~ HAPPY FRIDAY ~

The blog is back after a crazy few weeks. 

Mark it on the Calendar!

Thursday, March 5th:  K Round-Up 3-8PM
Sunday, March 8th:  Daylight Savings 
Spring Forward
Tuesday, March 10th:  Spring Picture Day
Friday, March 13th:  End of 3rd Quarter
March 23rd - March 27th:  Spring Break

1st Grade:  REBUS PUZZLES:

This week the students cracked another secret message.  The hint for them was again in the name, but was tricky if they were not familiar with arrays.  I guided them in the direction they needed to solve the message.  They learned that pictures can stand for sounds in words.  This introduced them to Rebus puzzles.  We used the remainder of our time to solve a set of rebus puzzles together.

We will continue with Rebus Puzzles next week.

 These were some extra pictures from class last week.

2nd Grade:  MY FATHER'S DRAGON:

This week the students were challenged to think like the boars in our story and use the 6 Thinking Hats to solve the invasion.  The students learned about the 6 hats as we worked through a set of questions to help us think and look at different perspectives as the boars.  A few times some students would add in their opinion verse thinking how the boars have acted throughout our story.  This was a great exercise because the students came up with several traps to try to catch the invasion and kept safety in mind while doing it.  We had just enough time left to read a chapter in the story.

We will wrap up our journey with our story next week.

3rd Grade:  BLACK BEAUTY:

This week the students were introduced to filling out their charts.  The students have a tracker to complete while we read the story.  The tracker follows Beauty with each of his owners.  They were asked to complete what  job he had in the book and make a connection to a job we have now.  This week we said Beauty was a Colt who got to be free and have fun, but when he turned 4 years old his job became a student while he was broken in by his owner.  Then the students answered how the owner treated Beauty.  The last two boxes had them share an interaction that took place with the owner that supports their previous answers and apply our 3 generalizations to the interaction.  This is something the students will complete each time Beauty moves onto a new owner.

HOMEWORK:  Read Chapters 10-15.

4th Grade:  The WESTING GAME:

This week the students and I utilized our time together to answer any questions they had so far with their reading.  Then, we took some time to focus on some key points in their reading.  We needed to look carefully at the obituary and the will of Sam Westing.  This had the students making some great connections and already sharing some great thoughts and ideas.  We will continue with our novel study next week.

HOMEWORK:  Read Chapters 10-12.

1st Grade:  POM-POM TOSS GAME:

This week the students were ready to put their measuring skills to the test.  We played the Pom-Pom Toss game that allowed the students to measure how far away their pom-pom was from the target.  The goal was to land on or as close to our target as possible.  We played the game three different times with 2 different shapes for our area of 4 square units and 1 shape of 8 square units.  These guys were becoming professionals at this game, as several times they successfully landed the pom-pom on the target!  They also did a great job at measuring allowing them to become masters with a ruler.

  We had enough time to complete our Chapter Check-up for Chapter 3 covering length.

We will move onto a new topic next week.

2nd Grade:  3D SHAPES:

We continued onto a new journey with our 3D shapes.  This unit switched us to using 3D foam tangrams.  The students are preparing to build a floor design for a playground.  This week the students become familiar with the tangrams by identifying the faces, edges and vertices to each shape. 

 Then, they had to choose one block that they would stamp out - draw out all of the faces to that shape.  After students completed these two assignments, they joined into the shape game - where a student would secretly select a shape and name the attributes to either a 2D or 3D shape.

  Based on the clues the students had to correctly identify the shape name.  They really enjoyed this game and it is a great way for them to distinguish the different attributes to our 2D and 3D shapes and work on identifying them with their proper names.

Next week we will complete the floor design challenge.

3rd Grade:  UNIT TEST:

I cannot believe how fast this group worked through our book this year.  It was time to revisit the Unit Test from the beginning of the year.  We did take the time out to look at each of the topics and review the steps we needed to solve them going back to our name game, fish at tables and solving for the term in our charts.  They did a great job at remembering most of these strategies.  This allowed them to start their Unit Test this week.

They will continue with their Unit Test next week.

Extra pictures from last week.

4th Grade:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:

This week the students utilized their class time to finish their chapter check-up for chapter 3.

Next week we will prepare for the unit test.

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski

~ FRIDAY REWIND ~



Mark it on the Calendar!

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
Thursday, March 5th:  K Round-Up 3-8PM

1st Grade:
We did not meet for class this week.

2nd Grade:  LOGIC PUZZLE:
Due to my schedule with CogAT testing, my math and language arts students met together.  We utilized our time this week to complete a new logic puzzle.  We worked on one together, so they could learn the steps.  Then, they were given one to work on with a partner.

Our schedule should be back to normal next week.

3rd Grade:  BLACK BEAUTY:
This week the students saw the way our class time will go with the book study.  We held a thorough discussion on the chapters the students were assigned to read.  It was great seeing them tie the connections and share their thoughts on the different topics each chapter covered.  Our first issue they discussed was hunting as a sport.  I was shocked as the students listed off several ways a person could enjoy the thrill of hunting that didn't involve animals.  They said Nerf gun fights, laser tag and shooting ranges are all other ways to get that thrill without hurting an animal or a person.  We also took the time to share a read aloud of Ginger.  Ginger had a sharp contrast to Black Beauty's life as a colt and breaking in, which is why we share this chapter together.  It allowed us to discuss how the different interactions of their childhood had created two different characters within the horses.  They have two completely different temperaments, but the students discovered that Ginger's upbringing played a large part in it.
We will continue our study with Black Beauty next week.
HOMEWORK:  The students are to finish reading chapter 8 and read 9&10.  They were also assigned to answer their questions on chapters 1-10. 

4th Grade:  The WESTING GAME:
Due to CogAT testing, the students did not meet this week.  On Tuesday, I gave them some questions to answer on chapters 1-5 that they were allowed to work on during their flex time.  If they didn't complete it, then it was their assigned homework for the week.
HOMEWORK:  Questions on chapters 1-5.  They did have some class time for this, whatever was not completed is now assigned as homework. 

1st Grade:  LENGTH:

This week the students were introduced to measuring length.  First, they realized the importance of measuring with a standard unit.  I asked each student to measure my carpet with beaks and we quickly discovered a problem - they had different answers.  There was no tricking them they quickly told me this was because they had different sized beaks.
  Next, we looked at some noodles that represented an inch.  We discussed the proper way to assemble this tool to make a ruler.  They both thought it was similar to a tape measure because of its ability to bend.  It was however missing tick marks.  This brought up the discussion that we can still use it as a measuring tool because we count the spaces, verse the tick marks.  We quickly switched to utilizing a ruler as our measuring tool for the lesson.  We reviewed several important tips when measuring with a ruler.  Then, the students completed several different activities to master using the ruler.
Next week, they will complete the Pom-Pom Toss game to wrap up measurement.



2nd Grade:  LOGIC PUZZLE:
Due to my schedule with CogAT testing, my math and language arts students met together.  We utilized our time this week to complete a new logic puzzle.  We worked on one together, so they could learn the steps.  Then, they were given one to work on with a partner.

Our schedule should be back to normal next week.


3rd Grade:  CHAPTER-CHECK-UP:
We started the week by allowing some extra time for the students to finish their chapter check-up.  Those that finished early began to work on a logic puzzle.
Then we switched gears to mental math.  We reviewed several different strategies that you can utilize for mental math. 
 We worked on breaking apart the numbers to add quickly.  We came up with ways to make ten for quick way to add the numbers.  We combined these two strategies.  They also were taught they could round up and then subtract the number the added into the problem to make the numbers equal.  They were excited to learn the different strategies.  Mental math let us also discuss using the commutative and associative properties.

We will wrap up mental math next week.   

4th Grade:
Due to CogAT testing around the school, we did not meet for groups this week.

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski