May Flowers Are In Bloom!!

May is underway. There was a lot going on here this week. I-Steps and other testing was finishing up. I also want to thank the Brummit PTO and Families for an excellent Staff Appreciation Week. They worked really hard to give us a great week where we all felt really loved. I really enjoy being a part of such a great school. Everything was so beautiful and nice. THANKS SO MUCH. 

The last week of classes for High Ability will be May 18^th. I am sad that soon it will be over. 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 Respect and Trustworthy. The students are getting really good at respecting each other and know how important it is to respect your teachers. 

 I want them to understand that they need to be respectful when they are in class so others know that when they are asked to complete something that we know they got it. It is also important when you are in other areas of the school and during your day.

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 learned more about connections and our feelings. We read a book called Wemberly Worried.  It let the students discuss feelings and what is like to worry. We discussed how being worried can make it hard to be happy. We also talked about their first day of school and how they made friends and met other students. 

 The students completed a worksheet on the four levels of questioning about the book. We also reviewed the four types of connections and discussed the different types: intellectual, physical, emotional, and social.

The students got some very interesting homework on Monday night to complete. They had to have someone at home fill out a sheet about a time when they were worried recently. We will talk about the responses next week. On Tuesday the students got to go to a soil presentation. So I met with them at different times. We reviewed the book and talked about other times we might be worried. We also got to play Sumdog.com on the IPad. 

 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. It covers math but there are also areas of language arts. Next week we will continue to talk about connections and we will review the different types: intellectual, physical, emotional, and social. 

 

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

 

First Grade:   

 This week we continued with Hieroglyphs. We talked about what life was like in Egypt and how hard it was to become a Scribe. We created two hieroglyphs with word describing each student. We deciphered a PigPen Cipher. The students loved it. They really enjoyed figuring out the message which read: 
Follow your heart, chase your dreams, and never give up!

 The students also had to fill out a worksheet with ten words to describe them. They had fun looking for words and thinking of things to use to describe them. On Tuesday I decided to try something totally out of the box and make our own sand stones. Well let’s just say we had lots and lots of messy fun. It was very hard to mix the dough and add the sand. They loved it though. You will see with all the pictures. Next week we finish up the sand stones. We will also talk more about Egypt.

 

 

 

Second Grade:

This week we continued to work on the hamburger model and writing a persuasive paragraph.  We reviewed the hamburger model and persuasive writing. Then we wrote a paragraph so the student could show what their opinion was and persuade the audience to think the same way. He also worked on looking for great words to use for his paragraph in the dictionary. Next week we will finish the last post assessments for Language Arts on Monday. Tuesday we will start a cool little project that we will show to parents on the blog.

 

Third Grade:

This week we started watching Alice in Wonderland. The students got to take notes on what they found was different from the book, once we finish the movie we will create a Venn Diagram to see what the differences are. On Tuesday we had our fun hat day for the movie and the students got to enjoy popcorn while we watched the movie. 

They are having a great time discussing the movie and singing along. Next week we will finish the movie and have more fun activities. 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 read the first day, but the second day we had some fun with disguises just like Steve did in the book when he had to investigate the Red Herring. The students had a blast trying out the mustaches. 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 The Maguffin Quilt is hidden. 

The students made some great predictions and I 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 all the students will be finishing up their books so we can play an exciting Brixton Brothers Jeopardy Game. I think the students will love the game and playing on teams.

 

 

 

 

 

Math:

Kindergarten:   

This week we continued word problems with an awesome fun activity on the electronic whiteboard. Students each got to solve a word problem on the board. The students also got to start a secret project for all to see soon. They are working hard on the project and can’t wait to release it. We also had some time to play a few cool games on Sum Dog. They loved working together to pile up the junk to make the best pile. 

 Last week I sent home a letter with the students that were present 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. I also had a student bring me some beautiful flowers to celebrate staff appreciation. Thanks so much.  Next week we will continue with Sumdog.com and Gynzy.com.

First Grade:   

This week was all about working on math facts and learning new ones. We decided to play Sumdog.com on the electronic whiteboard to work on our skills. I decided to add some multiplication and division to challenge her. It worked well to learn the 2’s and since it is part of doubles it was an easy transition. 

 I was so proud to see her race through the dance challenge and know the 2’s facts.  On Thursday we worked more on multiplication with more Sumdog games. Junk Pile is still our favorite game. We played it with all the new challenges and did an excellent job.  Next week we will work more on regrouping and Sum Dog.

 

Second Grade:

This week we continued with Sumdog.com on the IPads. The students loved getting to challenge each other. They also found out how to play against each other, but also they can play against robots which for some of the students are just totally awesome. They got to try a few new games since they each had their own accounts to play at the same time on the IPads.

 Last week 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.  I have found out that the students are really working hard to try some of the games at home. I think they really like the challenge. Next week we will continue with fun and cool math games on the IPads and we also have a secret project we are working on to present to you all.

Third Grade:

                                                                                 This week I decided that they could continue to use the IPads to keep working on their math facts with the Sum Dog App. They were so excited to use it again and show each other everything they have found on the site. They also became friends with each other and can send little cool gifts to each other.  

They are now able to play against just our classmates if they want. They have been discovering all kinds of cool new ways to use the site. We also spent some time working on a secret project that we will be presenting soon.

Next week we will continue working on the IPads and working on our math facts. I look forward to seeing what new and interesting stuff they have discovered on Sumdog.com.

Fourth Grade:

This week we got to use the IPads on both days to work on Sumdog.com. They love getting to find all the cool stuff they can do on the website. They can be friends with all their classmate and play against each other. On both days the students got to work on their secret projects for part of the day. 

They got to select teams and start on what they will be doing. I can’t wait to see what they create.  They are really excited to work on something that we will be posting on the blog. Next week we will continue working on math facts on the IPads and Sum Dog.

 

 

Have a Great Weekend!

Mrs. Lutterman