Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: THUNDEROUS THURSDAY

Well I hope everyone had a great spring break. The students were all sharing stories about all their excellent adventures over the break. It was hard to get going this week, but the students did a great job getting back into it as fast as they could. Welcome Kindergarten parents to the page. This week I started with the students and they had a great time sharing and letting me learn all about them. This week was also the last week for the Jump Rope for Heart Fundraiser. I hope the kids had fun raising money for a great cause. The weather sure played tricks on us this week, but this weekend should be great.

Second Grade CogAT Packets:

All second students received their CogAT packets this week. More information about the CogAT test and results can be found here. Using your child's results, paired with Duneland's High Ability website, you can see how well your child did. No worries if they did not do well on CogAT. It shows their ability to make connections and is nothing taught in school. At this time, we are not officially informing parents of those who qualified for HA. We will save that for after we get their end of the year NWEA results. Remember: they need to only qualify through one path. (CogAT or NWEA) Not both! Please stress to your child to take their time and do their personal best on their next NWEA as these scores are used to qualify for HA. If you have any additional questions about the information please contact me to help.

Important Dates:

April

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

3 School Resumes

6 Kindergarten Round-up

7 “Jump Rope For Heart” fundraiser money due

8 26th Annual Youth Talent Showcase at CHS - 6:00 p.m.

13 Annual 4th GradeBook Bowl

14 Student Council “Disney Day” – Wear something Disney

4/17- 5/5 ISTEP Testing in 3rd & 4th grade (2nd part)

May

On May 9th, which is National Walk/Bike to School/Work Day, we will be having “300 Miles to Brummitt”. Our goal is to have every student and teacher walk to school that day. More information about this exciting activity will be coming soon. We do ask that every student has a parent permission slip on file in order to participate, so please make sure to send these back promptly once they come home.

Our last week of high ability will be the week of May 15th-May 18th. We do not see students that last week of school due to the data collection needed across all grade levels. The last week is a very busy time for our high ability department. We will be entering data, finalizing decisions and getting permission slips ready to send out for those qualifying for high ability for the 2017-2018 school year!

This week we continued learning about our Life Skills with Curiosity. This one is great because I know most students exhibit a sense of curiosity every day. They want to learn and explore the world around them. I think they want to understand people and their environment.

I know that with a sense of curiosity they will go far because the drive to comprehend will push them to seek the knowledge they need to be successful. I asked them if they understood curiosity and most were confused until I explained the feeling and need to understand. Then they were all on-board and explained times when they were very curious.

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 has a heart of gold. I think the students really liked this one because they could all remember a time when they heard it about someone they know. I let them talk about when they had heard it and why it might relate back to our life skills. They all shared that they think that it goes with kindness and caring. I agreed. I think that people with a heart of gold make the world a better place. Another week with no takers on drawing anything or designing anything. I have my fingers crossed. Here is a hint to help you out: it involves the world and heights. 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.

Click to see any of the pictures larger

Language Arts

Kindergarten:

This week I got to start with the kindergartens for both Language Arts and Math. I wanted to get to know the students so I planned a fun activity for them in both classes. This gave me a chance to introduce myself and for me to get to know them and what their interests are. I pulled out all my stickers and we created cool sticker sheets. I found out so much about what each student likes and doesn’t like. This also gave them a chance to ask me questions and get to know about me. We had a lot of fun and we also took the time to talk about connections.

The unit we will learn about in Language Arts is all about making connections. I wanted to make sure that I teach about the different types of connections so that we all feel comfortable on how to figure out what type each is. On Tuesday we added more stickers to our sheet and we got a chance to talk more about types of connections. We made a list of connections you can see and can’t see. This was a great activity to help us understand more about connections. We also discussed how we are all connecting in someway. I am very happy with how much he already knew about connections. I sent a note home about the unit and homework. This homework is only a discussion about connections in your house. The student just needs to go around the house and find connections and talk to adult about them. Next week we will talk about connections all around us. We will also learn why connections are important and how they can change.

First Grade:

This week we continued our journey through ancient Egypt and learning about their life, mummies, and Hieroglyphs. On Monday we read two more sections of our book called Hieroglyphs by Joyce Milton. We read a section of gods of the Nile and mummies. The students were really interested in the mummies.

I found a short children's video on King Tut and the unearthing of his tomb. They were hooked. We also had a chance to watch a short video called A kid explains history. They loved it and the kid is pretty funny. Here is the link: Link

On Tuesday we read the next section called Determinatives. The students loved learning more about the language. We also had a chance to go back onto the website to work on the next section. The students loved learning about life and answering all the quizzes together.

Here is the link created by a professor from the University of Manchester:Link

Next week we will continue to learn about Hieroglyphs and how they were created in ancient Egypt. We will also learn about scribes and their role in Egypt since we didn’t get to it this week.

Second Grade:

This week we continued with fun activities to go along with Because of Winn-Dixie. The students were really excited to use all they learned about the story to make connections to characters from Edward Tulane. We went over the characters from both books and talked about how some of them could be connected.

Then the students got to choose one or two from each book to write about how they are connected. On Tuesday once they finished their writing they got the chance to play the review game with each other. It is a fun board game that helps them review the story and remember all the facts. They all had a blast playing. I am very proud of how much they all remembered from the book and storyline. Next week we will begin our discussion on compare and contrast. I want to go over it all before they start watching the movie. The students will watch a little of the movie each class and then write about how it is the same or different than the book. I can’t wait to see what they think and which they like better.

Third Grade:

This week the students got to watch the last Tic Tac Toe presentation. We saved the best for last. The students presented a puppet show to us. They worked really hard to write the dialog and get the puppets ready. After they finished we talked to discuss about poetry or prose. I asked the student if they knew the difference. We then went over both before we started The Pied Piper of Hamelin. On Tuesday we finished listening to The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Then we discussed the story and what we thought. I think all the students were surprised by the ending and a few were lost. I went over what the author was trying to explain in his writing and then they got it. Next week we will finish our discussion on The Pied Piper of Hamelin. We will also see if we have enough time to start the grammar too.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued our investigation of The Westing Game. The students seemed really excited to share all they had discovered about the characters and the plot. We went over the two chapters they read from before and then we started the next chapter called The Westing Will. The students were really excited to figure what will happen next. On Tuesday we went over chapter six and seven and discussed what we thought of the will and the game that Sam Westing was asking them all to play. Some students were concerned that they didn’t catch all the clues so we discussed different theories on how Sam Westing knew how the heirs would react. We also discussed who we thought really knew Sam Westing and how they might have been related to him. I think the students really like the book so far and are ready to help solve the mystery to see who will win and become the heir of Sam Westing’s estate. Next week we will continue to be sleuths like Turtle to solve the mystery. The students need to make sure they finish chapter 8 and read chapter 9 for Monday. I also want to stress how very important it is that all the students bring their books and folders with the packets to class to keep up with clues and characters.

Math

Kindergarten:

This week I wanted to get to know the students and I wanted them to feel comfortable with me. We had a fun sticker activity. The students got to put stickers on their own sheets and I created a huge sheet as we talked. After we finished I wanted to see how high they could count so each of them got to take my sheet and see how many stickers were on it. They got close. I had 175 stickers and the high guess was 160.

They did an excellent job and now I know that they can count pretty well very high. On Thursday we had some fun PBS kids with some cool math games. We played together so I could get a feel of what the students already know. They had fun sharing and figuring out the answers. Next week we will be starting our lesson on graphs and using them to find out information and how to use them to keep track.

First Grade:

This week we continued working on measurement with the pom pom toss game. Since the students really like the game I decided to have them play a different way to practice their math measuring skills this week. All the students took turns standing on one line and throwing their pom poms to the other line. Then the other students would measure how close they got to the other line and we kept track of who got closest to the line. The students had so much fun trying to see how close they could get and they loved getting to measure for each other and see who got closest. Next week we will have a review on what we learned in this chapter before they take their chapter check-up.

Second Grade:

This week we worked on finishing our lesson called There’s always Room for One More. We finished our discussion on the tents and who could fit in each tent and then completed the Think Deeply question for the Detective Duo. The students needed to write them back letting them know who was right Dru or Teller on who could fit in the tent that is 8 feet wide and 10 feet long. The students did a great job thinking about which one of them was right and why before they wrote back to them. Next week we will start a new lesson called The Meerkat Mob. I can’t wait to see what the Detective Duo needs our help on next.

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 Remainder. Remainder is the amount left over after division.

Example: 19 cannot be divided exactly by 5. The closest you can get without going over is 3 x 5 = 15, which is 4 less than 19. So 4 is the remainder. The answer of 19 ÷ 5 is 3 with a remainder of 4, usually written "3 R 4". The students really did a great job taking their time and reading all the information before answering the question.

Third Grade:

This week we continued to work on the lesson Yummy Yeti Lemonade. We completed two Think Beyond questions. We took the time to research volume measurements that were used in colonial America. It was very interesting to learn all about volume from that time period. Then we discussed how it is similar to our system today and what was the base for trading in our numeration system. It was very interesting to research the history behind our volume systems, but we didn’t find as much information as I had hoped. On Thursday we took the final chapter check-up. Next week we will start a new adventure.

Fourth Grade:

This week we continued to work on quadrants and plotting out coordinates. The students got to work together to plot out coordinates and challenge each other to figure out their points. Then they got to completed a Think Deeply question about comparing two ordered pairs and answering how they are the same and how they are different. They are doing a great job trying to figure out the best way to answer these questions and making sure to write complete paragraphs. The students also got to challenge each other by splitting into pairs and giving each other coordinates to plot. Next week we will finish up our Think Deeply questions and take some time to complete two Think Beyond questions.