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
let him know that you trust him.
--Booker T. Washington
(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)
Student Life Skill
1st Grade LA Emmersynn Self-Confidence
1st Grade Math Sloane Responsibility
1st Grade LA Emmersynn Self-Confidence
1st Grade Math Sloane Responsibility
2nd Grade LA Nate Responsibility
2nd Grade Math Michael Responsibility
2nd Grade Math Michael Responsibility
3rd Grade LA Sam Responsibility
3rd Grade Math Tony Enthusiasm
4th Grade LA Riona Effort3rd Grade Math Tony Enthusiasm
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.
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.
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.
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
Monday - 100 Jelly Beans
Tuesday - 50 Jelly Beans
Wednesday - 25 Jelly Beans
Thursday - ? Jelly Beans
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
