Spring Fling Friday

Happy Spring!! Bring on the sunshine and flowers!

I am happy to say that all the craziness of testing and moving schedules around is over!



Second Grade High Ability Identification Process:




Second Grade CogAT Testing:

We have now finished up all the testing for second grade CogAT. Originally all students were screened and those who received a 77+ percentile rank, took the full. As a parent you may be wondering , "Should I be worried if my child did not take the full CogAT test?" No. This is only one of the two ways to qualify for high ability. Please remember, CogAT is a test with zero reading. It is a test which shows how students think. It often identifies your out-of-the-box thinkers. There is no way to prepare for it, nor does it test things that are taught in class. It's just the way the student thinks. We have the data, but will not make any final decisions until the NWEA data is in.

Second Grade NWEA Testing:


There are two scores listed , but yours will only have one.

The window for the NWEA test will open April 19th. NWEA data from the end of the year is an achievement test. Students who are doing well in the classroom often score high on this test. There is a big change going from second to third grade is the "Language Arts" section. Students need to score in the 95th percentile or higher, on not only the "Reading" section, but also the "Language Arts" section. We do a lot of writing and reading in our third and fourth grade curriculum. The LA section is not available to kindergarten and first. A good suggestion that I give parents who are anxiously waiting their child's test scores, look back at past NWEA scores from this year. Look at their Fall and Winter scores to see how they've done this year so far. The score you need to look at, is the middle one similar to the highlighted snip above. The middle, bold number needs to be 95 or higher in order to be considered for HA. The number of students identified will be around ten percent of the second grade class. Any questions that you may have, please do not hesitate to ask, as I am sure it can be a bit overwhelming.. I'm here to help and answer any questions or concerns that you may have. Even if I do not know the answer, I can find out from my team. The bottom line, is  we want our kids to be where they need to be! Students are looked at each and every year for high ability. Just because they were not identified in elementary school, does not mean they will not be identified later.

High Ability Summer School:

Brochures went home with the information about high ability summer school. It will be taught at Bailly. The students really enjoy the theme of Old England. It's hard to believe, but it's time to start planning your summer to see if you can schedule all those fun activities and educational camps. It will run Friday, May 31st-Thursday June 21st. If you have any overlap, no worries. The program is very adaptable. It is offered to all current high ability students grades 1st-3rd grade. Please fill out the form and turn it into the office by: Friday, April 27th. 

Now onto a peek at our week!

 

First grade- Punctuation Mark Emoticons We used all of the punctuation marks and other symbols to make a few emoticons. The kids got to make it however they wanted and decide what the emoticon could mean. We discussed emoticons and how they are used in texting. We deciphered what they mean, and tried to write a message using only emoticons. After break, we will be delving into using a reading analyzer to analyze poems about punctuation.

First grade Math- Three loop puzzle game
We only met once this week due to testing, and we worked on

creating and solving three loop puzzles. We worked on the whiteboard with three huge loops and their intersecting parts. It was tricky for them to get all the loops filled in, but they enjoyed the challenge. After break we are starting a new lesson about shapes of all sorts which will build on the skills we learned about attributes in this lesson.Second grade : Did not meet due to 2nd grade CogAt testing.. We will continue reading our book after soring break. I am sure they are all antsy to see what happens next!

Second grade Math: only met one time due to testing.

We continued tracing faces of shapes to prepare for the next part of our lesson. We will continue with our lesson about making a shape gallery floor pattern after break.



Third grade- Black Beauty

We read through chapter 6 and answered some journal questions aswell as vocabulary maps for several unknown words. I am excited that I found a person who has horse gear like bridles and bits. I am going to have these items to show the class after break so they can see how these items are used. It is hard to visualize these items, and I am excited to have this show and tell. Third grade Math- Hundreds charts

I am happy to say that we completed our lesson. The students worked on the Think and Beyond cards this week. They made hundreds charts using from 700-900. They traded with partners and had them solve their puzzles. They then solved a puzzle using only the numbers 700-729. They had to put the numbers in the puzzle and see how many different puzzles they could make. The students have done a nice job on this lesson and we will be moving on to arrow patterns when we return from break.



Fourth grade- Presentations
The ladies in this group did a great job on presenting their bio projects. We used Monday as a day to memorize and check over our work, and then the big day was here. They were all happy when the presentations were complete. They all did a great job on all aspects of the project. I will send an email when these presentations are up and ready to view.
Fourth grade math- Chapter review

We reviewed our vocabulary for the past lesson by playing a I have who has with the terms and meanings. The next day we took our chapter 1 check up. The students did a great job! I will return these after break. We will be starting a new lesson on constructing meaning for addition and subtraction of fractions that can be added together to equal the sum of one whole. We will start with combining fractional amounts using models and drawings and work to develop their own algorithms.


Happy Birthday to Bella! We share the same birthday! I hope you have an amazing day!



                                               
Have a fabulous spring break! I am staying home and hoping to get some projects completed that are long overdue. I know that many of you are taking trips to far away places... have fun and enjoy. 

Mrs. P