~ FABULOUS FRIDAY~ 

AROUND THE SCHOOL

March 2nd:  Read Across America
March 11th:  Spring Forward
March 12th-16th:  IREAD *3rd Grade
March 15th:  Family Nature Night
March 16th:  End of 3rd Quarter
March 23rd:  Reports Card Day!
March 26th - March 30th:  Spring Break
April 2nd:  School Resumes

LANGUAGE ARTS


1ST GRADE:  ANAGRAMS:  We started our week by translating wumbers from our charts.  Next, it was onto reading a dialogue in speech bubbles.  The conversation was full of wumbers and anagrams.  A student stated that it reminded them of a conversation through a text message.  This led us into a discussion on why we use these 2 different "shortcuts."  Another student brought up a great point on wondering how people know what the letters stand for in acronyms - this was while discussing the meaning of TTYL.  This was a perfect time to bring up the next assignment - Should parents buy first graders cellphones?  We had a brief reminder that to persuade someone means to convince them to believe your idea.  We practiced by having them persuade me that we should have dessert for dinner.  I must say, it was easy to persuade me to this idea!  As for the cellphones, it was becoming clear that the class was becoming divided.  Some were quick to get excited about the thought of having a cellphone and others started thinking about them being too young.  We will continue with our persuasive writing next week.


2ND GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX:  This week we began with a discussion on discussing what it means to conform or follow the rules.  Then we listened to some more chapters from our story - we have a copy of the book recorded, that they are really enjoying listening too.  For the remainder of our time this week, the children spent time completing a packet on Book the 1st up to chapter 6.  

They did a very good job working on the questions and taking the time to find the answer if they did not remember it from our reading.  This packet will serve as a study guide to help us keep our information from each chapter organized.

Homework:  Please read chapters 7 through 9.

3RD GRADE:  SPARK:  This week the children were introduced to the SPARK Problem Solving Process.  It is a great process that lets the students work towards finding a solution or look for opportunities.  We discussed that it is important for them to remember that it doesn't always follow a perfect step-by-step perfect formula.  They will find themselves with the need to revisit steps and run into road blocks along the path to find the solution.  

This is okay and we want that - so when they find the perfect solution - all of the problems will have worked themselves out by the end.  Our goal is to find an opportunity for the older and younger students to interact more within our school.  Together, we worked on defining the parameters to our dilemma.  Things the students must consider are the school day, interests of the younger and older students, the cost and any materials their idea would need.  From there they broke into two groups of two.  Each group has a scribe responsible for taking all their notes.  For our project, each group needed to come up with 10 possibilities.  After reaching their 10 possibilities, they needed to decide their top 3 ideas that we will discuss and work out the rest of the SPARK process as a class. 
We will continue with this project next week. 


MATH

1ST GRADE:  NEGATIONS:  This week we began by practicing our negations.  Each student got to display their Yes - No paper on the board.  Then each student took a turn adding a shape.  The student whose paper it was decided if the others filled it out correctly.  Then it was onto beginning their Think Deeply.  Imi and Zani needed our help in completing a Carroll Diagram and filling in labels using our negations.  We will continue with our Think Deeply next week with the writing portion.

2ND GRADE:  FLOOR DESIGN:  This week it was all about the Floor Design project.  We briefly reviewed the requirements from what they were introduced to last week.  Then students worked on their designs.  When they were done they evaluated their designs with the checklist.  



The checklist did make some of our friends go back and redesign until, they met all the requirements to our project.  We did have two students master their designs on the first attempt!  When they had a completed floor design they would join me to go over our Think Beyond cards.

3RD GRADE:  REVIEW & FUN:  We decided to delay starting our new chapter until the students finished ISTEP.  We took a moment to look at one problem from their Chapter Review.  


We discussed making sure we answer all parts to a word problem.  This was the one area I saw a consistent error.  I told them this is why we work so hard on our Think Deeply to help us explain our math in words.  We will take the time to focus on this with our future Think Deeply questions. 
 For the remainder of the week, we completed 2 different puzzling puzzles worksheet for some added practice - they really liked that lesson.  Then for a challenge they worked on another logic puzzle.  I was super proud - 3 students figured it!  We reviewed 2 different strategies to solving the puzzle.





4TH GRADE:  LOGIC FUN:  Our class time fell right after ISTEP for this group.  By the time they came to my room, it was obvious they needed to get some energy out.  We quickly reviewed one problem from our Chapter Review from last week.  Then I gave them a quick preview of our next lesson - adding fractions.  Our introduction called for the Thumbs-Up Game -which we played together introducing the idea of visualizing adding fractions with unlike denominators.
  Thinking of their fractions strips they were supposed to decide if it would be less than 1, equal to one or greater than 1.  To end our week, they took another go at a Logic Puzzle.  This time they are responsible for working it out on their own.  For 15 minutes they completed it individually then they were allowed to work with a partner.  


Enjoy the Weekend,

Ms Losinski

~ FRIDAY, FRIDAY ~

AROUND THE SCHOOL

February 26th - March 9th:  ISTEP 3rd & 4th Grade
February 26th:  Six Flags Reading Logs Due Today
March 2nd:  Read Across America
March 11th:  Spring Forward
March 12th-16th:  IREAD *3rd Grade
March 15th:  Family Nature Night



LANGUAGE ARTS
We only met on Tuesday with Monday off for President's Day.


1ST GRADE:  ACRONYMS:  This week we looked closer at the illustrations in Wumbers and how they help give a clue to the Wumber.  We stopped when we reached a page full of acronyms!  This was a perfect opportunity to discuss what those letters were representing.  We looked at some of the acronyms included in our story:  ASAP, EMT, ER, TLC - some of these were tricky so I also referenced LOL.  After discussing the meanings of the letters we were able to come up with a definition for acronyms - they were shortcuts we use to represent a longer phrase.  We will continue to work with acronyms next week.

2ND GRADE:  THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX:  We started our week by filling out connections to what we read last week.  While working on assigned reading, they will either complete a connection worksheet or reading analyzer.  Our second grade language arts students study connections throughout their entire curriculum - I love to share this story with the students because of how many connections they will find throughout their reading.  Next we had a class discussion over chapters 3 & 4.  We discussed in detail what their thoughts were to Despereaux not fitting in and struggling to follow the mouse rules.  We also were introduced to his fascination with the light.  We ended our day discussing what might happen next since he broke the one rule even Despereaux obeyed - Never reveal yourself to a human.  Next week we will continue on with our novel study.

3RD GRADE: PERSUASIVE WRITING:  It was finally time to present our essays.  They were excited and ready to share.  This week each student presented their persuasive writing to the class.  Their fellow students used the rubric they followed to rate each piece of writing.  I like to let them see the grading to a rubric because it helps them understand the importance of meeting the criteria of the rubric.  They will see rubrics throughout their entire school career and the better of an understanding they have for it, the more success they will have in completing assignments.  We held a class discussion and it was nice to hear some people open up to other ideas shared - even if it was the opposite side.  We concluded that these books are made for two different audiences.  Me...Jane is a great introduction into Jane Goodall for a pre-k through 1st grade audience and The Watcher is better suited as a book for 2nd through 4th as a quick introduction into Jane Goodall's life.  This was a great lesson for comparing and contrasting, as they developed strong arguments to their feelings on the topic.


MATH




1ST GRADE:  NEGATIONS:
This week the students finished their Carroll Diagram Packet.  Then it was time for some review.  We want to concentrate on using proper shape names at this point in the year, so we had some SmartBoard fun to review shapes and their attributes!  

We had just enough time to introduce our next step with Carroll Diagrams - Negations.  When I started filling in the Carroll Diagram repeating the same two names for labels, they were quick to point out my error! 


 Until, I continued on and placed an X through one of  the duplicates.  Then they realized it wasn't an error and were excited to see our new way to sort using the Carroll Diagram.  


We will continue to work with negations next week.

Some Extra photos from last week - my phone didn't upload them all and too cute not to share! 

2ND GRADE:  ALL ABOUT FACES:  We reviewed our charts from counting edges, faces and vertices last week.  We only saw differences in our edges.  This error occurred more from them losing track of the edges they counted verse not understanding the edge on the shape.  We discussed faces and how they are the 2d shape we see while looking at one particular side to a 3d shape.  They stamped out the faces of 3d shapes, by tracing each face to one of our shapes.  This allowed them to see the 2d face on paper.  

It defined our chart from last week, where they identified a triangular prism had a total of 5 faces: 2 triangles and 3 rectangles.  Now they are ready to prepare for the Floor Design Challenge. 
 We reviewed the requirements and looked at the checklist they must complete to evaluate their design. Then we placed some shapes on the grid for a floor design, however it did not pass the requirements.  We switched out one shape and than it was perfect!  For the remainder of class, the students practiced different designs on their boards.  Next week they will create their final design.

3RD GRADE:  LOGIC FUN:  
This week we took our Chapter Check-up.  Just as I suspected, they rocked it out!  They have been doing very well with patterns in an array.   To have some fun, we tried a logic puzzle this week.  They took some time to complete it on their own.  However, they reached a point where they were stuck.  As a class, we began to work through the logic puzzle.  
They really need to look at the clues and then go back and look again.  It is a great activity to exercise their brains with these types of challenges.  We will be introducing different brain teasers for the students to complete, if they finish an assignment early.  We will finish solving this one together next week.  Next time they are on their own!
*We were so busy working out the logic puzzle together, we forgot to take photos this week!  Will try to take some extra photos next week.



4TH GRADE:  LOGIC FUN:  They needed some more time to complete their Chapter Check-ups.  After they finished, they were to complete a logic puzzle.  These are great activities to exercise their brains with these different challenges.  
 However, they reached a point where they were stuck.  As a class, we began to work through the logic puzzle.  They really need to look at the clues and then go back and look again.  We will be introducing different brain teasers for the students to complete if they finish an assignment early.  I feel confident after working through parts of this one together they are ready to complete them on their own.

Enjoy the Weekend!

Ms Losinski