Wonderful Wednesday!!

 This week at Brummitt was Red Ribbon Week and the students did an excellent job! They were dressed in Red on Monday, wearing mustaches on Tuesday, and wearing lots of yellow on Wednesday. They are taking a stand against drugs. The theme was “Drugs are Despicable” and the minions were out in full force on Wednesday.

 The Brummitt Bash was a great success. The kids had so much fun talking about all the awesome things they did. They also told me that many kids dressed up in cool and creative costumes. I love hearing all their stories and updates on what happened. I also heard that the Dumbo pumpkin was one of the winners which was excellent because I thought it was an awesome pumpkin design.

 It is a short week because of Fall Break so I only got to meet with the Math students once. Fourth Grade Math was out on Wednesday because they had their study trip to the pumpkin patch. It looked like they had a lot of fun and adventures.

 This week we continued learning about the Life Skill of Respect. Since it was Red Ribbon week we wanted to tie that into respect of yourself. Students need to know that respecting yourself first is very important to be a good person and student. Mr. Cammarata talked about how without respecting ourselves it is hard to respect others. I think he has it right.

 We need to teach the students to love and respect themselves so they can give that to all the people around them. He also gave us a great quote this week from Alfred A. Montapert, 

“Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.” It is a very inspiring quote.

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 …. It’s raining cats and dogs. This one I knew the student would love because of the picture and it being so funny. They all knew this one but I wanted them to think how it would look and who could have thought of this one.

 Did a man see a cat falling from the sky one day when it was raining and say it? I bet some cat was hiding in a tree and jumped down when it got too wet. They had so many ideas of how someone might come up with that one. No art work yet but I am still hoping that some student will be brave enough to try.

Hint for next week- it can involve many knots. …. 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 continued to work on connections. We also continued to work on how to use the Caesar Cipher to decipher and encipher messages. The students really love using the cipher to figure out what the secret messages are trying to tell us. They also learned how to create the secret message for words. We used this to help us with connections and how to connect things.

 Students got to choose one of the words they deciphered and write a sentence about the connection they made with the word. Then they drew a picture and labeled the connections. I think they really like the opportunity to make a connection just using a word and creating something so personal. Next week we will have some spooky Halloween fun reading a book and making connections.

Second Grade:

 This week we continued to talk about connections and we started to work on our first Poem of the year, Eldorado by Edgar Allen Poe. I wanted the students to listen to the poem when I read it to see how it made them feel and how they interpreted the knight. They got to draw what they felt the knight and the shadow looked like on Monday.

 I also introduced the reading analyzer we will be using throughout the year and had them fill out some of the sections with their feelings and ideas. On Tuesday I showed them the video of the poem and also showed them paintings and illustrations of the poem. They were all really surprised at what they looked like. I loved their reactions. They were shocked at how the knight was so tired and hurt by the end of the poem and how he looked. Next week we will continue to work on poems with a few Halloween poems and we will use the reading analyzer to write out our feelings and interpretation of them.

Third Grade:

 This week we started to learn about Myths. The students seemed really excited to think and learn about what characters they already know that are in myths. They all realized Thor was one and then they started asking all kinds of questions that made the discussion very interesting and educational. We went over the definition and what it means to them.

  Myth- a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature. 

They really were excited to see what types of myths we were going to read in class. I gave them each packet with several myths and they got to decide which one they wanted to read with a small group. Once I had them all divided up they got to work. They read in their groups and discussed what the myths were about. They also had to fill out a retelling story map for their myth.

 I think this was a great chance for them to work with new people and see how others interpret the myths. This took both days since some of our myths were quite long and others were short. For the groups that finished early they took an extra short myth and read it and discussed it and completed an additional story map. Next week we will continue to work on Myths and have some Halloween fun.

Fourth Grade:

 This week was all about getting caught up on everything. On Monday students got a chance to working on their change paragraphs and they got to complete their interview writing. They all interviewed someone in their lives that had gone through a change and they discussed with them how the change affected their life.

  Each student then had to write a summary about the interview and present to the class. I had a few students out sick so we didn’t get to hear everyone’s interview. Please make sure they are ready with them next week if they were out. We ran out of time and didn’t get to start on root words and where words come from. We will also start to work on the roots of words and where they come from in language next week since we were short on time on Tuesday.

 

Math

First Grade:

This week we  continued to work on the chapter How Much Does it Cost?, since we only had one day because of fall break I wanted to teach the students more about money to help them as we progress through each chapter. I also want to teach them about problem solving and what tools they need to use when solving each problem. I know so much of this is new for them and I want them to feel comfortable and confident as we progress through each chapter.

 I will slow down each week when I see they need extra time and help understanding the material. I know some material will be easy for them and some will be completely new to them. I will judge once we read the story on what else they will need to review or learn each time. I think they will love it as they learn the skills and tools they need. Next week we will take a break to have some Halloween fun with Math. They will complete double digit addition and play some spooky Halloween Math games.

Second Grade:

 This week we continued to work on How Much Does it Cost? We had only one day to meet so we worked on the next level to see how far we could go. We made sure to slow things down and go over each step we needed in order to solve the problem. It worked really well because it gave us a chance to review parts of money and problem solving. Next week we will take a break from our packets to have some Halloween fun. We will solve some cool fall based problems and play some logic math Halloween games.

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 Decimal.

A decimal number, or just decimal, refers to any number written in decimal notation, although it is more commonly used to refer to numbers that have a fractional part separated from the integer part with a decimal separator. 

I only got to cover this with the third grade since fourth was out but they did a great job and had it figured out fairly fast. Next week it will be denominator.

Third Grade:

 This week we continued to work on the chapter How Much Does it Cost? The students got to work on level 3 and genius level. We went over each question to make sure they understood how to solve it. I went over everything in great detail because I want the students to understand the process of how to solve the problems.

 This will help them when we move on through each section of the packets. They need to learn how they solve the problem and not just what the answers are. They are doing great with learning each step and knowing what tools they need to solve the problems. I am so proud of how hard they work and how much fun we have while learning. Next week we will take a break from the packets and have some Halloween fun with Math. They will get to use their math skills to play Halloween Math games and have some spooky fun.

Fourth Grade:

This week we didn’t get to meet because they were on their study trip to the pumpkin patch. I know they had fun because I saw them once they returned, and they looked so happy to be out and enjoying the fall weather. 

Next week we will have some Halloween fun with math.

Have a fantastic fall break.

Mrs. Lutterman