~FRIGID FRIDAY~

Hello!  The kids are up for our new challenge for the month of December.  We started the week by talking about our new theme for the month with Monsters University - with our class focus being on Teamwork, Friendship, and Following Class Procedures.  This week's quote talked about if we work together as a TEAM we can reach any goal.  However, we can quickly get off track if our team begins to fall apart.  Never worry because we learned earlier this year with a good leader on your team you can quickly get back on track.  

For the next two weeks, until we announce the winning class I will display on here the leaderboard for the Character of the Month.  Look below to see if your class is in the lead…

Our Leaders:

3rd Grade Math - 11

4th Grade Language Arts - 8

2nd Grade Math - 8

Check back next week to see who finishes the challenge as the Class of the Month.

Next week we will also have our pictures announcing our Character of the Month from Just Keep Swimming.

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade:  Connecting Letters and Language  :  On Monday, I had a lot of friends absent so with the friends I had we finished our word ladders we were working on last week.  We waited to review them until Tuesday, when all of our friends would hopefully be back.

On Tuesday, the children were given 5 minutes to finish up their word ladders.  Then they were given a worksheet to complete in class.  They were given four letters and they needed to unscramble them to form a word.  There were many different combinations they could have made with with these four letters - it was great to see each person have a different solution!   To end class today, we looked at our new secret message.  Each student was given a mirror to try to decode the message.  They successfully used the mirror to decode their message.

Afterwards, we looked at the message and I showed them two other ways they could have solved it if they didn’t have a mirror.  We will begin our new lesson next week.

2nd Grade:  Text to Text Connections - The Velveteen Rabbit:  On Monday, we discussed chapter 13.  We focused on two important details from this chapter, first Edward was given a proper outfit to fit in as an outlaw.  Second, how he would stare at the stars every night and listed off the people he has grown to love.  Always beginning and ending with Abilene.  We also discussed the important reference this chapter was making back to the story Pellegrina told Edward in chapter 4.  After talking about it as a class, they were given a worksheet to complete.  On this worksheet, they had to describe what happened to Edward on the 180th day in the garbage dump.  

On Tuesday, we were setting our story aside for a moment to read a selection from the Velveteen Rabbit.  We gathered in the circle and the children listened as I read them the story.  We took the last few minutes of class to write in our journals the description they have of the rabbit from this story, so they can use that as a reference next week - just in case any one forgets! We will finish this story next week and the children will work towards making a text to text connection.

3rd Grade:  Fairy Tales:  We are onto our last Folktale- a Fairy Tale.  As a class, we came up with a list of Fairy Tales the children knew.  Then it was time to define a fairy tale from what we knew from our list.  We came up with a few things to start our definition - starting with it being a folktale, meaning fiction and passed on over time.  Then we talked about the very first sentence in a fairy tale - leading us to our last part of our definition for now - Once upon a time…  After that we listened to a fairy tale together.

On Tuesday, we finished reading our story.  Then we went through the events in the story.  When we completed talking about it - we went through a checklist to a fairy tale.  As I read through the elements a fairy tale would have, we quickly checked through all of the events we had on the board.  We will continue exploring more about fairy tales next week.

4th Grade:  Change Makers:  On Monday, most of the students turned in their references.  I am still waiting on one reference from two students.  Then they had the remainder of class time this week to work on their biography summaries.  

While they worked on their projects I called each student to me one at a time to conference with them on what they have completed so far with their summary.  Most of them our off to a good start.  I did stress to them a few details in each area and they should have more than one sentence for each question.  I also expressed the need for details to what they are writing.  I explained to them that although they are researching this information and it makes sense to them, they need to write it as if the audience knows nothing about their person - which might be the case.  Details...Details...Details…  After this talk, I saw most of them go back and add on to their summaries.  

Due Next Week:

On December 13th:

- Biography Summary is due by the end of class

-Works Cited should be filled in with the primary and secondary sources

-they will continue to add to the works cited page as they gather their images

MATH

1st Grade:  It’s Heavy - A Bag of Pennies:  This week we started by looking at our items we brought from home and weighing it against our 50 pennies.  Then we took our bags from the class and tried to put them in order from lightest to heaviest.  This was a perfect introduction into our lesson on transitivity.  Our goal this week was to learn how to figure out lightest to heaviest with items of three.  The problem - we can only weigh two items at once - so how do we figure it out…

We continued working with transitivity on Thursday with sets of three and recording our results in our journals.  We completed the sample together in class and I had sample bags prepared to help them visualize it.  We did one more sample together as a class and then they were working on the next two with a partner.  They are doing a great job working with this new concept.

2nd Grade: Length - Egg Passenger:   On Wednesday, we finished discussing the right tool for the job.  Then we began to write our class summary for the lesson.  We looked at our Think Deeply question and figured out that Dru and Teller needed to know the best tool to measure the circumference of an object.  We then looked back at our class results and evaluated each tool we used. We ruled out using the ruler because it can not bend and although the pipe cleaner can bend it has no markings to know a measurement.

 As a class, we came to the conclusion that if we could combine the ruler and pipe cleaner than they would make a good tool.  However, if only having one tool - the tape measure is the right tool for our job.  It is the perfect tool to use to measure circumference because it has the markings and can bend to measure around an object.  

A little blurry from all the dancing  :)

On Thursday, it was time for the children to write their response while using our class summary to support their answer.  We quickly reviewed our message we wrote from the day before, then the children were off and writing to Dru and Teller.  After the class finished we went through a few more think deeply questions out loud to take our lesson further.  To reward them for an awesome job with their writing, we had a few minutes left at the end for some GoNoodle - to get the wiggles out!  

3rd Grade:  Linear Measurement - In Search for the Yeti:   We started class this week by examining our two hands on our Yeti.  One group had the right dimension and mastered our skill.  Our other group had the right dimensions, but added claws onto their hand - making it too long.  We discussed how they could have added claws, but explained they needed to include them in their final dimension of their product.  This was a perfect learning experience for all the students.  

Then we came together as a class and began to summarize our lesson with our message board.  We started by identifying the terms from our lesson and defining them.  Then we talked about the approach the class took to come up with our benchmark for our Yeti. To end our message, we looked back at the question one last time and identified different parts to the question the students should include in their answer.

On Thursday, we started by having a quick explanation of the details we wrote as our message.  Then the students had the remainder of time to write.  Although they weren’t excited at first about writing - this groups did an amazing job today with this task.  They had so much to write that I even had some students need extra paper to add onto their writing.  It is exciting to see such growth with this area of our lesson so quickly.

4th Grade:  3-D Shapes Inside Out:  On Wednesday, the students were given a little more time to add onto their Think Deeply assignement from last week.  Most students completed the first two questions, but needed to answer why they chose their cards to make a match.  When everyone was finished we had just enough time to play set - the online version - as a reward for working so hard on their writing.  This group has also shown a huge improvement in their writing from our first lesson.  We even looked back and compared the amount of writing they did this time to their first attempt.  It is great seeing them grow in this area of our lessons!

On Thursday, it was back to exploring shapes.  To introduce our new topic we looked back at our Hunt for the Shapes activity from the beginning of the year.  As a class, we worked on a list of attributes for 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes.  They seemed to have a pretty good knowledge on the difference of "flat" to "standing out" between the two.  One of our focuses we added onto the class list was our 2-D shapes have length and width and out 3-D shapes have length, width and height.  

They were also surprised to learn that we could say our 3-D shapes our made up of our 2-D shapes - when we look at their faces.  This introduced the terms: face, vertex and edge.  From here we looked back at our shapes and had two groups - polyhedra and non-polyhedra.  We started to define the attributes to these two groups which led us into discussing prisms and pyramids.  They started working on examining the shapes further by completing Taking a Look at a Polyhedra.  On this sheet, they had to look at shapes and count the number of faces, vertices and edges of each one.  We went over a lot of information today and will continue with our focus on 3-D shapes next week.

IMPORTANT DATES:

December 19th:  Holiday Parties

December 21st - January 3rd - Winter Recess

January 4th - Class Resumes

January 13th - End of Second Grading Period

~Happy December~

It has been a crazy, busy week.  All my groups are working so hard and getting a lot accomplished everyday.  We are ending our focus on Just Keep Swimming.  This month we have focused on having the right attitude to get a task done.  An attitude that if things are tough, we don’t quit, but find another way.  Also, not worrying about yesterday, but the focus of every day is a new day and we have the power to make it a great day.  It all starts with the right attitude…

With one month ending and the beginning of a new month we will have a new theme we are Spotting in the room…Monster’s University.  We are mixing things up a little bit due to a short month with winter break.  We are spotting the best class that displays - Teamwork and Friendship in the room.  All of my classes will be competing with each other to become the class of the month.  We will track our points on Class Dojo with each class being a group.  I can’t wait to see how the children respond to this challenge!  

Check back next week to see our Character’s of the Month for Just Keep Swimming.

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade:  Connecting Letters and Language:  We began this week by finishing our reading analyzers the children were introduced to last week.  After completing the sheet together,  I asked the children why this sheet might be helpful.  They had great responses - from comprehending the book better, to help us better understand what we read, and our last idea was to think more about what we read.  We then had an introduction into word ladders.  We went over the instructions and did two together as practice.

On Tuesday, we walked through a few more word ladders together.  After they were showing me they understood the steps - they were on their own to work through some worksheets.  If the whole group got stuck on one we would work it out together.  We will continue working with our word ladders next week.

2nd Grade:  Point of View and Connections:  On Monday, we began by reviewing the two chapters we read last week.  Then they completed a worksheet.  They drew a picture of Edward dressed as Susanna and drew and named their own constellation.  When they finished this project it was time to add to our chart tracking the setting.  They were given some time on their own to add to their character chart - the characters Lawrence, Nellie and Lolly and add a character trait with each of them.  We had just enough time to read chapter 11 together.

On Tuesday, we started the day by reading chapter 12.  Then we looked at a chart that I made to help us track Edward’s Journey and note the way Edward has changed along the way. We added the events from chapter 12 to or chart.  This will help us organize the book into a timeline and keep our memories fresh when we have breaks in between some of our reading.

3rd Grade:  Reviewing our Folktales and Grammar:  On Monday, we took some time out of class to look back and review our growing list of folktales: Myth, Legend, Tall Tale and Fable.  As we defined them, we added some tricks and notes to each category to help us remember them throughout this unit.  Then we looked back at the parts of speech we have identified this year:  Noun, Action Verb, Article, Preposition, Adverbs and Adjectives.  We also looked at a sentence and broke it into a complete subject and predicate as a reminder to our subject noun we identified last week.  It is a lot of information they are learning and they are doing a great job as we add on each week.

On Tuesday, it was time to review the grammar lesson from last week.  We started with a worksheet.  On the sheet the student needed to identify the part of speech of the underlined word.  We went through our answers together and chose a few sentences to write out and identify all the parts.  Then we had some fun time watching some more Schoolhouse Rock Videos on Adverbs and Adjectives.

4th Grade:  Change Makers:  
On Monday, we looked at our schedule and changed a few dates for their project with me not meeting with them last week.  I wanted to make sure they had some class time to complete each step, but they were also reminded they will not complete this project without some work at home.  I offered them time to utilize their recess and some of them already took advantage of this offer.

Sorry it is a little blurry!! I didn't catch it til now :(

On Tuesday, I explained to the class how to fill out the works cited page.  This isn’t due yet, but is something they can update with each new source they use and it can be completed as they are finding their information - making for less work later.  I also took time this week to speak with each student and create in their Google Drive a Biography folder. This folder has been shared with me and I can see all of their  work in progress. For my students completing their project online, it is now already turned into me and on due dates I will be to view it from my computer.  I took a few minutes at the end of class to explain to them a little more how Google Drive works.  They now are aware they may work on their project from any computer that has Internet access, not just their Chrome books.

Logging into Google Drive at Home:

1. Google.com - click on 9 point grid in top right corner

2. Click on Google Drive (the triangle)

3. Click "sign in with different account" or "add account"

4. Enter YOUR school email address (First letter of first name, last name, and last four digits of your student ID, @myduneland.org Example alosinski1234@myduneland.org)

5. Enter YOUR Password: lower case "d", no space and then your student ID# Example d1234567

Due next week:  On Monday students need to have their resources and show them to me.  One of their resources must be a book.  Then they need two secondary sources - this may be other books or online resources.  After, that they are working on completing their biography summary.  They have a few weeks to complete this packet because this is what they will write all of their information on to utilize for the rest of the project.  While completing these two steps they are allowed to add sources onto their works cited page.  

MATH

1st Grade:  It’s Heavy - A Bag of Pennies:  We started class with a review of the lesson we are working on because it has been awhile since I have seen my friends.  After a quick review on the terms heaviest and lightest, we were back on track to learning the concept about the same.  We needed to figure out how to make our scale balance although each side had a bag filled with 50 pieces - 1 bag 50 pennies and the other bag 50 small plastic cubes.  The class decided to take out 20 pennies, but the pennies were still heavier.  So we decided to take out 20 more - this time we achieved our goal!  The two bags were now about the same in weight - 50 cubes weighed about the same as 10 pennies.  They recorded the results on their worksheet.  To finish the worksheet the children worked with a partner to make two bags be about the same and record their results.  Each group shared their findings with the class.  

Each child was given a task to complete at home...the Penny Scavenger Hunt.  They were given a bag and paper explaining the assignment.  Due to early dismissal, it is not due back until next Wednesday, December 7th.  The goal is to find 5 or less of the same object that weigh a little less than a bag of 50 pennies.  To help them with this assignment - they each got to hold our bag of 50 pennies one last time before leaving.  We ask that you don’t use food or pennies as their items.  Thank you in advance for your help with this project!

We did not meet on Thursday because of early dismissal.

2nd Grade:  Length - Egg Passenger:   We began by discussing ways to measure the shape of an egg.  The problem is - how and what is the best way to measure the circumference?  I demonstrated to the class with a large plastic egg different ways we could try a tool to measure.  

However, before we ever measured we needed to make a guess.  Our first guess was quite a ways away from the actual measurement, but we saw this improve as we worked through are 4 tools.  We repeated our steps using a cubic centimeter, rulers, pipe cleaner, and tape measure.  We also discussed the difference in measuring the length and the width of an object.  By the time we measured with our last tool, our guess and measurement were the same!  Then it was time for the students to try it.  They were free to spread out around the room and work with a partner.  To make it a different measurement they went through the same steps but with a small egg.

On Tuesday, they came in and finished measuring their eggs with their partner  Then we came back together as a class and looked at our data.  It was interesting to see how accurate their real measurements were from group to group.  Then it was onto answering our question - which is the best tool for measuring the circumference.  We noticed that the final column with the tape measure is where most of our groups had the same number or off by one centimeter.  This was our best tool to measure the circumference,

3rd Grade:  Linear Measurement - In search of the Yeti:  Our Yeti is nearing completion, but in need of some hands.  As a review for our unit, I split the class into two groups and each was in charge of making one hand for our Yeti.  The goal was to see if the both doubled correctly and if both hands were about the same size.  We quickly reviewed the dimensions we needed and then they were off to finish our Yeti.

Due to Thanksgiving Break, the groups struggled with the concept of doubling.  As a class, we walked through the steps together.  Then the groups were off for take two of building his hands. We switched the groups up this time to a boys verse girls. We have hands one our Yeti and will review the results of our hands next week.  Below is a picture of the class with the Yeti they created...

 Our

YETI

4th Grade:  The Shape of Things - Triple Play with Shapes:  We are approaching the end of another lesson.  We had a review day today because with break last week it was a while since we met.  We played Sets the online version.  This was a great challenge and we added in a rule we didn’t utilize in the card game - all cards are different.  They had a lot of fun with this game and when it was time to find the last set it became difficult.  However, it was great to see them talk it out with the group and work together.  We have saved this game in our favorites and when we have free time I told them we could play it again.

On Tuesday, it was time again to wrap-up our lesson.  We looked at our Think Deeply question and took some time to write down any thoughts and questions they had.  As a class, we wrote our math message board with what we have learned in this lesson to help us answer the question.  Then the children worked on their responses to the question.  

IMPORTANT DATES:

December 19th: Holiday Parties

December 21st - January 3rd - Winter Recess

January 4th - Class Resumes

January 13th - End of Second Grading Period