~FREEZING FRIDAY~

Mark it on the Calendar!

Monday, January 20th:  Martin Luther King Jr Day

No School
Friday, January 24th:  Mid-Year Awards Ceremony
9:10 - 10:10
Friday, February 14th:  Happy Valentine's Day
Friday, February 14th - Monday, February 17th:  Mid-Winter Break - No School Friday & Monday
Monday, February 17th:  President's Day




1st Grade:  PERSUASIVE WRITING:
This week we reviewed the definitions of an acronym and wumber.  We discussed what makes them similar - they shared a great response that they are both shortcuts.  This led us into why we might need to use wumbers and acronyms.  I had to explain to the students that long, long ago we were charged for the amount of text messages we would send and they also counted our characters. 
 Lucky for them, most cell phone plans now include unlimited messages, so they will never experience this struggle.  My sister was kind enough to allow us to text her some of our silly wumbers and we saw that she was able to translate them making these a universal written language.

Next it was time for us to revisit persuasive writing.  After a little guidance they were able to remember that as the author they would convince someone of their opinion.  It was now time for the students to become authors.  They were going to write on the topic:  Should parents buy first-graders cell phones?  They were quick to form their opinion and used their hamburger model to plan out their reasons. 
 Then, we worked together to turn it into a paragraph.  They did a great job at coming up with transition words from one reason to another.  WARNING:  One student shared they are trying to persuade their parents for a hermit crab and they now have the tools needed to persuade you of their ideas.
Next week, we will edit our persuasive writing.   

2nd Grade:  MY FATHER'S DRAGON:
This week we came back together to review a summary.  Some of my groups were struggling with their skits because they were skipping the planning phase.  As a whole group, we wrote a summary to chapter 3.  Then, the three groups took 1 part of the summary to act out a skit.

Next, it was time to introduce the students to a reading analyzer.  A reading analyzer is a tool all my language arts classes utilize to help the reader look for deeper meaning to their reading.  

It makes the reader track new/important words, characters and how they are feelings, images and what they mean, and defining the main idea of the passage.  This was the first time this group completed a reading analyzer, so we completed it as a class.  We read aloud chapter 4 and used that chapter to complete our analyzers.
We will continue with our book study next week.

3rd Grade:  GRAMMAR TIME:

This week was all about grammar.  We started with an exercise that had us use commas to separate a series.  Then, we moved onto correct punctuation when someone is speaking.  We were able to practice this activity 3 ways: in the beginning, middle and end of the sentence.  They were familiar with this and knew we needed to use quotation marks, but needed a quick review on placing the comma in the sentence.  Our last topic for grammar was utilizing the correct verb tense in a paragraph. 
 The students had to identify if the paragraph was in past, present or future.  They were able to decide the paragraph was in past tense.  They were having some trouble identifying some of the verbs in the sentence.  They needed a quick review on linking verbs.  After that, they were good to go to correct the paragraph.  
Next week, we will start our book study.  

4th Grade:  IT'S A MYSTERY:
This week the students started an activity that works through a serious of logic puzzles to solve the mystery of who stole Mrs. Moneybag's will.  This was a great activity to make the students start thinking like a detective.  Each activity walks them through the important elements to a mystery.  This week the students examined who were are suspects, who had a motive and who had the opportunity to commit the crime.  After they complete a logic puzzle, they will eliminate one suspect at a time.  So far they have determined the friend, chauffeur and secretary are innocent.  A few times, they needed a reminder to follow the evidence when determining if someone was innocent. This is great practice for them before we begin our novel study - it really makes them start to think like a detective!
They will continue to solve the mystery next week.


1st Grade:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:

This week it was time to complete our Chapter Check-up for Chapter 2.  This covered all the topics we have discovered with area.  They Students have done a great job with this chapter and their chapter check-ups reflected it.  To wrap up chapter 2, the students got to enjoy a KaHoot day of fun as a final review of area.

We will move onto a new chapter next week.


2nd Grade:  3D SHAPES:
This week we had a few students who needed to finish identifying their attributes of their 2D shapes.  Then, we held a group discussion to identify the differences in a prism and pyramid.  Now onto their next challenge, they had to build 3D shapes out of straws on pipe cleaners.
  We came back together as a group and had a talk about teamwork and perseverance.  This project was all about trial and error.  They needed a little reminder that we can learn from our mistakes to find the solution.  They were able to successfully build all of the 3D shapes.  This led us into a preview of our next step.  I shared with the students a video of Bubbles with 3D shapes.  They seemed very excited!

We will have some bubble exploration with our 3D shapes next week.



3rd Grade:  PUZZLING PUZZLES:
This week was a catch up week to allow all the students to finish working through their puzzling puzzles worksheets.  After completing the packets, the students continued to work through Zaccaro Packets.  
They are rocking through these packets and excited each time they move up a level.  The genius level questions have a few areas the students have not been introduced too, yet.  We will look at a few of those problems together, just so the students have some strategies for the next time they may see those types of questions.

We will move onto a new lesson next week.

4th Grade:  THINK DEEPLY:

This week we wrapped up our lesson with the coordinate plane.  We started with a set of ordered pairs that created a scalene triangle in quadrant I.  From there the students were asked to complete three different translations that rotated the shaped to quadrants II, III, and IV.

  We did a quick review of all the terminology they were given with this unit and the students rocked it out.
We will complete our Think Deeply next week.

Ms. Losinski