Welcome 2015 Happy New Year!

It’s a new year and it will be a year of excitement, wonder, and change. This month here at Brummitt we are working on our Life Skills.

This week it is perseverance. We want the students to learn these life skills so they can grow into awesome people. We want the students to have the determination to go after their goals and achieve them. 

We also learned about flexibility since we had two snow days. We want the students to know that flexibility is important to success.

Language Arts:

First Grade: 

On Monday we deciphered a message. I thought we would need to use a mirror to figure it out, but the kids surprised me and figured it out by turning to the other side of the paper and holding it up and looking through it to decipher it.

The message read: Can you read this magical message? We also took the letters P T O S and the students were supposed to see what words they could make from those letters. These are the ones we came up with: STOP / TOPS / POST / OPTS / POTS / SPOT. 

We discussed what the term anagram means and how we can use them. The definition: Anagram as a word or phrase made by rearranging the exact same letters of another word or phrase.

We took words to see what other words we could make with each. It was fun to see what they could come up with. It took us a few tries but they got the hang of it. They had a blast. 

We also had a few minutes each day to play story cubes where the students tell a story about the picture cubes they roll. Next week we will continue with anagrams with some fun activities.

Second Grade:

This week we continued with the lessons on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. On Monday we completed a worksheet about Edward and what adjectives describe him in the beginning of the book and once he is on his journey. We also wrote in the journal about Edward. 

Tuesday we read the book and discussed what we thought would happen next. Next week we will continue working and read the book.

Third Grade:

This week we watched a video on Fairy Tales from the BBC. It discussed the fairy tale genre, the origins, the characters and its enduring popularity.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIkgcObAVBE&feature=youtu.be

We discussed what goes into most fairy tales and why. I wanted to students to read about a less known fairy tale and compare it to a video of that fairy tale. The fairy tale I found is The Tinder Box. 

We watched the video then the students read the story. We discussed the differences between the original fairy tale and the video. The students found many differences.

 Next week we will work on grammar. The students will each have a fairy tale in which they will have to find all the verbs. The students will then create a list of every verb they find.

Fourth Grade:

This week we worked more on our biographies. They got to use the computers both days to gather information and pictures to use for their timelines. Some students started creating their timelines. I even had some students start and complete their Prezi presentations. I am having the students work at their own pace to find everything they need. The students are really excited to make their presentations. I also reviewed with them the requirements. 

 Please make sure to ask your children about who they have decided to complete their project on. They 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. They will work on the timeline in class and can complete parts at home if needed.  Here is the information on what they will create:

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

Step Five: Create a timeline of the famous person’s life. (Students are working on this now)

 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 completing this part)

Step Eight: Memorize your monologue and dress as your character. You are now ready for the People Who Made a Difference presentation.

 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: 

We missed both days this week, but next week we will work on a fun project called number detectives. We will be working with a starting number and follow each step to find out what the final answer (number) is after following all the directions. We will also be playing a fun number game I Have Who Has…..

Second Grade: 

We didn’t get to meet because of the snow days. Next week we will work more with money. We will complete a fun project called “Ordering Lunch”. Students will be ordering multiple items, adding them up, and then paying for them. This will help students with learning about how much something will cost and what change they will receive. It also lets each of them be the server making change.

Third Grade:                                                                                                       

This week we didn’t get to meet. Next week we will continue with Sweet Multiplication. We will also start to learn about greatest common factor. We will watch a Brain Pop video to start off and work on some fun activities.

Fourth Grade:

We didn’t get to meet because of the snow days. Next week we will start working on Problem Solving. I have a fun activity planned called Six Farmers. We will see how much the students like unraveling these challenging problems.

Have a Great Weekend!

Mrs. Lutterman