News for the Week of October 26, 2105

Life Skill:  Common Sense
Quote:  If a man has common sense, he has all the sense there is.
                                                              --Sam Rayburn

Captain's Table of "STAR" Students

(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)

                                                   Student                     Life Skill                           

1st Grade Math                           Kylee                        Curiosity  
                             

2nd Grade LA                              Bailey                   Responsibility
2nd Grade Math                          Jacob                    Responsibility

3rd Grade LA                               Logan                   Perseverance
3rd Grade Math                             DJ                      Responsibility

4th Grade LA                               Hilary                     Creativity
                                                       Ella                        Creativity
4th Grade Math                           Jacob                     Perseverance

This Week In HA...

1st-  4th Grade LA

This week, all of the students in 2nd through 4th grade finished their persuasive paragraphs, which explained one generalization of the term "connection" for 2nd grade and "change" for grades 3rd and 4th and provided supporting examples.  Afterwards, we moved on to some fun Halloween activities. As a part of a Halloween Mad Lib activity, all of the students discussed and identified the following parts of speech:

• Noun
• Pronoun
• Adjective
• Verb
• Adverb
• Article

Ask your child to explain these parts of speech and give you an example of each.  Those students, who completed their Mad Lib activity, created a paragraph on the following topics for Halloween:

1st Grade - Describe your Halloween costume and why you chose this costume.
2nd & 3rd Grade - What's on the other side of this creepy dark door and what will happen when the girl opens the door?
4th Grade - Does your town have any local legends?  Make up a story about a monster, ghost or alien that might live in your town.

Ask your child to tell you about the story he/she developed.

Building Vocabulary

The "Words of the Day" for this week were discernment and retrospect.  Ask your child to define these words for you.  If he/she can't remember the definition, have him/her look up the definitions in the dictionary.                                                  

1st - 4th Grade Math

This week in math, all of the HA students completed Halloween themed math packets, which contained some fun math activities, as well as, addressed skills identified on the pre-assessments in need of further practice.  Ask your child to show you his/her Halloween math packet and ask him/her to show you how to complete some of the problems leftover from class.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!  Enjoy trick-or-treating!

Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School

News for the Week of October 19, 2015

Life Skill:  Curiosity
Quote:  The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Captain's Table of "STAR" Students

(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)

                                                   Student                     Life Skill                           

1st Grade Math                             Ria                      Responsibility
                             

2nd Grade LA                              Logan                    Organization

3rd Grade LA                                Ella                            Effort

4th Grade LA                                Luke                        Initiative

This Week In HA...

1st Grade LA

This week in first grade, the students finished decoding messages with the Caesar Shift Cypher Wheel.  Afterwards, we learned how to make a Scytale message.  A Scytale is a tool used by cryptographers to perform a transposition cipher.  It is created by winding a piece of parchment paper around a cylinder and writing a message on the paper.  Before unwinding the paper, other letters are added around the message.  Once the paper is unwound, the only way to read the message is to wind the paper around the same sized cylinder.  This encryption tool was used by the ancient Spartans and Greeks to encode messages for their military troops and is one of the oldest

encryption devices in history.  Make a Scytale message with your child by following the directions contained in this link:

http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/scytalemessages.html

After completing these fun ciphers, first grade students began a new unit utilizing the telephone key pad to decode messages.  Ask your child how to decode a Telephone Cipher.

2nd Grade LA

Second grade students finished writing their paragraphs on their opinion regarding having a Halloween costume parade at Bailly Elementary School based on their hamburger graphic organizer. Afterwards, we worked together to develop a persuasive paragraph using the hamburger graphic organizer.  This activity involved discussing one of the generalizations about connections and identifying examples of connections to prove the generalization to be true.  Ask your child to explain some of the examples we developed in creating our paragraph and have him/her relate them to the concept of "connections".

3rd Grade LA

This week, third grade students also wrote their paragraphs on their opinion regarding having a Halloween costume parade at Bailly Elementary School based on their hamburger graphic organizer. Afterwards, the students worked together to complete a hamburger graphic organizer on generalizations about change involving the identification of specific examples of change.  Ask your child to explain some of the examples we developed in creating our paragraph and have him/her relate them to the concept of "change".

4th Grade LA

Fourth grade students utilized their hamburger model graphic organizer to compile their paragraphs regarding their interview on change.  I will be posting them along the hallway outside of the HA classroom once they are laminated.  Therefore, if you are interested in reading what the students have written, stop by and check them out.  Afterwards, we moved into a new unit, which has the students explore Latin and Greek word elements.  We learned that English has grown out of Latin, which is the "mother" language of many different languages.  Over time, many other languages, such as French and Spanish, have also contributed to the development of the English language we speak today.  Ask your child to tell you about the origins of our language and to define these terms:  word root, prefix & suffix.

Building Vocabulary

This week, the "Words of the Day" were expeditious and whet.  Ask your child to define them and use them each in a sentence.                                                                     

**HA math classes were held on a limited basis this week due to the combination of fall break and Mrs. Valtierra being out-of-town.

1st Grade Math

This week in first grade, the students continued working on the Color It on the 100's Chart math activities.  We discovered that our first chart picture was of a pumpkin and have moved on to try to determine what picture will emerge this time as we solve our math problems.  Ask your child to show you his/her colored 100's chart.

2nd - 4th Grade Math

No HA math classes were able to be held this week for 2nd-4th grade. 

We are "sailing" quickly into the second quarter of the school year.  I hope everyone enjoys his/her fall break and has time to rest, relax and spend time with family and friends in preparation for the next portion of the school year. 

Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School

News for the Week of October 12, 2015

Life Skill:  Caring
Quote:  There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching out and lifting people up.

Captain's Table of STAR Students 

(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)

                                                   Student                     Life Skill                           

1st Grade LA                          Emmersynn                   Courage
1st Grade Math                           Jessica                         Pride  
                             

2nd Grade LA                              Emma                        Caring
2nd Grade Math                           Billy                           Effort

3rd Grade LA                                Luke                    Responsibility
3rd Grade Math                          Rebecca                  Responsiblity

4th Grade LA                               Hilary                         Effort
4th Grade Math                          Brayden                  Perseverance    

This Week In HA...

1st Grade LA

This week in first grade, the students completed their "Coats of Connections" and the book they created to explain the meaning behind each of their patches.  After creating our coats, we presented them to our class.  Ask your child to show you her/his "Coat of Connections" and explain what each of the patches represents that she/he created.

We also moved on to our next unit which involves decoding and problem solving skills along with making connections.  The students were asked to decode a message using the Caesar Shift Cypher Wheel.  Ask your child to show you how we decoded the message by using the following link to create and decode a message using the Caesar Shift Cypher Wheel.  
http://cryptoclub.math.uic.edu/shift cipher/shiftcipher.htm

2nd Grade LA

In second grade in preparation for the upcoming writing assignment, the students completed an activity in which they needed to identify the topic sentence for a paragraph.  Then, the students learned about graphic organizers in the form of a hamburger model.  Therefore, we worked on learning how to utilize this type of graphic organizer to organize our thoughts in preparation for writing a persuasive paragraph.  Our question was:  "Do you feel that there should be a Halloween parade allowing students to wear their costumes at school?  After filling in the graphic organizer with our topic sentence, ideas and conclusion, we began to create a paragraph using our graphic organizer. Ask your child to explain the hamburger model and state her/his opinion along with providing you 3 supporting reasons for her/his opinion. 

3rd Grade LA

This week, third grade students also learned how to utilize the hamburger model graphic organizer to develop a paragraph.  We used our hamburger model graphic organizer to develop a paragraph sharing our opinion about a topic.  Third grade students also addressed the question:  "Do you feel that there should be a Halloween parade allowing students to wear their costumes at school?  Ask your child to explain the hamburger model and state her/his opinion along with providing you 3 supporting reasons for her/his opinion.  
   

4th Grade LA

Fourth graders reviewed how to utilize a graphic organizer to compile information when writing a paragraph.  After reviewing the hamburger model, the students began using this model to create a thank you note for the Bailly staff member they interviewed last week.  Once our thank yous were completed, we then began independently completing a graphic organizer to prepare for compiling our report regarding the interview on change we had with a Bailly staff member.  Ask your child to explain the hamburger model and share some of her/his supporting details from her/his thank you note.                   

Building Vocabulary

This week, the "Words of the Day" were empathy and sapient.  Ask your child to define them and use them each in a sentence.

                                                 

1st-3rd Grade Math

In first through third grades this week, the students continued to work on math activities developed by Ed Zaccaro, within our second unit which is titled, "Don't Let It Break".  Ask your child to explain the following math problem to you:  


1st Grade - Julie's scooter has a weight limit of 180 pounds.  If she weighs 125 pounds, can she bring her 65 pound dog with her on the scooter?
2nd Grade - It is dangerous to put too much weight on a pontoon boat.  If the safety limit of the pontoon boat is 1100 pounds, how many 175 pound people can you place on it?
3rd Grade - All 421 students from Bailly Elementary School were standing on a bridge for a group picture.  While Tony was waiting for the picture to be taken, he noticed a sign on the bridge stating: Weight Limit = 25,000 pounds.  Tony knew that the average weight of a 3rd grade student is 65 pounds.  Should Tony be worried about too much weight on the bridge?

After completing our unit titled, "Don't Let It Break, 1st grade students began working on completing an activity requiring them to identify numbers on the 100's chart.  This activity involved reading the names of the numbers, identifying place values in numbers and solving simple math problems to determine the number to color.  In regard to 2nd and 3rd Grade students, they began our new unit titled, "How Much Does It Cost?"  In this unit, the students are presented with math problems requiring the calculation of the cost of items and determining which scenario presented is the best deal.  We will continue to work on this unit next week.

4th Grade Math

Fourth graders completed the Raking Leaves logic puzzle.  Upon completing the puzzle, the students found that they had correctly identified most of the information but somewhere along the way some incorrect conclusions were made, which resulted in a few incorrectly identified pieces of information.  Therefore, we are continuing to work on Logic puzzles and will be focusing on making connections between the information provided to be sure we are making the correct conclusions.  As we move on, we are finding these puzzles to be increasingly more complex and diabolical.  Our current logic puzzle is called Afterschool Activities.  Ask your child to explain this puzzle and tell you how she/he is progressing in completing the puzzle.

I cannot believe how quickly October is passing by.  I hope everyone has time this weekend to get outdoors to enjoy the beautiful fall colors that nature has on display.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School

News for the Week of October 5, 2015

Life Skill:  Organization
Quote:  Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.
                                                                          --Richard P. Feynman

Captain's Table of STAR Students

(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)

                                                   Student                     Life Skill                           

1st Grade Math                           Alyssa                    Enthusiasm   
                             

2nd Grade LA                              Aiden                          Effort
2nd Grade Math                           Kali                      Responsibility

3rd Grade LA                            Karalena                 Responsibility
3rd Grade Math                          Emma                    Organization

4th Grade LA                                 Ira                        Enthusiasm
4th Grade Math                         Michael                   Organization

This Week In HA...

**This week, 2nd through 4th grade students completed the writing portion of the language arts pre-assessments.  As I have stated previously, we will continue to work on these assessments over the next couple of weeks to keep the test periods brief and enable us to engage in other LA activities as we work our way through the pre-assessments.

1st Grade LA

First grade has completed all language arts pre-assessments.  Therefore, the students continued working on their "Coat of Connections".  Ask your child to tell you about 2-3 of the patches he/she has created to depict connections between objects, places, ideas, and/or people that are an important part of his/her life.

2nd Grade LA

This week, second grade finished the final section of the language arts pre-assessment.  Afterwards, the students sorted sets of items into groups according to common connections between the items. After sorting the items, we determined if the items could be sorted differently based on other types of connections.  When we finished looking at different ways things area connected, we developed a list of generalizations about connections.  We determined that connections:

• Show a relationship between people, places, items and ideas.
• Can be physical, intellectual, emotional and social.
• Can change or stay the same.

Then, we created a poster depicting things that are connected along with examples of non-connections and listed our generalizations regarding connections.  This poster will be mounted in the classroom for future reference as we will continue to discuss connections throughout our studies this year.  Ask your child to give you a list of items that are connected and provide the category label for their list of items.   

3rd Grade LA

In third grade this week, we reviewed the concept of change and discussed generalizations about change.  We determined that change:

• Can be perceived as positive or negative.
• Can be caused by humans or occur naturally.
• Is everywhere.
• Is linked to time as it is a process.
• Can be orderly or random.

Afterwards, the students chose their favorite examples of change and non-examples of change from the lists we created last week and created a class poster. This poster will be mounted in the classroom for future reference as we will continue to discuss change throughout our studies this year. 

4th Grade LA

Fourth grade students completed an interview with a Bailly staff member.  They asked the staff member questions about an important change that occurred in his/her life.  Ask your child who they interviewed and what they learned about change from the adult they interviewed.
           

Building Vocabulary 

Our "Words of the Day" for this week are salient and facilitate.  Ask your child to define these words for you.  If he/she is unable to give you the meaning of the words, ask him/her to look up the definition in the dictionary.

1st - 3rd Grade Math

This week in first through third grades, the students continued working on "What's the Next Number?", which are math activities created by Ed Zaccaro.  This unit requires students to identify patterns within a sequence of numbers.  The students had to determine how each successive number changed and apply this rule to determine the next number in the pattern.  After completing "What's the Next Number? activities, I introduced our next unit developed by Ed Zaccaro titled, "Don't Let It Break".  In this unit, the students are to use math to determine when things will break.  We discussed why it would be important to know about weight limits and how this impacts our safety.  

Ask your child to give you the rule for solving the problems below and use the rule to solve the following puzzles:

1st - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, ?, ?
2nd - $1000, $500, $250, ?,
3rd - 20, 15, 10, 5, 0, -5, -10, ?, ?

4th Grade Math

Fourth grade students continued to work on our logic puzzle, Raking Leaves.  Ask your child how they are progressing with their solution to this challenging activity.

Now that we are cruising along with our activities for the year, I have observed a thirst for knowledge in the students and growing enthusiasm for learning.  My goal is to make learning fun and exciting to keep students coming back for more.  My hope is that I leave the students with a thirst for knowledge that is unquenchable as I want to encourage them to be lifelong learners.

Hope you have "smooth sailing" this weekend.  Enjoy!

Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School

News for the Week of September 28, 2015

Life Skill:  Responsibility

Quote:  Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and
                      let him know that you trust him.  
                                                                                  --Booker T. Washington

Captain's Table of Stars

(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)

                                                   Student                     Life Skill                                      
1st Grade LA                          Emmersynn             Self-Confidence
1st Grade Math                           Sloane                   Responsibility                        

2nd Grade LA                               Nate                     Responsibility
2nd Grade Math                        Michael                   Responsibility

3rd Grade LA                                Sam                     Responsibility
3rd Grade Math                            Tony                      Enthusiasm

4th Grade LA                                Riona                         Effort
4th Grade Math                            David                    Perseverance

This Week In HA...

1st Grade LA

First grade students created a poster depicting things that are connected along with examples of non-connections. This poster will be mounted in the classroom for future reference as we will continue to discuss connections throughout our studies this year.  Afterwards, we began creating a "Coat of Connections".  In this project, the students will be creating a vest with patches they design.  The patches will represent things that they are connected to (i.e. family, interests, activities).  Ask your child to define the concept of "connection" and make 2-3 connections to the world around him/her.

2nd Grade LA

In second grade, we read the book, Interrupting Chicken, by David Ezra Stein.  This book was a fun and humorous way to address the concept of interruptions and their impact on completing activities. Ask your child to retell the story to you and tell you 2 things to do instead of interrupting.  After reading the book, we discussed expected classroom behaviors and alternatives to interrupting class. Next, the students began the first unit of our language arts series:  Connections of the Heart by discussing the concept of connections.  Ask your child to define the term "connection" and give you 2-3 examples of connections he/she has with the world around him/her.

3rd Grade LA

This week in third grade, the students moved into our first unit of the LA curriculum:  The Changing Faces of Story.  Therefore, the students began discussing change and made lists of things that change. We also identified non-examples of change, which was a short list as we decided that we can't change the past or the labels of letters and numbers but everything else can change.  We then began to categorize our lists of items by grouping similar items together.  Ask your child to define the concept of change and give you 2-3 examples of things that change.

4th Grade LA

Fourth grade students moved into the first unit of our language arts series:  Change:  Making a Difference.  The students made a list of examples of change.  Then, we categorized the examples and gave reasons why the items could be grouped together.  We also made a list of non-examples of change, which was a short list as we also decided in 4th grade that we can't change the past or the labels of letters and numbers but everything else can change.   After looking at our groups of items, we made a list of generalizations about change. Therefore, we determined that change:

• Can be perceived as positive or negative.
• Can be caused by humans or occur naturally.
• Is everywhere.
• Is linked to time as it is a process.
• Can be orderly or random.

Ask your child to define the concept of change and give you 2-3 examples of things that change.  

In preparation for next week's activities, we reviewed note taking and interviewing skills as the students will be interviewing a Bailly staff member on Monday.  Talk with your child about how to meet and greet unfamiliar people and share your perspective on interviewing skills. 
                                                                     

Building Vocabulary

The "Words of the Day" for this week were retrospect and divergent.  Ask your child to define these words and use them in sentences.

**Here is a list of website resources that HA math students can visit, which will provide more practice to promote math skill development:

• http://www.multiplication.com/
• http://www.quia.com/jg/66145.html
• http://www.aplusmath.com/
• http://www.funbrain.com/
• http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/multiplication-fc/
• http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathsadd.html

I hope you enjoy these sites and have fun with math!!

1st - 3rd Grade Math

In first through third grades this week, the students began working on math activities created by Ed Zaccaro, who has a master's degree in gifted education and has taught students of all ages.  His goal is to make math fun and challenging with his unique sense of humor.  Therefore, we are using activities taken from his book titled, Primary Grade Challenge Math, which offers a higher level of math materials and goes beyond calculation skills.  The activities are designed to introduce complex math skills to gifted learners and instill a deeper level of mathematical understanding and thinking skills in young children while nurturing a love of mathematics.  Ask your child to explain to you one of the complex math problems he/she completed.  Here is an example of one of the problems:

Mel had a jar of 100 jelly beans.  He decided that each day he would eat half 

of the jelly beans that were left in the jar.   

                                               Monday - 100 Jelly Beans  
                                               Tuesday - 50 Jelly Beans
                                               Wednesday - 25 Jelly Beans   
                                               Thursday - ? Jelly Beans

4th Grade Math

Fourth grade students began a new unit on logic puzzles, which requires reasoning, deduction and problem solving skills.  Before beginning to work independently, we worked through a practice puzzle together and I showed the students tips on completing a logic puzzle.  Our first puzzle is called, Raking Leaves.  Ask your child to explain some problem solving tips and provide a description of our current logic puzzle to you.

We have all had a fun and challenging week in HA.  As we leave September behind, I hope that everyone is feeling more relaxed and comfortable with school routines and schedules.  I look forward to continuing on our journey of learning as we strive to reach distance shores of learning through the HA adventures that are headed our way!

Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School