First Grade 

Language Arts

Students presented their Connection Shields on Monday this week. It was great to see that the kids were able to come up with drawings that showed connections to the things and people that matter to them. They were very excited to present them in class. I hung their shields in the classroom for now, but will send them home shortly. Thank you parents for your help on this project!

The students were then introduced to Caesar's Cipher Wheel. I explained the history behind the Cipher and how Julius Caesar used it to keep messages safe from falling into enemy hands. The kids were excited about using the cipher but still need some practice learning how to decipher messages. We will continue to use them next week.

 

Math

In math this week we talked about using weight as a form of measurement. I read Just a Little Bit to the students to help them understand the concept of weight. They also held objects in their hands and modeled being a scale to show if the one object was heavier than,lighter than or about the same as the object in the other hand.

Second Grade

Language Arts

This week we worked on sentence structure. The students learned that the subject tells the reader who or what a sentence is about while the predicate tells readers what is happening in the sentence. After breaking sentences into subject/predicate we went through and identified the nouns,verbs and adjectives in the sentences as well. The kids really seemed to enjoy doing this!
Next week we will begin working on the structure of a paragraph using the Hamburger model.

We also read the non-fictional text Marvelous Mattie. This is another great story of perseverance that continued our lesson from last week. I was very impressed at how attentive the students were during the reading and how well the understood and interpreted the text. 

Math

This week we finished up our math definitions that we will be using throughout the year. We began talking about symmetry which will be the focus of our next lesson. We were not able to meet for math on Thursday this week due to the second grade field trip.

Third Grade

Language Arts


This week we continued our studies on inferred behaviors using the How to Speak Cat and How to Speak dog. The students have been struggling a little bit with this activity. They learned the features of a non-fiction text to help them find the information they were looking for without reading the entire book. We will finish up this activity next week. 

Math

This week we continued working on repeating patterns using names of different lengths to find differences between words that contained some of the same letters but occurred at different frequency in the pattern.We will spend a little more time on this next week to ensure that everyone is truly understanding how to use a function to figure out repeating patterns before we move on.

Example:

SARAHSARAHSARAHSARAHSARAH..... what would the 137th letter be if Sarah wrote her name 50 times??

Fourth Grade

Language Arts

We continued working on our Change interviews. Students peer edited each others paragraphs and then I edited the papers and had them write a final draft if they were ready. Next week we will turn these into technology and finish them up.

Math

This week we continued defining our shapes. The students worked on noting characteristics of polygons, parallelograms, trapezoids, squares, rectangles and rhombi. We discussed that though all squares are parallelograms, not all squares are rectangle.This applies to other shapes and groups as well. We will continue working on shapes next week.

Mrs. Marquardt

Dates to Remember

• Tuesday

  End of the 1st Grading Period

• October 18, 2019

  10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Box Tops & Frozen Friday
• 
  

  6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Fall Family Dance

• October 21, 2019

  8:00 AM - 9:00 AM 4th Grade Dunes Learning/Camp

• October 22, 2019

  8:00 AM - 9:00 AM 4th Grade Dunes Learning/Camp

• October 24, 2019

  3:00 PM First quarter grade reports

                           WORLD SMILE  DAY

Each year on the first Friday in October, World Smile Day devotes a day to smiles and spreading random acts of kindness.

If someone smiles at you, you’re bound to smile back. A smile can be used to express a feeling, encourage someone or be used as a greeting. If you don’t smile enough, #WorldSmileDay is the perfect day to start.

There are many benefits of smiling:

·         Improves mood

·         Lowers blood pressure

·         Relieves stress

·         Boosts the immune system

·         Relieves pain

·         Better Relationships

·         Increases life expectancy

Who wouldn’t want all those benefits? All it takes is smiling. And the more often, the better!

HOW TO OBSERVE #WorldSmileDay

On World Smile Day, people around the world are encouraged to do an act of kindness and make one person smile. Each year the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation holds special events on World Smile Day. The day is especially popular in Worcester, MA, which is considered the birthplace of the yellow smiley face.

Through the years, some of the foundation’s events have included the world’s largest human Smiley face, balloon releases, choral performances, sidewalk chalk activities, college concerts, circus performers and pie-eating contests.

If you don’t live in Worcester, you can organize your own World Smile Day event. You can celebrate the day in other ways, too.

·         Do a random act of kindness for someone.

·         Use a smiley face emoji on every text you send.

·         Spread cheer by handing out smiley face stickers.

·         Give a smile to everyone you come across.

·         Tell someone a funny joke.

·         Play happy songs like “Happy” by Pharrell Williams or “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin.

·         Take a selfie of your own smile and share it on social media with #WorldSmileDay.

First Grade

Language Arts

This week in Language arts we began working on our connection shields. The kids will continue working on them this week and present them in class. 

Generalizations of Connections:

Connections show relationships among objects, feelings, people and places.

Connections can be intellectual, physical, social or emotional.

Connections may change or stay the same overtime.

Math

This week we began the introductory unit. The students received a package from Imi and Zani who will be friends they will be corresponding with throughout the year.  They were teaching us some general guidelines to be mathematicians in the classroom. Next week, we will continue with our introductory unit.

Second Grade

Language Arts

This week we looked at the structure we find in words.  This activity introduced the students to the vocabulary map.  As a group, we looked at the different sections on the map.  This led us into a discussion on synonyms and antonyms. We also read the book The Most Magnificent Thing, a fictional book about a little girl who realized that making the most magnificent thing turned out to be harder than she realized.  When I finished the story I asked the children,"How did the girl show perseverance"? They had many answers such as, keep going, don't give up, and continue were just a few. 

Generalizations of a Structure:

A structure usually supports.

A structure can change over time.

A structure can be stable or unstable.

Math

We started off this week talking about our speaker and listener roles. I then introduced Dru and Teller, characters in their book, also known as the "Detective Duo," who wrote the kids a letter asking the class to help them gather ideas for a gallery full of geometric shapes for there new science museum. They were then shown  two groups of shapes and they had to decide which group had only triangles. They decided pretty quickly that it was group B.  We went on to use our speaker and listening roles and brainstormed ideas on what we know about triangles. They were great at coming up with all the attributes that make up a triangle. We then completed the Think Deeply letter to Dru and Teller. 

Third Grade

Language Arts

The topic of interactions was continued this week. I also introduced the books How to Speak Cat and How to Speak Dog. We discussed human/animal interactions, along with the observable effect of the interaction, i.e. a girl pets a cat, and the cat purrs. We took the time to look at some important features of a nonfiction text such as the table of contents (with main sections separated by a blue dotted line), speech bubble summaries, headings, and index. They will not be reading the whole book. It's more of a narrow-in-on-the topic, than read for understanding.  Once they were familiar with the features and layout, I showed them the preview chart that they would be filling out. Some of the kids were a bit confused on how to navigate the story. We will continue to work on this next week.

Math

This week we learned about repeating and growing patterns. They were presented with the pattern SARAHSARAHSAR and had to figure out what the 137th letter would be if Sarah continued writing her name. Some students were able to figure this out quickly while others struggled a bit. Next week we will continue to talk about this repeating pattern and the formula to solve it.

Fourth Grade

Language Arts

This week some of our students were gone on their field trip. For the students that were here we began working on writing out our interviews. We will continue working on the paragraphs next week and turning them into technology.

Math

We started the lesson, The Shape of Things this week. I gave the kids all a parallelogram and asked  them to write down everything they knew about it. When they were ready, I called on different kids to come up and write the characteristics of the shape on the board.  They did a great job coming up with all the attributes of the parallelogram.  Finally, they broke up into pairs and started working on a You either Have it......Or You Don't packet from their workbooks.  They worked on identifying the defining characteristics of shapes, like polygons, quadrilaterals, and parallelograms. We will continue with this packet next week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Don't forget to smile:)

First Fall Friday

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." —F. Scott Fitzgerald

Growth Mindset 

We discussed what it means to have a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. Many of the kids were already familiar with this concept, but for the ones that didn't know they caught on quickly! Every student was able to understand and explain that a growth mindset allows you to look at difficult situations and think of positive ways to approach them instead of focusing on how hard it might be (fixed mindset). We will use this Growth Mindset throughout the year and hopefully the kids will learn to use it in their lives outside of school as well.

First Grade ELA

Connection Generalizations

• Connections show relationships among objects, feelings, people and places.

• Connections can be intellectual, physical, social or emotional.

• Connections may change or stay the same over time.

We learned about connections this week in ELA. The students matched cards together of words that were connected to each other such as toothbrush-toothpaste, cafeteria-lunch, etc. They also had to look for connections in their homes. We will be working with connections throughout the year so please take the time and point out any connections that you may come across in your daily lives.

Second Grade ELA

Structure Generalizations

• A structure usually supports.

• A structure can change over time.

• A structure can be stable or unstable.

We talked about structures this week. Students were given a variety of supplies and told to make a structure. Each student then presented their structure and explained what made it a structure. We also discussed how some structures are weak and/or unstable while others are strong and stable.

In the beginning of the lesson, all of the kids would list physical structures when asked for an example of a structure. I then asked them if a family would be considered a structure.It was like a light bulb went on and they were amazed that things other than buildings could be a structure. 

Third Grade ELA

Interaction Generalizations

• Interactions can be accidental or purposeful.

• Interactions can be negative or positive.

• Interactions can have a fleeting influence or can leave a deep and lasting impression.

This week talked about interactions. The students were paired up and given an interaction scenario to act out in front of the class using charades. Next the class was divided into two groups where they brainstormed different types of interactions. After they came up with several examples of interactions they divided them into different categories. We also discussed what it meant to have a fleeting influence versus a long lasting impression. Interactions will be a part of our curriculum all year so please bring attention to them whenever you see an opportunity in daily life.

Fourth Grade ELA

Change Generalizations

• Change is all different.

• Change happens over time at different rates.

• Change is caused by nature or humans.

• Change can be positive or negative.

We have started discussing change this week. Students worked in groups to come up with ideas of  things that change. They then categorized the changes they came up with into groups of positive/negative and human/nature changes. Students were given a homework assignment to interview someone on a change that has occurred in their life. This is due on Monday. We will be working on these for a few weeks. Students will turn the interview answers into a paragraph and eventually record them on their I-Pad.

Math-All Grades

All grade levels took pre-tests in math this week. I stressed to all of the kids that they may not be familiar with some things on the test and that is alright. We talked about the power of YET. Just because they don't know something yet doesn't mean they can't learn it.

I hope everyone has a great first weekend of Autumn!

Mrs. Marquardt

Happy Friday!!

Good afternoon to all my High Ability families!!

I just wanted to touch base with everyone. This week the kids and I just spent time getting to know each other and going over classroom procedures. We also discussed characteristics that are important to being a successful student. I am looking forward to starting our normal routine next week. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Mrs. Marquardt

Welcome To Our High Ability Blog!

Hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are now ready to start fresh.  It's going to be another great school year!  Many families are returning, so you're familiar with how we do things in High Ability.  I'm excited to welcome our new families to our program and to fill you in on how everything works.  

A Little About High Ability:

Welcome to our weekly blog!  This is an area where I post a weekly update to allow you to take a peek inside our classroom.  I try to post lots of pictures, so you can see what they are working on each week.  This is also a great location to monitor any assignments they may have to complete.  You will also find a calendar highlighting some important dates coming up around the school.  My goal is to have the blog posted on Friday.  I will send a weekly email when the blog is posted.  You can access the blog at the bottom of my email or through Bailly's homepage under classrooms.

Language Arts and Math groups will meet twice a week for 30-minute sessions during flex time. My Language Arts students meet on Monday and Tuesday. My Math students meet on Wednesday and Thursday. Our start date this year is September 18th. For this week, I will see my Language Arts students on Wednesday and my Math students on Thursday for an introduction day.

It is important to use the most of our time together, so we will go over procedures and expectations the first couple of days to help our classroom run efficiently.  I will also do several Leader in Me (LIM) lessons with all of my classes.  Bailly is entering our fourth year of being a Leader in Me school which is very near and dear to my heart!  I will weave the lessons into our weekly High Ability lessons.  If you're curious or interested in seeing how LIM can impact your family, I strongly recommend reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen R. Covey.  It's one that I find myself re-reading for a little boost now and then.

LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM:



We are using the High Ability Language Arts Curriculum Project which was developed by the Indiana Department of Education. Each grade centers around an umbrella concept that fits every lesson.  They are filled with many fantastic lessons that build upon each other as the year goes.  Teaching under the umbrella allows students to make connections which calls on higher order thinking.  We will use several of the trade and picture books suggested by the state as part of our curriculum.  The gifted lessons use the same models from year to year like Paul's Reasoning Model and the Hamburger Model for persuasive writing.  The added bonus is that students who continue through the grades in High Ability, will become quite efficient and familiar with the similar high ability structures while analyzing literature.


MATH CURRICULUM:




We are using the same math series called Mentoring Young Mathematicians (M2) for 2nd grade.  The upper grades will use Mentoring Mathematical Minds (M3). I just love teaching math this way!  It's not math in isolation; it's real life applicable situations. The students are asked to problem solve problems using math as a means to get there.   It was a bit of a change for the students last year, in that they were required to write and explain their thoughts, ideas, and decisions about math. By the end of the year they had grown tremendously! I was proud of them. Being gifted in math is so much more than just being good with numbers! When writing and explaining their answers, it will further cement their understanding of the concept.  I will support their writing efforts while in class, but writing and explaining their mathematical answers are something to work on with your child at home.

HOMEWORK:

Occasionally there will be homework assigned.  It honestly tends to be more with the language arts/reading groups than with the math groups.  Second, third and fourth grade will complete book studies in their curriculum and can expect weekly reading assignments. It is critical to their success in the classroom to stay current on the reading assignments.

A Little About me:

I live in Chesterton with my husband and 7 year old son. He is a first grader at Bailly. I also have two adult daughters. This is my first year working with the High Ability program. I am so excited to get started and get to know all of the students!! This will be a bit of a learning experience for me so please bear with me as I settle in to this amazing new opportunity. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. I will be happy to assist in way I can. I am looking forward to a great year!!

Mrs. Marquardt

2018-2019 School Year

WELCOME to the 2018-2019 School year!
&

Welcome to the Bailly's High Ability Program!

As you may know Bailly has a space theme this year and I can not wait to incorporate this into our school year.  

OUR NORM

I will see my Reading/Language Arts (LA) students on Mondays & Tuesdays and Math (MA) students on Wednesdays and Thursdays. EXCEPT 3RD GRADE, due to a schedule conflict their math and language arts days will be flipped. On Fridays I will be at Liberty meeting and planning with the other elementary school High Ability instructors and teacher. 

LEADER IN ME

I am very fortunate to have began working at Bailly the same time Leader In Me (LIM) was introduced. I try to incorporate the 7 habits as much as I can in the classroom to help reinforce the vocabulary and  the commonality of the habit principles across the different levels of our lives. Our leadership paradigm of SEE, DO, GET will also be a concept I will be utilizing during the school year to encourage a positive growth mindset.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

I am from Ohio and a 100% Buckeye!! I received my bachelors degree from THE Ohio State University and am currently working on my masters degree at Indiana University Northwest. I love learning and firmly believe "you can learn everyday if you pay attention". This will be my third year teaching High Ability (HA) at Bailly and my past students will tell you I am also a firm believer in learning from our mistakes; this is be a lesson I constantly refer to in the classroom. 

I am an avid runner and very involved in our local running community. I ran my 2nd 50 miler earlier this month while also currently training for my first 100K in October.

I have lived in the area for 11 years and absolutely love it here. Beside the amazing running community and running trials, the beach has stolen my heart as well. The dunes is my happy place, most loved during the off season when few people are around and I can simply listen to the waves collapse upon the shore.

Beyond education, running, and the beach, my life's number 1 are my 3 children. All of my children are part of the Duneland School Corporation ranging from elementary school to high school and between gymnastics, choir, track and cross country they keep me quite busy. 

2nd GRADE LA

CONNECTIONS: In second grade, like first grade, our theme for the year will be the Concept of Connections. Connections have many applications in the real world; they allow us think outside the box and see how new ideas emerge from interdisciplinary thinking. 

We will focus more specifically on the 'Connection of the Heart'.  In all of our lessons we will be looking for how the generalizations of connections are incorporated with our reading and writings. This  will teach the students to look at literature on a deeper level and with a different lens. 

This week we started our lesson over the poem ELDORADO.  We will continue this lesson next week introducing READING ANALYZERS (this tool will be used many time throughout the year) and utilizing a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast a picture of a knight with the poem. 

3rd GRADE LA

INTERACTIONS: Third grade is all about the Concept of INTERACTIONS. We define interactions as 'two or more living beings or objects that communicate or react to one another with a reciprocal effect on both participants'.  We will investigate this concept and the generalizations through different classical readings centered around human and animal interactions. We will also explore how interactions shape us and allow us to tell our stories.

Our lesson this week focused on INTERPRETING INTERACTIONS. This lesson has the students utilize the books "How to Speak Dog" and "How to Speak Cat" to connect specific animal behaviors to specific animal interactions. Not having the time to read the entire book, we focused on how to locate needed information efficiently in nonfiction texts. This lesson will also allow us to grasp the understanding of making sure our answers are supported by evidence from the text and not our opinions or assumptions.

We will continue this lesson next week while also discussing PERSPECTIVE when deciding if an interaction is positive or negative. 

4th GRADE LA

SYSTEMS: We will be studying the Concept of Systems and its generalizations in forth grade. Systems will be identified as a purposeful interaction working towards a goal. 

After familiarizing ourselves with the concept of systems last week we moved onto understanding that organization is a systems of procedures. We read the book "Thundercake" and begin to discuss how the book displays the concept of procedures within it. Ww will continue this lesson next week.

Last week all of the Math classes took their assessment tests. This is simply to see show me what the students may or may not already know about the curriculum we will be covering during the year. This test will also be given at the end of the year.


2nd GRADE MA

MEASUREMENT: In second grade math we are focusing on measurement. Last week we began our chapter on Length. The students were introduced to inch and half inch measurements along with the inverse relationship between the larger the units used to measure, the fewer the number of units needed and vice versa. We will continue this lesson next week while also learning how to measure to the nearest inch and half-inch and building our math vocabulary. 

3rd GRADE MA

GEOMETRY AND MEASUREMENT: The first chapter in our math unit is over Linear Measurement. Lesson one of this chapter introduces benchmarks, estimation, and the difference between our estimate and our actual measurement. Tuesday we went over the centimeters and millimeters on our rulers and the importance of accurate measurements. This lesson will continue on Monday as well. 

4th GRADE MA

FRACTIONS: FRACTIONS .... FRACTIONS .... FRACTIONS ... I LOVE FRACTIONS! We will be working with fractions all year. Our first chapter is 'Making Sense of Fractions'. I make sure we have a firm foundation on our knowledge of fractions so the students can enjoy this curriculum as much as I do!! This week, along with next week, we will be making fractions strips in order to understand the concept of equivalence, estimating, comparing and ordering fractions. Our math vocabulary will be increasing dramatically this year as well!!  

WE'RE GOING TO HAVE AN OUT OF THIS WORLD YEAR!