Welcome back to a new year. I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. The kids were all aglow when they came back this week. They were excited to see what we had in store for the New Year. It looks like all the students had a so much fun during their time off. There is so much going on this month here at Brummitt.
The first semester is coming to a close next week on January 14th as well as the second Grading Period. There will be no school for students on January 15th to give the teachers a grading and recording day to get their grades complete.
With the weather being so unpredictable outside this month please make sure to dress your child for the cold weather. All students will go out for their recesses when the temperature is above 10 degrees including wind chill. So make sure they can bundle up with boots, hats, gloves, and snow gear. I know they love to get that time outside to play in the snow if we ever get any.
Weather information on school closings is broadcast on WLJE 105.5 FM and WAKE 1500 AM beginning at 6am and cancellations.com. You can also look at the Duneland homepage: http://www.duneland
.k12.in.us/Domain/4.
You should also be receiving an automated message from our communication system about school delays and closings, so keep those phone numbers current.
The PTO will be hosting a movie night here at Brummitt on January 22 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. I know it will be a fun filled night.
Also don’t forget that Fridays are Spirit Days so make sure you wear your Brummitt and Trojans gear.
This week we continued learning about our Life Skills with Trustworthy. I think this is a really important life skill to have and to teach the students.
There are many times when the students need to trust each other and that I need to trust them. When we complete small group or partner projects, I need to trust the students to work independently on parts of the assignment to succeed.
If I can’t trust them then it will be hard to complete these types of projects. They need to learn that trust is very important to their success. The students need to also be able to trust each other to work together to complete a common goal. I think they have the tools and just need to use them.
I had the first drawing of students showing great Life Skills and here are some of the winners from 3rd and 4th. I will also have a few for next week too.
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 …. Don’t let the cat out of the bag.This
one made everyone laugh pretty hard. We can all think of a time when we needed
to keep a secret and were told that. It was a funny great way to start back
from the holiday break. No takers on drawing that one because the picture was
so funny. I think maybe next week someone might try it. Here is the hint: Huh I can’t hear ya???
Language Arts
First Grade:
This week the students deciphered messages using the spy pie cipher. It was pretty awesome and the students really had to think to figure out each letter. Once they cracked the code the message read: The letter E is used most often when we write.
This lead into the lesson, where I introduced the term lipogram as a piece of writing in which a particular letter (or letters) of the alphabet is deliberately left out. “
Lipo” means “lacking” and “
gramma” means “letter.” Writers throughout history have written poems, short stories, and, even, long novels as lipograms.
It was a way for writers who love language to play with words and see what they could make them do. It was fun to think of words for things without using the letter E. We tried an experiment using words we came up with from before break to replace all the words from Jack and Jill that have the letter E in them.
It was pretty cool to find other words to use. Here are the results:
Jack and Jill go up the hill to grab a pail of liquid. Jack did drop and split his crown and Jill did go tumbling down also.
They both agreed it works but not as good as the original. On Tuesday we continued with lipograms. I read a book about the letters of the alphabet called E-Mergency. Here is the link to the video introduction about the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hve4DenyATU It is a great book and very funny, but hard to read with all those E’s missing. The students loved it. Next week we will continue working on Lipograms.
Second Grade:
This week we continued with our novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Monday we read two chapters and discussed what has happened so far and how Edward is changing throughout the book. Then I discussed with them about comparing novels and characters. We discussed different ways you would do that when you read. Then we started the Velveteen Rabbit.
On Tuesday we continued listening to the book and following along reading. It took the whole class because we stopped a few times to talk about what was happening. Next week we will talk about each book and discuss the differences so far in each character.
Third Grade:
This week we continued with fables. We reviewed the genre and what makes a story a fable. Students then were ready to work on the grammar in the fable The Mouse and the Lion. The students broke into small groups to figure out what the nouns, verbs and articles were in this fable.
On Tuesday we went over parts of speech. The students we excited to see what they got right from their groups. We went over each sentence of the story and discussed the parts of speech in each.
They did a pretty good job finding the verbs and were awesome at finding the articles. We did have some trouble finding every noun. I think after we all discussed it, they got it. Next time I know they will all rock each part of speech when dissecting a paragraph. I gave the students a mission for next week:
to think about fairy tales and what they think they mean to them and what every fairy tale needs. I told them we will start our discussion on the genre of fairy tales and I want them to each have an idea of what they are and which they like the most. I look forward to seeing what they think about it.
Fourth Grade:
This week we continued with the research on our biographies. The students are doing a great job sharing their documents with me so I can help them with printing. They know that they have to have the timelines complete by next Tuesday 1/11. I have had some share their pictures and events to me for printing already. I let them all know to share the event and picture document with me by 1/8. I will be able to print them so they can prepare them and organize them into the timeline next week. I will also teach them how to use the prezi website to create their presentations. Here are the instructions which are also in the google docs for the students to view:
People Who Made a Difference
Instructions
Step One:
All students are complete with this step because they have picked a person to
research
Step Two: For this project,
you are required to research one person using a full-length biography, one or
more primary sources (book), and two
or more secondary sources (websites).
Use the Internet and library to determine whether sufficient information is
available for each person. All students have found a great book
to use.All the students but one have found enough sources through books and the
websites.
Step Three: Read the biography and collect information about the
person. Complete the Biography Summary and submit. Create a works cited to
acknowledge sources you are using.
Everyone is complete.
Step Four: Synthesize information to list at least ten of the most significant events in
the person’s life. Most students have shared these with
me, I need them to complete them by 1/8/16 so I can print them out for them to organize.
Step Five: Create a timeline of the famous person’s life. Final
Timeline is due January 11th
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 January 19th
Step Seven: Create a Prezi that includes the person’s name, a photo,
years lived, and contributions. (The students will be learning how to
use Prezi so they will be able to use those instead of power point) Due January 25th
Step Eight: Memorize your monologue and dress as your character. You
are now ready for the People Who Made a Difference presentation.
Timeline Criteria
-Timeline includes entire life of
person with dates measured at appropriate intervals.
-Timeline includes ten or more
important events of the person’s life.
-Timeline includes two or more pictures
of the person.
-Timeline is neat and legible.
-At least four sources are properly
cited.
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 finished up learning about money with an activity that all the kids were really excited about called Money Madness. The students each got a clipboard and sheet to go around the room looking for each question about money. They were numbered between 1 and 12. They had so much fun trying to figure out where each card was and making sure they read carefully to figure out the answer.
They all had a great time adding and solving the problems. Some of the problems were pictures of coins and the students were asked to add or what they would exchange them for. Other cards with word problems where the students had to figure out how someone spent or what change they would be getting back and they loved it. It was a great way to end the unit on money with some fun and movement.
On Thursday we started our first introduction to logic with the Math Maven. I went through the two mysteries with the students so they could start to understand how to solve a logic problem. They all did a great job being detectives. They thought out what they were looking to find and broke down each part to figure out the answer. One was about the cafeteria caper and the other about the sports store mystery. I think they really liked these. I am hoping to find some more interesting and fun logic problems for next week.
Second Grade:
This week we continued on
the Fibonacci sequence with the Golden Rectangle. We solved the puzzle and came
up with places where you would find it in nature. We also took a small break to
complete the Money Madness activity. It was a great way to review money and
brush up on our problem solving skills. Next week will continue sequences with
the binary sequence.
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 Percent. Percent is the amount out of 100. This fooled many of the students this week because the problem asked if a baker baked 50 cookies and sold 31. What is the percent sold? I had one student in 4th and one in 3rd get it right away. Josey and Sami were right on track and did it the first time. The others need some help to figure it out. I think it made them all really have to think. I like that to start the year out right.
Third Grade:
This week we continue with the Sweet Multiplication and students did a great job. I even let them take two tests on Thursday. Everyone has passed 3’s and we have some as high as the 9’s. Also the students worked in small groups on their multiplication packets. Next week we will finish up the current packet and move on to a new math adventure.
Fourth Grade:
This week the students started writing in their Math journals. I think they were really confused when I had them get them out and start using them to actually write and not just figure out math. Once we completed that we continued to work on the Brummitt Kitchen Prep with more in-depth hard fractions to reduce and find equivalent fractions.
Next week we will continue with the next lesson on fractions and some problems about pies for the bake sale.
Have a Great Weekend!
Mrs. Lutterman
Really nice :) Nicely organized post. I like it very much. Keep updating :)
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