Upcoming Events
CogAT Testing in Kindergarten and Second Grade
February 4-????: Kinder screener
February 12-23: Full CogAT for Kinder for those that meet the criteria
February 26- March 9: ISTEP+ testing Part 1
March 4: Second grade screener for all Second Grade
March 18-April 4: Full CogAT for Second Grade for those that meet the criteria
Fourth Grade Language Arts:
This week we are started the Westing Game. The kids will be required to read a few chapters a week (4 spread over the week). This week we are introduced to the characters and beginning events. The main theme of this story is that characters change over time. We will look at these character changes in terms of what causes the change, how the change affect others, and how this theme is essential to the plot of this mystery.
The children will be bringing home vocabulary, comprehension and their Detective notebooks and will need to bring those to our lessons each Monday and Tuesday. I will be looking for them to answer their comprehension questions in complete sentences using the PQA method. When they are writing Chapter Notes, they may use bullets for important details, however, it should be legible and complete. I showed them how to pick out the important ideas to include in their Chapter notes, however, we may need to revisit this skill throughout our novel study. I want them to be well prepared for Intermediate school.
This week we are started the Westing Game. The kids will be required to read a few chapters a week (4 spread over the week). This week we are introduced to the characters and beginning events. The main theme of this story is that characters change over time. We will look at these character changes in terms of what causes the change, how the change affect others, and how this theme is essential to the plot of this mystery.
The children will be bringing home vocabulary, comprehension and their Detective notebooks and will need to bring those to our lessons each Monday and Tuesday. I will be looking for them to answer their comprehension questions in complete sentences using the PQA method. When they are writing Chapter Notes, they may use bullets for important details, however, it should be legible and complete. I showed them how to pick out the important ideas to include in their Chapter notes, however, we may need to revisit this skill throughout our novel study. I want them to be well prepared for Intermediate school.
Fourth Grade Math:
This week we are all about representing the different ways the whole can be divided into shapes that are not congruent. Each division must have the same area, but be different shapes. The story of the Jumping frogs has us designing headlines for the local paper. Each area of the newspaper has to have 3 headlines. Using fractional parts, the children had to design the headlines to fit into the total area of the page. The kids also had time to work with tangram pieces again and build shapes with the lines and without.
On Thursday, we used grid paper to design newspaper articles using fractions. The children had to determine how much space each article got on the front page of the newspaper using the predetermined fraction. The kids were fast and doing the math in their heads! All thinking was then recorded. Once the newspapers were designed, the children had to determine, by comparing, fractions which frog jumped the furthest. This was easy work for them and they enjoyed using grid paper and smelly markers.
Second Grade Language Arts:
We are continuing to develop our understanding of theme. We are starting to see that Edward Tulane is making changes and this change will lead to new character traits. Asking questions while we read, helps us learn the characters point of view, consequences of characters actions and what the purpose of the story is truly about. I had my first moment of tears when I read aloud to the kids this week. Books can be moving in that way.
The novel contains several themes involving loss and recovery, kindness and compassion, and the journey to self-discovery. The main theme can be summarized by a quote from the book: "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless."- The old doll.
We are continuing to develop our understanding of theme. We are starting to see that Edward Tulane is making changes and this change will lead to new character traits. Asking questions while we read, helps us learn the characters point of view, consequences of characters actions and what the purpose of the story is truly about. I had my first moment of tears when I read aloud to the kids this week. Books can be moving in that way.
The novel contains several themes involving loss and recovery, kindness and compassion, and the journey to self-discovery. The main theme can be summarized by a quote from the book: "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless."- The old doll.
We also analyzed another sentence! We looked at the parts of speech and sentence level (phrases and clauses)! Much better this time. I loved how the kids are starting to look at all sentences in this way and are reading aloud sentences from the story we could use to analyze--unsolicited.
Please have the children read through Chapter 13 by Monday! If they have finished the book or are past Chapter 13, have them read two more chapters over the weekend. Thanks!
Second Grade Math:
Build, test, build, test!
Building with limited materials and time can be frustrating for our little learners. Their large thinking doesn't mean that they aren't only 7 and 8 years old. Big emotions can accompany difficult tasks. While there weren't any tears, we did manage to stir up feelings. We worked through them by following the process. Accessing new materials, starting over and persevering were all part of the building day. You should be proud of your child. These "soft" skills were in full swing and BIG steps towards maturity were made--all by letting them self-explore with an egg!
A picture is worth a thousand words:
Building and getting checked by Quality Control
On Thursday, I couldn't help it. After Wednesday's frustrations, I brought in real eggs. I left the YOLK. I decided that we should try the experiment with real, yolk intact eggs. Getting messy is half the fun and the excitement was off the charts. How lucky am I that I get to learn right along with these kids?! Again, the pictures say it all! The children asked me to send their pictures with a letter to the Meerkats to show them their designs. I love that their imaginations are still intact.
Third Grade Language Arts:
Theme: Interactions
sub theme: interactions with nature
Learning to annotate text is really important and that is the focus of this week and next week's Language Arts lessons. The children will read both fiction and non fiction to learn how to read for the following items:
Icons and what they mean:
*= interesting facts
Lightbulb=when you make a prediction or inference about the text
Checkmark=when your prediction or inference is correct
?=when you have a question about a fact or something you read
??=when you are confused or you don't understand the sentence or passage
Wifi symbol=when you have a connection to a sentence or passage (text to self, text to text or text to world)
X=when your prediction or inference is incorrect
!=when you found something you feel is important
Monday:
We got to read wonderful poetry as our springboard into the work and to practice the skill once it was taught. I am making explicit connections with the girls about how to annotate for academic reasons--test taking, school work, digging deeper into literature. The fun part is we get to do it around topics and with characters, authors and genres dear to our hearts.
As spring approaches--much quicker than we know--Robert Louis Stevenson's, The Flowers poem resonated with us as we looked out at the rainy sidewalk before reading it together. The girls were able to see that Stevenson, like Beatrix Potter and Jane Goodall had interactions with nature and that as he looked out over his flower garden he dreamt of being young again to play with the fairies.
Tuesday:
The next time we met, we discussed Jane Goodall's work. Using her autobiography, the girls read quotes from the book and we discussed her interactions and how those interactions came to shape the person she became as an adult. Ms. Goodall shared a story in which she spent all day in a chicken coop to her mother's dismay observing how a hen lays an egg--she was 5. And, how she started a nature club with her sister's at the age of 7 and how she worked with handicapped kids and came to have a special relationship understanding of different learners and people. These interactions definitely shaped Jane Goodall's work as an adult.
It's always a treat to explore an author's purpose for writing and delve into their childhoods as a way to see how it informed their work. Ms. Goodall is no exception--as I am sure many of our budding authors right here in third grade HA are!
Homework: The girls are to finish their Journal entries and bring them back Monday, February 11th!
Theme: Interactions
sub theme: interactions with nature
Learning to annotate text is really important and that is the focus of this week and next week's Language Arts lessons. The children will read both fiction and non fiction to learn how to read for the following items:
Icons and what they mean:
*= interesting facts
Lightbulb=when you make a prediction or inference about the text
Checkmark=when your prediction or inference is correct
?=when you have a question about a fact or something you read
??=when you are confused or you don't understand the sentence or passage
Wifi symbol=when you have a connection to a sentence or passage (text to self, text to text or text to world)
X=when your prediction or inference is incorrect
!=when you found something you feel is important
Monday:
We got to read wonderful poetry as our springboard into the work and to practice the skill once it was taught. I am making explicit connections with the girls about how to annotate for academic reasons--test taking, school work, digging deeper into literature. The fun part is we get to do it around topics and with characters, authors and genres dear to our hearts.
As spring approaches--much quicker than we know--Robert Louis Stevenson's, The Flowers poem resonated with us as we looked out at the rainy sidewalk before reading it together. The girls were able to see that Stevenson, like Beatrix Potter and Jane Goodall had interactions with nature and that as he looked out over his flower garden he dreamt of being young again to play with the fairies.
Tuesday:
The next time we met, we discussed Jane Goodall's work. Using her autobiography, the girls read quotes from the book and we discussed her interactions and how those interactions came to shape the person she became as an adult. Ms. Goodall shared a story in which she spent all day in a chicken coop to her mother's dismay observing how a hen lays an egg--she was 5. And, how she started a nature club with her sister's at the age of 7 and how she worked with handicapped kids and came to have a special relationship understanding of different learners and people. These interactions definitely shaped Jane Goodall's work as an adult.
It's always a treat to explore an author's purpose for writing and delve into their childhoods as a way to see how it informed their work. Ms. Goodall is no exception--as I am sure many of our budding authors right here in third grade HA are!
Homework: The girls are to finish their Journal entries and bring them back Monday, February 11th!
Third Grade Math:
As we explore the Yeti's pet and trying to discover what the pet might be, we took Wednesday to really look at our finished Yeti. We discussed how standardization of measurement is extremely important. Using one child in the class helped our Yeti's dimensions be pretty accurate, but there were a few inconsistencies.
We read the Institute of Discoveries notes about the Yeti's pet. Using the dimensions given to us by Jane, the teacher, we measured and taped the floor to show how big the pen would be. We then discussed that using my foot as the benchmark measurement made the pen the size depicted. We then talked about how if we used, Ellie's foot or Leah's foot the pen might be smaller because their feet are smaller.
We read the Institute of Discoveries notes about the Yeti's pet. Using the dimensions given to us by Jane, the teacher, we measured and taped the floor to show how big the pen would be. We then discussed that using my foot as the benchmark measurement made the pen the size depicted. We then talked about how if we used, Ellie's foot or Leah's foot the pen might be smaller because their feet are smaller.
Thursday:
Our learning today was to design a pen with the same perimeter as the Institute gave us but with different dimensions. The children worked in pairs to design their pen's use a perimeter baseline of 56 square feet. They had to use different figures than what was given by Jane the teacher of 20 feet by 8 feet. There was so much good discussion about how to make these figures and how to mathematically figure out the AREA of the figures they designed. They were adding and multiplying quickly in their heads and
then using the grid paper to verify their numbers.
Using Grid paper!
Finely and Eva S. had fun thinking outside the box and they made their pen into an irregular shape with the same 56 square foot perimeter. This will be the next step.
Our learning today was to design a pen with the same perimeter as the Institute gave us but with different dimensions. The children worked in pairs to design their pen's use a perimeter baseline of 56 square feet. They had to use different figures than what was given by Jane the teacher of 20 feet by 8 feet. There was so much good discussion about how to make these figures and how to mathematically figure out the AREA of the figures they designed. They were adding and multiplying quickly in their heads and
then using the grid paper to verify their numbers.
Finely and Eva S. had fun thinking outside the box and they made their pen into an irregular shape with the same 56 square foot perimeter. This will be the next step.
Kindness Corner:
Caught being kind: Austin and Michael and Eshaal complimented each other on being smart.
Adam helped Asher fill out his Question paper.
Johnathan K. helped Asher, Adam and Jamie hang up their sticky note questions.
All the third grade math kids helped me walk toe to toe to measure the area of the pen for the Yeti's pet! I needed that help.
Ahad helped a girl who slipped and fell in the classroom after recess.
Adam helped Asher fill out his Question paper.
Johnathan K. helped Asher, Adam and Jamie hang up their sticky note questions.
All the third grade math kids helped me walk toe to toe to measure the area of the pen for the Yeti's pet! I needed that help.
Ahad helped a girl who slipped and fell in the classroom after recess.
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