Another Fall Friday!!

This week at Brummitt was filled with almost every season of the year but winter. It is becoming fall slowly but surely.

 Well last Friday the Read-a-Thon ended and it was so awesome. Mrs. Dortmund came through and we had the assembly with the pies. She took ten pies to the face Friday afternoon and she rocked the look to make it all happen. She had five students, one from each grade, that read the most minutes and had five students who raised the most money, one from each grade.

The students got to decorate their pies with sprinkles to make them look really cool. The students really had a blast getting their pie ready. They all did a great job to make sure to have fun and make sure Mrs. Dortmund didn’t breathe in any pie.

She was a real trooper and kept giving the thumbs up after each pie to let all of the school know she was doing great. I took some photos and I will post them at the end of this week’s blog so you can see how great she was. The students  raised so much money for the school and read which helped them to become  better readers and students. Awesome Job Students!

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. The school counselor here at Brummitt, Mrs. Moskalick is facilitating great activities each week in classes for the students. She is making sure they learn the STOP-Walk-Talk model and ways to be a Helpful Bystander. She is giving the students the tools they need to be great students and people.  

October 14th will be the annual Brummitt Bash from 5:00pm to 7:30pm. I am so excited about the pumpkin theme this year. Presents past and present, is such a cool idea. I already saw some pumpkins here this week and they all look so good. I will make sure to take pictures for next week’s blog. This bash is going to be lots of fun. I have been asking students what their ideas are for costumes and they have had some really innovative ideas. I can’t wait to see what their final costumes are this year.

Important dates:

October

Fridays Student Council “Spirit Day”- wear spirit wear or Brummitt colors (maroon & gold)

14th Brummitt Bash 5-7:30pm

20 End of 1st Grading Period

21st No School Fall Break

24-28 Red Ribbon Week

 This week we continued with the Life Skill of Respect. Mr. Cammarata spoke about Respect all this week on the morning announcements. He gave great advice on how you can use this life skill every day at school and at home. He also gave the students words they can associate with respect.

I think this is a great idea to let students think about what the words mean to them. Here are a few words he talked about: polite, manners, tolerance, consider, and understanding. Mr. Cammarata really gave the students a lot to ponder and I think they will take it all to heart when they interact with each other at school and in life.

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 …. It’s a piece of cake. I love this one because it gives you such a clear thought about cake and about what the idiom is trying to express. The students also loved sharing times when this applied to them. They really got this one. They are doing a great job sharing experiences too. It is nice to see them comfortable in class sharing their thoughts and feelings on things. I am so excited because I have one student that took on the challenge and found two illustrations that work for this idiom. Caroline did a great job finding these and sharing them with the class. She got her prize and now maybe it will encourage other to look and find some too. I am keeping my fingers crossed that someone else takes on this challenge. Here is a hint to help you out: it involves a shadow. 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 out work on secret message and codes with our Caesar Cipher.  We completed our first message and it was awesome how the students worked to figure out that code.  Our deciphered message read, “Letters are symbols that stand for spoken sounds.”

They were so excited to use the cipher to figure out the cool message. We then moved on to the next activity which gave the students another chance to use the cipher. It also allowed them to encipher words too.

There were words that gave them clues about what we are learning about. Connections all around us. The students really took their time to make sure they knew how to use the cipher.  They looked closely at shift to make sure they moved there cipher to the correct letter. I also let them know that we will be learning about all kinds of secret languages throughout the year. I gave them a sheet with an activity they can complete at home about making connections. The students will share their findings with each other next week. Next week we will continue to work with ciphers to find the next code and complete our next project with connections.  

Second Grade:

 This week we continued working on poems with an excerpt of The Walrus and the Carpenter. It is a part of the novel by Lewis Carroll called Alice in Wonderland.   The students were really excited because

I let them know we would be doing another comparison and they couldn't wait to see the video this week, but first we had work to do.
We read the poem a few times and then discussed the parts of the reading analyzer and the students got to work filling in each section. They did an excellent job trying to figure out what worked best for images and ideas. They all had great things to write about and to add as we discussed it. They shared their thoughts and feelings about the poem.

They were so excited to watch the video once they were finished with their analyzers. The video was very different then what they thought it would be. They were laughing and giggling along with it until the end when they realized the little oysters were about to be eaten.

They knew the poem said it but they were sure it would happen in the video. Here is the link: Walrus
We had a short discussion about it before class ended. On Tuesday we picked up right where we left off. The students asked to watch the video again after we read the poem and then we got to work on completing the Venn Diagram. The students got to fill it out first by themselves. Then we had a class discussion to see what we all came up with. The students shared what they thought each of them had different from the others and then we added what they both had. They did great. The last part of the class on Tuesday we started to talk about the novel we will be reading this year. They are really excited about it. We will be reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Next week the students will be making their predictions about the book and what they think it might be about. I can’t wait to start this journey with them. It is an excellent book full of connections and so many very incredible characters.   

Third Grade:

 This week we continued on Myths. The students got to retell their myths with each other and give scores on how they did. All the students did an excellent job sharing their myth and retelling the story accurately. They really enjoyed listening to their classmates tell what myth they read. I also got to hear each student and I am very happy on how well they are did. We also had a class discussion on the definition of both Myth and Legend. We talked about each genre and we created a class definition. On Tuesday we had a short class because of early dismissal but we got alot done. We completed the next lesson on grammar in Myths and Legends. The students read an excerpt from a myth and complete a noun chart. They found all the nouns and indicated if they were a person, place, thing, or idea. Then we shared our answers. They did a great job. Next week we will learn more about legends and we will add tall tales. The students will listen to Johnny Appleseed and we will discuss it.

Fourth Grade:

 This week the students continued working on their "Latin and Greek Word Elements" sheets. They worked with a partner or two to get the sheets complete. I gave them the whole class on Monday and had some students get done. On Tuesday a few kept working and then we watched a cool video about the book Frindle.  

It is a humorous way to think about language and one student’s journey to add a word to the English language. The video was created by students and they acted out the plot. It was really cute. Here it is: Frindle

After that we started our next lesson called, Changes in One Person’s Life. We had a discussion about biographies and talked about change.

 The students got to look over the books I brought to class and we discussed who would be a good person to complete a project on and who wouldn’t. We talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and his life, how he changed, and who it has affected.

 We had a great class discussion about him and all he did for people and the way he helped change the world we live in. The students are getting really excited to start their projects and find someone to research. I went over what to look for when you go to the library and what will help to make the project easier. Next week we will complete some grammar and review the parts of speech. We will also go into more detail about the biography projects.

Math

First Grade:

This week we continued to work with Imi and Zani to help them with their next problem. They need help with their science measurement fair. They need us to help them come up with some great ideas for weight.

The students need to see if they could be a human scale to see what is lighter and heavier. I had them all put out their hands and I gave them two objects and they had to let me know which was heavier and lighter by moving their arms.

They all rocked this out fast and knew which was which. Then we read a great book to help us better understand heavier and lighter called Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert.

I love this book because it lets the students see how each animal adds to the weight to make the seesaw move, but the beetle at the end is what helps push the seesaw to finally be heavier than elephant.

 They loved it and we're adding and talking all about ways to help the seesaw move better. Then we decided to do our own seesaw experiment to see if we could figure out what weighs more. The students got to take two animals then make the seesaw match what they thought were heavier and lighter.

 They all did an excellent job. I think they are starting to master the scale. On Thursday I gave them a hard task of figure out how to balance the seesaw/scale. Each student got to pick animals to put up to see if they could balance it. They all did an excellent job with this activity.

  We then decided it was time to complete a few worksheets and have some partner talk time. They all got to work and completed the sheets and talked to their partner about their ideas and thoughts on each part.

 We decided we had worked so hard this week we would dance to a gonoodle.com song. We all danced with the trolls to end a great week. Next week we will continue with weight and heavier, lighter, and about the same. The students will get to use the hanger scales to figure out what bags weigh more and see if they can get two bags to be about the same. The students are really excited to get their hands on with their own scales to see what ideas they can come up with to help Imi and Zani to have the best measurement fair ever.

Second Grade:

 This week the “Detective Duo” sent us a fax asking for our help. They reminded us of how they had crashed their car on their journey and wanted us to help them figure out which vehicle would be the safest choice for them to purchase. First we need to finish practicing our math measuring skills. The students worked hard on Wednesday and part of Thursday to complete a worksheet using their inch and half inch rulers to figure out how long each blade of grass is that was collected in the desert. They worked alone some then shared their findings with others.

 They did a great job getting right to figuring out the length in inches and half inches. On Thursday we also talked about car safety and what we think is important in a car. Then we looked up two websites to see how they rate car safety so we knew more about how we could help. The students discussed what they think might go into figuring out safety and the websites helped us find out how they rate vehicles.

 We started to work on the graph to see what the findings were, but class was over. Next week we will finish reviewing the chart to help us better understand car safety and what is needed to help us find the right car for Dru and Teller.

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 volume. Volume in mathematics, the amount of space occupied by an object measured in three dimensions, expressed in cubic units.This one threw everyone one for a loop except Anna. They all had trouble the first round, but once they went back and reread the question carefully they all had that A-Ha moment. It was nice to see them not get discouraged because they didn’t have the correct answer so fast. They all really went back to think and look over it all to get to the right answer. I am really proud of their perseverance. Great Job.

Third Grade:

This week we started our adventure to find out if the Yeti exists. On Wednesday we completed our Think Deeply question about our estimations and findings on centimeters and the incredible me.  Then we were off to find out more. I read an informational article about the Yeti and how the legend started. After we read it we had more questions then answers. In 1921 British climbers thought they saw a dark figure at 17,000 feet up on the Himalayan Mountain range. We talked about how high we thought that could be and and there was no way for us to really see that. So then we talked about the other sighting in 1925 where N.A. Tombazi said he saw a creature in the mountain from 300 yards away, but couldn’t get a camera out to get a picture fast enough.

  Well this was a measurement we could get our heads around. We decided to complete an investigation on how far 300 yards was and was it the length of Brummitt Elementary. So we started in my room with a yard stick and went to work. We made it halfway across the library and we were only at 31 yards. We knew there had to be an easier way to figure this out.  We decided it was time to ask for help from some important people here at Brummitt that could help us solve this one. We went to the main office to ask Mr. Cammarata and Mrs. Vrska if they could assists us. They had a way to help us figure it all out. They gave us a small blueprint of the building and it had a scale that could give us the accurate way to find out how long the building really was. We also found out from them that a football field is a 100 yards long which meant we would need 3 of them to get to 300 yards. Wow wee! So 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. We started to wonder how you could even tell what was that far away yet alone know if it was huge and a Yeti, but we were on a mission now and had to find out how long the school was to compare. We sat down and figured out the each inch on the scale was 48 feet. So we measured the length of the blueprint and found out that the school was 408 feet long, but that wouldn’t give us the answer we needed because we needed to know how many yards long. Lena knew that there were 3 feet in a yard stick so we would need to divide by 3 to get how many yards. Once that was complete we knew it was 136 yards long. We discovered that it would take over two Brummitt Elementary schools long to make 300 yards. That was very long and made us doubt Tombazi and if he really saw a Yeti.

This was a great and fun investigation, but we are still no closer to knowing whether the Yeti is real and if we could find him. Next week our search will continue with more math calculations and measurements to help us.

Fourth Grade:

 This week we continued to work on shapes. The students continued to complete their characteristics and we had great partner and group discussions.

 We also took time to watch a video on polygons to help us with creating definitions and to start to better understand how shapes relate to each other. Here is the link: Math Antics

They had great discussions this week and we eager to share their characteristics.

 They all made sure to take the time to think before they wrote what they wanted to say. At the end of class on Thursday I thought we needed to take a breather from all that shape talk and have some fun. The students voted on a goonoodle.com dance and they went with the Trolls movie dance.

They had a blast dancing and singing along. It was great to see them have so much fun. They loved the chance to dance out all the wiggles and were excited to have some fun and exercise. Next week we will continue to finish up our shapes and complete class definitions for each shape.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Lutterman