This week here at Brummitt we have so many exciting things happening. First it was the 100th day of school. Kindergarten celebrated with some awesome displays of a hundred of something. I loved them all. The students did a great job creating and designing. They were all on display this week in the media center. Look at the bottom of this week’s blog to see photos of all I could find. The students had a great week to go outside to enjoy the weather since it was warm for this time of year.
Next week on February 2 is Groundhog Day and I can’t wait to see what he predicts for the weather ahead. Let’s hope that we don’t have six more weeks of winter, but who knows?
I heard from all the students that movie night was a blast. I am glad that they all had so much fun. I wanted to go this time, but lost my voice last Friday and didn’t want to get anyone else sick. I hope I can make the next one. Remember that every Friday is Spirit Day. So make sure you wear your Brummitt and Trojans gear.
Next week I will start the CogAT testing for all the Kindergarten classes. I am hoping I will not miss any of my regular classes, but it might change the regular schedule a few times. The testing will take most of February. I hope that technology will be on my side this year and everything will go smoothly. Then in March I will be CogAT testing second grade too.
This week we continued learning about our Life Skills with initiative. I want to instill this in all my students because they need that initiative and drive to do well in school and life.
I know that they are capable of great things if they want it. I think sometimes high ability students lose that initiative because most things in their regular classes come easy to them so they don’t take the initiative to push themselves harder to find out and learn more.
They need to discover beyond what is taught in class to look for what is not seen to go that extra mile to learn as much as they can about each topic. Without that initiative to want more and to discover more they won’t keep growing and expanding their world.
I want them to take the initiative to find more out of each day. We talked about how they might be able to do that in little ways to start, but we all know that we have a long way to go.
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 …. Hold your horses. The picture this week is pretty cute. They kids really liked the little girl holding her toy horses. I ask them when they might hear this and they called me out on it and said in my class. I think I say it once a week when they students get really excited about something before I finish with the directions. I will say to hold your horses and I guess it ages me LOL. I had no one submit a picture. I will have to see if I offer a prize, who will jump to submit something. I am hoping maybe next week. Here is the hint: Next week be ready to get those toe shoes out and dance.
Language Arts
First Grade:
Well this week the students continued with their hamburger models and also typed up their paragraphs with my help. They did a great job figuring out why they felt parents shouldn’t buy first graders a cell phone. I think they took the time to really think why it might be a bad idea. I was very shocked they chose no. I thought for sure that they would want a cell phone, but they felt it was just too much.
The reasons were really valid. They felt it was too much responsibility to have one and take care of it. They also felt the technology might be too hard to use. They also felt that they are just too young to use them. I am really proud of their efforts this week. We also started to talk about Emoticons and where people might use them. Next week the students will create their own emotions using punctuation and label what emotion it represents.
Second Grade:
This week we continued with our novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Monday we answered questions in our journals about the story and some about metaphor in the poem we read and about the book.
On Tuesday the students worked on an activity on metaphors in several different works. They took the line and translated what they thought the quote was all about. Then they also connected it back to Edward’s journey.
Each quote had a different aspect of love. The students really took the time to think what the quote means and how it could relate to Edward. They did a great job discussing their feelings and thoughts on each quote.
We had a very great time sharing our thoughts on how Edward has felt so far through the novel and how love has changed both him and each character he meets. I think we all agreed that it is better to have loved and lost, because love makes us all better people. Next week we will continue this activity with more quotes and the students will have the opportunity to write their own metaphor about love.
Third Grade:
Monday we continued working on Fairy Tales. The students met in their small groups to work on their fairy tales. They came up with concepts, themes, characters, and storylines.
They were very intense during their discussions to come up with ideas that were fresh and gave a new look at what a fairy tale may contain. On Tuesday they worked on writing it with the lap tops.
This was both interesting and entertaining, because they had to take their ideas and put them into a story that showed all their ideas. I saw a lot of compromising and negotiating.
It was great to see them all work in teams to achieve a common goal. I look forward to seeing their finished stories. I will have them work more on them next week. I am hoping they can complete their stories in the next week or two. I am very proud of them for using their life skills on this project to create something extraordinary.
Fourth Grade:
This week the students worked on their monologues and prezi’s. I know that a few are behind because they found it hard to figure out how to write the monologues, but I am confident that they will be ready next week for their presentations. I have extended the timeline for the prezi because they will be missing a class or two in February because of the 4th grade musical. I want them to have time to finish the prezi and do a great job and not just rush through making one.
It will be due February 15th or 16th. Next week the students will be making their presentations. Make sure to ask your child which day they are to present so they are prepared and have their props with them. I got my tripod attachment this week for the I-pad so I will be able to film each student’s presentation and post them on the blog. I am really excited to see what they have in store for us. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Here are the instructions which are also in the google docs for the students to view:
People Who Made a Difference Instructions
Step Six: Consider change in the person’s life and how he/she made a difference. Write a monologue including events, changes, and differences made in regard to his/her life. Due February 1st. Students will need to be complete with this for their presentations
Step Seven: Create a Prezi that includes the person’s name, a photo, years lived, and contributions. (The students should have their log in information to work on at home.) Change due date because they needed more time February 15th and 16th
Step Eight: Memorize your monologue and dress as your character. You are now ready for the People Who Made a Difference presentation.The students will be presenting on February 1st and 2nd.Students know which day they will present.
Monologue Criteria
-Monologue describes events in the person’s life with detail and clarity.
-Monologue includes insight to changes in the person’s life.
-Monologue explores how the person made a difference.
-Speaker confidently presents monologue using good eye contact, posture, and voice.
-Speaker engages audience with appropriate words, facial expressions, and gestures.
-The presentation is supported with appropriate costume and props
Math
First Grade:
This week we continued working on and learning about logic with the Math Maven. We solved two math mysteries this week. The Cuckoo Caper was quite a heist. The thief left the clock right in the safe in the store. The students had to figure out the combination. I explained to them all about factors and what multiplication is and how they can use repeat addition to solve it.
They were so excited to realize that they were learning how to multiply. They did a great job figuring out the combination using all their math skills. The last one this week was the case of Daryl the Dirty Dealer.
Daryl likes to trick people, well in this case his little sister, out of their money by completing bad trades. We had to figure out how much money his little sister lost in the trades and then the Math Maven would make Daryl return the difference to his sister.
They did a great job using all the money math skills they learned last month to figure how much he owed her. Since they worked so hard this month on all these math mysteries we decided to practice our math facts on Thursday with the I-Pads and sumdog.com. The students had so much fun practicing math facts and challenging each other in the games. Next week we will continue to work on logic and our math skills.
Second Grade:
This week we continued working on sequences with patterns in multiplication. This was a great way for us to introduce multiplication and start to see what patterns are created when multiplying by 10, 100, 1000, 10000 and 100000. We completed all of the patterns and talked about how multiplying by any of those numbers is really easy. Then we decided to challenge ourselves by multiplying by 5 and how that can also create a pattern. Next week we will learn all about Pascal’s Triangle.
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 Quotient. Quotient is a result obtained by dividing one quantity by another. I am very proud that every student figured it out quickly and quietly and got it correct. They all understood the problem and solved it super-fast. They didn’t need any help in either class. The picture was pretty funny, but the teacher looked super serious.
Third Grade:
This week we continued with the Sweet Multiplication and the students did a great job. They are really trying hard each time they take a test. I have one student who has mastered it all: congratulations to Jonah.
A few more students have already passed 11’s. They are rocking it. And now all our students are at 6’s and higher. After we completed those we continued to work on our logic chapter.
The students had a great time discussing each question and seeing what everyone thinks and how they might solve it. Everyone made it through the first three levels and is now working hard on the genius level.
On Thursday I decided to get the students familiar with using the lap tops. They all logged in and they played sumdog.com. They had a great time practicing math facts and seeing who could win each challenge. Next week we will continue with the logic and see where it takes us next.
Fourth Grade:
This week we continued working on our unit about fractions. The students had to work out some recipe issues and double and triple those pie orders. Double Trouble for Mr. Cammarata is the worksheet that the students completed this week.
They had fun trying to figure out how to adjust the banana cream pie recipe for all the orders. They all did such a great job Wednesday that they all got to work on the I-Pods on Thursday. They practiced fractions on sumdog.com. They were challenging each other on every game they played. Next week we will continue working on fractions.
Have a Great Weekend!
Mrs. Lutterman
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