April Showers or Snow?

Welcome Kindergarten Parents to the High Ability webpage. This week at Brummitt it was hard to get back in the groove after such a nice spring break, but after a day or two we were all good to go. Tonight, April 1^st is the Big Sock Hop at Brummitt. I am sure it will be a blast. This week the weather just kept changing on us. This is part of spring here in Indiana.

High Ability Summer School

Are you searching for educational enrichment this summer? Consider Duneland's High Ability Summer School! With the theme of "Time Travelers in Ancient Egypt," the 13-day program in June will focus on reading strategies and literature comprehension. It is open to current 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade HA students. The orange sign-up flyer will go home with your child(ren)'s report card today. Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!

Important Dates for April:

 April 1^st the Jump Rope for Heart Fundraiser Money will be due.

April 1^st the annual PTO Sock Hop will be happening. Please join the PTO for a brief meeting at 6pm followed by some dancing and fun. The event will end at 7:30pm. I hope they play lots of rockabilly music. I love all that 50’s rock-n-roll.

Fridays are the Student Council Spirit Days so be sure to wear those school colors.

This week we continued learning about our Life Skills with Curiosity. This one is great because I know most students exhibit a sense of curiosity every day. They want to learn and explore the world around them. I think they want to understand people and their environment.

  I know that with a sense of curiosity they will go far because the drive to comprehend will push them to seek the knowledge they need to be successful. I asked them if they understood curiosity and most were confused until I explained the feeling and need to understand. Then they were all onboard and explained times when they were very curious.   

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. Albert Einstein 

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 bury your head in the sand. We all enjoyed this one. A few students were worried about his head being buried won’t he suffocate? I explained that again what an idiom means and then they laughed. Oh yeah, spring break threw them off. We discussed when someone might ignore things and not want to address them and when that is not a good thing. Next week I hope the students decide to complete a drawing or find a picture. Here is the hint: it involves a shoulder and freezing. Good luck and I hope someone decides to draw this one or find a cool illustration online.

  

Language Arts

Kindergarten:

This week I got to start with the kindergartens for both Language Arts and Math. I wanted to get to know the students so I planned a fun activity for them in both classes. This gave me a chance to introduce myself and for me to get to know them and what their interests are. I pulled out all my stickers and we created cool sticker sheets. I found out so much about what each student likes and doesn’t like. This also gave them a chance to ask me questions and get to know about me. We had a lot of fun and we also took the time to talk about connections. The unit we will learn about in Language Arts is all about making connections.  I sent a note home about the unit and homework. This homework is only a discussion about connections in your house. The student just needs to go around the house and find connections and talk to adult about them. Next week we will talk about connections all around us. We will also learn why connections are important and how they can change.

First Grade:

This week we continued our journey through ancient Egypt and learning about their life and Hieroglyphs. I had a chance to go to Chicago over spring break and took lots of pictures of the Ancient Egypt Exhibit at the Field Museum.

  We went through all the pictures looking for hieroglyphs and we also talked about how life might have been in those days. This week we also started a book called Hieroglyphs by Joyce Milton. We went through the first few sections and had an open discussion on what we thought about life in Egypt then, compared to our lives now. We also started another section on the website.

 Here is the link created by a professor from the University of Manchester:Link
Next week we will continue to learn about Hieroglyphs and how they were created in ancient Egypt. We will also learn about scribes and their role in Egypt since we didn’t get to it this week.

Second Grade:

This week the students continued with the intense game of Jeopardy covering The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo.  This week we had a few upsets, but then Jackson came out on top. Lux had a great week too with an awesome come back. We will see who can change things around and win Monday. It is still anyone’s game since each week they all start fresh. Next week we will finish up the game and start on our next adventure. I think it will be something they can all get excited for. We will also start making more connections.

Third Grade:

This week the students really wanted to share what they did during Spring Break so we took some time on Monday to talk about all the adventures and exciting things they did during the break. Some students went on trips while others got to spend time with family and friends they hadn’t seen in a while.

  Once everyone shared their adventures we started on the next lesson about the story of The Emperor and His New Suit.  We started to read it but didn’t get to finish because we ran out of time. On Tuesday we watched part of a video of a reading of the story. Then I finished reading the last part to the students. 

 As we went over the story we discussed what moral was being taught. They all came up with a few different ideas which all were very accurate. The big theme throughout the story was about cheating.  We started to brainstorm about cheating and when one might see it or when they have learned about it. Next week the students will complete some creative problem solving.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued our discussion on Tecumseh’s life and American History. We went into more detail about history and how there are always two sides to every story. The students took a few minutes to write in their journal about it. Then we had a problem solving activity where the students talked about history and how you could reconcile controversy. 

This taught the students so much about how easy it is to look back at something and think what the right thing was to do, but then it might not have been as easy to make decisions. The students realized how hard life must have been for people and how fear might have made them make decisions that were not fair or right in any way. They also came up with ideas of how they might have handled land ownership and how they would have helped others during that time period.  It taught them to change their perspective and think like the opposing side. Next week we will look at Historical change and how art has affected it. 

Math

Kindergarten:

 This week I wanted to get to know the students and I wanted them to feel comfortable with me. We had a fun sticker activity on Wednesday. The students got to put stickers on their own sheets and then they were asked to count them and add them up. I wanted to see how much the students already know. They did an excellent job. They even did some double digit addition. They shared what they liked and what they did over their spring break. I told them about me and my family. On Thursday they got to add all my stickers from my sheet. 

 They got to use the white boards to complete the task. They all did great adding everything up. Ask them what my final count was: 114. We also took time to use the electronic whiteboard to learn about the math website we will use called sumdog.com. I will be sending home login information next week for each student.

  This website allows each child to work at their own pace practicing math. The first 200 questions determine the student’s level by finding out what they already know. When the students start, some of the questions might be really hard or really easy while it’s calculating their starting level.  Each student gets to create their own avatar and they each have a house too. Next week we will start a fun activity with jelly beans and adding.

 

First Grade:

This week we got to start our next unit on weight and measurement. The student got to watch two videos going over the terms and giving them the vocabulary they will need to work on measurement. 

 We also took the time to complete a comparison experiment to see what was longest and shortest. On Thursday the students got to use the IPads and practice their math facts with sumdog.com. I promised them that since they worked so hard learning about time that we could have a day of fun and math facts. Next week we will continue our unit on measurement with some activities and experiments.

 

Second Grade:

This week we continued our work on the Rhind Papyrus riddles to see which ones we could solve. We got through the next one and here it is: Five girls each bought five scoops of ice cream that each had five sprinkles on top. How many girls, ice cream  scoops, and sprinkles are there altogether?

We also got to work on measurement a little on Wednesday. On Thursday we took some time to use the IPad to work on our math facts. Next week we will continue with the riddles and see if we can finish them all.

 

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 face. In math a face is any of the individual surfaces of a solid object. Some students did an excellent job on this one and some were stumped at first because they forgot to count the bottom surface or one side. Once they remembered that they all got it right. They really like these problems each week because they really make them think. I am glad they like them so much.

Third Grade:

 On Wednesday we continued on the chapter on Percent called Percent Machines. I think the students were having some issues figuring out some of the problems because they were taking the time to break it down before answering it. They needed to find each step that was required before they could get the correct answer. 

 Once they did this it became much easier for them. On Thursday I rewarded them for working so hard on these last few chapters with the lap tops. They got to practice their math skills playing sumdog.com. I also had some students get very high percentages and kept up over 95% accuracy. Great job kids on doing so well.

Fourth Grade:

On Wednesday this week the students finished up the chapter called Oh, No I have to Change the Recipe!  Then they all worked on The Magic of Multiplying. I let them know that they all had to complete their first attempt on all the levels so they could use the IPads on Thursday. They could take them home and bring them in for me to check.   

They all did a great job working on them before class on Thursday. I had some of them that needed to make the second attempt on some problems but they all gave it their best effort. I rewarded them all with the IPads and they had a blast practicing their math skills. 

They love playing the game with each other and all of the class. Next week we will finish up the corrections on that chapter and move on to the next chapter, “How many legs are there?” This chapter will be the really hard one because we will need to review exponents before they can start.

Have a Great Weekend!

Mrs. Lutterman