FREAKY FRIDAY!!

*Monday and Tuesday I was home sick with a child. NO high ability classes those days*

1^ST GRADE LA

Out sick

1^ST GRADE MA

HEAVIER THAN, LIGHTER THAN, ABOUT THE SAME AS: Our lesson the week reinforced the idea of how a seesaw is positioned to determine the weight. We learned ‘different’ items can be the same size, same color, or have the same amount on a scale, and NOT determine which one in heavier or lighter than.

2^ND GRADE LA

You may be wondering why all the other grades had math this week, and second grade had language arts. We had to switch around our HA days in second grade to help with schedules. I hope you all received my note from your children on Wednesday, if not here is a quick recap. I know last week was a lot! I will be slowing down my lesson plans so not as much work will be sent home. On Wednesday, we went over our chapter one questions and gave everyone a chance to answer and ask questions. Tuesday we finished a vocabulary map on the word “journey”. We discussed how a “map” is something that can lead us in a direction. The vocabulary map was to lead us into a better understanding of the word, “journey”.

2^ND GRADE MA

Out sick

3^RD GRADE LA

Out sick

3^RD GRADE MA

IN SEARCH OF THE YETI: On Wednesday we read a story about the Yeti in the Himalayas! The story consisted of large measurements we tried to relate to everyday items. A Yeti was spotted 300 yards away. While we figured 300 yards was 3 football fields, we measured the 3^rd and 4^th grade hallway to get an “everyday” perspective. The hallway was less than 1 football field.

4TH GRADE LA

Out sick

4^TH GRADE MA

SOME, ALL, or NONE: This worksheet lasted both days for us. The objective was to examine the relationship among various shapes. Example, True or False, all squares are rectangles? This question gave us some trouble, rightfully so! I did not want to cut discussion early until EVERYONE could grasp why a square is always a rectangle, but a rectangle is NOT always a square. Same issue came with up with rhombi and squares as well. I believe we got it!!  If not, we’ll hit it again next week with another activity. ;)

FRIDAY, BLOG DAY……

1 LA

This week we were finishing up our deciphering and enciphering worksheets. It is fun for the kids to learn using new tools! Next week we will be working with words we deciphered/enciphered, make a connection between them and draw a detailed picture of their connections.

1 MA

Heavier than, lighter than, or about the same: All week we worked with “scales”. We read the book Just a Little Bit and made predictions as to which way the teeter totter would move when different animals got on. We learned that the number and size of an item/s doesn’t always reflect the weight of it. An example we talked about in class was 100 feathers on one side of the scale would still be lighter then 1 brick on the other. More of one item doesn’t correlate to always being the heaviest. Another example, if we had a large empty box on one side and small box filled with rocks on the other, the SMALLER box would be heavier. This example shows us size does not always correlate to which item is heavier.

2 LA

IMPORTANT: We have started reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane!! We read the first chapter in class on Thursday and the kids love it so far!!!! FOR NEXT WEDNESDAY, the students need to read chapters 2-4, they are very short chapters, please do not stress. There was also a chapter 1 worksheet and a Story Analyzers sent home in their High Ability folders.  The kids have done a Story Analyzer before on Eldorado so they should be familiar with the sheet. They need to complete this on any chapter 2-4. If you find your child struggleing with this, please don't worry, we will be going over it in class.

 I know this sounds like a lot but should be completely fine for these guys. As always, please feel free to e-mail with any questions.  Jennifer.boster@duneland.k12.in.us

2 MA

Marble Crash Test: FINIALLY!!! These second graders were so excited to finally get this started! Our crash test consisted of having 2 marbles rolling down 2 rulers at 5 different heights. We measured how far the second marble went after being "crashed" by the first one. This was why we were practicing our measuring in inches and half inches so much last week. Next week we will discuss why our measurements may have differed between the groups.

3 LA

FINISHING UP LEGENDS: We finally finished our legends and discussed them in class.  Some of them may have not used their time reading and retelling in their group as responsibly as they should have. We struggled at times retelling our myths during class. The students were given the chace to read them on their own, worked with a partner who read the same story, and worked together on their Retelling Story Maps. We also worked on vocabulary maps for the words ‘legend’ and ‘myth’. This activity went much smoother for us!!!!!

3 MA

Think Deeply: Writing in math!!!   The past two day we worked on our T'hink Deeply'. A Think Deeply is the WRTING portion in math. That’s right, writing! After every lesson the students will have to write a Think Deeply. The goal behind these are to teach the kids how to verbalize their understanding of what the math lesson was about. Not always the most fun for some, but very important!

4 LA

Biography:  This week we continued our discussion on biographies. We explored what components are normally found in a biography and what kind of significant change happens in a person’s life. The students paired up and read a short biography and answered ‘Change Questions’ about their person. We will go over these next week.

4 MA

Think Deeply: Just like 3^rd grade, 4^th grade incorporates writing in math as well. There will be at least one Think Deeply after every lesson. While this is not everyone’s favorite part of math. I assured them it is extremely important. Think Deeplys are going to be around a lot, we might as well learn to enjoy them ;)  The purpose is to help with verbalizing a student’s understand of what our lesson is about.

IT’S FRIDAY!!!!

warning: I ran the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, my memory about taking pictures this week has not been the best!! I’ll be back on it next week!!

1^st grade la

CRYPTOGRAPHIC CONNECTIONS: This week we are continuing to examine the connection between symbols and meanings as we decipher and encipher secret messages using a Caesar Cipher Wheel. We’ve had fun discussing why we might NEED to use secret methods of communication or why we might WANT to use secret methods to communication.

The students were shown a work sheet and asked what it said. No one was able to figure it out!! We came up with some great ideas on what to do in order to solve it; use a mirror and read it backwards, turn the page upside down, or even unscramble the letters.   We will continue using the Caesar Cipher Wheel to decipher the secret message next week.

1^st grade ma

Heavier or Lighter? : First grade math has been all about “heavier”, “lighter” or “same as”. We received a “fax” from our friends, Imi and Zani (characters from our math book) asking us to help them find a weight activity for their measurement fair. Wednesday we broke up into groups in different stations to get hands on learning. The students needed to hold a heavy item and a light item, one in each hand, pretend they were a scale, and make their arms represent the heavy side (arm going down) and the light side (are going up). They did a fantastic job at this!!

Thursday, we missed because of 1^st grade field trip

2^nd grade la

We FINISHED Eldorado!! Your kidos should have a great understanding of what our knight was looking for (interpretive) and how he felt during the different stages of his journey.

THEN………I introduced what we will be working on for the next SEVERAL WEEKS…… The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulande. This is a story that will be sent home and reading will be assigned on TUESDAYS for the following MONDAY. I will send home more information about this Monday.

2^nd grade ma

PRACTICE MEASURING: Wednesday we spent the entire day practice rounding to inch and half inch!! I’m thinking we got it now, but as always, feel free to have them practice at home!!

On Thursday, we started to talk about crash safety in cars. We reviewed a crash star rating chart to help us read a graph, 5 stars = excellent or a 10% less chance of serious injury – 1 star = poor or a 46% or greater chance of serious injury.    We will be starting our crash text next week! The students have been ready for this! We got a day behind to make sure we were on point with our measuring. That will be very important in our results.

3^rd grade la

This week the students finished up reading their myths! They were then placed into groups with students that read the same myth and worked on filling out a ‘Retelling Story Map’. This was to help with any misunderstandings one may have had about their story, but to also bounce ideas and interpretations off of each other. Thursday, they were split into new groups with students that read different myths and were peer graded on their ability to ‘Retell’ their myth. I have not looked at the peer reviews yet, but will definitely keep you posted!

3^rd grade ma

Measuring Me CONTINUED: We are still working on measuring ourselves, estimating measurement, actual measurement, realizing what a good benchmark is when it comes to measuring. The students have also had the ability to work on “Think Beyond” cards. These cards are a ‘little extra’ for when some students finish early. I am noticing the students that are finishing early are those that are using their time wisely. As a reward, students who get the most Think Beyond cards done at the end of a chapter get a reward!!

4^th grade la

Latin and Greek Word Elements: We were able to finish our worksheets on Latin and Greek word elements this week. This was to show how our language has changed and been influences by other languages over time. Tuesday we touched briefly on BIOGRAPHIES.  We will continue this lesson all of next week.

4^th grade ma

You Either Have It Or You Don’t CONTINUED: This was a LONG one!! We discussed 7 polygons; looked at them, defined them, grouped them (some of them can have more than one name) gave examples of them, gave NON-examples of them, and drew real-life pictures of them. I hope we got it!!! It was a fun activity to do as a class!!

FRIDAY……… FRIDAY

1^ST GRADE LA

Coat of Connections: Continued and FINISHED!!!! All the kids did amazing!!  Their ability to comfortably stand in front of the class to show their patches and read their connections was fantastic!! The differences in their patches and connections were a great teaching tool as well. We had a couple students use a tree as their patch, yet one represented Christmas and the other represented nature. What a great opportunity to share that sometimes a picture can have more than one connection!

1^ST GRADE MA

Measuring a box: Trust me, it’s a little more entertaining than that. Our math series has two characters, Imi and Zani, who we “correspond” with via fax and email before and after each lesson. Imi and Zani needed us to help them measure a box filled with math supplies so they could find out how much it would cost to ship it. The box was filled with different types of measuring tools, such as: ruler, string, paper clips, measuring tape, 1 inch squares, even a measuring cup. The students were broke up into groups to think of ways to measure the ATTRIBUTES (ask your child to give you the definition of this) of the box along with what tools they needed for the job. The students did a great job and came up with some outstanding ways to measure the boxes attributes!!

2^ND GRADE LA

ElDorado: Poetry analysis is 2^nd grade??? Yep, they did it, and they did amazing at it! This week we read the poem ElDorado and took it apart with a ‘Reading Analyzer’. This helped us better understand what we were reading. The worksheet broke the poem into key words, feelings, description/images, ideas, structure. Doing this together as a class helps the students see the poem in a way they may not have considered. There were some great connections made!!!

2^ND GRADE MA

Measuring with inch and half inch: Right now we are mastering the art of ACCURACY, “measure twice cut once” kind of lessons. We are working on measuring to the nearest inch and half inch. We did a little exercise to help the students understand the difference in measuring the same object with different units. We took my shoe and a student’s shoe to measure a table; we noticed it took less of my shoe and more of the smaller one to cover the length of the table. This is the same concept of measuring an item with both inches and half inches; it will take more half inches then inches to measure an object.

We are still having a little trouble when we asked to measure to the NEAREST unit. If you have the opportunity at home to measure items with your child, or even draw lines on a paper and have they measure to the nearest inch or half inch that, would be very helpful!

3^RD GRADE LA

Myth and Legend: Myth reading and retelling!!  This week, the students were all given 1 of 3 myths to read individually. Once the students finished their reading they were grouped with the other students who read the same myth. Next, they worked together on a retelling worksheet. The retelling worksheet helps the students break down the myth for better understanding. In our next class we will retell each myth to the class.

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3^RD GRADE MA

Measuring in Centimeters: This week we started measuring OURSELVES!! We have taken calculator tape to estimate different lengths of ourselves, height, foot size, wrist….. Next, we will be using measuring tape to make accurate measurements and calculating the difference. The goal of this is to improve our measurement benchmark, the length of a familiar object that will help you estimate other lengths more easily. This 3^rd grade class loves any kind of learning that gets them out of their seats!! They are an active bunch that always keeps me entertained!

4^TH GRADE LA

Greek and Latin: Computer time!!!  This week has been a fun and easy week for the fourth graders. The students have spent the past two days on the Fact Monster website looking up Latin and Greek work elements. This exercise will help the students decode vocabulary in the English language.

4^TH GRADE MA

Shapes: Parallelograms, rectangles, polygons, and more……. This unit is a little tricky!

We are working on defining and looking at examples and non-examples for these shapes. Where it gets a little difficult for a few to understand, some of these shapes can have more than one name. Example, a quadrilateral is also a polygon. My plan for this unit is to go slow and steady. I want to make sure we all have a firm foundation before we move on.