Mark it on the Calendar!
Monday, February 3rd: PTO Meeting 6-7PM
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: PUNCTUATION:
This group was full of excitement this week as we learned all about punctuation. First, they created 3 different emoticons (think emoji's) with each representing a different feeling. Then, we had to solve a new secret message: The No Space Cipher -Punctuation helps us make sense of what we read. The secret to this cipher was in the name.
The message had no spaces within the sentence. The students had to find the correct places to add spaces to the sentence. Next, it was onto reading some poetry. We read four different poems - each focusing on a different punctuation mark. The students had to select one poem for us to complete a reading analyzer together.
The students were quick to agree on The Exclamation Mark! for our poem to analyzer further. We filled one of these out before, so this time it was more of them deciding what we wrote. Although the poems were very silly, they also discovered the main idea was to describe an exclamation point and to teach us when to use them in a sentence.
We had enough time to read the book Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka. The first time I read it with no expression. This led us to discuss the importance of adding expression or feeling when we read. We read it through again this time following the punctuation in the story. It was much more entertaining to the reader. They could also now see that a friend was sad throughout the story until he made a friend.
We will continue exploring punctuation next week.
2nd Grade: MY FATHER'S DRAGON:
This week we finished reading chapter 6. Then it was time for the students to complete a reading analyzer on their own. I guided them through each box and friends would share some ideas that they might also include in their answer. However, it was up to each student to choose what they wanted to include on their analyzer.
They did a great job with feelings of our characters with this chart. We have to get all students used to writing their thoughts in complete sentences and I will continue to work with them with different assignments. We used the remaining time left to continue to read our story.
We will continue exploring with our book study next week.
3rd Grade: BLACK BEAUTY:
It was time for the book study to begin. The students listened to the read aloud of chapter one. We took some time to discuss who was telling the story. We also focused on the advice that Beauty's mother gave him. From there this led us to look complete a vocabulary map on the word temper.
This led us to a great conversation for understanding this word because the students were surprised to see it used with the word sweet. They thought it was used with anger or temper-tantrums. We also learned at an incident that took place in our story and applied discussed our 3 rules to interactions to the first treatment of a horse. The students were quick to point out that a child throwing rocks at the horses just saw them as an object or target to aim at verse an animal with feelings. To end the week, the students started to complete a worksheet that talks about good advice in their lives.
We will continue with our book study next week.
HOMEWORK: This week the students were assigned chapters 2-6.
4th Grade: THE WESTING GAME:
This week I shared with the students that our novel study would be over the book The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. The students received their study folder and explained the requirements of the book study. In the folder, is a space for the students to take notes while reading and complete several activities to guide them through the mystery. They will also receive questions to reflect on after assigned reading. This week we read aloud chapter 1 and went into a discussion on what was important thoughts to keep in mind. I did explain to the students that I will not point out all of the clues if they miss them while reading. I don't want to just give them all the information they need to point them in the right direction. I told them that after they read the book - we will take a walk-through of any important clues that they may or may not have paid attention to while reading. As a class, we will discuss and share thoughts and track our characters.
We will continue to our novel study next week.
HOMEWORK: They were assigned to read and take notes on chapters 2-5.
What Are Zaccaro Packets?
At this time, each of my math classes was introduced to Zaccaro packets. I wanted to take a moment and explain to all of my math parents how these are being utilized across all grade levels. Our high ability program has started to incorporate these as challenges spread throughout the curriculum. Some of you may have heard me discuss the arrangement of the packets. For those of you new to them, the book is organized in chapters that cover many different math concepts.
Each chapter is arranged in 4 levels. The levels start at level one and end at genius level. You cannot move onto the next level until you master the previous level. This is because with each level the difficulty increases. You must know the tools to solve the previous level in order to have success at the next. These packets aren't meant to be solved quickly. They are meant to challenge them through trial and error as they progress through the levels. Each grade level is presented with these packets in a different way with a different goal in mind.
My first graders work on level ones. This is to expose them to the new concepts. We read a problem the students have time to solve it independently. Then together we solve for the answer.
My second graders focus on level one and two with the packets. The catch for them is that they are all about trial and error and work independently. I will give hints to solve the problems as I see they are on the right track or after a 3rd attempt.
My third and fourth graders are challenged to complete them from level 1 to genius level. Even though they may see some they completed before, they are being challenged to see if they remembered the concept and strategy or if it still requires hints. This allows the students to grow with the packets.
It is okay if they repeat some of them from grade-level to grade-level because we are looking to see if they have mastered the different concepts.
1st Grade: ZACCARO FUN:
This week the students took a break from our lessons to work on some other math concepts with our Zaccaro Packets. Most of my other grades have started to complete these in between lessons. This was the first time they completed this activity. 2 concepts I selected for them this week is the idea of multiplying and dividing.
They did very well with the multiplying - I even told them we may add some math fact practice in our spare time. We discussed the strategies for our 0's, 1's and 2's so they are well on their way to mastering these facts!
We will continue with our measurement lessons next week.
2nd Grade: THINK DEEPLY:
This week we had a wrap-up to our bubble project. We took a moment to look closely at those inside shapes that our found within each shape. The students utilized this opportunity to make sure that they had all of the information filled in on their worksheet - with all o
f the excitement of the hypercube; some students forgot to record results.
Then, we shifted gears into our Think Deeply. The students were asked to explain to Dru and Teller the differences between a square and a cube. I asked the students to first brainstorm their thoughts about this question on the back of their paper. Then, we compiled a class list of the differences. From there the students were allowed to utilize the remainder of their time to write their response.
In their answers, we discussed the importance of talking about 2D verse 3D, the differences of faces and vertices and to explain sides verse edges. Some students had a few other extra thoughts like right angles and parallel lines. We are going to explore those two ideas further after all students complete their think deeply - they know the answer to the square, but we must look further at our cube when discussing these two attributes.
We will continue with our Think Deeply next week.
3rd Grade: CHAPTER CHECK-UP:
This week the students finished their activity with arrow math. We looked at the last section of their worksheet that asked them to give the arrows moving from one number to another. There are multiple answers to these problems. I told the students to focus on staying on the chart and think of the fastest path.
We went over these together. This let the students visually see that fast path and then we marked a few others that still work, but took lots of arrows. Next the students began their chapter check-up. On the check-up the students were going to be introduced to something new from our lesson.
They were going to need to explain what arrow math meant. We took a moment and discussed this before the check-up, since we didn't work on it in class. I told them to think of each arrow like a command. It is telling you a math computation you must complete. You must explain in words what each command told them to do to move from one number to the other.
They will continue their chapter check-up next week.
4th Grade: DRAWING 3D SHAPES:
This week the students began to reflect shapes on a dot grid. They then introduced translating a shape on the dot grid. This allowed us to visually imagine connecting A to A', B to B', C to C' and D to D'. They students quickly saw they created a 3D shape. Next we took this same idea and practiced it on coordinate plane. To wrap up the lesson, the students must create their own 3D shape on the plane. They must correctly name the shape, the coordinates, identify the match attributes to their new shape and explain the translation they used to draw their shape. This is a great activity combining all of the different concepts the students have learned up to this point.
They will continue their design next week.
Ms. Losinski
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
This group was full of excitement this week as we learned all about punctuation. First, they created 3 different emoticons (think emoji's) with each representing a different feeling. Then, we had to solve a new secret message: The No Space Cipher -Punctuation helps us make sense of what we read. The secret to this cipher was in the name. 
The message had no spaces within the sentence. The students had to find the correct places to add spaces to the sentence. Next, it was onto reading some poetry. We read four different poems - each focusing on a different punctuation mark. The students had to select one poem for us to complete a reading analyzer together. 
The students were quick to agree on The Exclamation Mark! for our poem to analyzer further. We filled one of these out before, so this time it was more of them deciding what we wrote. Although the poems were very silly, they also discovered the main idea was to describe an exclamation point and to teach us when to use them in a sentence. 
We had enough time to read the book Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka. The first time I read it with no expression. This led us to discuss the importance of adding expression or feeling when we read. We read it through again this time following the punctuation in the story. It was much more entertaining to the reader. They could also now see that a friend was sad throughout the story until he made a friend.We will continue exploring punctuation next week.
2nd Grade: MY FATHER'S DRAGON:
This week we finished reading chapter 6. Then it was time for the students to complete a reading analyzer on their own. I guided them through each box and friends would share some ideas that they might also include in their answer. However, it was up to each student to choose what they wanted to include on their analyzer. 
They did a great job with feelings of our characters with this chart. We have to get all students used to writing their thoughts in complete sentences and I will continue to work with them with different assignments. We used the remaining time left to continue to read our story.
3rd Grade: BLACK BEAUTY:
It was time for the book study to begin. The students listened to the read aloud of chapter one. We took some time to discuss who was telling the story. We also focused on the advice that Beauty's mother gave him. From there this led us to look complete a vocabulary map on the word temper. 
This led us to a great conversation for understanding this word because the students were surprised to see it used with the word sweet. They thought it was used with anger or temper-tantrums. We also learned at an incident that took place in our story and applied discussed our 3 rules to interactions to the first treatment of a horse. The students were quick to point out that a child throwing rocks at the horses just saw them as an object or target to aim at verse an animal with feelings. To end the week, the students started to complete a worksheet that talks about good advice in their lives.We will continue with our book study next week.
HOMEWORK: This week the students were assigned chapters 2-6.
4th Grade: THE WESTING GAME:
We will continue to our novel study next week.
HOMEWORK: They were assigned to read and take notes on chapters 2-5.
What Are Zaccaro Packets?
At this time, each of my math classes was introduced to Zaccaro packets. I wanted to take a moment and explain to all of my math parents how these are being utilized across all grade levels. Our high ability program has started to incorporate these as challenges spread throughout the curriculum. Some of you may have heard me discuss the arrangement of the packets. For those of you new to them, the book is organized in chapters that cover many different math concepts. 
Each chapter is arranged in 4 levels. The levels start at level one and end at genius level. You cannot move onto the next level until you master the previous level. This is because with each level the difficulty increases. You must know the tools to solve the previous level in order to have success at the next. These packets aren't meant to be solved quickly. They are meant to challenge them through trial and error as they progress through the levels. Each grade level is presented with these packets in a different way with a different goal in mind. My first graders work on level ones. This is to expose them to the new concepts. We read a problem the students have time to solve it independently. Then together we solve for the answer.
My second graders focus on level one and two with the packets. The catch for them is that they are all about trial and error and work independently. I will give hints to solve the problems as I see they are on the right track or after a 3rd attempt.
My third and fourth graders are challenged to complete them from level 1 to genius level. Even though they may see some they completed before, they are being challenged to see if they remembered the concept and strategy or if it still requires hints. This allows the students to grow with the packets.
It is okay if they repeat some of them from grade-level to grade-level because we are looking to see if they have mastered the different concepts.
1st Grade: ZACCARO FUN:
This week the students took a break from our lessons to work on some other math concepts with our Zaccaro Packets. Most of my other grades have started to complete these in between lessons. This was the first time they completed this activity. 2 concepts I selected for them this week is the idea of multiplying and dividing. 
They did very well with the multiplying - I even told them we may add some math fact practice in our spare time. We discussed the strategies for our 0's, 1's and 2's so they are well on their way to mastering these facts!We will continue with our measurement lessons next week.
2nd Grade: THINK DEEPLY:
This week we had a wrap-up to our bubble project. We took a moment to look closely at those inside shapes that our found within each shape. The students utilized this opportunity to make sure that they had all of the information filled in on their worksheet - with all of the excitement of the hypercube; some students forgot to record results.
In their answers, we discussed the importance of talking about 2D verse 3D, the differences of faces and vertices and to explain sides verse edges. Some students had a few other extra thoughts like right angles and parallel lines. We are going to explore those two ideas further after all students complete their think deeply - they know the answer to the square, but we must look further at our cube when discussing these two attributes.We will continue with our Think Deeply next week.
3rd Grade: CHAPTER CHECK-UP:
This week the students finished their activity with arrow math. We looked at the last section of their worksheet that asked them to give the arrows moving from one number to another. There are multiple answers to these problems. I told the students to focus on staying on the chart and think of the fastest path. 
We went over these together. This let the students visually see that fast path and then we marked a few others that still work, but took lots of arrows. Next the students began their chapter check-up. On the check-up the students were going to be introduced to something new from our lesson.
They were going to need to explain what arrow math meant. We took a moment and discussed this before the check-up, since we didn't work on it in class. I told them to think of each arrow like a command. It is telling you a math computation you must complete. You must explain in words what each command told them to do to move from one number to the other.
They will continue their chapter check-up next week.
4th Grade: DRAWING 3D SHAPES:
This week the students began to reflect shapes on a dot grid. They then introduced translating a shape on the dot grid. This allowed us to visually imagine connecting A to A', B to B', C to C' and D to D'. They students quickly saw they created a 3D shape. Next we took this same idea and practiced it on coordinate plane. To wrap up the lesson, the students must create their own 3D shape on the plane. They must correctly name the shape, the coordinates, identify the match attributes to their new shape and explain the translation they used to draw their shape. This is a great activity combining all of the different concepts the students have learned up to this point.They will continue their design next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment