  When we met two weeks ago we started their chapter check-up.  After a long delay, I asked them to try and finish it giving it their best effort.  I am really proud of this group cause after grading them I was able to see they are getting it and the delay didn't affect the scores.
  For those that finished early, they had the opportunity to complete a logic puzzle.  These were requested by a student this week and are similar to the ones they completed last year.  Last year they were a struggle for them, so I was happily surprised to see them excited to solve these independently this year!  They were excited to work through the puzzle and I am seeing them do much better with them than last year - what a difference a year makes!

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski