October 8th, 2021

 

Friday, October 8th:  End of 1st Quarter

Thursday, October 14th:  Yost Blood Drive

Wednesday, October 22:  Fall Break - No School

Tuesday, November 2nd:  E-Learning Day

1st Grade:  Shield of Connections

It was presentation day!  This week the students presented their shield of connections.

Then, we moved onto our next lesson.  This lesson the students got to see their first secret message.  Moving forward each lesson will always begin with a secret message that the students must look for clues to solve.  This message was a little tricky because they could not solve it on their own.  We looked at some clues to discover that we thought it was a sentence.  We saw a capital letter, spaces between a set of letters and punctuation at the end of the sentence.  At this point, I shared with the students a Caesar Cypher Wheel to help us finish decoding the message.  We took a few minutes to discuss the history behind the cypher wheel and to practice moving a cipher wheel.  Then it was time to decipher our message.  After a little practice, they were solving the message on their own.

Letters are symbols that stand for spoken sounds.

We will continue with this lesson next week.

2nd Grade:  Eldorado - The Reading Analyzer

This week we wrapped up learning how to complete our reading analyzer while studying the poem Eldorado.  By the time we completed our analyzer, the students had a different meaning to the poem then when we first heard it.  It was great seeing their understanding of this poem grow.

3rd Grade: Myths

This week we continued with our lesson by introducing the students to a myth.  We read one together and completed a re-tell of the story.  Then, they chose their own myth and began to complete their own retell with their story.

We will continue this lesson next week.

4th Grade:  Change Interview

Thanks for your help this week for the change interview!

This week the students interviewed an adult about a big change in their lives.  First, we looked at a sample interview and then they practiced with me.  This was to focus on writing enough details verse a one-word response.  It was important that they had enough details to turn their information into a formal writing.   For the rest the week, we were working on turning the responses into their rough draft.  They were up for this challenge after telling me how much their writing is growing from in the classroom.  

1st Grade:  Lingo & Think Deeply

This week we had another game day with Lingo!  It is important that at this point the students know the four polygons we are working with by their sides.  This is because from here the lessons will continue to build onto one another.  The second day of Lingo definitely helped us remember those shapes.  They even went on a quick shape hunt around my room to find the four polygons.  To end the week, the students completed their first Think Deeply.  The students will complete these every time a lesson comes to an end.  This is a way for us to review the important parts of the lesson and have a chance to explain what they learned from the it.  

More Fun with Lingo

 

It's a celebration when the whole class got a LINGO!

Think Deeply

2nd Grade:  Symmetry

Our symmetry adventures continued on this week.  This week they created their own design within a 3x3 square and identified the lines of symmetry within their own designs.  Then, they each took turns sharing their designs with the class as their classmates found the lines of symmetry to their patterns.  Next, we completed Triangle Combinations.  For this activity, the students had to use a set of triangles to find a way to use one triangle to recreate 4 different shapes:  a triangle, square, parallelogram, and a rectangle (may not use a square).  They had two sets of the triangles to allow them to have two of each triangle when they manipulated them.

We will wrap up this lesson next week.

3rd Grade:  Functions & Think Deeply

This week the students finished their fish-table assignment.  Then, it was time to review for our Think Deeply.  We took some time to review our key terms and what needed to be in the response.  Then, it was time to write.  We still created this response together, but I could see their confidence growing with their ideas.

We will wrap up our think deeply next week and move onto a new lesson. 

4th Grade:  Review & Think Deeply

This week we continued to practice solving equations by working backwards.  This led us into our first Think Deeply of the year.  We took some type to talk about what key terms should be included in our answer and how to answer the question completely.  Then, for the remainder of class the students wrote their response.  For those friends that were new to math this year, they had the option to work as a small group with me.  If they were ready to try it on their own or remembered it from last year, they were free to give it a try on their own.  

We will wrap up our think deeply next week.

Ms. Losinski