Thinking Thursday

Happy Thinking Thursday!
I hope everyone enjoyed a great fall break! It was a cold but fun filled family time for me at the Dunes! I hope no matter what your plans were, you got in a little bit of family fun!  I apologize that there are no pictures this week. My phone has been on the fritz and I am getting it fixed.

We have been giving our brains quite the workout this week in all grade levels!      

FIRST GRADE
First grade language arts students have been working on the hamburger model for their writing organization, and created their first persuasive writing paragraph! All students did an amazing job! We also talked a bit about editing our work. We checked to make sure we had a capital letter to begin each sentence, as well as a period or other punctuation to end the sentence. We made sure our reasons made sense when we read them with the introduction, and that our conclusion ended with a reference to our "evidence" and our overall "claim".  The kids enjoyed coming up with the reasons for the their claim" All first graders should learn pig latin ."
  We will be leaving this fun language behind next week as we move on to word ladders.

In first grade math we played one last game of Grupo. They are doing a great job learning to recognize the four items that are alike in their shapes.  Thursday we started the Thinking Deeply portion of the lesson where the kids have to put in writing what they have learned and answer a specific question. This is still tricky for these guys; but we work through it together. They all did a good job telling the 4 things that were the same about their shape. It was either the same shape, had the same # of sides, same vertices, or made out of the same shapes. We talked a bit about how some shapes could be the same if we moved part of the shape it would match... this leads us into our next lesson about "what happened" ? Our next game that we play with shapes

Second grade
Second graders were busy with Edward Tulane. They are into the book hook, line and sinker! When we read a chapter aloud in class you can hear a pin drop, and as soon as I close the book, they are all asking "Do we have reading homework?".   They are all doing a great job with vocabulary mapping as well as the sentence analyzers that we do in class. They have to label all the words in the sentence with the correct part of speech. We have the most difficulty with adverbs and adjectives.
We finished chapter 8 and the kids have homework to answer 4 journal questions about the reading. They are again making predictions about what is happening in the book. I have heard several students tell me that they are reading Edward to their parents when they have homework. I am so pleased that the students get to share this novel with you. Thank you for taking the time to let your child read to you.  Reading aloud builds fluency, helps with comprehension of text, as well as it is enjoyable and relaxing.  There are big happenings in chapter 8 with Edward....As always, thank you for making sure your child gets their homework completed and turned in.

Second grade math whizzes were discussing why mathematicians write this week as well as we were working on solving our think deeply questions. The  students have done a nice job working together and helping each other with this lesson. There has been a lot of cutting and gluing, and sometimes that can get some of them frustrated. It was nice to see that when I was helping others, we had some leaders step in and help those that were struggling. The end of our lesson is nearing as we did the Think Deeply question The kids really get into being able to come up the to the white board to write on their sentence  strips!  The class also fills out a think sheet  that is the same at their desk.  I was so happy and excited today that when we got to the "We Understand" portion, as one student gave me a gold star answer.  " We understand that you can use several techniques to find the lines of symmetry in a shape!!! " Way to go Whiz kids!

Third grade 

Third graders have started learning about Beatrix Potter, her life and how her love of small woodland animals as well as nature, writing and art made her such as successful author of children's literature.  We read the book Peter Rabbit as an example of her works to introduce ourselves to her many classics.  We learned that she originally wanted to make greeting cards with her paintings of woodland animals, but after being turned away she wrote a story to her friends child about Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and of course, Peter.   Once that was published, she became a successful author writing 23 classics in all.  After reading a book together and talking about the interactions that she had with nature and woodland creatures, we played a KAHOOT game on Tuesday to see how much we had learned!  It was a fun way to end the day and the stidents all knew the answers! We will continue learning about Beatrix Potter and her classics next week as we explore Mrs. Tiggy-winkle and other stories

Third grade math did not meet this week due to the early dismissal days for conferences. 

Fourth grade

Fourth graders are reviewing the use of Paul's reasoning wheel to help them make sense of an article about Tecumseh. They are struggling a bit so it will take another day to work through it together. We then will be using the same article to make a timeline. The students will work together to find important dates in his life that made a difference. This will help them learn to prioritize the dates in articles and books for their timelines for their bio projects. The girls should be working on their summary pages at home starting this week. Summary pages are the first thing due for the project on NOV 21st. This is the day before Thanksgiving break.

We also discussed how they should find reputable sources for their project. We went over what websites are good sources, and what websites you should stay away from. Please make sure the girls are writing down their sources as they work on their summaries. 

Fourth grade math minds are computing and comparing jumps from frogs in the frolicking frog contest. We are working with adding machine tape to make really long (3ft) fraction strips! Then the students are folding the strips and labeling accordingly. We are using both mixed numbers and improper fractions.  We have reviewed how to convert a mixed number into an improper fraction and vice versa.  We finished all of our strips today and got to answer the questions in our workbooks. We then compared all the frogs and figured  which frog had the longest jump out of all! This group is always hard working and tries their best. They work very well together in group work.

 

 

 

This week's challenge is:

Give the place value of 5 in the number 254,879.  

 

 

Word NERDS Unite!

This weeks challenge is

What where was Beatrix Potter born, and in what year?

Good Luck!

 

 

 

 

 

11/3- No school

11/7- VIP media night for book fair

11/8- picture retakes

11/9- PTO meeting

11/13-11/17-Christmas for Kids (whiffer sniffer sale)

11/22-11/24

- No school Thanksgiving break

 

 

Remember to set your clocks back 1 hr for daylight savings time!

 

 

Have an amazing weekend!

Mrs. P