The Bailly Beacon

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.