Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: Fall the Time of Transition and Transformation

Brummitt is having an exciting week. We are getting ready for Friday and the Brummitt Bash. It looks like everyone is getting prepared to have a spooky, creepy, ghoulish good time. I see lots of students have entered their creative and inspiring pumpkin creations for the annual pumpkin contest.

I had to take some pictures in case you miss some of them during the bash. There are some great ideas and I am glad I don’t have to judge because there are so many that rock I don’t know which one I would choose.

Good Luck to all our contestants because they all did such a great job. I also added some pictures at the bottom of my blog because I couldn’t fit them all here at the top.

Next week is our Annual Red Ribbon Week, and the theme is “Drugs and Despicable”.

Monday the 19^th is I Pledge to be Drug Free - Wear Red!

Tuesday the 20^th is I mustache you not to do drugs! - Wear a Mustache!

Wednesday the 21^st is Drugs are Despicable! - Wear Yellow!

I look forward to having a great short week with the students since we will be off Thursday and Friday for Fall Break.

This week we continued learning about the Life Skill of Respect. It’s nice to see so many students here at Brummitt taking the ideas we learn about life skills and showing that they believe and follow them each day.

I know that they will all be showing each other the respect they want to get in return.

Mr. Cammarata said it best this week, “You have to give it to get it.” I think that says it all. The students know that they need to show all teachers respect in order to make the school the best learning environment and a place they want to be every day.

Respect is the first step in our journey of Life Skills that all students need to learn in order to become successful people. This week I also want them to start to look for different life skills in those around them and to recognize it when they see it.

I also reminded students to fill out forms giving a life skills reward when they saw them showing a life skill. I have them turn them in and at the end of each month I draw names of students that have shown they know their life skills.

Idiom of the Week

An Idiom is an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. This week’s was …. They’re in hot water. This one I felt was really important for the students to learn since some of them might be in trouble at some point in the year. Still no one has submitted a drawing but I am hoping soon the kids will feel confident enough to submit something. I know that the kids found this one funny, but were hesitant because they know that everyone gets in hot water at some point. They all had a good laugh about the picture thinking of what would happen if we really put kids in hot water when they get in trouble. It was great the way they discussed it. Next week it will be a really funny one and something everyone has heard when it rains…. I have the picture posted already so the students can see it in case they want to draw something or print out something to turn in. I will give a prize to the student who turns one in first.

Language Arts

First Grade:

This week we learned more about connections and how to make them. The students discussed the connections they found at home and how they related to the lists we created at school. Then the students completed their presentation on their shields and they did a great job. They got up and talked about what they created and why. It was fun to hear the reasons for each patch and why it was so important to them.

I let them take them home and they were so excited to show everyone at home. I also gave them a sheet with how we rated their presentations and the overall project. The next day we got to create and work on an exciting secret wheel.

We made our very own Caesar Cipher. What is a Caesar Cipher? It is a set of two circles with the alphabet on each and you use it to encipher and decipher messages. It is similar to one that Caesar used in Rome, to receive and send secret messages to his commanders during battle.

(Here is the Wikipedia link about the Caesar Cipher if you are interested in its history:
http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Caesar_cipher

We used our Caesar Cipher to decipher a special message. When deciphered our message read, “Letters are symbols that stand for spoken sounds.” We will be using the wheel to help us decipher a message each week throughout the year.

They are so excited to use the cipher to figure out cool messages each week. I also let them know that we will be learning about all kinds of secret languages throughout the year. Next week we will continue to work on the cipher and our next project with connections.

Second Grade:

This week we continued to work on connections and on our hamburger models. I reviewed with them how they use the model to help them in their writing and they continued to complete their writing activity on connections. I know writing is hard at first for students so I am trying to make sure this year we work on those skills so they can be more confident in their writing and how they express it.

They are really working hard to find ways to write about connections and to make sure that each sentence makes sense to get their ideas and felling across to the reader. Next week we will continue to complete the connections writing and we will start on a poem that was writing by Edgar Allen Poe. I look forward to seeing how they feel about it and how they interpret it.

Third Grade:

This week we continued to work on change. We reviewed the hamburger model so students knew how to use it to help in their writing. We also discussed change again and talked about the five generalizations. Each student chose the one they wanted to write about and got started. I reviewed their hamburger models with them before they started their paragraphs and they all did well understanding how to use the model to organize their thoughts before they started to write their assignment.

On Tuesday the students worked really hard writing and asking questions to make sure they understood what they need to write to complete the assignment and they each came to me and I looked it over and we discussed what they did awesome on and what they could improve on. I think they were exhausted after that but they all put in a 110% effort which made me very proud. The students that got done first had a few minutes to color their Halloween Bats for the classroom and they were really excited to have something to put up.

Next week we will dive into our first genre in literature that we will be covering this year: Myths. I look forward to seeing what the students already know about myths and what they think of them after they start reading some. It will be a fascinating and mesmerizing experience.

Fourth Grade:

This week was different because two of the fourth grade classes were on their overnight trip to camp. They looked like they had a blast and were really tired when they got back on Wednesday. I only got to meet with the two students that had already gone on their trip so we worked on writing and using the hamburger model. They had fun being the only two in the room. We also got to discuss the interview assignment and they both worked on their paragraphs for next week.

We will need to pick up on the interviews next week so I hope all the students got to interview someone close to them about a time when they changed in their lives. I am hoping they will be able to write about that person and how the change impacted their life. We will go over it all next week so please make sure they have their interviews complete. We will also start to work on the roots of words and where they come from in language.

Math

First Grade:

This week we slowed things down with the next chapter because we needed to learn and review parts of money. The chapter How Much Does it Cost? was really fun, but it raised to a higher level in thinking and some students hadn’t learned a lot about money yet so

I wanted to go back and review some things as we went through each problem. They all worked really hard this week to learn and to think about each question and what was needed to solve for the answer.

There were multiple steps for some questions to get to the final answer and we worked through each part as a team to figure out how to get to the end. They were rock stars and we made sure to review the main points we learned on the first day on Thursday so they would put it to memory and be ready to use it again.

We will pick up with this same chapter next week and finish up the level two problems and I will see how much they remember from this week. On Thursday I had them use the IPads to complete an assessment on sumdog.com to see what they have learned so far.

Some were really excited to try it on the IPad and earned some coins at the end. A few were hesitant to try it and might have to try it again next week. This gives me a chance to see if they are learning what we are covering in class and to give them a fun way to do it. Most of them loved the chance to earn coins for their pet.

Second Grade:

This week we worked on the next chapter in our packet which is all about money called How Much Does it Cost?. This chapter was harder than I first expected but we made sure to slow down and start with level one. We worked through level one and started level two on Thursday. Since we worked so hard and made sure to take the time to review money.

I wanted to give them a break to spend the last ten minutes to work on the I-Pad. It was so much fun working on these new problem and having some fun on Sumdog.com Next week we slow down and continue on the same chapter. I want to make sure to review the steps and tools needed to solve these money problems. We will only get to meet one day since we have fall break.

Third and Fourth Grade: Math Vocabulary Comic Relief

This year I am starting something new we will be doing each week on Wednesdays. I have the Math Vocabulary Comic Relief board. Each week when the students come in on Wednesday they will go to look at the board and grab their problem. They will have five minutes to read and solve it.

This week was Associative Property- The associative property states that you can add or multiply regardless of how the numbers are grouped. By 'grouped' we mean 'how you use parenthesis'. In other words, if you are adding or multiplying it does not matter where you put the parenthesis.

They did a great job coming straight into class getting the sheet and figuring out the problem. Both grades were right on it. I had to remind a few after they came up with their first answer to read the definition again and once they did they realized their answer was off. They went right over and figured out their new answer.

It was great to see them so excited to try something new. Plus I love the comic part of it because it can always make me laugh. Next week is Decimal. I will totally have to take a picture of the joke part because it is pretty funny. Stay tuned…..

Third Grade:

This week we continued on to the next chapter called How Much Does it Cost? This was so much fun. Well at least I had fun because the third graders already know a lot about money and I knew we could blow through the first and second level.

We had a great time because someone would read the question and everyone would take a minute or two to figure out the answer and on the first few it was fast.

I would walk around as they raised their hands and let them know if they were right or if they had to rework that problem to find the right answer. They had fun trying to see who could find the answer first. This also gave me a chance to see how they work things out on their own. They did a great job figuring them out.

Then I would go back over the question to see how they figured it out. Some would work it out one way while others used different ways. It was nice to see that each student works differently. We made it through level one and part of level two.

Since we have two weeks to complete it we worked on level two and started level three on Thursday. I also gave them a little time on Thursday to use the IPads since they worked so hard on everything. I had a few students that wanted to create bats for the classroom.

Next week we will only meet once because of Fall Break so we will finish up this chapter with the rest of level 3 and see if we can battle the genius level. I think we all look forward to the challenge.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued working on logic. All I can say is wow these students really got it now. They all started and finished the next puzzle in one day. I was totally impressed with how they worked like a machine to figure out “After School Activities.” I am so proud of how they completed it.

They each came up to me to see how they did and they asked the best questions as they were working on it. I asked them since they got it done if they wanted to have some fun on Thursday and they were all ready for a break from all the logic.

All the students created fun Halloween Bats and then got to work on the IPads. They had so much fun getting to spend time talking about everything they have been working on and everything going on around the school.

Next week we will continue with some logic and see how quickly they can complete it. I am just so glad they got the hang of logic now and like it so much.