Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: Welcome February!!

We are happy to welcome February even if we did already have a snow day. I spent my day building a snow monkey named Mel with my children. The kids are excited here at Brummitt for all the activities this month. The author Aaron Reynolds will be visiting on February 10^th.

The Students will have their Valentine Parties on February 13^th. I know they look forward to all of fun things happening here at Brummitt this month.

We are still working on our Life Skills and this week we are working on Patience. Here in high ability I want the students to learn to be patient with others because everyone works at different paces and in different ways.

I have had the students start to look for others in class that are demonstrating one of our life skills and they can fill out a slip to reward them. I have a record basket that I collect the slips in and at the end of the month I will draw a few of them to win prizes. The students will also receive their slips at the end of the year to see how others have given them praise for being such great citizens, people, and students.

We will continue to work on Life Skills each month. I think the students like giving each other praise for being there for each other.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.-Joyce Meyer

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.- John Quincy Adams

The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.-Arnold H. Glasow

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. -Helen Keller

Language Arts:

First Grade:

This week we worked more on Lipograms. We reviewed 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.”)

Since we only met one day we decided to read the book E-Mergency. The kids loved the book. They took turns reading each part. The story is about all the letters of the alphabet and what happens when E falls down the stairs and gets hurt. No one in the world is allowed to use the letter anymore since she is injured.

The letter A asks O to fill in for her. It is pretty cute to see how the letters act throughout the book trying to get the word out that O is filling in for E. The kids had a blast trying to read the words with O’s instead of E’s.

We couldn’t stop laughing. Next week we will continue working on Lipograms with some fun activities. We will write about the book and then change what we write to include lipograms.

Second Grade:

This week we continued with the lessons on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Since we only had one day to meet we played another round of Jeopardy covering chapters 11 through 15. We had a blast challenging each other.

It was fun to review the parts of the book and it helped us remember exactly what happened in each chapter which will help next week when we read The Velveteen Rabbit and compare it to The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

We will complete a Venn Diagram to see how each book is similar and different. We will also be reading The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. We will read this book in addition to our regular lessons. We should have some great activities next week with some great reading.

Third Grade:

The students turned in their journals with their stories they completed on Victorian children. Since we only got to meet one day we will discuss their stories next week.

On Tuesday we continued to discuss the book Alice in Wonderland. The students got to answer a journal question before we started reading. They got to write in their journals and then we listened to the first chapter.

I think they are really excited to read this book and talk about everything that happens. Next week we will continue working on Alice in Wonderland. We will continue to read and answer journal questions. We will also have a class discussion on the book.

Fourth Grade:

This week the students got to work more on their biography projects. I think they are working really hard to get ready for their presentations. I am really excited to see their completed work.

Next week they will continue working on their projects and I will have the students that have their monologues ready start working on the presentation part with each other.

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.

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. (I think everyone is complete with this)

Step Five: Create a timeline of the famous person’s life. (we still have a few students finishing up)

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. (Most of the students tell me that they have been really thinking about it. )

Step Seven: Create a Power Point or Prezi that includes the person’s name, a photo, years ilived, and contributions. (There are many 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 board game call Hickory Dickory Clock which was so much fun. We played it both days a few times.

We also completed a few review clock worksheets. The worksheets were matching and creating the correct times on the clocks.

On Thursday after the game we completed more worksheets. This time we got to figure out the time then decide what we would be doing at that time of day.

It gave the students a chance to think about what happens during the day and in what order. Next week we will continue working on time and time lapse with a fun activity and some fun games.

Second Grade:

This week we moved from money to addition with regrouping with two really interesting worksheets. The student had to solve each problem then color it according to their answers. I think they really enjoyed the change of pace with working and coloring to solve the design.

The second day was more of a challenge since it was regrouping with three digits. Next week we will keep working on regrouping and see if we can challenge them with even harder problems.

Third Grade:

This week we continued with Sweet Multiplication. I finally got a picture of our student who completed her tests last week. I also had two other students complete the 12's. Since I have had so many students complete them so far we are going to celebrate. Everyone in class will get to enjoy the rewards.

They will get a surprise on Thursday next week. The students didn’t get to meet on Wednesday because of early dismissal. We did get to meet on Thursday and the students got to start the awesome math comic stories. The students got to read about Mathtropolis and the Super Math Team.

They are a group of super math heroes that need the students help to solve the problem to catch the villains. Each super hero has attributes to help with the math that is needed to solve the problem.

Since we were working on fractions and greatest common factor to reduce, they get to start with Greatest Common Hacker which is a real cool one because it has the character Jungle Jim.

He is one of the Math Team super heroes and he is an ape. The students got to work in groups to go through the problems and help them solve them to catch the villain.

Next week we will continue with this story since we only got part way through. I hope the students like what each adventure teaches them and helps them use their skills.

These two photos are from last week. The students wanted to have another Conga Dance Line again back to class. They are always having so much fun. They never stop laughing and smiling.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued working on Problem Solving with some super cool math comics. The students got to read about Mathtropolis and the Super Math Team. They are a group of super math heroes that need the students help to solve the problem to catch the villains. Each super hero has attributes to help with the math that is needed to solve the problem.

The students seem to really like getting to read the funny comics and solve all the problems. This week we started with Average Joe. The students worked really hard and worked together in small groups to solve all the problems.

Some kids completed it early and got to move on to the Greatest Common Hacker which is a review for them of greatest common factor.

They really wanted to work on this one because it has the character Jungle Jim. He is one of the Math Team super heroes and he is an ape which is really amazing I guess. They were super stoked to start working on this one.

Next week we will have a new comic story and see what and where the Super Heroes of the Math Team are and how we can help them solve the next complications in their never ending adventure.