News for the Week of December 7, 2015

Life Skill:  Flexibility

Quote:  If you are not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you
              won't see a different solution to a problem you are trying to solve.
                                                                               --Jeff Bezos

Captain's Table of "STAR" Students 

(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)

                                                   Student                     Life Skill                           

1st Grade Math                           Alyssa                   Perseverance                 
                             

2nd Grade LA                             Zachary                     Curiosity
2nd Grade Math                         Michael                  Perseverance

3rd Grade LA                                Sam                           Effort
3rd Grade Math                           Emma           Problem Solving/Courage
                                                     Rebecca                Problem Solving 

4th Grade LA                               David              Problem Solving/Caring
4th Grade Math                            Nick                           Effort      

This Week In HA...

1st Grade LA

In first grade this week, the students began a new unit, which involved deciphering the Spy Pie Cypher.  This cypher required the students to make connections between sections of a pie and locations marked with a dot within each section of the pie which corresponded to a specific letter to enable them to decipher the message.  We learned that we had to be very careful in determining the location of the dot as some of our deciphered words were incorrect but we were able to go back and correct our mistakes.  Afterwards, we learned about lipograms, which are written works in which a particular letter is purposely left out.  Ligograms have been created by writers throughout history and have allowed writers to play with words.  The students created a lipogram using the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill, by changing words in the rhyme with the letter "e" in them to other words without the letter "e".  We found this activity fun but challenging and determined that we needed to know many synonyms for words to assist us in rewriting the rhyme without words with the letter "e".  Ask your child to show you the lipogram she/he created for the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill.  After completing our lipogram activity, we read the book, E-mergency, by Tom Lichtenheld and Ezra Fields-Meyer.  Ezra is a 12-year-old boy, who Tom Lichtenheld collaborated with to write E-mergency after seeing Ezra's video, Animal House.  After reading, E-mergency, we watched Ezra's video.  Here is a link to the video for Animal House:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0LPfQLm4WA. I hope you enjoy watching this video with your child.  Ask your child to compare and contrast the Animal House video with the story, E-mergency.

2nd Grade LA

This week, second grade students reviewed the parts of speech and learned how to diagram a sentence.  We also discussed the parts of a sentence: the subject and predicate.  Ask your child to explain each of these terms.  Afterwards, we finished reading chapters 5 & 6 and learned that Abilene and her family had embarked on their voyage.  During the voyage, Abilene encountered two boys, Amos and Martin, while playing up on the ship's deck.  The two boys grabbed Edward and began tossing him around. As a result, Edward was thrown overboard by the two boys as Abilene tried to retrieve Edward from them.  The last thing Edward saw was Abilene shouting from the deck of the ship while holding his gold pocket watch that brilliantly glinted in the sun.  Meanwhile, Abilene watched Edward sink beneath the waves.  Ask your child to tell you about chapters 5 & 6 and ask her/him to predict what will happen next in our story.

3rd Grade LA

Third grade students finished reading Johnny Appleseed.  Then, we discussed the elements of the story and compared them with those we identified as being a part of myths and legends.  This discussion helped us to create a definition of a tall tale.  We defined a tall tale as an exaggerated, usually unreliable story and entered this definition into our genre flap book.  Ask your child to retell you the story of Johnny Appleseed and explain why this story is considered a tall tale.  After completing these activities, the students were placed in groups to read another tall tale.  Ask your child to give you the title of the tall tale she/he read and retell the story to you.

4th Grade LA

This week in fourth grade, we discussed how to cite the sources we used to gather our information and how to determine if the source is a credible one.  Then, the students continued working on completing their biography projects.  At this point, the students have completed the following steps and requirements involved:

1. Chose a person to research using a full-length biography.
2. Identified sources, which must include one primary source and 2 or more secondary sources.
3. Read the full-length biography and other sources and collected information using the biography summary and supporting documents.  

We have begun completing the following steps:

1. Creating a works cited page to acknowledge the sources utilized.
2. Creating a list of 10 of the most significant events in this person's life.

Ask your child how she/he is progressing with her/his project and determine if she/he has decided on a costume and props for their monologue.  Please let me know if I can help in obtaining any props or items necessary for the monologue. Last week, I created a file in Google Docs, which included the instructions for the project and forms we will be using to complete the biography project.  After your child set up her/his Google account this week, I shared this file with you to allow you to have access to the project information and enable you to view her/his work.  If you are having trouble viewing this file or did not receive an email indicating that this file was shared with you, please let me know. 

Building Vocabulary

The "Words of the Day" for this week were oust and grapple.  Ask your child to find these words in the dictionary and read you the definitions.

1st Grade Math

First grade students continued working on identifying and calculating the amount of groups of different coins.  Problems also included determining which coins are needed to pay specified amounts.  Have your child name the coins and their value on the following sheet before calculating the amount of the coins.

2nd Grade Math

In second grade, the students continued working on the Fibonacci Sequence.  We learned that Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician, was fascinated with numbers and repeating patterns and introduced the system of numbers that we use today.  In the activities we worked on, the students created many different sequences.  Ask your child to complete the following sequences:

                       3, _, _, 9, 15, _, 24, 39, _, _, 165
                         _, _, 4, 6, _, 16, _, _, 68, 110, _

3rd Grade Math

This week in third grade, the students continued working on mastering their multiplication facts by taking another timed multiplication test.  Ask your child how she/he is progressing with memorizing her/his multiplication facts.  Afterwards, we continued working on the multiplication unit from Ed Zaccaro's curriculum materials.  Have your child complete this multiplication word problem:

If 312 Bailly students buy 3 stickers each to slap on Mr. Zeck to raise money for Riley Hospital for Children, how many stickers will Mr. Zeck get slapped with in all?  How much money will Mr. Zeck have raised for Riley Hospital for Children if each sticker costs $.25 each?

4th Grade Math

Fourth grade students finished reading The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book along with completing some simple fraction problems while reading the book.  Then, we began applying what we learned by completing an activity involving equivalent fractions in the simulation of a real life situation.  We completed activities similar to those involved when cooking in the kitchen.  While you are cooking in the kitchen this weekend, ask your child to compare the fractions listed in your recipe's ingredient list and give you an equivalent fraction for each of the different fraction amounts listed in your recipe. 

This was a very busy but fun week in HA as the students learned many new concepts and information and worked very diligently to complete the related activities.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School