Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: Goodbye January!!

Well we are into the last week of the January and things are going great. All this month here at Brummitt we are working on our Life Skills and this week we are working more on perseverance.

We want the students to understand how important it is to not give up on what they want and that with hard work they can achieve their goals. We also started CogAT testing this week so some classes were not able to meet. Everything will be back to normal next week. I will be able to meet with all the classes.

The students are also working really hard to be great students and citizens, by looking for others that need help and being there for them. We will continue to work on Life Skills each month to help the students become great people.

The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. -Lloyd Jones

Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all. -Sam Ewing

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. -Dale Carnegie

We strain hardest for things which are almost, but now quite within reach. -Frederick Faber

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. -Theodore Roosevelt

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be overcome. -Dr. Johnson

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. -Henry Ford

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. -Henry Ford

A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for. -William Shedd

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. -Francis Bacon

Language Arts:

First Grade:

This week we finished up the anagrams. The students used the letters they cut out to rearrange to the letters of silent, vowels, finger, and thicken and with the clues they figure out the new words were listen, wolves, fringe, and kitchen.They also got to write their own anagram puzzles for two words charm and speak to create new words.

Then the students had to create words with the same meaning without using any e’s in the words. They come up with some good answers: went = ran the = a fetch = grab water = liquid fell down = did drop broke = burst or split

Tuesday we took the worksheet to rewrite Jack and Jill without using any E’s in the nursery rhyme. They had a blast figuring it all out. Ask them to show you the new rhyme which doesn’t really rhyme anymore. We also got to complete an exciting new cipher. The Spy Pie Cipher can be found on pages 90 and 91 of the resource book, Lambert, D. and The Diagram Group. (2007) Super Little Giant Book of Secret Codes. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. The cipher said: The letter E is used most often when we write.

The students thought it was really cool and hard to figure out. This one really challenged them. We then discussed the term Lipogram. (As a piece of writing in which a particular letter (or letters) of the alphabet is deliberately left out. “Lipo” means “lacking” and “gramma” means “letter.”)

We ran out of time so we didn’t get to start the book E-Mergency; we will pick up with that first time next week. In the last few minutes we played story cubes and they loved telling a story.

Second Grade:

This week we continued with the lessons on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We completed a crossword puzzle on the book answering questions about all the characters and important facts from the book. We also decided that we will be reading The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. We started the first chapter. We will read this book in addition to our regular lessons. Next week we will be making text to text connections with The Velveteen Rabbit and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

We will use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two books. This will be quite an adventure and I look forward to helping them make the connections.

Third Grade:

This week we continued to discuss the book we will be reading Alice in Wonderland. The students continued writing their stories about the children they chose from the pictures. The students are writing a short story about a child from the Victorian times. I had a lot of questions about life during that time period and we did our best to figure life for the children back then. I played music from that time period since one student asked if they had Hip Hop back then.

I decided to let them asked as many questions as they wanted to make sure they knew more about life back then. We did find that baseball had been invented and Queen Victora’s favorite breed of dog was Dachshund.

It was very interesting to listen to them discuss what life might have been like. I hope they enjoy writing their stories and learning about that time period. Next week we will continue working on Alice in Wonderland. The students will be writing in their journals and we will begin reading the book.

Fourth Grade:

This week I didn’t get to meet with the fourth grade class because the kindergarten CogAT testing had started, but next week we will start back in with our biography projects. Please make sure you are talking to your children about their person and how they plan to complete things.

Make sure to ask your child if they need any help with their monologue since this is something very new for them. I will also try to find a video to help them see someone performing one. The students will also have to figure out a way to present the information to us. They can also dress up like their person. They can be as creative as they want. Here is the information on what they will create:

People Who Made a Difference Instructions

Step Four: Synthesize information to list at least ten of the most significant events in the person’s life. (a few students are still working on this)

Step Five: Create a timeline of the famous person’s life. (Most students are finished with this)

Step Six: Consider change in the person’s life and how he/she made a difference. Write a monologue including events, changes, and differences made in regard to his/her life. (This is something the students need to be thinking about at home to figure out what they want to say)

Step Seven: Create a Power Point or Prezi that includes the person’s name, a photo, years lived, and contributions. (There are some students already completed with this part; students can request the log in information if they want to work on it at home.)

Step Eight: Memorize your monologue and dress as your character. You are now ready for the People Who Made a Difference presentation. (The students will be able to practice with a partner in class as soon as we are finished writing)

Monologue Criteria

o Monologue describes events in the person’s life with detail and clarity.

o Monologue includes insight to changes in the person’s life.

o Monologue explores how the person made a difference.

o Speaker confidently presents monologue using good eye contact, posture, and voice.

o Speaker engages audience with appropriate words, facial expressions, and gestures.o The presentation is supported with appropriate costume and props.

Math:

First Grade:

This week we continued work on time. We played a clock game on the whiteboard/e-beam. It was so much fun to look at the clocks and figure out the time. I also introduced the concept of lapse time/ time passing. It was a little harder than we thought to understand. We worked on it both days which really helped. We also looked at matching clocks to the correct time, then we figured out what time it would be later.

Next week we will continue working on time with more fun activities.

Second Grade:

This week we worked more on money with a interesting board game called making cents.
The students had fun with the task cards and earning and saving money.

The second day I was one student down so we worked on multiplication to change things up. The student worked on a mine craft coloring the answers certain colors to see what the picture will be.

We also tried a time test and see how long it takes to complete the whole sheet. We can continue to work on lowering the times. Next week we will start with regrouping.

Third Grade:

This week we continued with Sweet Multiplication. Most students are almost finished with their tests which rocks. Once everyone finishes we will have a fun party to celebrate. They are doing a great job with their multiplication math facts. We have another student that has completed the challenge.

We forgot to take her picture so we will have to do that first thing next week. Both days this week we continued working on fractions with an excellent space game on reducing fractions. The students loved it and had a blast playing the game. It was called Spacey.

The student rolled the die and could only move after they drew a challenge card and answered the questions. Every student did very well. They all enjoyed the challenge this week.

Next week we will continue more with fractions and they will have word problems that go along with a super hero comic. The students will have to figure out the questions after reading the comic.

Fourth Grade:

This week we changed pace a little to complete some division design worksheets. I wanted the students to review some division before we move on with our problem solving.

I wanted to give them a fun activity in which they got to color and solve division problems with remainders and they also had to do some problem solving at the end of each sheet.

They loved coloring the designs and solving the problems to find the final design using a ruler and drawing the lines to the correct answers. Next week we will move back to problem solving with some hero comic book problem solving challenges.

The students will be able to read the comic strip about a super hero and then go through each question to solve the final problem. I hope this will be a huge hit with them.