~ FRANTIC FRIDAY ~

This week all my groups were AMAZING, as we dealt with a little change.  Our classroom received a makeover this week, so we held class in a different room.  Looks like we will return to our normal routine and classroom next week - the room looks AWESOME!

Mark it on the Calendar!

Saturday, October 5th: PTO Color Run
3 to 5pm
Tuesday, October 8th: PTO Meeting
 6-7pm
Tuesday, October 15th:  End of 1st Quarter
Thursday, October 24th:  Yost Blood Drive
1:30 - 7pm
Thursday, October 24th:  Report Card Posted
 at 3pm
Friday, October 25th:  No School - Fall Recess
Thursday, October 31st:  Happy Halloween

AROUND THE SCHOOL

Yost Elementary

FAMILY 2K COLOR RUN

A family focused afternoon of fun that will help us raise money for enrichment programs for the children at Yost Elementary.

This event is open to Yost students, families, and the Duneland community.

Race Date:  Saturday, October 5th, 2019

Fun Run Details:

• Check-in time/shirt pick-up time starting at 2pm on race day.
• Race start time 3pm, DJ Ryan Jury starting pre-run festivities at 2:30pm
• Distance: 2k, untimed out and back fun run with multiple color stations
• Post-run refreshments
• Post-run dance party until 4:30pm
• $20 entry fee for adults, $15 entry fee for students/kids

CLICK HERE to sign up for the Color Run!

Registration deadline for a guaranteed race shirt is September 20th.

1st Grade:  SHIELD OF ARMS:

  First, thank you for all your help in making sure they completed their homework from last week.  They took their patches and assembled them onto their shields.  They were allowed to decorate the space around the patches to personalize their shields.  Next, they practiced their speech around the room.  Then, each student took a turn presenting their shields.  If you were not the presenter, it was important that you were a good audience member because you were going to grade the presentation. 

Allowing them to grade a presentation is another way to help the students understand assignments given with  rubrics - I always explain to students the best thing about a rubric is the teacher is giving you the formula to receive an A.  It also is a way they can see and identify things to help them next time they are the presenter.  That is one thing I truly enjoy about the 1st grade curriculum - it gives the students several times throughout the year to work on presentations.  Learning to have confidence in public speaking at a young age will help to eliminate the fear in it.  They did a great job with their first presentation and I can't wait to see their confidence grow throughout the year.

Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who will go first!

2nd Grade:  STRUCTURE:

This week the students shared their structures from home.  It was great having them share their different items.  Thanks for allowing the students to share!  The students are beginning to place into memory the 3 generalizations for a structure.  The tricky one for most of them is remembering it can change over time.  We moved onto our next lesson where we will focus on the structure we find in words and in sentences.  

This week we looked at the structure we find in words.  This activity introduced the students to the vocabulary map.  As a group, we looked at the different sections on the map.  This led us into a discussion on synonyms and antonyms.  We also talked briefly about the tools we would use to look up the definition of a word.  I was excited when some students could tell me the dictionary!  




Over the years, I have learned that with technology - the dictionary seems to quickly be fading away.  We took a moment to talk about the structure of the dictionary before coming back to the vocabulary map. 

 We will continue to work with the structure of words next week.

3rd Grade:  INTERACTIONS as COMMUNICATION:

This group continued on with their project from last week.  They concluded their research into different interactions we have with cats.  They became more confident in understanding there is no right or wrong as long as you can justify your thoughts.  

This led to some interesting conversations on the positive or negative affect - they are learning some good debate skills in the process!  They also looked at a training skill and explained how the generalizations of interactions apply to training a cat.  We will wrap up interactions as a form of communication next week.

4th Grade:  CHANGE IN LANGUAGE:

This week the students discovered how our language has changed overtime.  We completed a study on Greek and Latin Roots to discover their influence in the English Language.  We also looked at word parts with prefixes, root words and suffixes. 

 Next week, we will use their discoveries to lead a discussion on how it has changed our language.

HOMEWORK:  This week the students were asked to complete an interview.

1st Grade:  WEIGHT:

This week we received a letter from Imi and Zani asking us to help them creating a weight game for the school measurement fair.  The students decided they were up for the challenge.  Before we test out the game, we must work through some activities to learn more about the concept of weight.  They were introduced to the terms lighter, heavier and about the same.  These are different terms we used to define the balance scales we made with our arms weighing some objects around the room.

2nd Grade:  SYMMETRY IN ACTION:

*Due to picture day, we only met on Wednesday.*

Dru and Teller have invited the students to create a design for the Shape Gallery for their children's museum - the Sensational Math Institute for Learning and Exploration or SMILE for short.  Throughout the year the students will complete different scale-models for different parts of their designs to send to Dru and Teller for SMILE.  

In Chapter 1, the students are exploring different attributes to shapes in order to design a wall mural. To help them with their designs, the first concept they were introduced to was symmetry.  We looked at an introduction activity using mirrors to work on developing a definition for symmetry.  The mirror helped to introduce the idea of a mirror image on both sides of the line of symmetry.  We will continue to work with symmetry next week.

3rd Grade:  REPEATING PATTERNS:

  This week we completed another practice sheet on repeating patterns.  It is important throughout the entire year that the students are looking for the pattern to discover the function rule verse just knowing what comes next in the pattern. This is why we took some time to practice working with repeating patterns.

It is time for our Think Deeply with this lesson.  There is a big jump in what the student is asked to complete with this assignment from second to third grade.  


This is why we take our time with the first one, so the students understand their expectations for the remainder of the year.  We looked at some samples from our book that helps the students see 3 different responses and how to improve on each of the scores.  Next week we will complete our first think deeply together.

4th Grade:  IT'S ALL IN THE NAME:

*Due to picture day, we only met on Wednesday.*

We continued on with creating a list of different attributes to our 7 shapes.  The students started to understand that calling a shape certain names defines certain attributes to that shape without restating all of the attributes.  Next, the students created their own definitions for the shapes.  This was a great way to review and see what they remembered from our discussion with each shape.  This came pretty easy to them which hopefully meant the attributes to the shapes are sticking to their memory!  We will wrap up this lesson next week.  

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms. Losinski

HOMECOMING FRIDAY

Homecoming Parade Starts at 4pm

Mark it on the Calendar!

Sunday, September 15th:  Five Guys Fundraiser 11am - 9pm
Sunday, September 15th:  DEF 5K Hustle

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

SCHOOL NEWS:

GIVEBACK FUNDRAISER
No plans for dinner - No problem!  Don't forget to Support Yost this Sunday, September 15th be eating at FIVE GUYS between the hours of 11am - 10pm.

Yost Elementary
FAMILY 2K COLOR RUN
A family focused afternoon of fun that will help us raise money for enrichment programs for the children at Yost Elementary.

This event is open to Yost students, families, and the Duneland community.

Race Date:  Saturday, October 5th, 2019

Fun Run Details:

• Check-in time/shirt pick-up time starting at 2pm on race day.
• Race start time 3pm, DJ Ryan Jury starting pre-run festivities at 2:30pm
• Distance: 2k, untimed out and back fun run with multiple color stations
• Post-run refreshments
• Post-run dance party until 4:30pm
• $20 entry fee for adults, $15 entry fee for students/kids

CLICK HERE to sign up for the Color Run!
Registration deadline for a guaranteed race shirt is September 20th.


DISTRICT NEWS:

DEF 3rd Annual 5K Homecoming Hustle 2019

The Duneland Education Foundation will host the 3rd Annual DEF Fun Run/Walk 5K Homecoming Hustle on homecoming weekend, Sunday, September 15, 2019. The Kid’s Hustle will begin at 8:30 a.m. with the 5K beginning at 9:00a.m. at Chesterton High School (CHS), 2125 S. 11th Street in Chesterton.

The registration cost of $20 includes the race and a t-shirt. The pre-registration deadline is Sunday, August 25, 2019 to guarantee a shirt. After August 25, registration remains at $20 with no guarantee of a t-shirt. Registration on race day will be held from 7:30-8:30 a.m. at CHS.

The DEF 5K Homecoming Hustle will be a flat, fast course through Chesterton starting and ending on the Chesterton High School football field. There will be prizes for top three (3) age group winners.

Professional race timing will be provided by T&H Timing. Number and T-shirt pick up will be on Saturday, September 14, 2019 from 8:00-10:00 a.m.at the Boys and Girls Club in Chesterton, 521 W. 1100 N. All proceeds from this event will benefit the Duneland Education Foundation (DEF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides financial resources to enhance opportunities for educational experiences for all K-12 students of  Duneland.

 CLICK HERE to register online.  Please email Colleen Grimes at director@dunelandeducation.org for more information.

1st Grade:  CONNECTIONS TO THE HEART:

This week we finished our activities to define connections.  We looked back at our matching game to look at and describe the way each pair was connected.  This activity guided us through our generalizations of connections.

Generalizations of Connections:

Connections show relationships among objects, feelings, people and places.

Connections can be intellectual, physical, social or emotional.

Connections may change or stay the same overtime.

To review our generalizations, the students looked at a set of black at white images and had to make connections to figure out what they represented.  This idea of an image representing a connection led us into our Shield of Connections project.  This is a fun project my first graders complete at the beginning of the year - that represents a great get to know you activity.  The students will create a shield with black and white symbols that represent them.  We took a lot of our class time going over the project in detail.

HOMEWORK:  The Shield of Connections project came home on Tuesday, September 10th.  Please have your child complete the project and return it on Monday, September 16th.  It is important that this project is returned for class on Monday because we will be assembling and presenting this project next week.  If they complete it early, they can bring it down to my classroom and have it ready to go for next week.

2nd Grade:  STRUCTURE:

This week the students shared with the group their different structures they designed.  We had the class split with half modeling theirs after a specific structure and the others being creative.  My creative friends shared a great story with their design, but the next question of defining the purpose was a little tricky for them.  Some designs we had were a room, a house and a rocket ship on a launch pad.  

Next, we looked at our structures and discussed what they all had in common.  A great word came out earlier that we started the discussion with - support.  This led another friend to add on a strong base.  We also came to an interesting conversation when a student mentioned their structure was wobbly.  This led us to our last part -  we needed on stability.  I was excited to see them hit on so many key generalizations on their own.  

To help lead this discussion, we were brainstorming different structures.  To my surprise, a student brought up the idea of a community as a structure.  This idea jumped us ahead on the next step on their own, by including not just physical objects, but abstract as well.  We will wrap up our introduction to structures next week.

Generalizations of a Structure:

A structure usually supports.

A structure can change over time.

A structure can be stable or unstable.

More Structure Photos 

HOMEWORK:  The students were asked to find two structures from home and bring one of them to share with the class.  These are due on Monday, September 16th.  They will bring them home after they present them to the class.

3rd Grade:  INTERACTIONS:

  This week we began to explore the interactions we have with our pets as a form of communication.  Before beginning this activity, we briefly reviewed how to navigate through non-fiction text without reading it from front to back.  Then they completed a chart on inferring the different meanings to some of the actions of a cat.  Before the began this activity, we also discussed inferences.  They had the rest of class time to start this activity.

4th Grade:

My  students were off on the camping trip, so we did not have group this week.

1st Grade:  ATTRIBUTES WE CAN MEASURE:

  This week we continued with our study on math attributes.  We focused in on what math attributes you can measure.  This led us into a discussion on the tool we would use and how to use that tool.  To wrap up the lesson, the students were introduced to our Think Deeply question.  These are the days my mathematician friends work on their writing.  They answer the question that Imi and Zani asked us to solve.  This week we wrote back to our friends explaining to them how to measure the heaviness of an object and included a drawing with our response.  We also included a class letter we wrote to them with all of the ideas we had on measurement.  We can't wait to hear back from our friends to find out our next task! 

2nd Grade:  INTRODUCTION TO DRU & TELLER: 

 This week they were introduced to Dru and Teller who are two characters we will interact and receive different challenges from throughout the year.  This week they taught us how good mathematicians act as good speakers and listeners in the classroom.  They also shared with us a scrapbook from their travels.  We enjoyed looking through the book identifying speaker and listener roles.  
They also were challenged to identify different shapes on each page.  To end the week, we answered our first Think Deeply question from Dru and Teller.  Think Deeply questions are days that allow our mathematicians to learn to put their math ideas into writing what they discovered from the lesson.  This week they were asked to explain math attributes to triangles for Dru and Teller.  We will wrap up our letters next week.

3rd Grade:  PATTERNS IN SEQUENCES:

  This week we started to explore repeating patterns.  When the student learns to recognize repeating patterns it allows them to make predictions and generalizations about the continuation of the sequence.  The focus of the lesson is for the student to determine the next term in the sequence.  To practice working with repeating patterns, the students were introduced to the activity The Name Game.  
They were asked to complete a set of question with the idea of a person writing their name over and over again.  We came back together as a class to share their findings and discuss their discoveries.  We will continue to work with repeated patterns next week.  

4th Grade:  THE SHAPE OF THINGS:
  Our first lesson focused on developing definitions of shapes by utilizing the correct geometric vocabulary.  To create the definitions of their shapes, we looked at their attributes to help us define each shape.  We did this by completing the activity You Either Have It or You Don't.  This activity builds on the idea that shapes can go by many different names.  Although a challenge, it also teaches them to focus on the meaning of the vocabulary. A student can simply state that a shape is a quadrilateral verses stating this shape has 4 sides and 4 vertices.  
We also focused on if you stated it is a quadrilateral and the shape has 4 sides - you were stating the same statement twice.  This is an important lesson to the entire concept on geometry because understanding the proper terminology now will help them succeed throughout the year as our lessons grow.  
We will continue with this activity next week.    

Have a Spooky Friday,

Ms. Losinski