Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: Thrilling Thursday!!

This week was so much fun with all the love in the air. The students had a blast at their parties on Tuesday. I know all the students are so excited to not have school Friday or Monday. I completed all my CogAT testing for kindergarten this week and it was great to get it all done before the short break. Beginning February 27th I will start with the second grade screeners. I am glad to have a week break in between them. I have included the breakdown again this week in case you missed it:

In Indiana, we identify students who qualify for high ability in reading/language arts and/or math. We have finished up part one of screening all kindergarten students for high ability with CogAT. CogAT is a test which has zero reading. It's a test that will identify your out-of-the-box thinkers . . . those who are able to make connections. Students who scored a 77+ on the screener, will now take the full test in the upcoming weeks. Remember, this is only one of two pathways into high ability. Students who score in the 95th percentile or higher on the full CogAT test, will be identified towards the end of kindergarten. They will be seen for about six weeks. For part two of the identification process, we will use the end of the year NWEA scores. NWEA will identify those students who are performing above grade level . . .are high readers; 95th percentile is used again. These students will be identified at the very end of kindergarten, so they will begin services in high ability, in first grade. Students do not need to score high on both tests and often times do not. If you have questions, please feel free to email me.

Don’t forget to keep reading for the Six Flag Six Hour Reading Program that is going on now until February 16th. Make sure to keep track on your reading log to turn in.

Important Dates:

February

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

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 teamwork. This week on the morning announcements Mr. Cammarata gave the students examples of when they need to have teamwork in their daily lives. He gave them great ideas of how they can work together to reach a goal as a team. I try to have my students work in groups or with partners to teach them the importance of teamwork and how it can help you be successful. The students in high ability do a great job working as a team and always try to hear each other to do the best as a team to reach their goal.

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 ….He’s a couch potato. The students couldn’t stop laughing at this one and I agreed. I told them all about how I heard this idiom all the time when I was little because they were commercials and shows that referred to it. They were all very interested in that. They all could recall a time when they heard this one too. I had no takers on drawing anything or designing anything. I am getting discouraged, but hopefully someone will find one that they really like and want to do something. I might have to get new prizes for the box to encourage them. Here is a hint to help you out: it involves a cat. 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 we started a new lesson and the students had a new message to decipher. They were all thrown for a loop on this one because it was kind of confusing to them. It is called 3 x 13 Array Cipher. Once I started filling mine in they got it.

All the students got all the letters filled in, but couldn’t figure out at first how to read it. Once they figured out to read down instead of across they were all jumping and dancing around. It was really cute.

I made sure they didn’t give it away to the others and they didn’t tell the answer out loud. They loved solving the mystery of what it said: Pictures can stand for sounds in words. This lead us into our next discussion about Rebus puzzles and what they are: a riddle or puzzle made up of letters, pictures, or symbols whose names sound like the parts or syllables of a word or phrase. Then I showed the students some Rebus puzzles to solve. The students had a great time figuring out each picture and what the real words were. We didn’t get to meet on Tuesday because of Valentine’s Day parties. Next week the students will share their interviews about dime stores and we will continue Rebus puzzles with a story about a dime store. The students will make connections between the dime store back then to stores today.

Second Grade:

This week we continued to read our new book Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. The students are really enjoying learning all about Opal, Winn-Dixie and her town. They got to write in their journals on both days. They got to write about what they thought about the story Franny told about the bear in her library. They also got to write about what they liked so far. They really wanted to read over the break this weekend, I gave them three chapters to read. I added up all the scores for the Jeopardy games and our big winner was Nathanael. He got to pick out a book first. I let all the students choose a book as a prize for all their hard work so far. I hope they show you what they wanted to read. Next week we will only get to meet one day, but we will continue with Winn-Dixie and Opal’s next adventure.

Third Grade:

This week we continued with the fairy tales. I printed out all their work and gave each student a set of them each to review. They didn’t know who wrote which one and could write their thoughts and ideas to help the writer out. They all spent the entire class reading through and editing each one. They were all very excited to help the writer out. We didn’t get to meet on Tuesday because of the class parties, but we will continue to finish reading and talking about the fairy tales they wrote. I will also give them a chance to make any changes they want to them.

Fourth Grade:

This week we started the new lesson that will lead us into our novel. The students and I played a vocabulary game with words to know for mysteries and detective books. The students were great and knew all the words and definitions.

We also had time on Monday to read two poems: one was about a detective and the other was a mystery. We had a class discussion and talked about what we liked and what made the poems mysteries.

Then the students broke into pairs and I helped them log onto a cool new site called Epic Books. I had a folder of mysteries and detective stories for them to choose from to read with their partner and fill out a mystery character analysis on.

Most of them got through reading their stories on Tuesday and they will finish filling out their analysis next week. We will also start the book The Westing Game.

Math

First Grade:

This week we continued with measurement and had fun figuring out the inch and we had an excellent class discussion on why it is important to have a standard measurement tool to work with. We talked about why so long ago they need to make the inch, foot, and in other countries, the centimeter.

They students talked about how things might have looked before they could measure to make things the same size. I read the book called Inch by Inch. Well they read it to me which was so awesome. They didn’t need my help at all and used teamwork to read the book.

Once we figured out the inch we completed an activity with pipe-cleaners and long beads to create our own 12 inch ruler. They had so much fun talking about it and measuring things around the room. Next week we will continue our lesson measuring with inches with some more cute activities.

Second Grade:

This week we didn’t get to meet because the students were going on their field trips. Next week we will continue the chapter called “Sleeping Bag?” The students can bring in a sleep bag or blanket to help us figure out the area of different sizes. We will also start to find the area of a tent.

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. This week was Negative Number. In mathematics, a negative number is a real number that is less than zero. Negative numbers represent opposites. If positive represents movement to the right, negative represents movement to the left.

This week the students did an excellent job. They all got it right the first time. I am very proud of their effort.

Third Grade:

This week we completed the Chapter Check-up on Wednesday. Since we did so well on the check-up, on Thursday we took a break and had some math facts fun with Sumdog.com. We played on the whiteboard against each other and we also played other schools. Next week we will start our next chapter with the Yeti. It will cover liquid volume and capacity. I can’t wait to see how we link this back to our search for the Yeti.

Fourth Grade:

This week the students continued to play “Shape Up!” I had them switch partners and play new people each day. They all did a great job working out the way to maneuver their shapes through the board.

I think everyone won at least once which meant everyone got a prize from the treasure box. Next week we will conquer our next activity with transformation. The students will move a cool shape dog through a maze to see if they can draw him in different directions and have him land the right way in the end.