Happy Weekend

Monday Jan 20

No School- Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Thursday Jan 30

PTO Talent Show at CMS

Thursday Feb 13

Valentine’s Parties

Friday Feb 14

No School

1^st Grade:

This week we continued our lesson on letters. I introduced the children to a fun and challenging game of “Word Ladders”. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, is said to have invented the game on Christmas day in 1877 for two little girls who were bored.

 A ladder is a sequence of words that starts at the starting word, and ends at the ending word. In a word ladder puzzle you have to change one word into another by altering a single letter at each step. Each word must be a real English word, and must have the same length. The children really enjoyed working on these ladders. We had some confusion about a few, but overall they did great. We will continue with word ladder next week.

2^nd Grade:

The children continued to work on their reading analyzer. I let them partner up for this activity. I think this helped them to discuss the possible answers. I walked around the room to assist them and answer their questions.

 Completing a reading analyzer can be somewhat difficult. I do feel though that they are learning so much more about the story. When they were finished we met in our reading area and went through each question. I was pretty impressed with their answers.

3^rd Grade:

The children continued with their Jane Goodall scoot around the room activity. We then met in our reading area and went through each interaction. They were pretty spot-on with the interactions. They then had to choose a Jane Goodall quote and write about a time it has applied in their lives.

 We will continue with this paragraph next week. I will also be introducing annotations to them.

4^th Grade:

This week the girls finished up with the Indiana History/ Tecumseh activity. We met at the reading center where we discussed our findings. Some of the things I asked the girls were, what were the major events in Indiana history from 1765-1814, what major events did you choose for Tecumseh’s life, what if the French had won the French and Indian War, and what assumptions does the author make about the story? Those were just a few of the questions discussed. The girls all participated and took turns answering the questions. They also had time to discuss among each other their thoughts and answers. We will continue with this next week.

1^st Grade:

This week in math the children finished up their chapter 1 check-up test. We then started chapter 2. In this chapter, the children will explore the concept of area as they experiment with covering a variety of surfaces. They will use square units to explore the concept of area as the measure of space covering an enclosed region.

 I started off the chapter by reading a fax from Imi and Zani asking the children for help designing a target for a Pom-Pom Toss game at the school measurement fair. To prepare for this, the children had to complete a couple of activities. These included predicting an area, and then actually measuring it with the square units. We will continue on with this lesson next week.

2^nd Grade:

The children finished up a Think Deeply. I explained last week that this helps them to explain their work. I then checked over each one to make sure we were all on the same page. A few had to go back and rewrite their answers. We then took a chapter check-up.

 We will go over the check-up next week.

3^rd Grade:

Last week, the children had to color the multiples of 2 and 3 using two different colors on a 100’s chart. We then met back up, and I asked them what patterns they notice about the 2’s and the 3’s. I then asked them what numbers are colored twice. 

We did a Think Frame to answer these questions. I took it step by step with them. They then were supposed to put their answers down in a Think Deeply, in sentence form. Over half of the class had difficulty with writing their answers like a mathematician would.

 This week we went over the questions again and I had some of them erase their answers and try once more. We then touched on our new lesson, Puzzling Patterns. They will be working with arrays in a more efficient way to supply missing numbers or to extend the array rather than counting. We will continue with this next week. 

4^th Grade:

This week in math we took a look at cross sections. A cross section of a three-dimensional shape is formed by the intersection of a plane and the shape. If you slice through a solid shape, you will look at the face that results from the cut.

 I set shapes out for the children to scoot around the room and take a good guess on what shape the cross section will make. We then met back up and the children watched a video on cross sections. We then took a look at our answers to compare. I think for the most part, the children answered correctly. Next week we will review before we do a chapter check-up.