First Fall Friday!!

 This week just flew by and we had so much going on here at Brummitt. With the first day of fall and summer ending… oh wait; it was still really hot out this week.

On September 30^th next week will be picture day here at Brummitt. So I hope all the students will look their best that day for their pictures. The school is also getting ready for the annual Halloween season with the Brummitt Bash. It will be October 16^th. 

I can’t wait to see all the cool things they have planned. I hope they have the pumpkin decorating contest. It was so festive last year to see the library full of all the creative designs our students came up with to enter into the competition.

 The Life Skills will be starting next week and I have everything ready for the students to give each other the life skill recognition slips. They will give other students slips when they see them doing awesome things that show a life skill. I will collect them each month and draw winners and they will get to pick from the prize box.

We will also read all the nice things they have done for their fellow students. It gives the students a chance to say thanks to each other every day.

I will also be starting “Idiom of the week.” I will talk to the students each week about them and they will get to make their own drawing of how they think they would be used. I look forward to seeing how they interpret each saying.

Language Arts

First Grade:

 This week we finished up the pre-assessments, yippee! They really were troopers and worked hard to get everything finished up. We had a little time at the end to play story cubes again which they loved. On Tuesday we started to work on connections. I had the students find the things that are connected in the cards. 

They had words that they matched up, and they had to explain why or how they are connected. It was a fun way to discuss connections and how important they can be. Next week we will continue working on connections. We will also start discussing signs and symbols. They students will get to start on an exciting project where they will create their own symbol patches to describe themselves. They will think of things that describe themselves and create and draw up the patch with symbols. We will then place them on a shield they will get to keep and take home.

Second Grade:

This week we finished up the pre-assessment and they worked really hard to do their best on them. I am proud that they worked so hard and took the time to really think about what the questions we were asking. On Tuesday we started working on homographs. These are words spelled the same, but with different meanings. 

They may not be pronounced the same. We watched a short video describing them and how we used them in language.  The students then completed the sheet where they matched the different definitions for each word. It was really challenging but they had a blast trying to figure it all out.

Third Grade:

On Monday this week we completed some more pre-assessments and the students worked on getting the next section done. They decided that next week we will complete the writing section. They are excited to write a persuasive paragraph. On Tuesday we worked on homographs. These are words spelled the same, but with different meanings.

They may not be pronounced the same. They had a sheet to complete where they figured out words and matched them to their meanings. It was a great chance for them to work in small groups to complete an activity together. I did my best to give them clues to figure out words when they were stumped. They had fun trying to figure out my wacky clues and other groups would watch me to see if it could help them with their sheet. 

Next week we will start to talk about the concept theme for the year: Change. Students will discuss what change means to them and how the world around us changes.

  

Fourth Grade:

This week the student kept plugging away on their pre-assessments. They are almost done and will start to finish things up soon.  On Tuesday we decided to take a break and have some fun with antonyms. They got to create antonym steps. We would start with a word and have an ending word and we would have to fill in the center to match up. 

Here is an example: easy to hard to soft to loud to end with quiet. It was fun to watch them try to figure out each step to get the correct word at the end. They were so funny trying to come up with words that will work. It was a really creative way to work in a group to brainstorm to find the answers. 

They were having fun when I would give clues because I would act out some of the words to try to help. Next week we will start to work on the first lesson which will cover the concept theme of the year which is all about change.  

Last year these students started to learn about change and this year they will get the chance to expand on what they learned to create more things and develop more ideas about change.

Math

First Grade:

 This week we had a fun adventure with Pete the Cat. We learned all about the ten frame. Pete taught us all about his groovy buttons. We watched Pete on his adventure with his favorite shirt and how his buttons would pop off. The kids then got to play a cool game using Pete’s ten frame and dice. 

 They got to roll dice and add to the ten frames. Once they fill it in they got to practice subtraction by rolling and taking away.  

 They had so much fun. They also completed the problem of the day. We worked together to complete the problem for second grade. They loved trying to complete a harder problem then what they thought they could. 

 On Thursday I checked out the I-Pads and after we completed the problem of the day they got to use them. I set up an assessment on math facts for them to complete and they got to earn extra coins. It was great to see how they did.

 They really are starting to know their math facts. We also had a Birthday that day which made the day special. Happy Birthday! Next week we will start working on real world problems and they will read the story and solve the problems.

 

Second Grade:

 This week it was all about multi-step story problems. We completed the fall story problems. Each problem had two or three step to find the answer. It was great to read and see what we needed to do to solve them. 

 Some questions covered family dinners, food purchased for Thanksgiving dinner, and if the farmer had animals to sell. It was a fun fabulous time. On Thursday we completed the problem of the day and once they completed it they could use the I-Pads to play sumdog.com. They had so much fun. Next week we will start working on real world problems and they will read the story and solve the problems.

Third Grade:

 This week we started with the problem of the day and they did a great job trying to finding out how to work on them. We completed fourth and fifth grade before we had a fire drill and went outside to enjoy a short break. Once we made it back inside it was time to go. On Thursday since most of my students are new, we decided to go over a new problem of the day which was a stumper for fifth grade. They loved the challenge. 

 It was fun to see them trying to figure out each step to the problem. Once they completed it, they got to work on the I-Pads to play sumdog.com. They really enjoyed earning their pets and getting to ask me questions about the different games and how to play them. 

I sent home the letter so they can play at home if you want them to. Next week we will start working on real world problems and they will read the story and solve the problems.

 

Fourth Grade:

This week Mr. Stile’s class was out on their overnight field trip so some students were missing. We completed a worksheet on place value and had some fun with the problem of the day. We had some time leftover on Wednesday to play a logic game called spider web. It was pretty cool and I even played a round with the girls. 

 

 

On Thursday we completed the problem of the day and even worked on the 6^th and 7^th grade problems. Once we were complete they got to use the I-Pads to play sumdog.com. They love to play the games and challenge themselves with the harder levels. Next week we will start on logic. They will complete logic puzzles. It will be a great way to tease our brains.

 

Have a great weekend.

Mrs. Lutterman