Friday Friday Friday!!

This week was full of fun activities with lots going on here at Brummitt. This week’s blog will be short and sweet since I had testing all week including today and wanted to try to meet with all my classes.

I started the CogAT testing for all the Kindergarten classes this week. Monday there were only a little I-Pad issue with connecting to the internet, but after that we had smooth sailing. I didn’t get to meet with one class, but I did get to see all the other classes. The students did a great job listening and doing their best. I am very proud at how hard they worked. I will continue testing next week to finish up the screening and then will have the full testing the week after that. Then in March I will be CogAT testing second grade as well.

February 2 was Groundhog Day and Phil the famous groundhog says there will be six more weeks of winter this year.I hope he isn’t right, but if he is we should get ready for more snow. Here are some facts about Groundhog Day:  

Origins of Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. While the exact origins of Groundhog Day are not known, the tradition is believed to have started in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s as an annual custom of settlers of German descent. Similar folk beliefs in which an animal — such as a badger or a sacred bear — predicts the weather can be traced to other parts of Europe and are presumed to be rooted in the early Christian holiday of Candlemas.

Interpreting What the Groundhog Sees

According to folklore, if the groundhog sees its shadow on Groundhog Day, it will retreat back into its burrow to hibernate for an additional six weeks of winter. If the groundhog does not see its shadow, it will emerge from its burrow, signifying an imminent end to winter and an early start to spring.

The Largest Celebration in the United States

In the United States, Groundhog Day is celebrated throughout the country, with the largest celebration held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney Phil, the official weather prognosticating groundhog, has made some 115 official predictions to date, since the first official celebrations began in 1886.

More Web Resources for Teaching About Groundhog DayIn addition to the Scholastic lesson plans, activities, and reproducibles listed below, you can find groundhog-related games, crafts, and other fun activities on the official Punxsutawney Groundhog Club website. For fast facts and other information you can use to teach about the groundhog, visit the National Geographic website.

Six Flag Six Hour Reading Program is going on now to February 16th. Make sure to log your reading hours to turn in.

Important Dates:

February

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

1 Early Dismissal

2 PTO Meeting 2:30pm

3 Student Council Sports Day wear a jersey or sports clothing

14 Valentine Parties

16 Deadline to return Six Flag Six Hour Reading Club form

17 No School Reserved Snow Day #1

20 No School

24 PTO Talent Show at CMS @ 6pm

27th to March 3rd “Jar Wars”- Bring in your spare change! Boys vs Girls

This week we continued learning about our Life Skills with trustworthy. On the announcements this week, Mr. Cammarata gave the students examples of when they need to show they are trustworthy in school. He told them of how they can earn trust everyday by showing how well they can be in lunchroom and around the school. I think that the students really listened to him and his advice to help them become better students and people. I always enjoy listening to all his advice because it is so important to their success.

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 ….She’s down in the dumps. The students were confused by this picture because the girl had a little smile as she sat in the dump. I explained that the bird was trying to cheer her up. The students did understand the saying though. They could all think of a time when they felt down in the dumps and I agreed. I had no takers on drawing anything or designing anything, but I am hopeful for someone to try soon. Here is a hint to help you out: it involves the letter Z. I posted the picture for the next one on Thursday so students can stop by and see it. I also have the picture posted on the side panel of the blog to view.

Language Arts

First Grade:

This week the students started a new lesson with a new secret message to decipher. The were all really excited to complete it. It was a no space cipher. They all did an excellent job solving it. The message read: Punctuation helps us make sense of what we read.

This led into what we were studying this lesson, which is punctuation and how important it is when writing and reading. But before we dove into punctuation I wanted the students to share their emoticons they created last week. They all got up in front of the class and had us guess at which ones they created. They were so cute giving us hints and clues to figure it out. On Tuesday we finished up the emoticons and then it was all about punctuation. I read poems on The Comma, The Period. The Question Mark? And The Exclamation Mark! The students really like discussing each poem and why they are important to writing. They all loved the poems and were reading along with me.  They all agreed how important each one is to writing and we wouldn’t know what was going on and how things were meant to be understood. Then the students each chose one poem to complete a reading analyzer on. Next week we will go over them and discuss them as a class. We will also read a cool book that uses punctuation to make the story very interesting.

 

Second Grade:

 This week we continued to play Jeopardy and test their knowledge of the book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. On Monday it was very competitive and the students were ready to play to win. At the end of Monday it was anyone’s game, but on Tuesday a few students lost their momentum and fell behind. At the end Nathanael crawled ahead with a few 50 point answer that the others didn’t know and helped him win the game. Ava got second place and did a great job. All the students have been doing so well with this and we are ready to go over parts of speech next week and start our new book on Tuesday.

Third Grade:

 This week the students got a chance to work on their fairy tales. They all came in ready to write, but a few got distracted and had to be reminded to keep writing. They were all really excited with their ideas and were wanting to share them with the other, but I told them to wait until everyone is done writing theirs. They can all access them at home through their google accounts. Next week they will get to work on them some more and we will work on parts of speech to review before our next lesson.

      

Fourth Grade:

This week was great for all the students that completed their presentations. I am so proud of all their work. They all did an excellent job sharing with us and giving us a look into their person. Please make sure you look at the presentations. I filmed them and have them posted on the page labeled 2016-2017 Bio Presentations on the right hand side of the blog. We have one student that still needs to complete their presentation and that will happen on Monday. Next week we will also complete a few exercises with parts of speech and review that before we start our novel. I am really excited to start the book and I hope they like it as much as I do.

Math

First Grade:

This week we  finished up our chapter with a chapter check-up and the students rocked it out with all their math skills. They all did a great job. We completed a little review and they got to work on Wednesday. I graded all the tests after class and I am very proud of all they have learned. They all know about area and perimeter. They can explain it to each other and can share how to find it. I didn’t get to meet with them on Thursday morning because I gave CogAT tests, but we will be back on track next week with a new chapter on measuring and I know they will be ready to learn and use their math skills to get each activity done.

Second Grade:

 This week we started a new chapter called There's always room for one more! On Wednesday I read the fax from the detective duo asking for our help with their next adventure.  They have students coming to visit them and they need to make sure they have enough room for them to stay on the grounds of their school.

 They needed our help to figure out how much room each teacher and student would need for a sleeping area. The students paired up to figure out their estimates and work to see how much space a person might need. I gave each group one foot by one foot scrapbook pages to use to figure out how big they wanted theirs to be. Next week the groups will share what they came up with and discuss how they found their answers.

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 Improper Fractions. An improper fraction is a fraction where the numerator (the top number) is greater than or equal to the denominator (the bottom number). In other words, it is top-heavy. This week the students rocked it. They all did a great job. They got it right the first time. I am so proud of how great they all did. Lots of them made their baskets too. I hope we can keep up this momentum and they can all do it again next week.

Third Grade:

 This week we started a new lesson called Can the Yeti come to school? On Wednesday we finished up our think beyond cards from the last lesson and we were ready to start the new one. We had to see if the school would have enough room for the Yeti to fit. We read the background information on what the students at the institute of Yeti research had received from the state inspector on how much room each student and teacher needs for it to be a safe environment which is 20 square feet per person.  

 First we needed to figure out how much 20 square feet was? We discussed it and thought we had a good idea of it. Then we got 1 foot by 1 foot squares to see what kind of rectangles we could make with 20 square feet. We found one that we felt would be best, a 4 x 5, but would it be big enough for the Yeti? Next week we will continue to work on finding the right size large enough for the Yeti and creating arrays to help us figure it out.

Fourth Grade:

This week we reviewed our chapter on transformation. We reviewed rotation with an activity where the students had to practice moving a shape clockwise and counterclockwise. They had to draw it after they moved it 90, 180, and 270 degrees. On Thursday we reviewed the vocabulary for this chapter with a fun exercise.  Then I explained our next awesome game called Shape Up! This game is very complicated, but so much fun for the students to challenge each other. I put it up on the whiteboard to help give the instructions. Now they will be ready to play next week.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Lutterman