~ 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