High Ability 2019 - 2020

Welcome Back To Our High Ability Blog!

Hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are now ready to start fresh.  It's going to be another great school year!  Many families are returning, so you're familiar with how we do things in High Ability.  I'm excited to welcome our new families to our program and to fill you in on how everything works.  The first blog is always lengthy because there's so much to share.  Most will stay the same, but there are a few subtle changes.  Read for yourself!

A Little About High Ability:

Welcome to our weekly blog!  This is an area where I post a weekly update to allow you to take a peek inside our classroom.  I try to post lots of pictures, so you can see what they are working on each week.  This is also a great location to monitor any assignments they may have to complete.  You will also find a calendar highlighting some important dates coming up around the school.  My goal is to have the blog posted on Friday.  I will send a weekly email when the blog is posted.  You can access the blog at the bottom of my email or through Yost's homepage under classrooms.

Language Arts and Math groups will meet twice a week for 30-minute sessions during flex time. Flex time is a time set aside at Yost per grade level for students to receive specialized instruction. My Language Arts students meet on Monday and Tuesday. My Math students meet on Wednesday and Thursday. Our start date this year is August 28th. For this week, I will see my Language Arts students on Wednesday and my Math students on Thursday for an introduction day.

INTRODUCTION WEEK:

Wednesday, August 28th: 1st Day of Language Arts

Thursday, August 29th:  1st Day of Math

BACK TO NORMAL NEXT WEEK:

Monday, September 2nd:  No School

Tuesday, September 3rd:  Language Arts

Wednesday, September 4th:  Math

Thursday, September 5th:  Math

LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM:

We are using the High Ability Language Arts Curriculum Project which was developed by the Indiana Department of Education. Each grade centers around an umbrella concept that fits every lesson.  They are filled with many fantastic lessons that build upon each other as the year goes.  Teaching under the umbrella allows students to make connections which calls on higher order thinking.  We will use several of the trade and picture books suggested by the state as part of our curriculum.  The gifted lessons use the same models from year to year like Paul's Reasoning Model and the Hamburger Model for persuasive writing.  The added bonus is that students who continue through the grades in High Ability, will become quite efficient and familiar with the similar high ability structures while analyzing literature.

MATH CURRICULUM:

We are using the same math series called Mentoring Young Mathematicians (M2) for 2nd grade.  The upper grades will use Mentoring Mathematical Minds (M3). I just love teaching math this way!  It's not math in isolation; it's real life applicable situations. The students are asked to problem solve problems using math as a means to get there.   It was a bit of a change for the students last year, in that they were required to write and explain their thoughts, ideas, and decisions about math. By the end of the year they had grown tremendously! I was proud of them. Being gifted in math is so much more than just being good with numbers! When writing and explaining their answers, it will further cement their understanding of the concept.  I will support their writing efforts while in class, but writing and explaining their mathematical answers are something to work on with your child at home.

HOMEWORK:

Occasionally there will be homework assigned.  It honestly tends to be more with the language arts/reading groups than with the math groups.  Second, third and fourth grade will complete book studies in their curriculum and can expect weekly reading assignments. It is critical to their success in the classroom to stay current on the reading assignments.

Mark it on the Calendar!

Monday, September 2nd:  No School - Labor Day

Wednesday, September 4th:  Kindergarten Tech Night 6-7pm

Monday & Tuesday, September 9th & 10th:  4th Grade Camp Goodfellow

Tuesday, September 10th:  PTO Meeting 6-7pm

Sunday, September 15th:  Five Guys Fundraiser 11am - 9pm

Wednesday, September 18th:  Grandparents Day

K-1 from 8:30-9:45am

2-4 from 9:45-11am

Thursday, September 19th: PICTURE DAY

Thursday, September 19th:  PTO Craft Night 5:30-6:30pm

INTRODUCTION WEEK:

This week all my classes participated in an introduction week.  We reviewed classroom procedures and expectations for the room.  We also took a tour around our classroom learning about all of the materials and resources around the room.  Getting all of the must-dos out of the way this week  allows us to dive right into our curriculum next week. 

It was great to see my old friends and meet lots of new friends.  I am excited to be starting my 4th year as the High Ability Instructor at Yost.  It is going to be a GREAT school year.

Ms. Losinski

~ HEY, HEY IT'S FRIDAY ~

Around the School

February 15th - ELearning Day
Make-up day from 1-31 
 It is available online now.
February 18th - Mid-Winter Break
Presidents' Day - No School
March 7th - Kindergarten Round-up
March 15th - End of 3rd Grading Period
March 22nd - Report Cards Posted

NO HOMEWORK for all of my language arts students.  Please enjoy the 4-day weekend!
2nd Grade:  The Tale of Despereaux:
  This week we came in and started with a class discussion on The Tale of Despereaux.  This led us into a discussion on what it means to conform, as Despereaux is struggling to conform to being a mouse.  He won't scurry and won't nibble the pages of books.  In fact, he was able to make words and read the pages verse just see scribbles.  We discussed why we have rules and related it to school.  This led us into a text-to-world connection.   The students were able to understand that sometimes we have rules in place to keep us safe.  The students also shared two different text-to-text connections with Despereaux.  We compared the description of Despereaux and his big ears to the story of Dumbo.  They also remembered the story of Weslandia and stated that Wesley and Despereaux are similar because they are both different.
We will continue on our journey with Despereaux next week.


3rd Grade:  BLACK BEAUTY:
  This week our class discussion was led by modeling how to complete the in-class worksheets.  Throughout the novel the students will look at how past interactions have affected the different horses behavior.  We will track this throughout the story by looking at the different owners of Black Beauty and track interactions they had with him.  We will also look at other horses and pay attention to their temperament - we may not know their owners, but they share some stories with us on how they were treated.  This will allow us to see how our interactions and up-bringing help to define our character, which will be a focus throughout the novel.

4th Grade:  WESTING GAMES:
  This week our class discussion was led by modeling how to take the chapter notes.  We filled out the notes for chapters 1& 2 together to give them an idea on how to complete this section independently.  The students were given their folders.  There are 3 different areas to complete to help them solve the case.  Each week they should fill out their own chapter notes with their assigned reading.  This should be completed as homework.  In class, they will have a set of worksheets to complete that have different activities from solving the jobs of the characters, deciding who lives where and tracking all of the suspects.  They will also have a set of questions for each chapter.  These activities will help walk them through solving the mystery.  They will be given class time for those two areas, but must use their time wisely to complete it.  I will meet with each student weekly and make sure they are on track and help with any questions they have during their independent study.  Each student is their own detective and will follow their clues and case study to try and solve our mystery.  When they have their guess (but not too early, as the focus is on following the clues of the author) they will be allowed to submit it.  We will wait to look at them until the end of the story, but want to give them an opportunity to solve it - with a prize on the line for correct guesses!

2nd Grade:  AREA: 
 This week we took some extra time out of our lesson to review how to add fractions.  We took on this challenge of adding fractions with the same denominators.  Our answer gave us an improper fraction so we used our denominator to pull out whole squares.  This was to help us figure out the area between two shapes that were VERY close together - both falling between 17 and 18 square feet.  We had just enough time to start the next worksheet - How Big.  This had them first work with square inches to predict, find the actual area and mark their difference between the two with four different shapes.  After completing the chart, they were to place the shapes in order from the smallest to largest area.  
We will continue working with area next week.


3rd Grade:  BREAK IT UP:
   We have continued working with the distributive property of multiplication.  This time we looked back at the dimensions from the Yeti's pen.  All of these had the same perimeter of 56 ft.  Now we got to use our new strategy to look for the different areas of the pens.  They took turns choosing a pen and breaking it apart for another student to solve it.  Our big focus, while mastering this skill, is to break it apart to simplify the math.  We did see some problems that allowed the students to practice the regular formula for area - multiply the length and width.  This was a faster strategy with dimensions like 1x27 and 2x26.  We ultimately are working towards applying this strategy to simplify working with larger facts.  The students saw the more they applied the steps to a problem the more their confidence grew with this property.
We will continue working with the distributive property next week.



4th Grade:  INTRODUCTION:

  This week we took a moment to review their chapter check-ups.  We only had a few areas to talk about - with one problem as the main focus of our review.  It was a perfect topic because it led into our next lesson.  It was reviewing how to find the missing part to a whole fraction when adding a set of fractions with different denominators. 

 We had mixed answers with this question - some have mastered it, some solved it visually using the newspaper to find the answer and a few needed to review the steps again.  I also wanted to make sure my visual friends had an understanding for the mathematical steps to solve it because they may not always have a picture when solving this type of problem.  Next, we moved onto the game thumbs up.  This game makes them mentally add up fractions with different denominators to either being less than, equal to or greater than 1 yard. 

This theory is a way for them to judge their answers when working out a multi-step problem. When they can quickly identify where the answer falls in relationship to 1 whole, it lets the students know if their answer is on the right path.  However if the answer is not where they predicted it should fall, they would know to try again.  It is a great tool to use for checking their work.
We will add on another strategy next week. 

Enjoy the Weekend,

Ms.Losinski

...AND WE'RE BACK

After some crazy weeks, we were finally back to our regular schedule for High Ability.

Around the School

February 14th -  Zumba Parties 
Valentine's Day
February 15th - ELearning Day
Make-up day from 1-31 
 It is available online now.
February 18th - Mid-Winter Break
Presidents' Day - No School
March 7th - Kindergarten Round-up

It has been a crazy, busy week in language arts!  All 3 of my classes are starting novel studies at the same time for the second semester.  Please be on the lookout for your student bringing home a book on Tuesdays (4th graders will have a folder too) for required reading.  The only exception will be the week prior to spring break. 

2nd Grade: The Tale of Despereaux:

  We are off and running with the new novel study!  This week we finished brainstorming a definition of a hero.  After students shared their ideas, I saw the definition of a hero change and grow into some wonderful ideas.  At first, we had some ideas that went along with your typical superhero - a hero must save someone or have superpowers.  However, now they said that a hero must be good and kind.  Some students still believed that a hero must save someone, so we will save that idea to discuss when we finish the book.

Next, the students listened to the story Weslandia by Paul Fleischman.  This story was used to model the three connections a good reader makes:  text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world.  The book is broken into 4 parts and for the first two sections we are going to focus on making connections while we read.

To end the week, I shared with the students their new novel - The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.  They quickly discovered that it was the same author from our previous novel.  They made a prediction that our story will have adventure from looking at the cover.  They also made a connection with the author from our last story and think that adventure is a theme she might continue to use in her stories.  We shared a read aloud on Tuesday to begin our new adventure with The Tale of Despereaux.

Please read chapters 2-4.

3rd Grade:  BLACK BEAUTY:
  This group began their novel study this week.  We first listened to a short clip that previews the novel for the students.  Then, we looked over the student packet.  Throughout the novel, the students will track the owners and their interactions they share with their horses - we will track how this affects the horses' temperament throughout the story.  We also have the story divided into 4 sections - with each section the students will answer a set of short response questions.  This week we listened to chapter 1.  After hearing the story, the students completed a question that focused on the piece of advice Beauty was given by his mother as a colt.  We will focus on this advice throughout the story, so it is important the students pause and reflect on the idea of good advice.  We had time left this week to continue the read aloud by hearing two more chapters.  We will continue with our novel study next week.

Please read chapters 4-6.

4th Grade:  THE WESTING GAMES:

  We have solved our short mystery - the nephew did it!  Some students were excited because they predicted him from the start.  This led us into the introduction to our novel study.  The students were introduced to their novel The Westing Games by Ellen Raskin.  We went over a Detective Packet the students will be responsible for while solving the case.  The packet is divided into activities to complete and help track notes as they work towards solving the mystery.  The students will each have a folder that will go home on Tuesdays with their book and these materials should be returned with them for class on Monday.  We ended the week with just enough time to read chapter 1 together.

Please read chapters 2 & 3.  They do not have their folders for this week because we ran out of time to demonstrate how to complete them with chapter 1.  We will complete these together for chapters 1-3 on Monday.

2nd Grade:  AREA:
  We are now exploring area with square inches.  The students completed the activity Putting Things in Order.  This activity asked them to first predict the area of 3 shapes from smallest to largest.  Next, they were allowed to cut the shapes out and manipulate them how they wished to help determine  the correct order of the shapes.  To check their answer, they were asked to measure the shapes with square inch tiles.
  They discovered the tiles were not a perfect fit for one of the shapes.  Our last step was to use a square inch grid to measure the three shapes.  They were surprised to see that it was actually 2 of our shapes that the tiles did not fit into properly.  



This led us back into a discussion on adding up partial squares or fractions.  We will take a few minutes next week to begin class with a mini-lesson on adding the partial squares (fractions) before continuing on with the lesson. 

3rd Grade:  BREAK ME APART: 
 These guys jumped right back into their lesson.  We quickly reviewed with the small arrays from 2 weeks ago the formula for the distributive property.  Next, we switched it up and started to work the property with larger arrays.  This definitely gave them more of a challenge.  We decided to take some extra time working with the larger arrays and continued to practice applying the distributive property while looking for the area.  It is important that they master this step before moving onto their independent practice with this lesson because it is our big concept we will build on throughout the chapter. 

Next week we will continue with the lesson.



4th Grade:  CHAPTER CHECK-UP:
  These guys are troopers!  When we met two weeks ago we started their chapter check-up.  After a long delay, I asked them to try and finish it giving it their best effort.  I am really proud of this group cause after grading them I was able to see they are getting it and the delay didn't affect the scores.
  For those that finished early, they had the opportunity to complete a logic puzzle.  These were requested by a student this week and are similar to the ones they completed last year.  Last year they were a struggle for them, so I was happily surprised to see them excited to solve these independently this year!  They were excited to work through the puzzle and I am seeing them do much better with them than last year - what a difference a year makes!

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski

~Blogging on a Monday~

Sorry for the delay - I have been working on uploading the photos from this week and have been having technical issues.

Hope everyone enjoyed the snow this weekend and had a chance to get out and enjoy it!

Around the School

January 21st - Martin Luther King Jr Day -
No School
January 25th - PTO Movie Night
February 14th - Valentine's Day
February 15th - 18th - Mid Winter Break
Class Resumes on February 19th

2nd Grade:  A NEW NOVEL STUDY:  We took some time to go back and focus on some grammar.  The students were introduced to prepositions.  This let us go back and practice identifying the subject in the sentence, as we were answering if it told us where or when the subject did something.  We also took some time to discuss interjections.  They had lots of fun with this one as it allowed us to practice reading with expression.  

We changed gears this week to start to look at some introductory activities to our new novel.  We looked at an activity that has us discuss the idea of light and dark.  This will be a major theme throughout the entire story.  They came up with some amazing discussions and I was excited to see them take this idea to another level before starting the book.  We discussed nocturnal animals, the energy and go, go go during the day verse the quiet and calm at night and how some people have opposite schedules and work at night and sleep during the day.  These were great ideas to discuss prior to our book and I am excited to dig deeper with them as we start the novel.  
We will continue on with the introduction to our novel next week.


3rd Grade:  ANNA SEWELL:  This week the students completed copying their final draft with their persuasive writing.  Then, we moved onto a journal activity.  We first looked at a biography about Anna Sewell, who is the author of our upcoming novel study - Black Beauty. Next, we looked at the writing prompt which asked the students to compare and contrast Jane Goodall and her work to Anna Sewell.  We took a moment to brainstorm some ideas for their response.  Then, they wrote a response in their journal. 
 Next week we will continue with some introduction activities to their novel.



4th Grade:  IT'S A MYSTERY:  We have started to prepare for our upcoming novel study.  The students have been introduced to our genre - a mystery.  We looked at some important vocabulary we will see and need to know as we work our way through the novel to solve the mystery.  Next, we started to practice our detective skills as we worked our way through a mystery activity.  Through different logic puzzles the children are working  to solve a mini-mystery.  This is introducing them to our terms of suspects, opportunity, motive and alibi, and clues.  We have narrowed the list of suspects from 8 to 4 and will solve the mystery next week.

2nd Grade:  THINK DEEPLY:  The students worked with their scale models of our tent to discover how many people can fit into are area.  We also looked at the open space remaining after finding our solutions to how many sleeping bags can fit.  This led us into a discussion that although there was more than 18 square feet remaining why could we only fit 1 person in the tent.  We discussed that although there might be enough area remaining in theory, the shape of the space might not allow more people into the tent.  The students discovered that although there might be enough room, they must also decide if the shape allows for the bags to fit properly without overlapping.

  This led them into their Think Deeply question from Dru and Teller.  They had to decide a disagreement between Dru and Teller.  Dru looked at the numbers and said four people can fit in the tent with room to spare and Teller said using the scale who could not fit that many without the bags overlapping.  The students discovered that Teller was correct and explained their thinking to them. 
 We will move onto the next lesson next week.

3rd Grade:  THINK DEEPLY: We wrapped up finding the area of our bodies.  This led us into our final discussion as we prepared for our Think Deeply.  The students were asked to describe a strategy for finding an estimate and explain the steps to finding the area of an irregular shape.  Together, we reviewed some strategies to find an estimate.  This led us to look at our first estimate and discuss if we made an estimate or a guess.  When we make an estimate we want to use some knowledge with a benchmark or guide to help us come up with a number we hope will be close to the final answer.  A guess would be just stating any random number.  A good strategy would be finding the number of squares in the most consistent row and multiplying it by the number of columns there are to the length of the shape.  We tested this theory out with the shape and this would have given us an estimate of 570 square inches.  This was much closer to our final number of 671 square inches than their first guesses.  

Then, we listed the steps to finding the area of an irregular shape.  We had several strategies to count the partial squares.  Each with different benefits one might save us on time and the other would get us closer to an actual number.  However, both strategies would not let our final answer be exact.   They took our notes from discussion and turned it into their response for their Think Deeply.

4th Grade:  FRACTIONS:  This week we continued on our journey on dividing a whole unit into different sizes and discussing what portion of the whole they represented.  We started an activity that would have us look at the front page of a newspaper cover.  We would want the main article to cover a large portion of the page, with a few feature articles covering different portions.  This was a challenge for them at first because we discussed how since time has changed they might not see a newspaper as often. The students reminded me that everything is digital now - so they were struggling with the end goal of this project.  

They were given 4 fractions with different denominators and were challenged with finding the missing fraction of the 5th fraction - the main article.  This involved multiple steps to solve the problem.  First, they had to find the common denominator of a set of fractions.  Then, they needed to rename the fractions with the new denominator - creating equivalent fractions.  From there they were able to add up the fractions and then subtract from our whole number to find the missing fraction.  This gave them the fraction of 12/36.  This was a perfect opportunity to discuss reducing fractions or looking for the simplest form.  After reducing our fraction, they saw the main article took up 1/3 of the front page.  To end the lesson, the students needed to divide a paper into the fractions given of 1/3, 1/4, 1/9, 2/9 and 1/12 making their own front cover to the newspaper.

  Next week the students will complete their chapter check-up.

Hope you enjoyed the 3 day weekend,

Ms. Losinski