Fabulous Weather Weekend

Fabulous Weather Weekend

 The weather was BEAUTIFUL, we needed the rain too! I hope everyone took the time to go outside and enjoy it!
~Great Running Weather~

Bailly's SUPER Word of the week:

School Spirit: enthusiasm and loyalty to one's school

1st Grade LA

Connections Continued: This week we defined the word categories as a group of things or ideas that are similar in one or more ways. I divided the connection cards we worked with last week among our table groups. Each table had to put the cards into categories and explain to the class why they chose that category. We have some creative thinkers in this group!! On Tuesday we discussed our unit generalizations. I explained we needed to find statements that were always or almost always true about connections. This activity needed a little guidance, it's a pretty abstract idea for a first grader, but they got it!! Last, for fun the students were shown different common signs and symbols. They needed to tell the class what it meant by the connection they made when they saw it. The best part of our class happened as we walked back to everyone's classes. There was a sign on the floor by the water fountain (can you make the connection😉), one of the kids yelled, "A CONNECTION"! Not exactly the best hallway behavior; but when a student gets excited to share what they've learned, I'm not going to complain!!

HOMEWORK: If your child did not turn in their 'Coat of Arms' packet this week, it is NOT too late. We will start to assemble everything on Monday.

1st Grade MA

Meeting Imi and Zani: Since our assessment test is over and done with we were able to start our math unit! The first week is introducing the students to Imi and Zani and learning our mathematician speaker and listener roles. Imi and Zani are 2 birds from the Amazon Rain Forest who create math games for the Amazon Birds Consulting Company. We will communicate with them over the year via letters and Think Deeplys. The birds will send letters asking for our help and we will send our ideas and responses through our Think Deeply writings. I will explain what a Think Deeply is in the next couple of weeks. This all makes our learning a little more entertaining. We were also able to jump into SHAPES with a "What's the Same About These Shapes?" worksheet. Our math curriculum is geometry based, shapes will become our best friends by the end of the year!

2nd Grade LA

Categories into Generalizations: On Monday the students shared their connection category examples with the class. We were able to see how connections could fit into more than one category. I then asked the class what other observations or GENERALIZATIONS they noticed about our connections. We figured connections: 

~show a relationship among objects, places, ideas, and people

 ~can be intellectual, physical, emotional, or social

~can change or stay the same over time

These generalizations are important and will be displayed in our room all year. Every lesson we will identify connections in poems, books, characters, ect. These generalizations of connections will be the back bone in our lessons. 

Next week we will continue where we left off. The students were placed in 3 groups based on one of the 3 generalizations they choose. Together, they will write 3 examples or reasons why they believe their chosen generalization is true. 

2nd Grade MA

Think Deeply: We started off the week with a sample Think Deeply. A Think Deeply is how we use words to explain what we have learned in our lesson. It enables the students to use their new math vocabulary to help explain their ideas. In this TD students had to identify from 2 groups which one consisted of ONLY triangles. While they found no difficulty in that task, they then needed to explain WHY a group was only triangles. They needed to use vocabulary such as polygons, triangles, vertices, and sides. They also had to include characteristics of these words such as closed vs. open shapes and simple vs. not simple shapes. We did this as a class to make sure everyone is using detail, vocabulary, and key concepts in explaining their math ideas.

3rd Grade LA

Your child should be able to tell you
 how this is an interaction.

Interaction Generalizations: We came to the conclusion that  interactions have three 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.

Once we were able to develop these generalizations the class was divided into 3 groups. Each group needed to give an example of BOTH parts to each generalization. A couple were having difficulty distinguishing between an interaction and a connection (what they studied last year). Making a list of NON-interactions helped a lot. The class was able see and discuss how a connection did not always mean an interaction. 

3rd Grade MA

Think Deeply: It's early, but we started one already. Third graders are going to be expected to write a little bit more in their Think Deeply this year. I will be expecting each lesson's new vocabulary to be used along with any new concepts or visuals. AND let us NOT forget the ever important PQA!!!!!!! The first TD we started together. Next week I will allow the students to finish then partner check. This will be a great time for the class to learn from each other through great examples OR guided help. I will be walking around listening and making sure everyone understands what the third grade expectations of a Think Deeply are.

4th Grade LA

Interview HOMEWORK: On Tuesday everyone was given an interview sheet for homework. The students were supposed to interview an adult about a 'Change' that occurred in their life. This is supposed to be a multi paragraph paper. Please make sure, if you are the one being interviewed, they use ALL the lines. Details are great to have when writing. It is due Monday. HOWEVER, I will take them on Tuesday because we will be journal writing about Change on Monday.

4th Grade MA

Fractions and Behavior: Going into my second year, I am finding 4th grade math to be my most challenging yet entertaining class. I'm not sure if it's the age or the age/subject combination but this class reminds me so much of the last year's (that's not a bad thing). I've had the students start bringing their Bailly Bucks to class. This bunch is a bit talkative. When we are in a small area with limited time it becomes very hard to accomplish everything in my plans. With that being said, the Bailly Bucks are working GREAT! I've seen a huge improvement in behaviors!! 

Now about those fractions. We are almost done with our equivalent fraction folds. On Thursday the students finished their 1/5 strips and needed to go on to 1/10 strips. All of the equivalent fraction strips we are making will be used in our next section. Making these strips allow the students to see the relationship between fractions, such as: 1/3, 1/6 and 1/12 or 1/5 and 1/10. 

*My tablet was not saving pictures for whatever reason this week. It is fixed and ready to go for Monday*

Blink

BLINK...AND THE WEEK WENT BY!!
(So did the weekend!)
Short weeks go by so fast!! BosFASTic Fast.

Bailly's Word of the Week

FAMILY = relatives or members of a social group who care about one another. 

1st Grade LA

Graphic Alphabet and Connections: This week we started our Language Arts curriculum. Tuesday I read  The Graphic Alphabet. In this book the author/illustrator designed each letter form to become the word it represents. On every page I covered the word and the class had to tell me based on connections, what the letter picture was. Doing this made the children form a metal connection in order to solve the picture puzzle. Next, we did a matching game where everyone received an index card with a word written on it. They had to move around the room and find their connection word. A few examples were, dog/bone, fish/water, brother/sister; everyone did a great job!!

You will notice throughout the year our curriculum emphasizes A LOT on connections. 

HOMEWORK:

You should have received a packet from your students on Tuesday. In the packet there were 2 sheets of 'patches'. Your child is to draw 6-8 black and white pictures that represent personal connections. The packet also included 4 'Coat of Connection' sheets where your child will explain their personal connections. You will NOT need to cut these out and make them into a booklet. 

Please Remember this should be STUDENT lead, PARENT guided. 😉

1st Grade MA

TEST TIME: This week in math we took our beginning of the year assessment test. This test shows me how familiar the students are familial with concepts we will be learning in HA. I informed the students there may be questions they are unsure of and to simply try their best!! The students will take this same test at the end of the year to see the growth they've made. Therefore, I will not send this test home until the end of the year along with the post test. 

2nd Grade LA

CONNECTIONS: Like last year, a lot of our curriculum will be centered around connections. On Tuesday, we discussed connections and categories. The students worked in pairs and had to place given connections into categories THEY created. They realized many connections can be placed in more than one category. They also discovered one person's connection may or may NOT fit into another person's category. We will talk about our connection categories next week.

2nd Grade MA

TESTING AND INTRODUCTION: Wednesday the students took their assessment test. This test is to show me how familiar the students are with the material we will cover this year. I will give the same test at the end of the year to see growth they've made. For this reason the test will NOT be sent home until the students are given the post test at the end of the year. 
Thursday was our introduction into our new math. We went over the expectations of how a math speaker and a math listener should act. In math we spoke about 'adding on' to people's ideas to help figure out problems. We did a fun activity 'adding on' to a class story, you should ask you child about it!!!   

3rd Grade LA

INTERACTIONS: Tuesday was a fun day! Our Language Arts started off with the concept of interactions. The class was placed into pairs and had to act out 3 different interactions they were given on strips of paper. The rest of the class tried to figure out what they were acting out, charades if you'd like. After everyone went and we wrote our ideas on the board I had them try to guess what they all had in common. They were all INTERACTIONS. 
We will dig deeper in this topic next week. 

3rd Grade MA

ASSESSMENTS AND SARAH: Wednesday the students took their assessment test. This test is to show me how familiar the students are with the material we will cover this year. I will give the same test at the end of the year to see the growth they've made. For this reason the test will NOT be sent home until the students are given the post test at the end of the year. 

Thursday we started our math unit with 'Repeating Patterns'. The students were asked if the name 'Sarah' was repeated 30 times, how many times would the letter 'S' appear, how many times would the letter 'a' appear? The students realized they could use multiplications with number patterns rather than writing the name 30 times!!!!

4th Grade LA

CHANGE: Like last year, the concept of change will be the basis for our curriculum. Tuesday we discussed the definition of change. I gave the students 5-10 minutes to come up with as many examples of change as possible. I then split the class in half and had them try to categorize their examples. They will share these categories next week and we will develop some generalizations about change. 

4th Grade MA

ASSESSMENT AND FRACTIONS: Wednesday the students took their assessment test. This test is to show me how familiar the students are with the material we will cover this year. I will give the same test at the end of the year to see the growth they've made. For this reason the test will NOT be sent home until the students are given the post test at the end of the year. 
Thursday we jumped right into our math unit on equivalent fractions. Thursday we took 12" strips and folded them in halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths. Next week we will finish our strips with 7 more equivalent fractions, discussing how we were able to use the last strip to help us divide the next one. 

BOSFASTIC BOSTER

As learned through Leader in Me, we have the ability to create our own weather. This past year, I have learned we not only have the ability to create, but TO BE our own Superhero.

Here's to a great year of learning, achieving and succeeding as Superheros do. 

OUR FIRST WEEK!!

It was great seeing all the new and familiar faces this week!!  Since I only have the students for 30 minutes a day, it is imperative to spend this first week on introductions, schedules and classroom procedures. With such limited time, we have to run like a well-oiled machine.
Our first day of classes I introduced myself, my likes, my hobbies, my children and my expectations. The students also filled out a "How I Learn" worksheet. This gives me a little incite as to who works better alone, with partners, with quite music, in complete silence, ect.

Of course, once business was taken care of, the 'Get to Know You' games and activities came next. We have some new faces in many of our classes and a couple new faces to Bailly in general. I feel it is extremely important to not only welcome them, but to make them feel a part of the Bailly Family. Some of the classes worked on a get to know you Bingo, where they needed to find classmates who matched the statement a square. An example would be, "who went swimming this summer?" My older math classes were given a directions sheet to follow. I informed them, not following classwork directions could be the difference between getting a problem right or wrong, no matter how much they understand the topic. It was quite funny to see their reactions when they realized the direction they skipped. Definitely ask them about it!!  
One of the last get to know you games we played was the Circle of US, with the goal of finding SIMILARITIES in our classmates. We sat in a circle, one person without a chair, standing. The person standing told us their name and a fact about them they believed to have in common with their classmates. Next, everyone who shared that fact had to get up and find another seat. The last person standing started it all over again with their name and a new fact. The goal was NOT to be the last person standing, but I found many were WANTING to be without a chair. They put their own twist to the game..... I expected nothing less. 😊

~Enjoy some pictures from our first week.~

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

Welcome to High Ability “17-”18!!

I hope you all had a wonderful summer sharpening your saw and are ready to start fresh.  I know I am!!  It's going to be another great school year!  Many families are returning and familiar with how we do things in High Ability.  I'm excited to welcome the new families to our program and fill you in on how everything works.  The first blog is always lengthy because there's so much to share.  Most will stay the same, but there are a few subtle changes.  Read for yourself!

Schedules and Possible Homework:

Our blog is where you can go weekly to get a peek into our classroom.  You'll read about all that's going on in our world and it'll help you bridge our two worlds together.  I've heard from parents that they often use it to prompt their child into opening up about their week.  I also do my best to rotate through pictures of the students "in action" in the classroom.  How fun to see them in their learning environment!

Occasionally there will be homework assigned.  It honestly tends to be more with the language arts/reading groups than with the math groups.  There will be reading homework in second and fourth grade for sure!  Our third grade unit will possibly be new, so I'm waiting to see what it has in store.  It is critical to their success in the classroom to stay up on the reading assignments!  A parent, last year, gave me the suggestion to send out an "email heads up" when there's homework in language arts/reading earlier rather than waiting for the notice in the blog at the end of the week.  Very proactive!  Since they are finished by Tuesday, it was helpful to finish their homework at home on Wednesday or even Thursday rather than waiting for the weekend.  It made total sense and I found that my students were much more successful when I did this.  Thanks!

I’m striving to put first things first and have our blog up and posted no later than Friday.  I'll inform you through an email to let you know when it's up!  You can access the blog from a link at the bottom of my emails OR through Bailly’s homepage under classrooms.

Our weekly schedule will be Monday/Tuesday for Reading/Language Arts and Wednesday/Thursday are for math.  If your child qualified for both, then I will see them all four days!  I do not see students on Fridays due to the fact that I meet with the HA Instructors from our four other elementary schools.  This is when we go over lesson plans for the upcoming week.

High ability will meet twice a week during each grades' differentiated instruction time.  It's a half hour set aside at Bailly per grade level for all students to receive more intensified instruction to meet their needs.  Although I keep an open line of communication between the classroom teachers, our curriculum will often be very different than what is going on in the classroom.  We teach from a separate curriculum that is geared towards the needs of gifted students.

Leader in Me

Liberty and Bailly Elementary are the two Duneland Elementary Schools who have chosen to go on this amazing journey known as The Leader in Me.  It's Franklin Covey's whole school transformation process that teaches 21st century leadership and life skills to students and creates a culture of student empowerment based on the idea that every child can be a leader. The 7 habits will always be on display in our classroom. I try to incorporate at least one habit into many of our lessons. I truly feel every child has the potential to be an amazing leader. Showing how the 7 habits fit into our everyday lives is a great foundation to support early leadership qualities.

High Ability LA/Reading Curriculum

We are using the High Ability Language Arts Curriculum Project which was developed by the Indiana Department of Education.  Each grade centers on 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.

High Ability Math Curriculum

For math, we have purchased additional high ability math units to use with each grade.  I'm sure many are looking forward to the giant Yeti or the egg crash test that they've heard about from previous students, but the units are different this year.  We are using the same series, just teaching a different unit.  For the younger grades, we'll be using Mentoring Young Mathematicians (M2).  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.

Earlier Start Date:

Great news!  Since most of the HA staff is returning, we will be able to start earlier than usual with students!!!!  There's a little bit of prep to get them started and on the same page, but not nearly the work needed to train new instructors.  We usually don't start until after Labor Day.  Whoooohoooo!!! We will be starting next Monday, August 28th for Language Arts and August 30th for Math. I sent home permission slips last week. I have received over half of them, THANK YOU!! If you have not sent your child’s permission slip in yet, please do so as soon as possible. Students can NOT participate until I have them.

A Little About Me:

 I was born and raised in Central Ohio, moving to Valparaiso about 10 years ago. Before you ask, yes I am a Buckeye! GO BUCKS!!! However, I am currently attending Grad School at Indiana University Northwest, so I guess you could say this Buckeye is also a Hoosier...SHHHHHH!!

I have 3 daughters who are also in the Duneland School Corporation. My oldest just got her driver's permit….. I’m not so sure how I feel about that. Along with my 3 daughters we also have a bulldog named Sota and a cat named Whiskers.

Many of you know I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to run!!! Last year I ran a 80 mile relay with 8 other girls, 2 marathons, a 50K and my first 50 MILER, among many other local races. This year I plan to run my usual relay, marathons and ultra-marathon, however I will be trying for a 100K (62 miles) in the spring. Hoping grad school will play nice and allow me to train!

Please email me with any comments or concerns. I am looking forward to another AMAZING year with your children!!

Jenny Boster

I hope all the Moms are having a great weekend!

Kindergarten LA

Knuffle Bunny: Tuesday we finished our level 4 questions. Level 3 and 4 questions require even more thinking, making answers different, but also correct. Level 4 questions are opinions. We discussed how everyone can have different opinions and still be correct. The students then drew an item they loved as much as Trixie loved Knuffle Bunny. They needed to list three reasons why they loved their item. We will finish these next week. 

Kindergarten MA

Games and Graphs: Tuesday we played a fun 10 more/10 less math game. Each student had a card, the card said “I am *a number*, who has 10 more (or ten less) than *a number*?” The kids did a great job and had a lot of fun! Wednesday we worked on graphing again. Everyone had a bar graph and a different colored pencil. The students needed to go around and ask their classmates what they wanted to learn more about, such as space, maps and places, animals…ect. 

This was a fun activity and helps me get to know my students and their interests.

1^st Grade LA

Persuasive Paragraph: Tuesday the student wrote their persuasive paragraphs “Should parents buy their first grader a cell phone?” I am currently reading them and they are great!! Wednesday we completed our currents lesson’s homework rather than sending it home. The students were given a sheet of punctuation marks one could type on a key board. They needed to put 3 together to create an emoticon and share what emotion it was. We had so much fun!! The creativity in the class was going strong, I was seeing flowers and all kinds of non-emotional pictures and that was great to see. 

The purpose of this ‘homework’, like all homework during the year, has been to introduce the next lesson. 

With next week being High Ability’s last week, we will not be getting to the punctuation lesson, but the homework seemed fun and allowed me to touch base on punctuations.

1^st Grade MA

Unit Assessment: This week we took our Unit Assessment test. This test was over all the lessons we covered this year. It was given at the beginning of the year as a Pre-Test. 

I will be grading the Post-Assessment Test and comparing it to the Pre-Assessment.  All of the Unit Tests will be going home next week.

2^nd Grade LA

Answer Me This:

HOMEWORK: READ UP TO CHAPTER 43. ANSWER CHAPTER 42 QUESTIONS ONLY. THERE ARE 5 OF THEM.  

Wednesday we read with a buddy, I want to make sure we finish our book before High Ability ends next week. Thursday we worked with partners and answered review questions over Book the Third. 

I like to let the students work with a partners. This seems to help if they ever have a misunderstanding during their reading. As I walk around I am able to see students share their thoughts and opinions more than if it were a class discussion.

2^nd Grade MA

Chapter Check-Up and MORE TESTS: Last week we finished chapter 2!! On Monday the students took the Chapter Check-Up. This test shows me how well the students understood what we did in class. THEN……these rock stars went right into their Unit Assessment test. This test is over all the lessons we cover throughout the year. It was given at the beginning of the year as a Pre-Test. We will finish next week and I will compare it to the Pre-Test. All Unit Tests will go home at the end of the year.  

SHOUT OUT TO THE THIRD GRADE BABY CHICKS!!! 

THEY ARE THE ABSOLUTE CUTEST!!

3^rd Grade LA

Tic-Tac-Toe: This week we are trying to finish our tic-tac-toe projects. I will have the students take home at least one of their projects to complete. Next Monday we will be putting the finishing touches on any projects before we share them with the class Tuesday.

HOMEWORK: Finish Tic-Tac-Toe project and bring back MONDAY. If there are pictures, they need to be colored in. Please use your best handwriting.

3^rd Grade MA

Unit Assessment:  This week we took our Unit Assessment test. This test was over all the lessons we covered this year. 

It was given at the beginning of the year as a Pre-Test. I will be grading the Post-Assessment Test and comparing it to the Pre-Assessment.  All of the Unit Tests will be going home next week.

4^th Grade LA

*4^th Grade field trip, no class Tuesday*

Mystery Homework: With a field trip to the fairgrounds, I only had the students on Monday. Everyone continued writing their mysteries. The mysteries MUST contain the 5 elements chosen during class and be at least a page and half hand written. Some of these elements are pretty crazy. I can’t wait to see how their creative minds incorporated them into their stories. We will be reading our mysteries to the class next Monday. If their story was not completed, they will need to do so before Monday. All but two students will be bringing them home.

4^th Grade MA

*4^th Grade field trip, no class Thursday*

Unit Assessment:  Wednesday we took our Unit Assessment test. This test was over all the lessons we covered this year. It was given at the beginning of the year as a Pre-Test. 

I will be grading the Post-Assessment Test and comparing it to the Pre-Assessment.  All of the Unit Tests will be going home next week.