~ HAPPY HOLIDAYS ~

Enjoy some pictures below from a week of fun daily themes to help us get in the holiday spirit!

Monday - Elf Day

In the picture to the Right:
I offered a little green for my friend to cover, I mean add to her outfit, but she outsmarted me when I took the picture!    :) 

Tuesday - Reindeer Day

Wednesday - Grinch Day

Thursday - Santa Day

AROUND THE SCHOOL

December 22nd: End of 2nd Quarter

December 25th: January 7th:

Winter Recess
January 8th: School Resumes

January 15th: No School - Martin Luther King Jr Day

Change/Gifted Children/Best Practices

Duneland's high ability program will be changing starting with our current kindergarten students.  Change is not always easy, but if it benefits our students then we know we are moving in the right direction!  More details will soon follow . . . 



LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade: Anagrams: To start our week, the students began to work on a packet with anagrams. They were given a word with a hint to change it into the anagram. The first page started with 3 letters then they grew to 4 and even 5 letter anagrams!

They were encouraged to use their set of alphabet letters if they were stuck on any of the anagrams and to manipulate the letters until they found a new word. This seemed to do the trick whenever they were stuck! We ended our week by taking a break from anagrams and completing a few different word puzzles - like the ones we have learned about all year - with a Holiday Twist. First, they came in and were asked to solve a secret message in Pig Latin. Then, we completed some word ladders.

To end the day, we made some connections by looking at pictures with hints to Holiday Movies. We will finish up anagrams when we return from break.

2nd Grade: This is Jeopardy: We started the week with a few worksheets to complete on our journey with Edward. First, they cut-out words and glued them to either describe Edward when he lived on Egypt Street or on his journey.

Then, they listed the different names that Edward took on throughout our story and the different wardrobes he had. If they had time, they began the crossword puzzle. They will have time to continue to complete the crossword puzzle throughout class (even after break) while we play Jeopardy.

On Tuesday, we began a round of Jeopardy for some fun to end our week. We will play a few more rounds of Jeopardy when they return after break. They all earned a trip to the prize box for being separated by only 10 points in our first round of Jeopardy. This was great, as they were also learning the rules in this round. Plus, it was based on our first 5 chapters - they did a great job remembering some little details! We will conclude our novel study with Edward Tulane when we return from break.

3rd Grade: Jane Goodall: To wrap up this lesson on Jane Goodall, each student was asked to select a quote from Jane Goodall. Then they needed to write about a time this quote applied to their life. We used the remainder of time to look at an article on Jane Goodall from the October Issue of the National Geographic.


On Tuesday, we had a little Holiday Fun. However, we quickly discussed what is meant by the words background knowledge. This was to prepare them for our next lesson. We will be working with Jane Goodall in our next lesson and wanted to have them store that knowledge they have gathered on her so far.


We went around the room for each of them to share a fact or two they have already stored in their background knowledge. They did a great job sharing what they have discovered about Jane Goodall. Now it was time for some fun. We completed two Holiday worksheets with our remaining time.

MATH

1st Grade: Angles: For a reminder on our rules for the One Loop Game, we started our week with a few rounds of our game from last week. Then it was time for them to complete a worksheet simulating the one loop game.





They were asked to place three shapes in the loop that followed the rule, three shapes that did not on the outside of the loop and label their rule. After they completed this activity, it was time for some attribute practice - holiday themed.



We completed a worksheet identifying reindeer shapes by their names. There were some tricky ones, so they decided to move our activity over to our word wall. In this time, they also decided to rename the word wall to the shape wall!



These guys always make me smile. We ended the day completing a snowman glyph. They filled in a snowman following certain rules to their likes and dislikes of winter.

2nd Grade:

We were unable to meet this week with all the fun Holiday activities going on within the school! I am looking forward to starting our next chapter when they return.

3rd Grade: 100's Chart:
We finished our worksheet observing our patterns and took some time to share what the different groups observed. First, we looked back at our own visualizations we saw when completing the individual 100's charts.






We took some time to explain identifying a true pattern with the diagonal they saw. For it to be a pattern, it must have always followed the same rule moving down to each row.



One example was our 3's & 9's that followed the pattern of down one and to the left one. Our 4's and 8's followed a similar pattern, but moved to the left two. Some friends identified a slant within the pattern of the 6's, but we could not identify a rule for the pattern. To end our week, we had some Holiday Fun with 100's charts. The students completed a Holiday picture filling in their charts.

4th Grade: Comparing Fractions: This week they were introduced to our fourth strategy to compare fractions - common denominators. We talked about this idea earlier in the year, so they caught on quickly. We were given two fractions to compare. This introduced us to listing multiples to find the least common multiple for a set of denominators.

We discovered that our two numbers could have had an infinite amount of common denominators if we would have carried out our list. We already found three on our board with our small list. This introduced us to also identify the Least Common Denominator allowing us to work with smaller numbers. Then, as promised it was time for the students to answer question number 5 on their worksheet.

They placed the fractions in order from least to greatest. I told them if they used their answers from questions 1-4 they already have a good start to ordering them using our benchmarks rules. This made them feel confident with this project and I even heard them say how easy it was looking at the fractions in smaller groups!
They had the order almost perfect - they confused 1 rule of being 1 away from a whole with 1 more than a whole. They applied the theory correctly just to the wrong set of fractions. They were very proud at how quick they handled this project and with such confidence! It was great seeing them use team work as they shared their knowledge with each tool we covered. We ended the day looking at a fractions worksheet for making Christmas Cookies. This assignment was a little tricky, because we haven't learned all the tools to solve it yet. We had a mini lesson today for the worksheet and they all completed it. I assured them that our mini lessons will be revisited letter and now they have knowledge to some of it early.

See You Next Year,

Ms. Losinski

~ FAST-FLYING FRIDAY ~

I cannot believe how fast another year is flying by on us again!  It is hard to imagine the first day of winter will be here next week on December 21st.  Although it seems we are already feeling it!   You will see below we are also approaching the half-way point to our school year - next Friday ends the 2nd Quarter.  Where has the time gone?

AROUND THE SCHOOL

December 22nd: End of 2nd Quarter

December 25th: January 7th:

Winter Recess
January 8th: School Resumes

January 15th: No School - Martin Luther King Jr Day

LANGUAGE ARTS

1st Grade: Magical Anagrams: This week we reviewed the definition of an anagram. We read the preview to our next story The Great Show and Tell Disaster by Mike Reiss. In the preview, we focused on the anagrams they gave us for two students: Brian was turned into a Brain and Kristen was turned into a Stinker.




Then, it was time for the students to see if they could discover what the teacher Mrs. Eaton was turned into in our story. In a few minutes, the students took the letters in her name and turned her into a Monster! As we read the story, we paid close attention to the illustrations and how he brought the anagrams to life.
After our story, the students were introduced to a new tool - the vocabulary map. We use this tool to better understand new and interesting words. We practiced filling it out with the word colossal. In this form the students not only discover the definition to a word, but they are introduced to the synonym, antonym, part of speech and number of syllables. It also allows them to work with the word further by writing it in a sentence. It was great seeing them take their time thinking of the perfect sentence for our word. Next week we will continue to work with anagrams.

2nd Grade: Socratic Seminar: This week the students learned about using a Socratic Seminar to hold a discussion. We went over how a proper seminar would work. The class would be split into 2 groups each one taking a turn in the inner and outer circle. When a group was in the inner circle they would hold a discussion on certain questions given to lead the conversation. While they would discuss it, the outer circle evaluates their discussion.
They fill out a form with ideas that were important, ideas they liked, and a wish they thought would have happened during the discussion. Then the two groups would switch allowing each group an opportunity to participate in the inner and outer circle. We do not have a large enough group to run the Socratic Seminar properly, so we modified the rules slightly. The class participated in both sets of questions for the inner circle. They also did their best at taking down their thoughts to the discussion, while it took place. This was a bit of a challenge because they were busy sharing ideas. If time allowed, this group could have talked for 15 minutes on each topic! It is great hearing them share their thoughts and ideas from the story.

HOMEWORK: In their journals they were asked to reflect on what Edward's journey taught them.

3rd Grade:  Annotations:  This week was all about independent practice for this group.  It was now their turn to complete a close read with annotations.  They made a selection from 3 biographies of Jane Goodall of their choice.  They were allowed to work on around the room as they read through and used their annotations on their reading packet.

  After each paragraph, they are also required to add a few words or sentences expressing the main idea.  I had some students that took off with this project and some that needed a little more guidance.  This brought up the idea of knowing when you are complete - I shared with them that when there is more writing on your paper than white space is when you know you are done or close to finished. 
 To help those that needed a little more assistance on what to write - we discussed using what our inner voice is telling us when we are reading to guide our annotations.  Our inner voice is what tells us WOW that was amazing, I never knew that before, this seems important, or this part is a little tricky.  It also helps make connections throughout our reading to our background knowledge on the topic.  

After a discussion on our inner voice, they were able to fill up more of the white space on our papers.  We discussed why annotations are important to us as readers.  We know that they help us develop deeper meaning to our reading.  We also shared how the notes can help us find the information quicker in a discussion.  Maybe when studying for a test it would allow you to focus on the important details verse rereading an entire selection again.  Next week, we will finish this section on Jane Goodall.

MATH

1st Grade:  Angles:  We started our week by reviewing angles.  They were able to name all three angles, define them, draw an example of each and find them around the room.  Next, we discussed different ways to identify attributes on a person.  

Some examples were hair color, glasses, hair length, a color a person has on, or their height.  This introduced us to our next game - One Loop.  I would place students into our loop and they would have to solve the mystery of what they had in common.  They rocked this game out!  

Next we played the One Loop Game with shapes.  They were divided into two teams.  Each team receives a set of shape with different attributes and labels.  Team A places a label for the loop under the circle, while Team B will hold up a shape to see if it matches the rule.  

Team A would say yes or no to the shape shown. If the shape matches the rule they would place it in the circle, but if they were wrong they placed in on the outside of the circle.  They had a blast with this game.  Somehow each time the guessing team managed to pick a correct shape almost every time!  We said they must be mind readers.  We will continue to look at shape attributes next week.




Enjoy some extra photos from the week - we had lots of fun!

2nd Grade:  Chapter Check-up:  The students needed some more time to finish their thoughts with the Think Deeply question from last week.  We started by reviewing the key points that should be in their response.  We focused on the basic unit and how they positioned four different shapes to form 1 new hexagon. Then they finished their thoughts to Dru and Teller.  We had time to discuss a Think Beyond card that brought up the idea of how a square can go by many names.  We drew a square and wrote down the attributes to it.  

Then, we went over to our word wall and looked at each name that identified a square. This let us discuss how it can fit each definition.  This helped them to see it visually verse just discussing it.  Next, it was time for our chapter check-up.  The chapter check-up allows me to see where the students are with our information before moving onto the next chapter.  If I see we need to review any information based on their results, we will take some time to discuss those topics before moving onto chapter 2. 




3rd Grade:  Hundred's Chart:  This week we took some time to look at our patterns that our multiples formed and analyze them.  We identified the columns they were in and if they were moving in a vertical or slanted line.  If they were able to see a pattern with the multiples they would identify that too.  An example of that would be that all the multiples of 5 ends in a 5 or 0.
  They recorded these results with their 100's charts.  Next it was time to compare all the charts together.  We identified all charts that displayed a vertical pattern: 2, 5 & 10.  Then we explained why the multiples have this pattern.  One example was when we count by 10's the multiple always falls in the 10's column.  This idea is similar with our 5's as well with the multiple always falling in the column of our 5 or 10.  To finish this sheet, the students worked in small groups to finish analyzing their 100's charts. 

Some extra pictures from the week.



 
4th Grade:  Common Denominators:  This week the students continued working with their benchmarks to place a set of fractions in order.  We made a large number line on the board that the students could come up and work out any of the fractions they were struggling with in determining their position.  This allowed them to talk it out with me, as they still worked to solve it.  I saw their confidence grow the more they were able to solve them.  


Next, the students were asked to decide which fraction represented a larger amount of candy they would receive in a bag.  They decided to take the improper fractions and turn them into mixed numbers and then place them in order with their benchmarks.  This allowed them to quickly identify that one fraction represented 1 & 1/2 and the other was slightly more than a half.  
Our next set of fractions the children again chose to solve by changing the improper fraction to a mixed number.  However, this time they were each 1 part of their fraction away: 1/6 & 1/10.  Before talking out the solution, we took a vote to which candy bag the students would prefer.  
Then, we went back and discussed that when fractions are very close together they must consider the size of the fraction pieces.  As soon as I stated this, I had students immediately remember and visualize this making them want to switch their vote.  Being 1/10 of a fraction away from a whole than 1/6 made the fraction 19/10 our larger amount of candy.  
We had just enough time to let the students take our 4 bags of candy and place them in order from smallest to largest.  1 student quickly caught on that this was practice to them placing the 14 bags from their worksheet in order for next week.  We will continue working with ordering fractions next week. 



Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski