Boston Bound Weekend!

Safe travels and Good Luck to all the Boston Runners!! I can’t wait to watch it!!
Let me know how you did!!

Kindergarten LA

Connections: During our first week the students were placed in two groups, each group had to put together a puzzle. What they didn’t know was a few of their pieces were switched. They had to figure why their puzzle wasn’t connecting. They realized the “wrong” pieces didn’t work because they didn’t fit, they were the wrong color, and they did match the other words (they were rhyming puzzles). This led us into the conversation about connections. I explained a connection was a relationship in which a person, thing or idea is linked or associated with something else. 

Basically, what “reminds you of something when someone says ‘blank’?” The students were then given chart paper to draw different connections. A couple of my favorites were hanger=clothes and rain=puddles. Connections is a theme that will continue on though out 1^st and 2^nd grade as well.

Kindergarten MA

Missing Numbers and Data: Wednesday we had some fun using tile counters to try to find the missing number. We did a worksheet that asked, if we had 2 counters, how many more we would need to have 7 altogether. 

This activity was a way for me to see how their minds work with addition.Thursday we collected data.  We went into the second grade hallway and looked at all the book bags. The students had to graph the color of book bags found in their assigned cubby. 

We will combine our data next week and see what the totals look like.

1^st Grade LA

Lipograms: This was our last week working with lipograms. A few weeks ago the class was divided into two groups. Each group had to summarize a section of the book E-Mergency in three sentences. After they had summarized their section of the book, either middle or ending, they picked a vowel to remove from their writing. 

Like the homework from a couple of weeks ago, the groups had to replace words containing their vowel. After rewriting their summary the students read them to the class as I wrote the lipograms on the board.  

1^st Grade MA

Chapter Check-up: We are done with chapter 2 and Tuesday we had our chapter check-up. This is a small test that shows me if the students understood what we have been doing in the lesson. 

I will grade these this weekend. Since the class does not finish the Chapter Check-ups at the same time, the students had fun with tangrams until everyone finished. It worked out perfectly, by the end of class everyone was able to work on a least one puzzles.

2^nd Grade LA

Tale of Despereaux: Homework: Read chapter 16-18, have homework sheet signed, worksheet #5 is it wasn’t turned in yet.

Wednesday the students were given a quiz over Book the 1^st, if they did not finish they were able to do that Thursday. When a student finished their quiz, they needed to work on worksheet #7 and write their predictions for the next book. I can’t wait to read these. If they finished worksheet #7 they could begin reading their homework chapters.

Helpful Hint: I am noticing students who have kept up with the reading are finishing their class work faster. Once class work is finished and we are done discussing, some have 5-8 minutes to read. If they come to class and quickly grab their book while waiting for the other students, there is another 3-5 minutes to read. Doing this twice a week gets a lot of their homework reading done.

2^nd Grade MA

Putting Things in Order: This week, the students used transitivity to compare the area of three shapes.  First, they needed to predict the order of shapes from smallest area to greatest area by looking at them. Next, they needed to cut the shapes in order to see which one has the largest area. Doing this, the students could see how much “extra” was left over when placing them on top of each other. Last, the students were given uncut shapes again to measure with square inch tiles. It’s always a fun lesson when you use math to check your predictions.

3^rd Grade LA

READING: It was a pretty easy week for these guys. They finished their fairy tale compare and contrast sheets. This sheet had them compare and contrast fairy tale elements from their favorite fairy tale to the one they read in class. 

Once they finished, they started ACTIVELY reading our last fairy tale “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”. The goal of active reading is to write, highlight, and jot notes while reading. 

I wanted them to keep track of the fairy tale elements as they read. Active reading also helps discussion run smoother; rather than searching through the text to find answers, it is already written and hopefully somewhat memorized.

3^rd Grade MA

Distributive Property: We are getting there, but still struggling a little. This week we worked on dividing (partitioning) an array and using the distributive property to find the area. Thursday I had them work in pairs using the distributive property to fine the area of an array.  My hopes by them explaining the process to each other would clarify any misunderstanding.  Next Wednesday we will be doing the partner work together as a class……

4^th Grade LA

It’s All in the Bag: In our mystery lesson the students will be writing their own mystery. To start this writing, the class was divided into 5 groups, 2 students in each group. Each group was assigned a part of the story: names, places and times, goals, obstacles and endings. They needed to create 25 choices for their part. The choices were numbered and put into a bag. Next, the students will pick 1 choice from each of the 5 bags and have to coordinate that element into their mystery. Knowing this group, I think these mysteries may turn out to be a little funny.

4^th Grade MA

Coordinate Plane: Wednesday we finished our ‘It is All in What You See’ lesson. This lesson reviewed ordered pairs; that an ordered pair indicates how far to travel from the origin (0,0) and the signs of X and Y indicates what quadrant the point is in. 

We also worked on reflecting and translating shapes on a coordinate plane. We described the effect these transformations had on the 2D shape looking at the original and prime coordinates. Last, while translating, we connected the original points to prime points and created 3D representations.

Rather than starting our Think Deeply on Thursday we had a reviewed with Kahoot. This is always a blast, especially with player names like this!! And I promise, the boy not smiling… he enjoyed himself.

Kindergarten LA & Kindergarten MA

Welcome to High Ability Kindergarten!!!!!

Getting to know you: Our first week together was a get to know you time. The first day of class I showed the students a “Welcome to High Ability” slide show. This was to introduce the students to me, the class and our classroom rules and procedures. The students also made name tags on the first day. If they were in my language arts class, they included something they loved on their name tags; my math students included their favorite number. 
The second day we played a 'get to know your class' game. We stood in a circle; I started the game by telling everyone my name and my favorite color. I then tossed the ball to a student and asked what their name and favorite color was. This continued until everyone had a turn. We also took a turn saying our favorite animal. We had a great first week!! I can’t wait to start getting into our lessons!

1^st Grade LA

Share with us: Coming back from spring break, these guys were EXCITED to share everything they did. Monday the students wrote two fun activities they did over spring break. If they had time, they also included a picture. 

Tuesday, they shared their writings with the class. I wanted them to concentrate on voice volume, eye contact, and the emotion of what they were reading. They were of course great presenters AND listeners. The writings were sent home with everyone except one class. On Tuesday we had a special guest at our school and one class was not able to make HA that day. I will return their writings next week.

1^st Grade MA

Think Deeply: What a time to have our Think Deeply, right after spring break..... Remember, a Think Deeply is a review of the lesson we've been studying. 

Together we reviewed what we were learning before break. These rock stars did a great job remembering how we were predicting, measuring, and comparing the area of different targets.  In our Think Deeply, the students had to use ‘transitivity’ to compare and measure the area for 3 shapes. I was so excited when most of them wanted to read their answer out load!!!! These first graders are AMAZING!

Second Grade CogAT Packets:

A pink packet will go home today.  It will include the CogAT screener results for every second grader.  Those who qualified to take the full, their results are also attached.  More information about the test and results can be found here.  Using your child's results, paired with Duneland's High Ability website, you can see how well your child did.   No worries if they did not do well on CogAT.  It shows their ability to make connections and is nothing taught in school.  At this time, we are not officially informing parents of those who qualified for HA.  We will save that for after we get their end of the year NWEA results.  Remember:  they need to only qualify through one path. (CogAT or NWEA)  Not both!  Please stress to your child to take their time and do their personal best on their next NWEA as these scores are used to qualify for HA.  Thanks!

2^nd Grade LA

Tale of Despereaux: HOME WORK: Read up to chapter 16, worksheet #5 question #3. The students now have a homework sheet that needs to be signed EVERY week. There are 6 days to complete the homework. A lot of students have the reading completed because they are using their time before class wisely!!! The students really like this book, better than Edward. We will be taking this book at a faster pace and writing more. I want the kids to keep their excitement about it!!! I am also hoping this excitement will encourage more creative writing….shhhhhhh… 

2^nd Grade MA

Square Inch Area: We started our math lesson reviewing what a square foot was. We had to make sure we know the difference between 12 inches and 12 square inches, a square foot. We needed to review because we are starting to work with square inches. Our “Build it Measure it” worksheet gave the students a dimensions. The students then needed to use our square inch tiles to find the different areas.

3^rd Grade LA

Writing and Fairy Tails: Monday I had the students write about their spring break. If they finished early I had them switch their writing with a partner. This was so the students could share with they did over spring break, but they also had to proof read their classmates writing. These will be returned on Monday. 

Tuesday I had the students work on a problem analysis worksheet over the fairy tale they read in class. They then started to work on a compare and contrast worksheet using their classroom fairy tale and their favorite fairy tale. We will continue to work on these next week.

3^rd Grade MA

Distributive Property: This week was a little crazy because of field trips. We practiced the distributive property of multiplication both days. We are partitioning arrays to help us visualize how a multiplication fact can be be broken apart into the sum of two other multiplication facts. I did not want to move ahead in our book unless I had the entire class.

4^th Grade LA

Mystery: Monday we did a short spring break activity to help calm the "back to school excitement" 😉. Tuesday we continued our mystery lesson. The students actively read a short mystery. When I have students “actively read”, I want them to highlight what they feel is important,  write notes on the side and circle words and/or ideas that they may not completely understand. 






After actively reading the mystery they needed to give me vocabulary examples from the text. It was a nice way to ease back into the swing of things.

4^th Grade MA

It’s All in What You See: We started a new lesson in math this week. We are continuing to explore spatial visualization and translating shapes from one quadrant to another. This week we also worked on reflecting polygons from one side of the Line of Reflection to the other. After a few practice rounds as a class, I had students create their own polygon and reflect it. Next, the students needed to switch with a partner and predict the other’s position and orientation of the reflection.  They got the hang of this in no time!!!