Fantastic Friday!!!

 Wow the weather was great this week. This week at Brummitt was the book fair which was very cool. I saw so many interesting and fabulous books that I want to read now. I hope that the students found lots of books they liked. 

There was also parent, teacher, student conferences which gave the parents a chance to meet with their child’s teacher one on one. There is no school on Friday November 6^th and that is very exciting to have a three day weekend to spend with the family. 

 I know I will be taking my kids out to enjoy the last of the warm weather before the cold comes back to stay. Since there was early dismissal both Wednesday and Thursday my third grade class was cut a little short both days but we will catch right back up next week.

 This week we continued learning about Life Skills with Pride which can relate to the students having their conferences this week. I want them to be proud of all the hard work they have done so far this school year.

  I want them to know that they need to have pride in their work and everything they do each and every day to be the best student and person they can be. They need to understand that the internal feeling can light them up and make them feel fulfilled in everything they accomplish.

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 …. I’m all ears. I am so very happy to announce that a student has turned in the first drawing/ painting of an idiom. Emily took the time at home to come up with a clever painting representing this idiom. She got to pick a prize out of the treasure chest. 

 I hope others will be so excited that they will want to make some too next week. We will have to see. Hint for next week- it involves putting something on your head.. …. 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 still offer a prize to the student who turns one in first and second.

Language Arts

First Grade:

 On Monday we started a new lesson, but first we had to decipher a secret message using the telephone key pad and arrows. It was fun to figure out each letter. The message read: We can speak a secret language! This helped lead into the lesson about a cool secret language called Pig Latin. It is a language game that was used by children on playgrounds for many years as a way to have fun and be silly.

 We went over the sheet to learn how to write it and speak it. It was so exciting to try to figure out the ways we could change words and even names. We worked on deciphering words to Pig Latin and other words from Pig Latin. It was really awesome to try to speak the language once we had learned it. 

 I played a song for them about Pig Latin and we tried to sing along, but it was really fast at the end and there was more laughing than singing. Next week we will continue to work on Pig Latin and we will also tie it into our theme on connections.

Second Grade:

 On Monday we continued to work on Poems with the silly and interesting excerpt from Alice in Wonderland called the Walrus and the Carpenter. We read the poem a few times and had a discussion on what it meant to each of us. They also took time to fill in each section of their reading analyzers. This poem was very interesting to see how they felt about it and if they understood what happened at the end to the baby oysters. On Tuesday I let them watch the part from the film where they show the poem and they were quite surprised at the end and how they missed it in the writing. 

 Once they saw it in the film they all had different feelings about the poem and its meaning to them. I explained that the book was released in 1865 and that also gave them much to think about. They all decided the meaning behind the poem was to teach young children a lesson not to leave with strangers (or a walrus). They worked well as a team thinking and discussing the poem. I also got a chance to talk about the novel we will be starting next week. They are all really excited to start the book and to make their predictions about what might happen. We will answer questions and make predictions next week.

Third Grade:

 This week was all about making presentations and retelling a myth. The students were really excited and really nervous all at the same time. They did a great job though. Each group went up in front of the class and talked about the myth they read and where it came from. 

 They also discussed the storyline and each part from beginning to end. The students also told us why they felt the myth was important to the people and history of that time period. They all did an awesome job. I think they took the time to think about the meanings behind the myth and its origin.

 I look forward in seeing how they feel about each genre of literature we work on this year. Some they will love and others might not be their cup of tea but all are important in many ways. Next week we will work on grammar using one of the myths. I look forward to seeing how much they know and what we will need to learn.

Fourth Grade:

This week was about learning Greek and Latin word roots. We worked on "Latin and Greek Word Elements" sheets. The students learned about where words come from and how we find the meanings of words. They learned why we teach Greek and Latin roots and how important they are. 

I think this was an excellent way for the students to get to find out about root words, prefixes, suffixes, and the languages.  They found the definitions of a prefix, suffix and the root words both in Latin and Greek. We used the website Fact Monster http://www.factmonster
.com/ipka/A0907017.html to explore the origins of the English language.  Next week we will continue working on Latin and Greek roots words with an awesome Harry Potter spells sheet where the students will figure out the root words in each spell.  We will also start to discuss biographies.

Math

First Grade:

 On Wednesday we finished up working on our current chapter about money called How Much Does it Cost? Students are starting to understand more about money and solving problems. We read through the next chapter called How Much Change Will I Get? This was very interesting, because it makes the students really use their thinking caps to figure out each answer. 

Some students really understood each question on level 1 and could do the math in their heads while others still need to write everything down. I decided on Thursday that we needed more review on money before we could move on. Next week I will have students complete some problems on the board to help build their confidence in money and adding and subtracting with it. I think they will love this activity because they can go to the board and figure how much it is worth. Then we will go back to the chapter to complete the next level. 

Second Grade:

This week we got back to work on our chapter about money. We worked on the next level and decided to start the next chapter packet called How Much Change Will I Get? This chapter was really interesting because the student would need to know currency and what everything is worth. Well we rocked it, by using the skills we learned last year to apply them to these word problems. It was good to see how hard work pays off. We did have to review a few ways to make change easier, but I would call it a success. We made it through two levels and will work on level three next week. We will also do a little review with the whiteboard and see how fast we can add different currency.

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 Dividend. Dividend a number to be divided by another number.

 For most of the students in both grades they needed to go back and read the definition before they got the correct answer. So this one was a little trickier than they thought it was. I like that they have to really go back and reread and think before they come up with an answer. I think this week taught them to really read carefully before they just answer. I look forward to seeing how many of them read the definition next week and take their time to make sure they have the correct answer.

Third Grade:

 This week class was shorter because of early dismissal, but I was really glad we got to meet. We decided to move on to the next chapter packet about money called How Much Change Will I Get? We read the introduction together and made a fun game out of answering level one and part of level two on Wednesday. 

 Thursday they all got right to work on the remaining questions on level two and started on level three and some even got to start the genius level. Next week we will continue to work on money and even get a chance to play a fun game if we complete everything.

Fourth Grade:

 Since we completed the logic puzzles two weeks ago we are ready to start on the chapter packets that the other grades have been working on. I read through the introduction with the students and explained how we will work on them and they got to work. Some worked together and others wanted to conquer the levels alone. 

 I had one student get all of chapter one complete and was ready for chapter two on Thursday. All the students had a great time reading and working on each problem and seeing who could get done first. Next week we will move on to chapter two of the packets and even chapter three if we have some that can rock through the genius level.

Have a great weekend!!

Mrs. Lutterman