UPCOMING EVENTS:

Spirit week!  

Monday

Your future is bright!

Wear your brightest colors!

Tuesday

Dress for success!

Show up dressed for your future career/job!

Wednesday

College Rocks!

Wear your favorite shirt or colors that represent your favorite University!

Thursday

Military Day

Wear military themed clothing, camo, flag shirts, or red/white/blue.

Friday

Spirit Day!

Wear Chesterton Trojan colors (Maroon, Gold, and/or Brummitt sprit wear. 

Pre-assessment Wrap Up!

Hip hip hooray pre-assessments are complete! On Monday we finished taking assessments in Language Arts.  Finally we received our fourth-grade Math curriculum which enabled the fourth grade Math students to take and complete the pre-assessment.   

Language Arts

First Grade:   This week we kicked off a unit on connections.  To help the kids grasp the concept of connections we read an amazing picture book called The Graphic Alphabet. The book shows pictures of each letter.  Each letter represents an item that begins with the letter’s sound.  For example: The letter A showed an avalanche.  The kids had fun trying to figure out what the letter represented.  They needed to make the connection that the letter was also the beginning sound of the of the word.  A = Avalanche.  Once we finished reading the book, we started to look at connections within the classroom.  Kids took turns pointing out items that connected like a chair and a desk.  I am hopeful that this activity helped them with their homework assignment.   Thank you to those kids that already brought them back!  And for those kiddos still working on it please send the assignments back on Monday.  

 

Second Grade:  We began a unit on connections in second grade.  The kids were each given a baggie full of cut out words that connect.  For instance, "mother/daughter", "rain/mud", and "sad/ crying". They grouped the pairs together into like categories under a heading such as "emotions or family." It was fun to see what they thought belonged together and I loved hearing their justifications. Next week we will continue this activity as we discuss their work. 

 

Third Grade and Fourth Grade: My third and fourth graders delved into the concept of change. We talked about what it means to change and the different types of change.  The kids were split up into groups where they were challenged to come up with 20 things that change.  They proceeded to write each answer down on a sticky note.  It was easy to get through the first ten or so examples but as they pushed past ten it started to get more challenging and the ideas got more creative.  After coming up with at least 20 ideas the kids were asked to put the sticky notes into similar categories.  They needed to justify why those examples of change fit together under that category.  It was fun to see the creativity of the categories! Next week we will discuss the generalization of change.     

 

Math

First and Second Grade: Triangles, triangles everywhere!! In Math this week my 1st and 2nd graders dipped their toes into geometry.  We spent a day talking about "what makes a triangle, a triangle."  I introduced some big words like sides, vertices, angles and congruent.  

My first graders hung out on the floor and used their bodies to model acute, obtuse and right angles. Unfortunately, since I was doing the triangle ab workout with the students, I was not able to snap a picture. 

My second graders also worked on describing why a triangle is a triangle. Second grade then moved on to discuss hexagons.  I was so impressed with the kid’s eagerness to learn! Next week we will continue discussing shapes.

Third Grade:  In third grade Math we started to work with patterns.  More specifically, how to use patterns to make predictions and generalizations about the continuation of a sequence.  In class we looked at the name SARAH and asked the question, "if you write Sarah over and over what is the 137th letter."  First, we talked about different ways to solve the problem, and yes, some kids said to write the name 50 times and count the letters.  We discussed how Sarah has five letters so we could count by 5s to get to 135.  Next the kids figured out that it took 2 more letters to get to 137.  Thus, the answer is 'A'.  We also talked about using the concepts of multiplication and division to help find the repeating pattern.  Next week we will continue our work with patterns using a name.  

Fourth Grade: The kids rocked the pre-assessment and completed them with time to spare.  We used our extra time to work on Zaccaro packets that delved into algebra. I was amazed at how excited they were to begin learning about variables!  I have a feelings they will be super excited when I announce that we will be working on genius level packets next week.