Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: April Showers Bring May Flowers!!

Well as April came to a close this week there were lots going on here at Brummitt. I-Step testing began for 3^rd and 4^th graders. The students are ready for warmer weather and I agree. Tonight the PTO will sponsor a movie night from 6-8.

In May we will be winding down all the class to have some much need fun in High Ability. I look forward to completing some awesome adventures with the students as we finish up the school year. The last week of classes for High Ability will be May 18^th. I am sad that soon we will be done. I have a few things planned for the students to show their creativity.

We are still working on our Life Skills and this week we are working on Organization
and Common Sense. The students are starting to understand how important it is to stay organized especially since so many of them share desks with other students in other grades.

They know that if they are organized it will help them succeed and spend less time looking for things. They are also using their common sense each day when they interact with each other to know what they need to do and how to do it.

Just a reminder: High Ability groups for next year are pretty much set except for second grade. If they are currently in for kindergarten, first or third grade then they will continue in the high ability program next year. Second grade tends to be a bit of a shakeup year, now that we have recent data due to CogAT.

No decisions have been made for second grade. The High Ability committee will wait for the rest of the data to be in before making the final decisions. I will let you know at the end of this school year as soon as I know.

Language Arts:

Kindergarten:

This week the students continued working on their Hamburger Models. The students loved reviewing the differences between fact and opinion. We discussed what they thought were great facts and awesome opinions as they designed and created their models.

They then wrote their first persuasive paragraph in the parts of the hamburger. Each student wrote why their toy is the most special thing in the world. This week the students continued working on their Hamburger Models. The students loved reviewing the differences between fact and opinion. We discussed what they thought were great facts and awesome opinions as they designed and created their models. They then wrote their first persuasive paragraph in the parts of the hamburger. Each student wrote why their toy is the most special thing in the world. They loved the idea of writing about something they already loved and thought of very cute reasons why we should agree.

On Tuesday they read their hamburgers aloud and we all discussed how well they did to convince us. I sent home some fun homework that I hope they all completed. They were supposed to talk about dinner with an adult and try to convince them to agree with their thought on the meal. They needed to also talk about one fact about the dinner too. I hope they enjoyed trying to persuade you. We also had a little time to read the next Knuffle Bunny book, Knuffle Bunny Free! The students saw it as we walked through the library last week and asked if we could read it. I checked it out and we really enjoyed talking about the story and the different connections the characters now have as they have gotten older.

Trixie is a great character and the students could really relate to her and what she decided to do at the end of the book. Next week we will continue to talk about connections and we will review the different types: intellectual, physical, emotional, and social.

We will also read Wemberly Worried. Students will discuss their feelings and what it is to worry. We will also review the different levels of questioning. Student will answer questions about the story. We will also read a play script based on the book and discuss the differences between the two.

First Grade:

This week we continued reading the book: Hieroglyphs by Joyce Milton. We read the sections on The Scribe’s
Life,
Papyrus, which gave us a look at how that type of paper was created,

Book of the Dead, Tomb Inscriptions and Carvings, and The End of Ancient Egypt, which taught us how the Egyptian people thought of their afterlife, how to create the tombs and why they put so many items in there with them.

The students also got to create two words in hieroglyphs that describe themselves. One student chose cheerful and nice while another chose smart and kind. I think they did an excellent job creating beautiful hieroglyphs.
Next week we will continue with hieroglyphs and everything Egypt. They will start to create their own sandstone hieroglyphs. It will be really exciting to see if I can figure it all out and make them work. We will also read a book called Seeker of Knowledge by James Rumford.

Second Grade:

This week we continued the post assessments for Language Arts on Monday, but on Tuesday we decided to take a break and work on something new. We started a new lesson on persuasive writing and ways people are persuaded each day in their lives. The best examples of how we are persuaded in our daily lives are commercials. It was very cool to see how students react to commercials once you examine all the little details that they never notice, but absorb which makes them like the product being sold. Here are a few examples of what we watched:

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/1702/

http://barbiecollectors.thelittleusedstore.com/page15.html

http://www.hasbro.com/nerf/en_US/

The Lego pirates have been rereleased and are on the shelves. Let’s just say there are a few more legomaniacs out there since they watched the videos. I explained how the music and graphics along with the sounds in the background make the Legos more appealing.

The camera angles used and close-ups really make the Legos look awesome. We discussed all the ways that we can be persuaded by advertising. We also went over the hamburger model. Next week we review the hamburger model and persuasive writing. Then we will write a paragraph so students can show what their opinion is and persuade the audience to think the same way.

Third Grade:

This week we had a few students that needed to finish up their post assessments because they were out so they completed their tests on Monday while the rest of the class got to complete an Alice in Wonderland crossword puzzle. All the students also got to write in their journals about the book and which part was their favorite.

On Tuesday the students wrote in their journals about how Alice in Wonderland inspired them. They also completed a plot map on the book. I wanted to make sure they completed it before we watch the movie so they will be able to compare the two.

Next week we will start the movie and all the fun activities I have planned. I look forward to seeing how the students react to differences between the movie and the book. It will be a great discussion.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued to read our mystery novel The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity: The Brixton Brothers.

The students answered questions and made predictions in their journals. Students continued to explore all the possibilities of what Steve will do next to solve the case. He still needs to find out who are the real bad guys and where is The Maguffin Quilt. The students made some great prediction and can’t wait until next week to see what happens next. They are all hoping Steve will break the code, and find Mr. E. Some of their predictions are spot on. Next week we will continue reading the story and we will also play an exciting Brixton Brothers Jeopardy Game. I think the students will love the game and playing on teams.

Math:

Kindergarten:

This week the students were introduced to word problems and ways to figure out and recognize the key words to learn how to solve the problems. The students learned the key words for addition and some for subtraction.

We then completed a worksheet on word problems. On Thursday two classes were out on their field trip and I only had part of the students so we worked more on math word problems completing the worksheet and then we played a few cool games on Sum Dog.

I sent home a letter with the students that were there on Thursday explaining Sum Dog and how the students each have their own log in and password. Our school code is liberty-elementary-school because that is the school in our district that has the main account.

We will use this site to learn some more math facts and skills as we cover new topics. The students can play as much as you want them too. They can also change their character to look differently than the program starts them with (face, clothes, hair, etc.)

The students earn coins and can buy cool things for their character. This is an exciting way for students to practice math and language arts while having fun.

First Grade:

We touched on a little of two digit addition with regrouping. I went through a few first, but didn’t need to help after that. She completed the worksheet in record time and did an excellent job. We had enough time that she got to log onto her Sum Dog account and create her character. On Thursday I got the I-Pads for us to use to play Sum Dog. We played some great math facts games and did an awesome job. Our school code is liberty-elementary-school because that is the school in our district that has the main account. We will use this site to learn some more math facts and skills as we cover new topics. The students can play as much as you want them to.

Second Grade:

This week we continued work on math patterns with Sudoku puzzles. The students let me know that they were ready for a change and I said we could try out the I-Pads and see how to work the new Sum Dog App. They loved it because they finally got to play as their own character and they could play against each other in the games.

They also loved the fact that they can be friends with each other and see when they are online. They had a blast. I sent home a letter with the students explaining Sum Dog and how the students each have their own log in and password. Our school code is liberty-elementary-school because that is the school in our district that has the main account. We will use this site to learn some more math facts.

The students can play as much as you want them too. They can also change their character to look differently than the program starts them with (face, clothes, hair, etc.) The students earn coins and can buy cool things for their character. This is an exciting way for students to practice math and language arts while having fun.

Third Grade:

This week I decided that they could use the IPads to try out the new Sum Dog app and see how it works. They were so excited to use it and see how everything works for their own accounts. They loved the app because they finally got to play as their own character and they could play against each other in the games.

Before, when we played it was as a class, we played against other students from other schools around the world. They also loved the fact that they can be friends with each other and see when they are online. They had a blast. I sent home a letter with the students explaining Sum Dog and how the students each have their own log in and password.

Our school code is liberty-elementary-school because that is the school in our district that has the main account. We will use this site to work more on Math facts. They will be able to use this site all summer if they want to practice working on Math. The students can play as much as you want them too.

They can also change their character to look differently than the program starts them with (face, clothes, hair, etc.) The students earn coins and can buy cool things for their character.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued more work on Order of Operations. This week went pretty well. The students are getting the hang of how to complete the problems. I had some students last week turn in problems for us to solve. I wrote three of the problems on the board on Wednesday and we solved them.

They did a great job figuring out where to start to solve the problem in the correct order. The students took the whole class time on Wednesday to solve the problems. They did so well I told them that they could use the IPads on Thursday to play the new Sum Dog App. They got really excited and wanted to figure out the site and games.

On Wednesday I sent home a letter with the students explaining Sum Dog and how the students each have their own log in and password. Our school code is liberty-elementary-school because that is the school in our district that has the main account. We will use this site to work more on Math facts. They will be able to use this site all summer if they want to practice working on Math. The students can play as much as you want them too.

They can also change their character to look differently than the program starts them with (face, clothes, hair, etc.) The students earn coins and can buy cool things for their character. The students came in on Thursday and were just too excited. Some of them went home the night before and got on the site and played and explored everything they could.

I am so happy they love the site and everything they can learn and practice. They all found their classmates and started to play. Next week we will continue on Order of Operations and Sum Dog.