FABULOUS WEATHER FRIDAY
Welcome! Happy Friday everyone! This weekend is suppose to be beautiful. I hope everyone has a chance to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.
AROUND THE SCHOOL
IMPORTANT DATES
Welcome! Happy Friday everyone! This weekend is suppose to be beautiful. I hope everyone has a chance to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.
AROUND THE SCHOOL
IMPORTANT DATES
September 18th-19th: Camp Goodfellow - Dunkle & Claus 4th Grade
September 22nd: Yost Fest - 5:30 to 7:00pm
September 25th-29th: Go College Week
October 3rd: Early Dismissal Day - 1:45pm
October 13th: End of 1st Quarter
October 24th: Picture Retake Day
Weekly Life Goal: Personal Best
One School, One Book: This week we had an assembly to introduce our new book for the year. The kids were excited when they were introduced to our new story...
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
by Betty MacDonald
LANGUAGE ARTS
1ST GRADE: CONNECTIONS: This week we finished defining connection as a class. We revisited our matching game from last week. Then we took our matches and found ways to group our them into categories. This led us into defining 3 generalizations for connections
To further understand our rules for connections, we turned things around and made a list of items that were not connected. We ended the day by looking at a set of black and white photographs. The goal was to identify what the picture represented. This will lead us into our Coat of Connections projects that we will assemble next week. A big THANK YOU for all your help with the Coat of Connections project that was sent home last week.
Due to early dismissal, we did not meet on Tuesday.
Tuesday we wrapped up our understanding of connections. To better understand our generalizations from yesterday, we worked with some non-connected items like shoe and milk. Looking at several examples of items not connected helped them better understand the reasons why are rules are true when making a connection. This let us wrap-up our lesson by connecting milk to a cup or gallon. They have a much better idea to the generalizations of connections, but I assured them that we will be working with this definition all year. By the end of our unit they will be masters of CONNECTions!
3RD GRADE: INTERACTIONS: On Monday we looked at all of the different interactions we listed last week. To define our word, we looked for ways to group our interactions into categories. They quickly discovered that interactions would fit into more then 1 category, as our first category had almost all the interactions in it. To start our definition we decided an interaction must be between 2 or more people (groups). We furthered are discussion on how an interaction must affect both parties by first looking at cause and effect - which only affects 1 side. This helped them to understand the idea of both parties must be affected to be an interaction. This was a challenge for them today, but we will continue to work on this throughout the year. To end the day, we looked at some more generalizations to an interaction...
On Tuesday, the students came in and worked with pairs to complete the chart that introduced our guidelines to interactions. They were to list examples of interactions under each generalization. While adding them to a category they further defined whether it was accidental or purposeful, negative or positive, or fleeting or lasting impression. To end the day we looked at the word parts to interaction. This was to help us further break down the meaning of the word for the the students.
2ND GRADE: INTRODUCTION UNIT: We began by reviewing our speaker and listener roles that Dru and Teller introduced us to last week. We finished reading our scrapbook together. As we read the book, we were asked to identify any shapes we saw in the photographs. To wrap up speaker and listener roles we practiced an activity to utilize both of these skills. I took the role of the speaker and gave different directions to making a picture.
They should have used their listening skills to copy down my instructions. By the end of the activity, we should hold up our photographs and they should match. For the students to practice the speaker roles we tried a second attempt where we each took turns adding onto our directions. This was more of a challenge as they had to be precise with their instructions for the pictures to match. They did a great job with this activity. Our first time we had one perfect picture and the second time - we almost had the whole class with matching pictures!
3RD GRADE: PATTERNS IN SEQUENCES - THE NAME GAME: On Wednesday, we began the investigation phase to repeated patterns. To understand our concept further, the students completed the Name Game in their workbooks. They started out by answering questions to the same SARAH being repeated 5 times. After they answered those questions, we looked for some quick strategies to answer the questions. We came up with two strategies to solve for the answer multiplication or repeated addition. They worked on the next two question on their own.
On Thursday, we went over the last two questions of the Name Game. We walked through the last questions because some students still had questions with utilizing a strategy. When reviewing it as a class, they started to understand the concept better. This time we also introduced the idea of dividing to solve for the answer.
We ended the week by being introduced to our first Think Deeply question. This is a question the students will complete at the end of a chapter to check their understanding of the concept. They will not just solve a problem, but will think like a mathematician and explain their thought process to solve it. We will work through the first Think Deeply together. This will allow me to know the students have a understanding of what the expectations our when completing them in the future.
We will continue working through our introduction of the Think Deeply Question next week.
4TH GRADE: MAKING SENSE OF FRACTIONS - MEASURE TREASURES: This week continued with making our fraction strips. We finished our eighths and sixteenths. Then we looked for any patterns we saw within our fraction strips. The students discovered quite easily, that the smaller the denominator the larger the fraction. They were able to reverse it around and state the larger the denominator the smaller the fraction. We Continued making our fraction strips with thirds, sixths and twelfths.
This time we introduced a new strategy of using the ruler to measure for our parts. Our fraction strips were 12 inches long, so the students discovered they could divide as a strategy to create our fraction strips. This quickly became our favorite method for creating fraction strips because we were getting an exact measurement for them. At the end of the week, the students were able to figure out the pattern: with each fold they were doubling the previous fraction.
October 3rd: Early Dismissal Day - 1:45pm
October 13th: End of 1st Quarter
October 24th: Picture Retake Day
Weekly Life Goal: Personal Best
One School, One Book: This week we had an assembly to introduce our new book for the year. The kids were excited when they were introduced to our new story...Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
by Betty MacDonald
LANGUAGE ARTS
1ST GRADE: CONNECTIONS: This week we finished defining connection as a class. We revisited our matching game from last week. Then we took our matches and found ways to group our them into categories. This led us into defining 3 generalizations for connections
- Connections show Relationships among objects, places, ideas and people.
- Connections can be intellectual, physical, emotional or social.
- Connections can change or stay the same overtime.
Due to early dismissal, we did not meet on Tuesday.
2ND GRADE: CONNECTIONS: We began class by finishing our discussion of the different categories they separated their pairs into from last week. We then looked at the categories and defined the relationships they paired together. This led us into the generalizations of connections that we will focus on this year...
- Connections show Relationships among objects, places, ideas and people.
- Connections can be intellectual, physical,emotional or social.
- Connections can change or stay the same overtime.
Tuesday we wrapped up our understanding of connections. To better understand our generalizations from yesterday, we worked with some non-connected items like shoe and milk. Looking at several examples of items not connected helped them better understand the reasons why are rules are true when making a connection. This let us wrap-up our lesson by connecting milk to a cup or gallon. They have a much better idea to the generalizations of connections, but I assured them that we will be working with this definition all year. By the end of our unit they will be masters of CONNECTions!
3RD GRADE: INTERACTIONS: On Monday we looked at all of the different interactions we listed last week. To define our word, we looked for ways to group our interactions into categories. They quickly discovered that interactions would fit into more then 1 category, as our first category had almost all the interactions in it. To start our definition we decided an interaction must be between 2 or more people (groups). We furthered are discussion on how an interaction must affect both parties by first looking at cause and effect - which only affects 1 side. This helped them to understand the idea of both parties must be affected to be an interaction. This was a challenge for them today, but we will continue to work on this throughout the year. To end the day, we looked at some more generalizations to an interaction...- Interactions can be accidental or purposeful.
- Interactions can be negative or positive.
- Interactions can have a fleeting influence or can leave a deep and lasing impression.
On Tuesday, the students came in and worked with pairs to complete the chart that introduced our guidelines to interactions. They were to list examples of interactions under each generalization. While adding them to a category they further defined whether it was accidental or purposeful, negative or positive, or fleeting or lasting impression. To end the day we looked at the word parts to interaction. This was to help us further break down the meaning of the word for the the students.
Inter = between, among, in the midst of
Action = the process of doing
Interaction = reciprocal action or influence (each thing affects the other)
MATH
1ST GRADE: INTRODUCTION UNIT: We did not meet on Wednesday because of a special presentation to our One School, One Book at the time.
On Thursday, we started with a quick review of the speaker and listener roles. We then participated in a game to practice being a good speaker and listener. The first round of the game, they had to listen to each of my instructions as they tried to replicate the same picture I was creating.
At the end, we held up our images and hoped to have a match. I was pleased to have a match with our first attempt at this activity! The second time we practiced our speaking role with each student taking a turn to add in a direction for our picture. This time we had a few more matches!
To end the day, we were introduced to math attributes to define a shape. While we looked at a rectangle, they were introduced to the terms side and vertex. We took our new terms and began to complete What's The Same About These Shapes? This activity is a set of worksheets that has the students identify a definition for shape. We will continue to complete this activity next week.
On Thursday, we started with a quick review of the speaker and listener roles. We then participated in a game to practice being a good speaker and listener. The first round of the game, they had to listen to each of my instructions as they tried to replicate the same picture I was creating. 
At the end, we held up our images and hoped to have a match. I was pleased to have a match with our first attempt at this activity! The second time we practiced our speaking role with each student taking a turn to add in a direction for our picture. This time we had a few more matches!
To end the day, we were introduced to math attributes to define a shape. While we looked at a rectangle, they were introduced to the terms side and vertex. We took our new terms and began to complete What's The Same About These Shapes? This activity is a set of worksheets that has the students identify a definition for shape. We will continue to complete this activity next week.
2ND GRADE: INTRODUCTION UNIT: We began by reviewing our speaker and listener roles that Dru and Teller introduced us to last week. We finished reading our scrapbook together. As we read the book, we were asked to identify any shapes we saw in the photographs. To wrap up speaker and listener roles we practiced an activity to utilize both of these skills. I took the role of the speaker and gave different directions to making a picture. 
On Thursday, the students were introduced to our first Think Deeply question. The Think Deeply is a wrap-up to each lesson. We will be asked to answer and explain our thinking pertaining to the lesson we completed. This will help identify if the students mastered the concept of the lesson or need a little extra review. For the first Think Deeply, we went through it step by step together. This way I will know they will understand the expectations when we complete them throughout the year. I have to say I was SUPER impressed with the geometry terms they used in our first week! When thinking like mathematicians, I heard students change the definition from a closed shape to a polygon. We also held a discussion on vertices. I cannot wait for them to take this knowledge further!
3RD GRADE: PATTERNS IN SEQUENCES - THE NAME GAME: On Wednesday, we began the investigation phase to repeated patterns. To understand our concept further, the students completed the Name Game in their workbooks. They started out by answering questions to the same SARAH being repeated 5 times. After they answered those questions, we looked for some quick strategies to answer the questions. We came up with two strategies to solve for the answer multiplication or repeated addition. They worked on the next two question on their own. 
On Thursday, we went over the last two questions of the Name Game. We walked through the last questions because some students still had questions with utilizing a strategy. When reviewing it as a class, they started to understand the concept better. This time we also introduced the idea of dividing to solve for the answer.
We ended the week by being introduced to our first Think Deeply question. This is a question the students will complete at the end of a chapter to check their understanding of the concept. They will not just solve a problem, but will think like a mathematician and explain their thought process to solve it. We will work through the first Think Deeply together. This will allow me to know the students have a understanding of what the expectations our when completing them in the future. 
We will continue working through our introduction of the Think Deeply Question next week.
4TH GRADE: MAKING SENSE OF FRACTIONS - MEASURE TREASURES: This week continued with making our fraction strips. We finished our eighths and sixteenths. Then we looked for any patterns we saw within our fraction strips. The students discovered quite easily, that the smaller the denominator the larger the fraction. They were able to reverse it around and state the larger the denominator the smaller the fraction. We Continued making our fraction strips with thirds, sixths and twelfths. 
This time we introduced a new strategy of using the ruler to measure for our parts. Our fraction strips were 12 inches long, so the students discovered they could divide as a strategy to create our fraction strips. This quickly became our favorite method for creating fraction strips because we were getting an exact measurement for them. At the end of the week, the students were able to figure out the pattern: with each fold they were doubling the previous fraction.
Next week we will wrap-up our fraction strips.
Enjoy the Warm Weather,
Ms. Losinski
