Brummitt's High Ability Blog Spot: Ending Strong....New Beginnings

Our classroom motto is: Kindness Matters

Schedules Continue:
Mondays and Tuesdays - English/LA
Wednesdays and Thursdays - Math
Friday, December 21st - End of 2nd grading period (where is the time going?!?!?)
Monday, December 24th - Monday, January 7th - Winter Break *Note I had the wrong date! This is the correct date for return*

This weeks theme: Ending strong, keeping focus-- all while having fun!

Fourth Grade Language Arts:

Writing is hard work. Writing takes time. Slowing down the process IS the product. It may seem like we are taking so much time to write these How To/Procedure papers--and we ARE! But, that's the beauty. To become better writers, our children need to read a lot and write a lot. Taking time to stretch out the process, especially with the peer editing, is so crucial to helping the kids really solidify that good writers read and good readers look at stories as writers. I keep reminding the kids that we will have a written product, but we need to learn AND enjoy the process.....the journey.....the hard work. More to come!

Fourth Grade Math:
To end our Frolicking Frogs we did our "Think Deeply" and we attempted to make Origami frogs. It was a nice way to end the unit on understanding and identifying improper fractions, mixed numbers and renaming and comparing fractions using common denominators. Our Think Deeply had us look at Daddy Long Legs. The master jumper of all the frogs. He makes three jumps: 1 1/3 feet, 5/12's of a foot and 1 3/4 feet. The children had to label on a number line where these jumps occurred with only 1 1/3 benchmark labeled. The thinking is one thing, but as we all know, being able to explain that thinking is another. This is one the most crucial steps for our HA learners who often do much of their work in their heads. Communicating that thinking will benefit them for many years to come.

Learning the fine art of origami is a treat. We worked hard to make origami frogs that actually jump--maybe not like Daddy Long Legs, but they do flip. I am sending home the directions and some extra paper for them to have fun with over break. I also sent a Christmas Sweater logic worksheet--just for fun!

All of this work is leading us to:
1. Developing new strategies for comparing and ordering fractions (besides common denominators)
and
2. Changing mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa

Second Grade Language Arts:

Let's see if I can get through this without shedding some tears!

We are launching our novel study of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I told the children it's like a Book Club! They loved that and were eagerly sharing stories of books they have already written with their friends. Each reader got their Prediction Journals and a picture of the cover of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We had a lively discussion predicting what the story may be about, who Edward Tulane may be and even what the word miraculous might mean. We talked about the term journey and the kids were so brilliant--they already made connections to El Dorado and said that maybe the rabbit was like the Knight. Ideas were juicy and flowing. The first predictions they had to make dealt with the very ideas of: Who is Edward Tulane? What is he like? Where is he going on his journey? What does miraculous mean. The discussion leads to ideas which leads to more ideas and writing. Additional work on vocabulary was done. We used a vocabulary map to discover the word miraculous. We used a dictionary to look up the word. The boys were very interested in the origin of the word. Unfortunately, our dictionaries weren't sophisticated enough to provide that! I will have to look that up for next time. Great work this week!

Reading like Writers and Writing like Readers

Second Grade Math:

Measuring in centimeters

We are back at those "Think Deeply" worksheets. All of this is preparing us for those crash dummy egg tests which everyone is waiting patiently to attempt. I piqued interest this week by showing them plastic eggs and asking them what we could use to measure around the egg. I asked them what the measurement around distance of a circle or curved surface is called. Several guesses were given but a new term--circumference-- was learned. I read a fax from our two Meerkats--Dru and Teller who explain that they bought a fabulous new car. The meerkats let us know that they need our help. They are so tiny that they need car seats to be extra safe. They invite and ask our mathematicians to help them figure out which car seat is the safest. All as an introduction to measuring their eggs and how to use that to make a car seat for them. Crash tests are coming soon!

Third Grade Language Arts:

Our lesson this week is focusing on Character traits--and not just any old traits. These are traits that tell the reader who a character is by their ACTIONS, not just their feelings. I read aloud the story, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. A gorgeous Caldecott winner that tells the touching legend of a girl who is only happy living with the wild horses near her tribe. Looking through the lens of Interactions (our theme), we discussed how the girl interacted with herself, her people and the horses. We are filling out a chart that looks at the characters in the text, the specific interactions they have and the inferred character trait. Then using the Hamburger Model of writing, the girls will write a paragraph using text supported ideas to describe the character traits of the Girl in the story. Actually, a beautiful story to read during this time of the year.

Third Grade Math:

Our trek into the Himalayas to find our Yeti begins! We have joined the Yeti Institute of Discovery and our sole purpose is to search for any real evidence of the Yeti. Our Sherpas, Raj and Patir are excited to confirm that the footprints we discover are too large to be human and match photographs they have seen. Putting on our mathematical hats and pulling on that part of our brains, we will work hard to complete our mission. However, first, we must visualize 300 yards using our yardsticks. Remember, 300 yards was the distance that in 1925, a Greek photographer, N.A. Tombazi noticed the creature and was unable to capture a photo. This visualization will help us imagine the distance and begin to contemplate ascending Mount Everest to an altitude of 17,000 feet where a Yeti was seen in 1921!

Desperately trying not to disturb the rest of the school, with our measuring tools in tow, we measured 100 yards from the music back to the HA room. It was quite a task, but not too much for our newly appointed Yeti Institute of Discovery mathematicians.