Thursday, October 21st, 2021

Wednesday, October 22:  Fall Break - No School

Thursday, October 28:  Trick or Treat at CHS 5-7pm

*See Flyer Below

Tuesday, November 2nd:  E-Learning Day

Tuesday, November 2nd:  Parent-Teacher Conferences

11-7pm

Wednesday, November 24:  Thanksgiving Break

Thursday, November 25:  Thanksgiving Break

Friday, November 26:  Thanksgiving Break

1st Grade:  A SECRET LANGUAGE:

This week the students cracked another secret code - The Telephone Keypad Cipher.  The students were so close to figuring out the code.  They quickly saw that each number had letters on them and in alphabetical order.  However, they were just missing the connection with the arrows pointing to the letters. 

 Our message referenced a secret language.  The students found out that our secret language was Pig Latin.  We have one student in the class that shared a story of them already knowing our secret language.  We completed a worksheet together that would help get our brains thinking about vowel sounds to help us with the rules of our language.  Then, we finished class discussing the rules to Pig Latin.

We will continue with our secret language next week.

2nd Grade:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX:

This week we started with a quick worksheet the students completed as a check-in to their reading assignment.  Then we worked through a series of discussion questions.  We continued our discussion by seeing if anyone was making any personal connections to the story.  Despereaux is struggling with not conforming and following the rules of the mouse community.  This led us into a great class discussion on is the Head Mouse Council being mean or protecting an entire community with their rules.  All the students agreed that the Mouse Council was just enforcing rules to keep the community safe.  To wrap up our discussion, we started a list on light verse dark.  This will be a continuing theme throughout our story that we will revisit weekly.

They had us in such a great discussion with the book that I forgot their pictures.  I will try for some extras next week!

3rd Grade:  FOLKLORES:

This week we discussed the big difference to help us distinguish between a myth and a legend.  We discussed that our myths would explain the unexplainable while the legend stay grounded in reality.  To end the week, the students were introduced to a vocabulary map.  We used this to wrap up their understanding of a myth.

We will move onto a new lesson next week.

4th Grade:  A CHANGE IN WORDS:

This week the students completed an independent activity on how our language changed.  This focused on our Greek and Latin roots and how they influenced English language.  We talked about how our words can change by adding prefixes and suffixes.  Then the students started the activity to learn more about the history of our language.

We will continue with this lesson next week.

1st Grade:  SHAPES within SHAPES

This week we revisited our shapes the students created from last week.  Now they got to pick 2 to 4 of those shapes to create a new one.  We had to review a vertex and that you might create a shape with a concave vertex.  This would mean that on the inside of the triangle the students would see a reflex angle. 

 They rocked this part out!  In the beginning of the year, seeing a reflex angle was a struggle for some of the students.  This time around they were able to spot more reflex angles on their own!  From here, the students had to follow a set of rules to connect the shapes and made a new shape.  They had to trace the sides, of the shape, place a sticker on each vertex, name their new shape, and tell us the original shapes that created it. 

Next week, we will take what we learned and play a new shape game!

2nd Grade:  ALL ABOUT TRIANGLES:

This week we stepped aside from our unit and had some enrichment with triangles.  We quickly discussed the three type of triangles.  Then, we reviewed ALL our angles.  I showed the students a line, but also told them we call this a straight angle.  A student quickly identified for us that this must measure 180 degrees because of their knowledge that a circle measures 360 degrees.  This led to us discussing that all three angles of a triangle measure to 180 degrees - our magic number of a triangle.

  A trick I tell them is to remember the line is 180 degrees and if you open it up, all the angles of a triangle will create a straight line.  This week we were looking for a missing angle of a triangle.  This had us working with adding our 2-digit numbers and subtracting a 2-digit or 3-digit number from a 3-digit number.  They were working hard to solve these problems!  We used some teamwork to work on the subtraction.  I also explained to them on these enrichment days that they should not panic if they did not understand all of it.  We use these days to introduce some other topics throughout the year and expose them some more math concepts.  If they understand or master any of it - great!  If they get some of it - awesome!  If they don't quite get any of it but remember bits and pieces for the next time the see it - success!

We will wrap up our triangle fun next week!

3rd Grade:  FINDING A FUNCTION:

 This week was all about sharing the secret to finding a formula and breaking the habit of extending the table in their brain.  I shared two functions that are needed to solve What's Next depending on if the pattern was increasing or decreasing.  This gave them an understanding to why we first identify the pattern and then the starting number - both are needed to create the function for our tables.  

If a pattern is adding to the previous number, the students will always multiply the term by the number they found for the pattern and then add the starting number to their answer.  We identified this as F = (T x P) + S.  If the pattern is subtracting from the previous number, the formula would be F = S - (T x P).  

This meant to start with our starting number and then subtract the difference from multiplying the term from the number they identified in the pattern.  In both formulas, they are always multiplying the term with the number they identified with the pattern.  How they utilize the starting number in the function is determined by if the growing pattern was increasing or decreasing.  As soon as the students identified how the pattern changed, then they could determine the function to solve!

We will wrap up this lesson next week.

4th Grade:  CREATING OUR OWN TRICKERY:

This week the students were revealed the why behind the magic trick.  Then, it was their turn to set-up their own version of the trick.  They completed part 2 of their worksheet to walk them thru the steps to setting up their own version.   Since we know how the trick works, the students were able to see that they can set it up in four different ways.  It is their choice to which trick they create.  Next week they will be able to share with you their trick and you can see if your magician will teach you the secret.

We will continue with our lesson next week.

Ms. Losinski

October 15th, 2021

Wednesday, October 22:  Fall Break - No School

Thursday, October 28:  Trick or Treat at CHS 5-7pm

*See Flyer Below

Tuesday, November 2nd:  E-Learning Day

Tuesday, November 2nd:  Parent-Teacher Conferences

11-7pm

Wednesday, November 24:  Thanksgiving Break

Thursday, November 25:  Thanksgiving Break

Friday, November 26:  Thanksgiving Break

1st Grade:  CIPHER WHEEL

This week we had one more student that needed to share their shield of connections.

Then, it was time to have a quick review on how to work the Caesar Cipher Wheel. We continued to practice deciphering our secret messages.  Next, the students had a chance to encipher a message.  This led us to a discussion on the difference between decipher and encipher.  For the rest of class, the students continued cracking our codes!

Next week we will begin a new lesson.

2nd Grade:  BOOK STUDY - The Tale of Despereaux

This week the students were introduced to their 1st book study.  We reviewed our class expectations of the book study.  The students were told that if their reading assignment was not completed they will be sent back to class.  This is not to be looked at as a punishment, but because in class we will be talking about things that they aren't prepared to participate with the class. 

 Staying in class would spoil for them what they have not read yet and they would be lost with the class discussion.  Then, I showed them the book and from the cover we made some predictions about the book.  We also discussed the size of the book and to not be intimidated by it's length.  They were up for the challenge!  

We read the first chapter together.  I was excited to hear how much they enjoyed the book from Monday to Tuesday.  On Tuesday, we held a class discussion about the first two chapters.  

Our Journey with Despereaux will continue next week!

3rd Grade:  MYTH

This week the students finished their retell of a myth.  Then they took a moment to share their retell with the class.  Next, it was onto us looking at our myth's and defining the genre. We back tracked for a moment to discuss what a folklore was and brainstormed the different types of folklore.  We created an 8-grid chart to help us track the different genres throughout the year to have as a quick comparison of our different folklores.  We created our definition of the folklore and added it to our chart. 

 

We will continue creating our definitions next week.

4th Grade:  CHANGE INTERVIEW

This week the students completed the final copy of their Change Interview.  They took their sloppy copy and created a final version on Google Docs.  We were focused on making sure we composed our three paragraphs with the introduction, body, and conclusion.  

We also made sure the intro and conclusion had three to five sentences as our goal and the body was 5 or more sentences.  This was a little tricky on the introduction and conclusion, but they succeeded!  They had plenty of details for the body which means they did a great job getting those details from the interview.  Thanks for your help with that step!

Next week we will move onto a new lesson. 

1st Grade:  Making Shapes

This week we began to prep for our next game.  It was all about creating shapes.  The prep in this game was to help to train their brain to see shapes within other shapes.  This activity took place by us turning squares into rectangles and then rectangles into squares.  The students saw that two of our rectangles or the 4 small squares made our original square.  We also took our original square and repeated this process by looking at triangles within the square.

A Little Kahoot Review

Next week we will continue learning the "why" behind our new game.

2nd Grade:  Think Deeply

This week the students completed another Think Deeply.  This one was all about symmetry.  They were great at remembering our two strategies of using the mirror or folding and making sure the sides and vertices matched up.  I was impressed with this group because they took their answer a step further and made sure we mentioned that we must look at the design too!  They are ROCKSTARS!

We will move onto a new topic next week.

3rd Grade:  What's Next?

We played a quick "silent game" to fill in the rest of a pattern on the white board.  Then, we looked at a trick with our calculators to help us fill in a pattern.  This got us ready to complete the activity "What's Next?" to explore finding functions.  As a class, we completed number one together and began number 2.  When completing the assignments we made a rule that the students must define the function before finding the 15th number in the pattern. 

We will continue with this lesson next week.

4th Grade:  Magic with Algebra

This week I shared a magic trick with the students.  Most of them do not know the secret to the trick yet.  We did have a student figure it out after the first day!  Less is more over the next few weeks will be my motto for the blog as a magician never reveals their secret!  After showing them the trick the students started a worksheet for them to start to discover the secret.

Testing out a Theory

Magician of Trickery - Mastered the Trick!

Next week the students will continue to uncover the trickery!

Have A Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski