Begin Your Month with the End in Mind:
- Sunday, November 11th - Veterans Day
- Monday, November 12th - Veteran's Day Program, also begins the week long sale of Whiffer Sniffers/Christmas for Kids Fundraiser!
- Tuesday, November 13th - Body Safety Parent Program from 6:00 PM- 7:00 PM
- Wednesday, November 14th - Picture retakes and Body Safety Student Presentations, meet with HA Math
- Thursday, November 15th - Bagels with Bolinger from 9:30 AM -10:30 AM, meet with HA Math
- Friday, November 16th - Read-a-thon Kicks off, Student Council "Spirit Day"
- Wednesday, November 21st - Thanksgiving Break
- Thursday, November 22nd - Thanksgiving Day
- Friday, November 23rd - Thanksgiving Break
- Tuesday, November 27th - Student Council Meets 2:30-3:00
- Wednesday, November 28th - Meet with HA LA
- Thursday, November 29th - Meet with HA LA
- Friday, November 30th - Student Council "Spirit Day"
Welcome Board:
A majority of the students remembered our procedures for coming in. They checked their rock in and read our message board. Wednesday they were asked to take a bow if they like eLearning days while the others did five jumping jacks if they didn't really care for them. I had quite a few who asked if they could do both because they said there were things they liked and things they didn't. Of course! On Thursday, they pair/shared with someone to tell their favorite food from Thanksgiving. At the end of class, students were kind enough to offer to set the rocks up for the next class. They make different designs with the rocks to welcome the incoming class. One group even alphabetized the rocks which I thought was unique. It's appreciated.
Posting for Brummitt's HA Position:
We are still in search of someone to fill the HA position at Brummitt. If you know of anyone interested . . . . here's the link for the posting where you'll find more information. (You'll scroll down for this specific HA posting.) Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!
Fourth Grade LA:
The high ability language arts units are taught under the umbrella of a concept. This broad and overreaching concept will be what each individual lesson and activity will fall under. For fourth grade, it's the concept of systems. They were given chart paper and markers to draw a concept map for all the examples of systems they could think of. Having such small groups, allows me to dig in with their thoughts. One student said, "a system is a series of things you do to get something done." Brilliant! They did a great job of coming up with individual systems as well as larger examples of systems. As we go on, they will discover that a family and editing a paper is part of a bigger system. I had them share four of their favorite examples before we came up with a class definition of a system. I then introduced Rube Goldberg who was a cartoonist and inventor known for his drawings of unnecessarily complicated machines that performed a simple task. I showed them a video of one of his machines. They were fascinated. See for yourself here. We talked about the relationship of a machine to a system before coming up with generalizations about systems. They needed to apply to all and not just some systems. One excellent generalization they came up with was efficient or chaotic. They said that their classroom is very efficient system, yet when they have a sub it may be somewhat chaotic. I'd say they have a firm grasp of systems. On Thursday, we read Patricia Polacco's book Thunder Cake. They listed the systems they heard as we read. It showed a family's system of calming a grandchild's anxiety, so it was a system within a system. We worked with another concept map of what it takes to be a successful student. We'll pick that up next time we meet.
Second Grade LA:
The high ability language arts units are taught under the umbrella of a concept. This broad and overreaching concept will be what each individual lesson and activity will fall under. For second grade, it's the concept of connections. We used card companions to break into two groups of three. Ask them what card companions are! Each group was given pairs of items (written on paper), it was their job to group them as they saw fit. Students were finding connections among connections. These kiddos worked wonderfully together. I just loved hearing them talk through their thoughts. They shared their ideas with their teammates and supported why this should go in this category. I provided them with sticky notes to help organize and label their categories. As I walked around, I noticed that a lot of similar titles showed up, but others were quite different which is great. As long as they were able to articulate and explain their "why" is was perfectly fine. At the end of day one, each group had a chance to present their finished product. Funny, because the opposite group would say aloud, "Oh, I can see that. We put it in a different category, but I see how you put it there." Day two it was time to analyze and compare their ideas. Each student wrote a Venn Diagram on their desk using a dry erase marker. They then went back and forth between the two connection posters to write down similarities and differences. (funny: I had one student say, "Alexa, how do you spell emotional?", how times have changed . . .) Drawing the diagrams proved to be the most difficult task, after that, their ideas flowed. They talked to each other and explained as they were writing which was great to hear. We then came together at the end to talk connection generalizations. Three ideas which cover all connections. I went through each and they used their examples to illustrate the fact. For example, all connections stay the same or change over time. They talked about how the food category would definitely change over time because the food would rot. Definitely.
Third Grade LA:
The high ability language arts units are taught under the umbrella of a concept. This broad and overreaching concept will be what each individual lesson and activity will fall under. For third grade, it's the concept of interactions. Using card companions, I broke my group of nine into three groups of three. Ask them how this works! They were given ten minutes to brainstorm and write examples of Interactions. I needed to remind them that both parties needed to be involved to be an interaction. It's not a list of cause and effect. A few had some questions to clarify which was great! Students started drawing their concept map with interactions in the middle. From there they drew offshoots of examples. Listing just 5-10 breaks just the surface. I asked that they list 20 to really dig in and understand the concept They did just that! We had time to then categorize theirs lists. The girls had fun with this making a key and labeling each. Many had a category within a category! They needed to change their marker colors, of course. On day two, I pulled different examples from their charts and put them into one chart which listed the generalizations of interactions. (accidental/purposeful, positive/negative, fleeting/deep and lasting) Several took turns at the doc cam as we went through each example. Our first task was to decided if it was an interaction or not. After crossing several of our examples off, we went back and looked at why or what they had in common. We decided that many were cause and effect because two people were not involved. They also discovered that they can have an interaction with their pet. From there, we circled which generalization each one was. This group has so many fun stories and examples of how it could be both or how it depends on the situation. They are exactly right, but we needed to speed things up towards the end. Bottom line is they get it . . . they understand what this unit is based on and I couldn't be happier.
Posting for Brummitt's HA Position:
We are still in search of someone to fill the HA position at Brummitt. If you know of anyone interested . . . . here's the link for the posting where you'll find more information. (You'll scroll down for this specific HA posting.) Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!Fourth Grade LA:
The high ability language arts units are taught under the umbrella of a concept. This broad and overreaching concept will be what each individual lesson and activity will fall under. For fourth grade, it's the concept of systems. They were given chart paper and markers to draw a concept map for all the examples of systems they could think of. Having such small groups, allows me to dig in with their thoughts. One student said, "a system is a series of things you do to get something done." Brilliant! They did a great job of coming up with individual systems as well as larger examples of systems. As we go on, they will discover that a family and editing a paper is part of a bigger system. I had them share four of their favorite examples before we came up with a class definition of a system. I then introduced Rube Goldberg who was a cartoonist and inventor known for his drawings of unnecessarily complicated machines that performed a simple task. I showed them a video of one of his machines. They were fascinated. See for yourself here. We talked about the relationship of a machine to a system before coming up with generalizations about systems. They needed to apply to all and not just some systems. One excellent generalization they came up with was efficient or chaotic. They said that their classroom is very efficient system, yet when they have a sub it may be somewhat chaotic. I'd say they have a firm grasp of systems. On Thursday, we read Patricia Polacco's book Thunder Cake. They listed the systems they heard as we read. It showed a family's system of calming a grandchild's anxiety, so it was a system within a system. We worked with another concept map of what it takes to be a successful student. We'll pick that up next time we meet.Second Grade LA:
The high ability language arts units are taught under the umbrella of a concept. This broad and overreaching concept will be what each individual lesson and activity will fall under. For second grade, it's the concept of connections. We used card companions to break into two groups of three. Ask them what card companions are! Each group was given pairs of items (written on paper), it was their job to group them as they saw fit. Students were finding connections among connections. These kiddos worked wonderfully together. I just loved hearing them talk through their thoughts. They shared their ideas with their teammates and supported why this should go in this category. I provided them with sticky notes to help organize and label their categories. As I walked around, I noticed that a lot of similar titles showed up, but others were quite different which is great. As long as they were able to articulate and explain their "why" is was perfectly fine. At the end of day one, each group had a chance to present their finished product. Funny, because the opposite group would say aloud, "Oh, I can see that. We put it in a different category, but I see how you put it there." Day two it was time to analyze and compare their ideas. Each student wrote a Venn Diagram on their desk using a dry erase marker. They then went back and forth between the two connection posters to write down similarities and differences. (funny: I had one student say, "Alexa, how do you spell emotional?", how times have changed . . .) Drawing the diagrams proved to be the most difficult task, after that, their ideas flowed. They talked to each other and explained as they were writing which was great to hear. We then came together at the end to talk connection generalizations. Three ideas which cover all connections. I went through each and they used their examples to illustrate the fact. For example, all connections stay the same or change over time. They talked about how the food category would definitely change over time because the food would rot. Definitely.Third Grade LA:
The high ability language arts units are taught under the umbrella of a concept. This broad and overreaching concept will be what each individual lesson and activity will fall under. For third grade, it's the concept of interactions. Using card companions, I broke my group of nine into three groups of three. Ask them how this works! They were given ten minutes to brainstorm and write examples of Interactions. I needed to remind them that both parties needed to be involved to be an interaction. It's not a list of cause and effect. A few had some questions to clarify which was great! Students started drawing their concept map with interactions in the middle. From there they drew offshoots of examples. Listing just 5-10 breaks just the surface. I asked that they list 20 to really dig in and understand the concept They did just that! We had time to then categorize theirs lists. The girls had fun with this making a key and labeling each. Many had a category within a category! They needed to change their marker colors, of course. On day two, I pulled different examples from their charts and put them into one chart which listed the generalizations of interactions. (accidental/purposeful, positive/negative, fleeting/deep and lasting) Several took turns at the doc cam as we went through each example. Our first task was to decided if it was an interaction or not. After crossing several of our examples off, we went back and looked at why or what they had in common. We decided that many were cause and effect because two people were not involved. They also discovered that they can have an interaction with their pet. From there, we circled which generalization each one was. This group has so many fun stories and examples of how it could be both or how it depends on the situation. They are exactly right, but we needed to speed things up towards the end. Bottom line is they get it . . . they understand what this unit is based on and I couldn't be happier.
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