Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: This is the season of generosity!!!

It’s November and fall is in full swing. We have lots going on this week here at Brummitt. We had picture retakes on Tuesday which looked like all the students were happy and smiling.

We have been busy this week in High Ability working on projects and talking about the month of November. We have also had a few birthdays this month.

Next week is Thanksgiving and we will not have school on November 26^th and 27^th. This gives all the students a chance to spend time with their families and celebrate this holiday.

This week we continued learning about Life Skills with Generosity. I think the month of November starts our holiday season and I want to teach the students how what we do can help and affect others.

I want the students to learn that their generosity can and will affect others all around them every day.

I want the students to think of others and how they can make a difference in their lives. I think we will find a project in the next month to show that we care about others all around us every day and others all around the world. I know that they show each other generosity all the time here at school.

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 …. He had butterflies in his stomach. I think every single student could relate to this one because they have all been nervous before. We talked about when we might feel that way and why. We also discussed how it is normal to get butterflies before important events. Some of the students shared time when they felt this way and they were all great examples. Here are a few: first day of school, before a big test, before a game, before a dance recital or a big performance. These were just a few of the many times they could feel nervous. I even let them know that as adults we might feel that way too before big events. They were all relieved to know that even adults get nervous.

No one turned in any pictures this week, but I am hoping next week they will. I posted the new picture in the class so they could stop by to see if they wanted to draw something. Hint: it has to do with bananas, but no monkeys allowed. I look forward to seeing if any students can come up with clever ideas to illustrate this one. I am still offering a prize to any student that turns in a creative illustration.

Language Arts

First Grade:

This week we continued to work on Pig Latin and decided to take the hamburger model song and sing it in Pig Latin. You will see the lyrics listed below so the kids can sing it to you.

The Hamburger Model Song

(sung to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”)

In Pig Latin

E-way an-cay rite-way o-tayersuade-say you-way

Ersuade-say you-way

E-way an-cay rite-way o-tayersuade-say you-way

y-bay using-way amburgers-hay

He-tay op-tay un-bay ells-tay you-way hat-way e-way hink-tay

Hat-way e-way hink-tay

He-tay op-tay un-bay ells-tay you-way hat-way e-way hink-tay

It-way tates-say our-way opinion-way

He-tayatties-pay ell-tay he-tayeasons-ray hy-way

easons-rayhy-way

e-wayinish-fay ith-way he-tayottom-bay un-bay

ottom-bay un-bay

e-wayinish-fay ith-way he-tayottom-bay un-bay

ith-way hat-way e-way aid-say efore-bay

E-way an-cay rite-way o-tayersuade-say you-way

Ersuade-say you-way

E-way an-cay rite-way o-tayersuade-say you-way

y-bay using-way amburgers-hay

The students also got to decipher a new secret message see if you can figure it out using the over under cipher.

UVCŸUVCŸUBBENLŸSBEŸGURŸ

NYCUNORG!

The students had a blast trying to figure out what it says. Well I will give you the answer: Hip hip hooray for the alphabet!! The students also got to discuss letters and how they can connect and they discussed different connections you make with letters. They took a word and used a clue to change that word into a new word by only changing one letter in the word.

They really took their time to make sure they understood how words can change by switching a letter. This will help them for next week, because we will be working on word ladders. At the end of class Tuesday We started to read a poem by Richard Wilbur called The Disappearing Alphabet. We discussed how different things would be if one letter was missing from the alphabet. Next week we will continue with this poem and go into more detail about it.

Second Grade:

This week we continued with our novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. The students were ready to talk about what they have read so far. They were very excited to read the next chapter too. We discussed the book and characters and what we all thought about Edward.

I had the students answer some guided questions about how they felt about the book and Edward so far. We read chapter four and on Tuesday we reread it so the students could complete their first reading analyzer on the book. They really like breaking down this chapter because so much happens to Abilene when she listens to the story her Grandmother tells her and it lets the readers really see what Edward is like. They all have very detailed feelings on Edward now and what he is like. The students will read the next two chapters at home and we will discuss them next week.

The students will also use the grammar from the book to learn and review the different parts of speech. There will be a few interesting activities. The students will also write more in their journals on their feelings and thoughts about the book.

Third Grade:

This week we continued with our noun search in our groups. The students worked as a team to create a chart of all the nouns they found in the myth How Fire Was Brought to the Indians.

They took each noun and put it into the chart depending on whether it was a person, place, thing, or idea. The students thought it was going to be sooo easy until they started working on it.

The myth was written a long time ago and they had trouble with what words meant and what part of speech it was. They really tried to make sure to think about each word before they decided where it belonged.

They took the whole class time on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday I had them all write in their journal something they were thankful for and why.

They all had very well thought out responses. Then they continued to work on their charts. I only had two groups finish early so I let them play story cubes. They had a great time telling stories with the dice. They even stayed with theme and told myths about what they rolled.

This gave the other groups the time they needed to finish up. Next week we will go over the nouns and see how everyone did. We will also start work on legends and tall tales. I look forward to seeing what they all think about these and if they can figure out the differences.

Fourth Grade:

This week we finished up the Harry Potter Latin words on Monday. We first dove into the huge project we will work on this year. We had a class discussion about biographies and what is required in them and the differences between autobiographies and biographies.

We also talked about what a reference needs to have for it to be used as a credible source. We will dig deeper into sources in the next few weeks as students start to research their subjects. Each student got to look through the books I found on picture biographies and they could look online to find who they wanted to research.

I wanted them to make sure their person has been through a big change at some point in their life and they have had to have made a difference somehow in the world. The students were really excited to discuss people they were interested in and why. On Tuesday the students gave me their choices and I approved them.

One student is still unsure of who they want to research so I gave them until next week to decide. Everyone else is ready to go. I gave them the sheets with the steps and requirements. I will post them on the blog each week so you can help them at home with steps they need to finish up on.

I will give the students time in class each week to complete each step, but they will have to read their full-length biography on their person on their own. They might also have to complete things at home if they can’t get them completed in class.

I am making them responsible for each step of the process and I will guide them and help them along the way, but it is their research and their project so they are ultimately the one in charge of how they do.

This will help them understand how time management plays into working on this project. If they work hard in class they may not have much to complete at home. If they don’t they will have much more to finish up at home. Some students also prefer to work on things in both places.

I want them to do what is best for them. I think the students are really excited to start working and researching and so am I. Next week we will continue to learn about the biography requirements and start research.

Math

First Grade:

This week I wanted to go into more detail about money and learning about making change. We started a new side packet on learning about coins and change. This gave the students a chance to review and give them more confidence since the other packet was harder than we expected. It was awesome because they all did such a great job going over the value of coins and how much each picture was worth and making money.

They also got to work on how many can you buy with this pile of change. They loved it because I brought in a small play money set I got from my mother and we used that with real pennies to figure out how much things were worth.

The hands on and seeing it in front of them helped out a lot. Next week we will only get to meet once because of Thanksgiving break so I have think it is time for some math fun with the I-Pads and Sumdog.com. The students are really excited to work on their math skills and have some fun playing the math games. Then the first week of December we will continue to work on the money packet and I will bring in some more change for them to work with. I know they are totally excited about the different activities I have planned.

Second Grade:

This week we worked in subtraction with regrouping using money. We watched a video to help us better understand regrouping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buyaqe_L5-Y

After we watched the video we were off and running with the first worksheet. That took the rest of Wednesday. On Thursday we reviewed it and discussed where we might have missed something before we started the next worksheet. We also took some time to do a few of the problems on the board to break things up.

We took our time on the problems to double check our work so we knew we had everything right on each problem. Next week we will take a break from the money and have some excellent math fun with the I-Pads and Summdog.com. I know I am excited to play some of the math games and have some fun.

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 Factors. Factors are numbers you can multiply together to get another number:

Example: 2 and 3 are factors of 6, because 2 × 3 = 6.
A number can have MANY factors!
Example: What are the factors of 12?
3 and 4 are factors of 12, because 3 × 4 = 12.
Also 2 × 6 = 12 so 2 and 6 are also factors of 12.
And 1 × 12 = 12 so 1 and 12 are factors of 12 as well.
So 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 are all factors of 12
And -1, -2, -3, -4, -6 and -12 also, because multiplying negatives makes a positive.

I thought this one will be a breeze for these students, but most of them again didn’t take the time to read the information before coming up with their answer. I had to remind 90% of them to go back and read the board and joke to help them understand what the problem is asking for. After a few minutes they figured it out.

I had to laugh though because I think they have finally figured out that I do give clues as they walk in about what the question is asking. After they all had the Ah-Ha moment they all got it right. We will see if they all remember next week to take the extra minute to read the board before they rush to answer. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Third Grade:

This week I decided we were ready to start the annual tradition in third grade of Sweet Multiplication. It is a fun way we will take time tests in the class.This year we will be working very hard on hitting our facts so everyone knows them. We will find fun games to help the students better understand and learn them.

We will do an awesome progression through their facts starting with x2's. As they pass their math fact tests, they will build an ice cream cone. Each part represents the fact that they've mastered. This week we tested their x2's and x3's. Everyone has earned their place mat and many have already earned their napkins! Once everyone has passed all the tests we will have a fun party to celebrate. I know they were really enthusiastic.

On Wednesday I let them color their scoops of ice cream and decorate their place mats. On Thursday we also skipped forward a few chapters in our math packets to start multiplication. So we can go back to balance it in a few weeks. Next week we will only get to meet one day because of the holiday so I have some math games planned with the I-Pads. I know they will love the chance to go and practice their math facts. Then the week after we will go back to the multiplication chapter and start where we left off.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued the chapter Don’t Let It Break. I have some students still working on the genius level and I hope they can finish it up at home and bring it back next week.

We also started the next chapter and some students are flying through it while others have to correct things because they aren’t reading the question close enough to figure out exactly what the question is asking.

I hope they remember to take their time to carefully read the question before solving it. Most of these problems are multi-step and I think they forget that. I had a lot of students miss some or most of the class Thursday because they were finishing their tests in class so they might have some level they need to finish before class next Wednesday to get caught up. If everyone brings in their sheets completed we will be able to use the I-Pads and take a break with some fun math facts games.