Hello Bailly Families!! It's hard to believe we are already approaching Thanksgiving break. There will not be a blog next week, since it is only a 2 day school week. I hope you all are able to spend some extra time with your family and friends over the holiday break! I am thankful to have the opportunity to work with your children! I do have to apologize that I often get caught up in what we are doing in class and sometimes forget to take pictures of the kiddos to include in the blog:(
11/19- Last day of Barnes and Noble Week
11/24-11/26- Thanksgiving Break
12/9- No School
ELA
My first grade friends wrote a persuasive paragraph this week. They were writing to persuade readers that all first grade students should learn Pig Latin. Together, we came up with an opinion sentence, three supporting reasons, and a conclusion. We started by organizing our ideas in a hamburger model organizer and then transformed them into a paragraph.
Students then recorded themselves reading the paragraph on the Pages app on their iPad. They included a picture of a pig for fun!
MATH
First grade students used the shape cards from Groupo and the shapes they had created to play a new game called What Happened?. Each student drew one of the shape cards and recreated it using their cutout shapes. They had some time to study the shape and try to remember exactly what it looked like. Next, they turned the shape card over, turned around, and closed their eyes. The other player spun the spinner and either moved one shape, took off one shape, or did nothing to the original shape depending on where the spinner landed. The guesser then turned back around and had to describe what had happened to their shape while they weren't looking. The shape card was then turned over and their answer was checked to see if it was correct.
ELA
Second grade is moving right along in The Tale of Despereaux! We had a great discussion over Book the Second and began reading Book the Third together in class. I thoroughly enjoy seeing them make deep connections between the use of light and dark throughout different parts of the book. They are doing a great job of pulling meaning out of the story. Students should finish Book the Third by Monday. 
MATH
Second grade students completed a Think Deeply this week. We discussed the questions and did it together on the overhead projector. Students had to look at a tessellation and identify the basic shape that was used and what shapes comprised it. Next, they had to determine which movements were used to transform the basic unit into a tessellation.
ELA
Third grade completed a Venn Diagram comparing Myths/Legends and Tall Tales. We used sticky notes so that things can be moved around as we add other genres of Folktale to the comparison.
Next, students read Billy Beg and his Bull. They read the story to themselves and then, using what we have learned so far about Folklore, determined what type of story it is.
MATH
In third grade, we moved on to our next lesson which was all about seeing patterns in algebra in a different way. In chapter one, our patterns were in tables and now we are exploring patterns in charts and arrays. This chapter will focus on looking at patterns on the 100's chart. Patterns will continue to be a theme we work with in our algebra unit as we are helping them see the why it works.
ELA
The fourth graders have spent their time this week reading, reading, reading! They have been researching the subject of their biography project. Next week, we will utilize some of the information they have gathered to begin working on the biography summary.
MATH
In fourth grade we learned the Cover Up method to help solve algebraic equations. It is just an additional strategy to help with solving to find the variable in equations. Students are loving solving equations so much!! We are really having a lot of fun in math this year!
