Finally Fall Friday!!

Rain and Fall is in the air this week. It is starting to feel like the best time of year.

 This week Brummitt was full of so  much excitement about the Read-a-Thon. The students are doing an awesome job raising money for the school. I am so proud of how hard each student here at Brummitt is working. They are reading so many minutes. I heard one class got an extra recess for having the most minutes one night and another got no homework one night, and the best is the class that got to wear pajamas to school today.  I hope we make it to see who will get to put a pie in Mrs. Dortmund’s face.  The total so far as of Thursday afternoon was over 91,521 minutes read and over $12,754 raised. Great job Brummitt!

October 14th will be the annual Brummitt Bash. I am so excited to see what the pumpkin theme with be this year. I love seeing all the student’s very creative designs.

They are all so inventive and cool. I know that lots of students will also have great ideas for costumes too. I am very excited to see what they come up with this year.

Important dates:

September

30th PTO Fall Fundraiser ends

October

6th Picture Day

14th Brummitt Bash

 This week we continued with the Life Skill of Respect. I know that this is the cornerstone to a successful year. I want the students to do their best each day and I want them to understand how important respect is to have a great classroom. I want to make sure that they know and have this skill mastered because it will help not only in school, but in life. I want them to understand that you have to give respect in order to earn respect. I know that respect is just the first of many life skills they will learn throughout the year and each can build off the others. Respect is one of the most important life skills to learn in order to be a successful student and person.

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 green with envy. This one was great because the kid was really green. I asked the students if they had ever felt like this and some shared stories of when they felt green with envy. I am so proud of how they are understanding each idiom and can relate it back to times in their own lives. They are doing great with these. I am shocked I didn’t have any drawings because this one seemed pretty cool to draw or find examples of, but I’m still hopeful for next week. Students and parents get those creative ideas going. Here is a hint to help them out: it involves cake, well a piece of it. I posted the picture for the next week on Thursday afternoon so students can stop by and see it before the weekend.

Language Arts

First Grade:

This week we continued our journey with connections, the students got to present their shields to their classmates and it was so much fun. They all did a great job standing in front of the class and talking. I am so proud of them. I think they will all be great public speakers. They all looked very comfortable discussing their creations. If they were nervous we couldn’t tell. They all talked about each patch and how it was connected to them.

 They all took their time and didn’t rush and even answered any questions we had. Each student’s patches were really well thought out and they could explain with ease about them. On Tuesday we started our next lesson and it was really exciting for them, because we started to learn about secret codes and deciphering secret messages. We talked about why people might create secret messages and then they got their very own Caesar Cipher. What is a Caesar Cipher you ask?

It is a set of two circles with the alphabet on each and you use it to encipher and decipher messages. It is similar to one that Caesar used in Rome, to receive and send secret messages to his commanders during battle.

(Here is the Wikipedia link about the Caesar Cipher if you are interested in its history:

Caesar Cipher

They were so excited to start to decipher their first message. I helped them on the first two words and then they were off and running. We ran out of time so we didn’t get the message finished. They were so disappointed and wanted to know the message, but I held my ground and said they would have to wait to decipher the rest next week.

Next week they will finish the message and we will learn more about secret messages and codes. They will also use the  Caesar Cipher to decipher a few more messages and that way they become pros at using it. I can’t wait to see them discover the codes and messages.

Second Grade:

This week we continued our journey with connections. We worked on our first Poem of the year, El Dorado by Edgar Allen Poe. The student got to listen to me as I read the poem so they could start to get a feeling of what the poem might mean to them. I wanted them to interpret the poem to see who they felt the knight was and how he might look. They got to draw what they felt the knight and the shadow looked like and they also took time to listen to me read it again and they underlined words they felt were important to the poem and how it felt. I also introduced the reading analyzer we will be using throughout the year and had them fill out some of the sections with their feelings and ideas.

On Tuesday they finished up their drawing of the knight and shadow and we had a discussion about the overall feeling of the poem. I wanted them to know that each person can interpret the knight in a different way. I showed them the video of the poem and also showed them paintings and illustrations of the poem.

 They were all really stunned at what they looked like.They all had such different thoughts on what he should be. They were shocked at how the knight was so weary, tired, and hurt by the end of the poem and how he looked.

They all agreed the video didn’t give the poem enough of the dark side of it and the mustache was just strange. We also had time to compare the paintings with the video with a Venn Diagram. They did a great job defining the differences and what few things were the same. Next week we will continue with poems with the a excerpt of The Walrus and the Carpenter. We will read it and watch a video from the movie and compare the two with a Venn Diagram. We will also look for connections between the two poems and see if we can find any.  

Third Grade:

 On Monday we started the class with a famous quote and  they got to write about it in their journals on what they thought about this quote: "Aim for the stars; if you fall short, you will land on the moon." -Unknown

This year they will be writing in their journals and at the end of the year they will bring them home for you to read.

 This week we started to learn about the different genres of literature, I wanted the students to see which ones they knew and if they could figure out what we will be starting with. We started with Myths. The students seemed really excited to think and learn about what characters they already know that are in myths. They were all thinking about Greek Gods and Percy Jackson I am sure. We discussed what a myth might be and who might have written them. Here is a definition:

Myth- a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature. They really were excited to see what types of myths we were going to read in class. I gave them each packet with several myths and they got to decide which one they wanted to read. They got the rest of the class on Monday to read.

On Tuesday they finished their retelling story map so they could share their myth with other students. I broke them up into pairs and they got to share their myths. They did a great job retelling and discussing the myths. So students didn’t get a chance to share theirs so we will do that next week. I will also have them discuss them with the whole group to see what they thought of them. The student will also rate each other on their retelling skills. Next week we will also complete a grammar activity using a myth and start our thoughts on legends.

Fourth Grade:

This week we got to hear all about everyone’s interviews. Each students got to go up and talk about their interview. It was cool to learn about other people the students know and to see that they are understanding the concept of change. This activity also gave them a chance to practice being in front of the class to present something, since they will complete presentations for the biography projects. They all took their time and tried their best.

 I did let them know that they need to make sure to learn as much as they can about who they complete the biography project on since the students will get to ask questions. On Tuesday we started with a quote to write in their journals. I want them to feel comfortable with writing and this will help them. Then we move on to learning more 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 Greek Latin to explore the origins of the English language. Next week we will continue working on Latin and Greek and the students will have a chance to finish their sheets with a partner.

Math

First Grade:

This week we were asked to help Imi and Zani solve a problem they need help with.They want to send boxes in the mail to different schools around the world but they don’t know what tools they will need to find out what the boxes need and what it will cost to send them. The students got to figure out different tools used to measure and what ones would be best to send through the mail.

 They also had class discussions on how they would figure out the length and weight of the box. We worked together to come up with a class response to send to Imi and Zani to let them know our findings and what tools they would need. The students also got to create their own faxes to send back to Imi and Zani to let them know what they thought. They included pictures they drew to help explain their ideas.

The students had a great time looking at all the items in the box and figuring out how they could be useful in measuring things. They did a great job sharing their thoughts and ideas with each other. We also received a fax from them on Thursday that they need our help with another project that we will tackle next week. It will be all about weight.

 

Second Grade:

This week the “Detective Duo” had a problem they needed us to solve. They were trying to figure out how big to make their tunnels and they need to us to figure who was right. Dru thought the tunnel was four units wide and Teller thought it was five units wide. The students got to work to solve this problem. They got use think time and then partner time to see if they could figure it out. They were looking at the picture the Duo gave them and realized that they had to count the space between the lines and not the lines to get the correct answer on how big to make their tunnels.

 They class had a great time sharing their ideas and thoughts and then they got to each write a fax to send back to the Duo. This activity gave them a chance to work on their writing skills in math. They were a little scared at first, but once we all started to work together and went over it, they all felt more comfortable. On Thursday we finished up our signatures for the faxes and started on our next activity. I let the student know I would send the faxes and we would see what they send back to us.

I let them know we should practice some more measuring skills and the Duo gave us two worksheets to start with. One let us practice to the inch and the other to the half inch. We talked about how there are cacti where the Duo live and they need a way to measure them.

Everyone worked hard to figure out each measurement. We discussed our answers and had a great time talking about methods we used to find our answers. Next week we should receive our fax back on what we will help with next. I can’t wait to see what they need us to solve.  

Third and Fourth Grade: Math Vocabulary Comic Relief

This year we will continue to complete these 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. Once they have their answer they can turn over their paper and raise their hand and I will check it. This week was all about the vertex. In geometry, a vertex (plural: vertices or vertexes) is a point where two or more curves, lines, or edges meet. As a consequence of this definition, the point where two lines meet to form an angle and the corners of polygons and polyhedra are vertices. The students did a great job this week they all took the time to read the information before answering. Every student got it right on the first try. They were awesome. This is another word that they will be using in class this year which is great that we are talking about it before we have a lesson on it.  

Third Grade:

This week we continued our journey with centimeters and estimating. On Wednesday we worked on our worksheet and using the adding machine tape to figure out the length of our body. Then we got the chance to estimate each one by centimeters. Next we actually measured each length of tape to see. Lets just say we were off on most, but on a few we got very close. Last section asked us to figure out the difference so we got to use our subtraction skills on this part.

 We also discussed what a benchmark is and why we want to find one when we are estimating. It will help them become more accurate student mathematicians. On Thursday we completed a Think Deeply question about benchmarks and using it to help you estimate. We were asked to pick a body part that would make a good benchmark to help when estimating and then explain why.

These questions are a great way for students to become more comfortable in writing and using their math skills at the same time. Then we had a class discussion about what we wrote and thought. Next week we will start our next lesson titled In Search of the Yeti, I can’t wait to see what we will be doing. Will it involve traveling to find the Abominable Snowman?

Fourth Grade:

This week was very exciting because we continued to work on shapes. The students looked at an image on the board and had to describe the characteristics of that shape. They got to think about it. Then they discussed it with a partner.

 Last, everyone shared their thoughts with the group. Then they looked at another shape and did the same thing.  The students discussed what each shape was and worked out terms to use to describe it. As we shared our thoughts with the group I added the information about each to the board so the students could see all they already knew.

On Thursday we expanded on shapes and defining them and their characteristics. The students looked at different polygons and were asked to think of characteristics to share with each other.  This was so much fun for them because they took the time to think of great responses and each listened to what the other student said.

They also took advantage of the words I had posted on the word wall to help them if they couldn’t remember something. We had a very informative class discussion and I think every student shared lots of characteristics. Next week we will finish this activity and we will come up with final class definitions for each shape.   

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Lutterman