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:
Tuesday was a catch up day to make sure we were all on the same page in the book. The children agreed to catch up on their work and be ready to discuss Chapter 9 next week. I gave them time in class to read, discuss and complete their comprehension, vocabulary and chapter note packets.
Please have the children read through Chapter 8 and be ready for Chapter 9 on Monday, February 26, 2019.
NOTE:
I have decided that I am going to pull back much of the written work for this book. This is weighing on the kids and is detracting from us enjoying the book, delving into concepts that require higher level thinking and solve the mystery! A sigh of relief will be heard around the world!
Tuesday was a catch up day to make sure we were all on the same page in the book. The children agreed to catch up on their work and be ready to discuss Chapter 9 next week. I gave them time in class to read, discuss and complete their comprehension, vocabulary and chapter note packets.
Please have the children read through Chapter 8 and be ready for Chapter 9 on Monday, February 26, 2019.
NOTE:
I have decided that I am going to pull back much of the written work for this book. This is weighing on the kids and is detracting from us enjoying the book, delving into concepts that require higher level thinking and solve the mystery! A sigh of relief will be heard around the world!
Fourth Grade Math:
Both groups are finishing their Chapter Check Up which covered the fraction work we just completed.
The objectives of the next Chapter include: adding and subtracting fractions, estimating to compare combinations of fractions to benchmarks like 1/2 and 1; developing a variety of concrete methods and written algorithms for adding proper fractions with like and unlike denominators, and finding a variety of ways to combine fractions to make 1 whole.
The objectives of the next Chapter include: adding and subtracting fractions, estimating to compare combinations of fractions to benchmarks like 1/2 and 1; developing a variety of concrete methods and written algorithms for adding proper fractions with like and unlike denominators, and finding a variety of ways to combine fractions to make 1 whole.
Second Grade Language Arts:
So, I've made the executive decision to finish reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. This comes on the heels of missed days due to the weather and the swift approach to the end of the year. There are other books we MUST, must, must- read and time is going so quickly!!!! 😉
We have explored theme, analyzed sentences, discussed sequence of events, looked at details, analyzed the author's purpose, point of view and did some comparing and contrasting. We will work on metaphors with the next book. Much has been accomplished and all of these skills will be reviewed throughout the rest of the year.
The children begged me to let them take the books home to finish reading. We did discuss the end of the book, but they would like to read it for themselves. Some of them even want to go to the bookstore and have their own copy--just, saying and sorry!! 😁 My only request is that they return them as soon as they are finished.
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.
So, I've made the executive decision to finish reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. This comes on the heels of missed days due to the weather and the swift approach to the end of the year. There are other books we MUST, must, must- read and time is going so quickly!!!! 😉
We have explored theme, analyzed sentences, discussed sequence of events, looked at details, analyzed the author's purpose, point of view and did some comparing and contrasting. We will work on metaphors with the next book. Much has been accomplished and all of these skills will be reviewed throughout the rest of the year.
The children begged me to let them take the books home to finish reading. We did discuss the end of the book, but they would like to read it for themselves. Some of them even want to go to the bookstore and have their own copy--just, saying and sorry!! 😁 My only request is that they return them as soon as they are finished.
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.
Our next story will be by the same author: Kate DiCamillo
Second Grade Math:
Those crazy Meerkats are going camping now! We will be working hard to make the appropriate sleeping space for all the students coming to visit Teller and Dru.
The children worked together to estimate and decide how large a sleeping area for the guests needs to be. We also worked on how large a sleeping bag would need to be for the campers.
This led to much discussion. In the HA classroom, an area is taped off for the 3rd grade math kids. This taped area is where the Yeti's (3rd grade project) pet would live. The second graders love the 3rd grade Yeti project and are always so excited to see what the 3rd graders are doing (a case for multi-age learning) and they begged me to let them use the square foot papers to determine how big the area of the Yeti's pen is. They quickly got to work to build the area. As they worked, they realized that we didn't have enough square foot papers to cover the area. Using their great powers of deduction, they figured out that if they used the paper to cover the length and the width and not the center they could add up how many square feet there were altogether on the "inside". This led to me giving them a mini lesson on the formula for Area and they were quickly able to multiply the length times the width! Wow! I love teachable moments like that.
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| Meerkat Camping Trip |
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| The Yeti's Pet Pen |
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:
No school President's Day
Tuesday:
We quickly talked about our Annotation and the girls got to keep their books and bookmarks that will remind them how to annotate. We then read two books:
We compared and contrasted the two text as a whole group.
Comparisons are based on:
title/cover
content
illustrations
details
emotions
length
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:
No school President's Day
Tuesday:
We quickly talked about our Annotation and the girls got to keep their books and bookmarks that will remind them how to annotate. We then read two books:
We compared and contrasted the two text as a whole group.
Comparisons are based on:
title/cover
content
illustrations
details
emotions
length
Third Grade Math:
Wednesday
The children took their Chapter Check up! Look for those in their papers when they bring them home this week. As I walked around and watched the kids working on this check there were a few things I noticed:
The children were having trouble with the vocabulary--dimension, perimeter, area, length, width. This occurred for several reasons:
a) I didn't make it clear enough for them (I need to adapt my teaching here)
b) we have missed so many days due to the weather and the continuity was lacking and
c) this group is active and LOVES to share and talk. This is an important part of their growth and development. We all agreed to let me teach at times. LOL
So, we all learned a lesson with this Chapter Check Up and next time will be even better! The concepts behind this vocabulary can be difficult to understand and with continued practice I have no doubt they will get it.
The children took their Chapter Check up! Look for those in their papers when they bring them home this week. As I walked around and watched the kids working on this check there were a few things I noticed:
The children were having trouble with the vocabulary--dimension, perimeter, area, length, width. This occurred for several reasons:
a) I didn't make it clear enough for them (I need to adapt my teaching here)
b) we have missed so many days due to the weather and the continuity was lacking and
c) this group is active and LOVES to share and talk. This is an important part of their growth and development. We all agreed to let me teach at times. LOL
So, we all learned a lesson with this Chapter Check Up and next time will be even better! The concepts behind this vocabulary can be difficult to understand and with continued practice I have no doubt they will get it.
Thursday:
Fried eggs for breakfast!
Yummy
A quick review of our Chapter Check Up quickly revealed that the children knew more than they realized! Any misconceptions about dimension, perimeter and area were corrected and everyone felt good about what they knew. I had to make sure they understood the area and perimeter of Regular shapes because.....
We are moving on to find the area of IRREGULAR shapes. The Yeti Institute of Discovery sent another message and Jane the Director had been given a set of maps that showed areas where the Yeti may have lived. She felt her team needed to review finding the area of irregular shapes before checking out the sites. She did this by having them draw a picture of their breakfast of fried eggs on centimeter graph paper and find the area covered by the eggs.
The kids got straight to work drawing their eggs! They began to count and estimate the area of their egg. They began to organize and partition the areas into square units so they could count efficiently. They quickly saw that there were incomplete squares and tried to join them with other pieces to make a full square unit.
Next week, they will work in teams to trace around the shape of a body on one-inch grid paper and count the area in square units! So exciting!!
Fried eggs for breakfast!
Yummy
A quick review of our Chapter Check Up quickly revealed that the children knew more than they realized! Any misconceptions about dimension, perimeter and area were corrected and everyone felt good about what they knew. I had to make sure they understood the area and perimeter of Regular shapes because.....
We are moving on to find the area of IRREGULAR shapes. The Yeti Institute of Discovery sent another message and Jane the Director had been given a set of maps that showed areas where the Yeti may have lived. She felt her team needed to review finding the area of irregular shapes before checking out the sites. She did this by having them draw a picture of their breakfast of fried eggs on centimeter graph paper and find the area covered by the eggs.
The kids got straight to work drawing their eggs! They began to count and estimate the area of their egg. They began to organize and partition the areas into square units so they could count efficiently. They quickly saw that there were incomplete squares and tried to join them with other pieces to make a full square unit.
Next week, they will work in teams to trace around the shape of a body on one-inch grid paper and count the area in square units! So exciting!!
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