Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: Fall Is In The Air Friday!!

This week was so exciting at Brummitt because we had the Christmas for Kids fundraiser with the Whiffer Sniffer Sale. The students were all abuzz with the fun and excitement and seeing all the different types of characters. This month is all about giving thanks for everything we have. The students are learning about gratitude and how to thank those around you. Next week will be a short week and I will only get to meet with the language arts students because of the holiday.

This month Mrs. Moskalick is working with students on The Gratitude is your Attitude Tree. I took a picture because I wanted show how great our students here at Brummitt are. They shared so many things that they are thankful for this year. They did a great job. So next time you stop by the school look for it by the front entrance and appreciate this beautiful tree.

Christmas for Kids

The Whiffer Sniffer Sale ends Friday November 18th. It looks like it was a success because they were running out of certain characters and the students really liked everything they got.

There is also a Christmas tree out in the entrance of the school with lots of great gifts you can donate to the Christmas for Kids this year. Just pick an ornament that has a gift you can find and bring in to donate. This is a great way to help kids in the community get the things they need to have a special Christmas and keep warm through the winter.

Important Dates:

November

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

18 Whiffer Sniffer Sale: Last Day of the sale!

23-25 Thanksgiving Break- No School

December

1 Early Dismissal

21 thru Jan 3 No School Winter Break

This week we continued the Life Skill of Gratitude for the month of November.

Everyday this week Mr. Cammarata has shared reasons to be grateful and give the students advice on why we need to be thankful for all we have. He also reminded them of the other life skills that go hand in hand with gratitude.

This life skill show others that you are grateful for others and what they do for you. I know the students are grateful for all the great things they have here at school. I know they really appreciate the teachers and staff that take time each day to help them and make their live great.

I know I am grateful for all my students and all the effort they put in each day to be successful. I know that all the students here at Brummitt have shared something they are very thankful for on the tree out front and I love the effort they put into creating a leaf for it.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie

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 cry over spilled milk. Some students remembered this one from last year. I let them know we made it through the whole pack and are starting over. The students really like this one because they all know they have felt like this once in their lives. I let them know that we all have those days where we feel like this and it is totally understandable. We did have Caroline bring a few illustrations for this week and they are great. I hope this will encourage others to give it a try. I know that all the students could find something if they took a few minutes to look. I will keep my fingers crossed to get more students next week. Here is a hint to help you out: it involves eyes. I posted the picture for the next week on Thursday so students can stop by and see it before the weekend.

Language Arts

First Grade:

This week we started a new lesson with a very cool message to decipher. I gave the students the paper and they had to figure out what it said. They all looked and really took their time investigated the paper. A few students turned it over and got all excited that they had solved the puzzle.

They quickly wrote down their answers. I am so proud that all of them figured it out on their own. They didn’t need any help. The message was written in backward and upside down. You could solve it using a mirror and reflection, but I knew the students would figure out another way and they all did. If you flip the paper over and look at the back side, you will also be able to see it.

I told them all to take it home to see if their parents could figure it out. The students were really excited to solve that one on their own. Next we reviewed the homework from last week. We went over all the words the students created out of the letters. They were so excited to share their word. I asked them if they knew the term anagram.

They all looked a little puzzled, but once I explained that it is a word or phrase made by rearranging the exact same letters of another word or phrase, they were all so happy. They had just done that with their homework and they knew it. I asked them if they were ready to try some more. They were really excited to give it a shot. We took a list of different words and found another word with the letters. They had a blast trying to find a different word with the letters. They all found the words once they started to rearrange them. On Tuesday we were going to read the Great Show and Tell Disaster, but I can’t find the book. I ordered a new one and it should be here over the weekend and we will read it next week. The students really wanted to try some more anagrams and I had a few pages of activities in their workbooks for them to try it out. They all were very excited to work as teams to help each other solve each question. They did an excellent job using their thinking caps to really work together and help each other to find the answers they needed. I only had to give a few clues to help them find out the answer on one or two of the questions. They are doing a great job. Next week I should have the book and we will read it and go over all the cool anagrams the author created with the characters.

Second Grade:

This week we continued our lesson on comparing our novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane with The Velveteen Rabbit. We finished listening to the story of the Velveteen Rabbit. The students really enjoyed hearing about nursery magic and all that story had to offer. Then we wanted to compare the two stories with a Venn Diagram to see how they were alike and how they were different. We took a huge piece of chart paper and got to work as a group. The students took turns talking and writing down their thoughts and ideas about the stories. They did a great job sharing and comparing the stories and characters. We finished up that activity on Tuesday and started our next chapter in novel. We read chapter 14 and the students worked on completing a reading analyzer on it. We also had a class discussion on what happened in the chapter and what we think will happen next. The students were all very interested in sharing their theories and thoughts on what might happen. I really enjoyed how well they all work together to listen and share. They wanted to keep reading on so I assigned the next few chapters for them to read for next week. Next week we will go over what they read and discuss all the changes that Edward has had throughout the book so far. We will also discuss what could happen next.

Third Grade:

This week we continued to work on Fables. I wanted to review with the students the genre and what makes it unique. I gave them a new handout to help remind them of the differences between the different genres of literature. We read a few more fables and discussed each one and what makes it different from the others.

We found each moral or meaning. We discussed why these stories were so important to literature and why people needed them during the time when they were written. After we read The Lion and the Mouse, the students got to watch two videos about the fables. Each took the fable and changed it a bit.

The students then figured out what the changes were and we discussed why they might have changed the original fable to fit their story-line. We found that one video had a few mice help the lion in the end of the video to also teach the viewer about teamwork and how it is also important. The other video didn’t have the lion get caught in a net from hunters, but in vines from the trees which gave a different feel to the story.

Each story was drawn differently giving each a unique style. The students shared so many great thoughts and ideas on why each was changed. Students also got to complete a reading analyzer for The Jay and the Peacock and discuss the importance of this fable. On Tuesday we finished up the partner discussions and worked on the parts of speech. We went over the parts of speech and the students were randomly paired to work on an activity breaking down each sentence in the fable The Lion and the Mouse. We started to go over it but ran out of time. We will pick up with it next week and make sure we review the parts of speech again with another activity.

Fourth Grade:

This week we took a few minutes to go over what they need to be working on and I went over what students are missing their target dates. I also answered any questions they had about the project so far. I did email all the parents a link to view the google document with the assignments and deadlines.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me and I can answer any questions. The students are doing a great job learning more each week on their Chromebooks. I am making sure to show them ways to use their time wisely and efficiently while in the class.

The students will need to use their time management skills to complete all the tasks and I am leaving it in their hands because these are their projects. If you feel your child might fall behind please check in with them and me so we can come up with a plan that works for them to succeed.

They are still really excited to complete this independent assignment and learn to research. Don’t forget they will need to figure out how they will present their monologue. They can be as creative as they want. Let me know if they need ideas because I can share what other students have done in the past. Here is the review of the information for the project and deadlines:

They are required to read a full length biography and have other sources to complete this project. I went over all the requirements and let them tell me about who they decided to research. The Change Maker project will take us several weeks to complete and some students will need to complete parts of the project on their own if they can’t get it done during class. The full length biography can also be used in their class for AR points which is a bonus since they are required to complete points for each quarter. This project will teach the students about how to research someone, work with deadlines, and use time management wisely. I also want them to learn about their person and how they are Change-Makers. Next week the students will continue to use their Chromebooks to research their person and link it back to change.

• StepOne: Everyone has their changemaker picked.

• Step Two One: For this project, you are required to research one person using:

-A full-length biography: Students all showed me their books

-One or more primary sources: : All Students showed me their sources

-Two or more secondary sources: All students completed this too.

• Step Three: Read the biography and:

-Collect information about the person On going

-Complete the Biography Summary and submit: Due Nov. 17th

-Create a works cited page to acknowledge sources you are using; use a consistent format: Due Nov. 22nd

• Step Four: Synthesize information to list at least ten major events in the person’s life: Due Nov. 29th

• Step Five: Create a timeline of the famous person’s life: Due Dec. 13th

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.

• Step Six: Consider change in the person’s life and how he/she made a difference. Write a monologue that includes events, changes, and differences made in regard to his/her life: Due Dec. 20th

• Step Seven: Create a Prezi that includes the person’s name, a photo, years lived, and major contribution(s): Due Jan. 10th

• Step Eight: Memorize your monologue. You may dress as your character. You are now ready for the People Who Made a Difference presentation: Due Jan. 17th

Monologue Criteria

Monologue describes beliefs and values 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 our first chapter on weight. On Wednesday we had a few students out, but we reviewed Transitivity- a transitive relationship is one where, if A is related to B and B is related to C, then A is related to C. The ability to order three objects according to some attribute uses transitivity. We discussed how we used it on our activities and we discussed why it all makes sense.

We also completed a Think Deeply to send to Imi and Zani. The students used their writing skills to complete the question we were asked. Which is heaviest and lightest, the papaya or the coconut. We only had the two pictures to use and we also had the pennies in each picture to use as our benchmark.

The students did an excellent job figuring it out and writing about it. They all took their time to really investigate and answer the question. On Thursday I still had a few out, but the remaining students completed a chapter 1 check-up. This lets me see they understand everything we have learned in the first chapter and if there is anything they might have missed as a class. They all did an excellent job with all the new concepts and information we learned so far. I am really proud of all their hard work. Since they finished early we took a little time to dance to Gonoodle and to play one game on Sumdog. I also sent home a packet containing all the worksheets from our activities from chapter 1. I want you to see all they completed so far. Next week we won’t get the opportunity to meet because of the Thanksgiving break, but the following week we will start chapter two and all the fun activities it has for us. I can’t wait to see what Imi and Zani need help with next.

Second Grade:

This week we discussed all our findings from the great egg measuring activity. The students were asked to share their data and we discussed which measuring tool worked best for this job. The students did an excellent job sharing and talking about why they felt a certain tool was the best for the task.

The students were then asked to use their writing skills to answer a question for Dru and Teller. The detective duo wanted to know which measuring tool was the best to measure the circumference of an egg and why?

They all took their time and thought about what they wanted to write and found the best words to use to express their thoughts. They all had a good idea of why they chose that measuring tool, which is the most important part. I want them to feel comfortable with writing in math class.

I want them to be able to express why something works or doesn’t work when completing experiments. I know writing in math is a new concept for some of the students, but I think that if we work on it this year they will be pros at it by the end of the year. I look forward to seeing how far they will go once they feel comfortable with it.

Next week we will not meet because of the Thanksgiving break, but we will start a new lesson the following week. There is more to figure out about our car seats for the egg passengers. The students will even be creating their own car seats for their eggs with real eggs. Wish us luck that none break.

Third and Fourth Grade: Math Vocabulary Comic Relief

So far this year the students are really enjoying figuring out the question on 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 probability. Probability is the likelihood of something happening in the future. It is expressed as a number between zero (can never happen) to 1 (will always happen). It can be expressed as a fraction, a decimal, a percent, or as "odds". This week the students took their time and read all the information before answering the question. There were a few that missed it the first time, but the majority got it right on their first attempt. The only one that missed it didn’t put their answer in a fraction and that is why they missed it. They are all really getting the hang of this and learning all these new concepts and reviewing the ones they know.

Third Grade:

This week we took all our findings from the different configurations for the Yeti’s pet’s pen to complete the Think Deeply question. We took all the data and different size pens and were asked which was best to use and why. We discussed the different options and then wrote about the one that would give the animal the most room. After we finished we moved on to the chapter review. The review gives me a chance to see what we learned and didn’t learn throughout the chapter. On Thursday we started the next lesson with a fun activity. We went back to the team to see what they were going to explore next. We found out that Jane and the team are ready to move on to their next adventure, but first we need to learn more about area before we can complete our next mission. Math Term Definition. Area. The area of a flat, or plane figure is the number of unit squares that can be contained within it. The unit square is usually some standard unit, like a square meter, a square foot, or a square inch.

We discussed area and were ready to figure out the area of a fried egg. This one a great way to use the graph paper and draw an egg then find different ways to find the area. This gave us a chance to find area on a small scale before we move on to something much larger. Next week we won’t get to meet because of the break, but after we will continue to work on area.

Fourth Grade:

This week the students had to complete two Think Deeply questions with a partner. The students were randomly paired up to work on the two questions. These questions gave them the chance to use their logic skill and writing skills.

I wanted them to really have a great discussion on why they think their answer will work and then put it all into words to complete the questions. On Thursday we had some students that were still taking their tests in their classes so we couldn’t finish the partner discussions. Instead we took some time to play the daily challenge on setgame.com

The students really rocked this one. They did a great job finding the sets and completing all six of them. Once they found them all I let them pick a prize out of the prize box. They all really worked hard to figure them out. Once they got that done I had them answer their last Think Deeply question on their own for the next class.