All About Making Connections

Connections are everywhere. This week we touched on connections and seeing them all around you. This month is also all about self-confidence. The students will learn about self-confidence and how to be more confident in life. We want students to believe in themselves each day.

"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings."
Samuel Johnson

"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."- Edgar Allan Poe

"Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment."
Thomas Carlyle

"The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you."
William Jennings Bryan

Language Arts:

This week we took off and are running. The students are learning and trying to figure out the hamburger model for persuasive writing and how to use it to help to organize their thoughts when they are writing. It was a struggle for some, but most of them caught on right away. I let them know that we will be using this model to help us in our writing throughout the year. This year we want to help the students develop their writing skills to become confident in what they write about and how they get their thoughts out on paper. 

First Grade:

We continued work on our shields and making the patches. The students wrote about each patch and explained its meaning.  

 

They were really excited to get that completed so they could present their awesome shields to each other. 

                          

On Day Two they each got up and explained what each patch was and how it connected to them and their life. This was really fun and exciting. They loved to be in front of the class and in charge. I would ask questions and have them give more details as they explained each patch. This also gave them confidence to speak in front of others. They really shined and gave great speeches. I really enjoyed learning about how they think about connections and how they connect things to themselves in their lives every day. It was an excellent week full of fun and learning.  

Next week will continue to examine the connection between symbols and meanings as they decipher and encipher the secret messages using a Caesar Cipher Wheel. I look forward to teaching them about the wheel and finding the connections and meanings. I think the students will love using this to “figure out the puzzle” so to say. Make sure to ask to see what they think about it and how they like learning about the wheel.

Second Grade:

This week we were writing about connections. I reviewed the hamburger model for persuasive writing that we started last week. I wanted to make sure that they understand how to use it to organize their thoughts when they are writing about something new. They had to choose a generalization about connection and write about it. The model really helped them to see how to write it. I was really happy with how quickly they caught on to the model. It will make a big difference in their writing. I will have them use this when we have writing assignments to organize their ideas and thoughts. I also decided to start on the book we will be reading this year which is the The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. I thought since it was difficult to learn the model I would lighten the load with something they could listen to and follow along. I think this book will teach them so much about life and life skills I look forward to learning about this china rabbit and how he changes and grows.

Next week we will read a poem by Edar Allan Poe called Eldorado. We will watch a video on it and read the poem to learn about connections, ideas, feeling and words in the poem. I look forward to seeing how they feel about this poem and what they think it is about.

Third Grade:

This week the students had to use their knowledge about change to write about one of the five generalizations. I made sure to go over the hamburger model for persuasive writing with the students since they will be using it all year when writing. For most of them this model was new. I made sure to go over each section so they feel more comfortable using it. They then had to choose one of the five generalizations to argue about why they believe it to be true. I also made a poster for the class so they can always refer back to it throughout the year. Since this year is the year of change for their class, here are the five generalizations about change: 1.Change is everywhere. 2. Change occurs at different rates of time. 3. Change can be viewed as positive or negative. 4. Change can be caused naturally or by humans. 5. Change can be systematic or random. 

Once they finished their writing they got to look over the Myths we will be starting on next week. Each student will get to choose one they found interesting to present to the class. They all read over the Myths and made their choice. I sent the Myth home with them to read over and think about over the weekend so they can prepare for next week. Each student will get to retell their Myth to the class. They will get to be the story teller and give the other students a glimpse into what the Myth is about and its meaning. They will find the problem in the story and describe it to us and help us to understand the Myth. This will give the students an opportunity to show their confidence in being in front of the class and talking about something new. I look forward to seeing how they feel about the Myths they choose.

Fourth Grade:

This week we worked on the hamburger model for persuasive writing. I wanted to make sure the students felt comfortable using it in their writing. I went over it and how they can use it to help them to organize their thoughts and ideas to write a well-planned paper. Once we reviewed it they were asked to use one of the generalizations on change and fill in the model arguing that the idea is true and why. They didn’t have to write the paragraph on it just fill in the model on what they would say.

 I also made a poster for the class so they can always refer back to it throughout the year. Since this year is the year of change for their class, here are the five generalizations about change: 1.Change is everywhere. 2. Change occurs at different rates of time. 3. Change can be viewed as positive or negative. 4. Change can be caused naturally or by humans. 5. Change can be systematic or random. 

 

On Day Two I got the laptops for the students to write about the interview. The student got to write about the character they chose and the interview. They typed them up the on the laptops and we printed them out. Once they were done they could use the laptop to go onto the library website to browse. This was a very successful day for them. They loved using the laptops to write. I told them since they were so good with them we will use them as much as we can to complete our writing assignments. 

 Next week we will be using the laptops again but to find information on Greek and Latin Word Elements. The students will learn about where words come from and how we find the meanings of words. They will learn why we teach Greek and Latin roots and how important they are. I think this will be great for the students to get to find out about root words, prefixes, suffixes, and the languages that our words come from. I just hope they agree.

Math:

All the classes had the problem of the day to work on to help with their skills. We will also be working on math facts with the students to help improve their knowledge and speed.

First Grade:

We worked on the problem of the day and we started to work on fact families in addition. We also played a cool math game on the I-pad. Next week we will continue working more on fact families. 

Second Grade:

This week we finished up our first picture from our Minecraft addition picture. The kids loved figuring out what it was by solving the addition problems. See if you can see what it is? 

Next week we will work on three digit addition and keep working on multi-step problems since they love the word problems and working on the board. 

Third Grade:

I decided to shake things up by trying a multiplication time test to see if they could figure them out. After we completed it, I gave them a few ideas to speed up their times when we complete them again next week. I decided we needed a break from all the Minecraft and need to have some fun. 

  We played a game with multiplication. It is like war but with solving the facts first. Each student has a set of cards and draws two and multiplies them to get an answer. Whoever gets the correct answer first wins the round. They loved this because they got to play a fun game. I had them draw tiles to find a random person to play against. 

Then after they went through all their cards I had them switch people. I do believe it was a success and gave them a chance to work on their math facts and have some fun. 

 Then after they went through all their cards I had them switch people. I do believe it was a success and gave them a chance to work on their math facts and have some fun. 

Next week we will work more on math facts and play some more fun games to help them remember them. Maybe they will also get a rematch.

Fourth Grade:

Math was fast for them today. We only got to complete the problem of the day and we reviewed the shapes because some of them were confused on the sheets from last week. The problem of the day was really a brain teaser with the multi-step problem. We took most of the time to make sure everyone understood the problem. The shapes are something we will be using for the next few weeks when we start to create our cubes and then start creating complex models. I want them to understand the geometry behind it as we begin to learn how to make the cubes.

I also wanted to get into the Halloween spirit so I created a bat for each student and hung them up at the back of the class. 

I am glad that Fall is finally in the air and I hope the students will enjoy everything we have planned for them this month. I know that there will be a lot of work to complete but I think we will have a fun and frightening good month.

Have a Great Weekend!
Mrs. Lutterman