Life Skill: Integrity
Quote: If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Captain's Table of "STAR" Students
(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)
Student Life Skill
1st Grade Math Sloane Enthusiasm
2nd Grade LA Aiden Initiative
2nd Grade Math Jacob Integrity
2nd Grade Math Jacob Integrity
3rd Grade LA Logan Curiosity
3rd Grade Math Rebecca Integrity
4th Grade LA Olivia C. Flexibility3rd Grade Math Rebecca Integrity
4th Grade Math Gage Responsibility
HA Parent News
Illinois Association for the Gifted:
**The Indiana Association for the Gifted (IAG) Conference is coming up in December in Indianapolis. Three of the District's HA instructors will be attending this conference to gather wonderful information and new ideas about high ability learners and curriculum. As a parent, you may also have questions about high ability learners and wish to gain more information. If so, you may also attend this conference. Therefore, I have attached the IAG Parent Night flyer along with the IAG parent link to assist you:
Parent Flyer: http://www.iag-online.org/resources/ParentNight_2015_Flyer.pdf
IAG Parent Link: http://www.iag-online.org/parents/information/
Great Math Ap:
Another thing I'd like to share with you is the free (Apple/Android) app called Bedtime Math. This application offers a quick way to review real world math problems with your child before he/she goes to bed. It's a great way to send a positive message about math without even saying anything! The app has stories to read first, which are pretty interesting. Then, the app breaks the questions down by levels: wee ones, little kids, big kids. You pick! I thought it was worth passing on. Enjoy!
First grade students finished analyzing The Disappearing Alphabet by Richard Wilbur using our reading analyzer. We found that Richard Wilbur used some very interesting and complex words in his poem. He also used words to convey a variety of feelings and ideas. Ask your child to explain some of the words, ideas and feelings Richard Wilbur expressed in his poem. Then, we learned that Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, loved words and created a game called "Word Links", which was later called "Doublets". These word puzzles became very popular in England and are known today as "Word Ladders". We began working on some of the "Word Ladders" this week. Ask your child to explain how these puzzles work.
In preparation for our novel study on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, we looked up key vocabulary words in the dictionary. Therefore, we learned how to use the guide words at the top of a dictionary page to find the word we were looking up. To practice dictionary skills, ask your child to look up the following words from our story: native, commission, and condescending. Afterwards, we made predictions about our story based on the picture on the cover of the book and also discussed questions, such as, "Who is Edward Tulane?", "What does miraculous mean?", "What does a journey involve?", and "How could a journey be miraculous?" Ask your child to answer these questions for you and tell you what he/she predicts The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane will be about.
3rd Grade LA
This week, third grade students finished retelling the myth they read to their classmates. Each group was assessed on the following rubric:
- Included an introduction of characters and the problem
- Presented the retell in a logical order and understandable manner
- Included a conclusion
- Identified and explained the problem and solution
- Showed an understanding of what happened in the story
4th Grade LA
In fourth grade this week, we finished reading Marc Brown's biography and discussed how he grew and changed during his life, the conflicts he experienced, and how he made a difference in the world. Then, we chose a person for our upcoming biography project and wrote predictions in our journal about how this person changed and/or changed the world. Ask your child the name of the person he/she chose to complete his/her project on. Your child should be gathering photos of this person to bring to class for his/her project. Afterwards, we explored different words with the prefix, "bio-" in them and made educated guesses about their definitions. Ask your child to guess the definition of the following words and then look them up in the dictionary:
- biometric
- biology
Building Vocabulary
The "Words of the Day" for this week were venerable and maxim. Ask your child to look these words up in the dictionary, read you the definitions and use them in a sentence. 
1st Grade Math
First grade students completed a place value activity to reinforce this concept. We reviewed this concept as it was noted that the students had difficulty identifying the ones, tens and hundreds places in numbers as we completed our Coloring It on the 100's chart activity earlier this month. Then, we moved on to review the value of the different coins before continuing to complete math problems involving identification of the amount of money represented and calculating the cost of items. Ask your child to calculate the value of a handful of coins you give him/her.
2nd Grade Math
In second grade this week, we watched a video to help us learn how to complete subtraction problems involving regrouping as regrouping has been a difficult concept for them to master. Then, the students created subtraction problems and solved them using regrouping. Afterwards, the students moved on to problems containing monetary values to continue to practice subtraction with regrouping. Ask your child to complete the following problems and explain how to regroup as they work the problems:
$20.05 $15.65
-$16.25 -$13.84
This week in third grade, the students finished working on our unit titled, "How Much Change Will I Get?" Afterwards, we began a new unit on multiplication. We will be working on mastering the multiplication facts to 12. Therefore, we took our first timed multiplication test this week to embark on this journey. Ask your child if he/she has mastered the X 2 multiplication facts and encourage him/her to work on the X 3 multiplication facts.
4th Grade Math
Fourth grade students finished our unit titled, "Don't Let It Break", and began the next 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. To practice the concepts contained in these units, have your child complete the following math problems:
- The deck on the back of Jacob's house can hold 1300 lbs. If he wants to invite some friends over for a deck party, how many 135 lb. people can his deck safely hold?
- Gage's family is going to Disney World for spring break. The family car can go 25 miles with one gallon of gas. If gas costs $1.98 per gallon, how much will gas cost for the 2200 mile trip to Disney World?
Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School
