Happy Fall!

FIRST GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS

 We continued our study of connections this week.  Connections show relationships between objects, places, people, and ideas.  We did an activity where the students paired up words that represent connections...brother/sister, slide/playground, etc...  The students got a kick out of some examples of things that are not connected.  One student had on a watch, so we discussed that the watch is not connected to a snake (thank goodness).  We discussed how some people may have a different emotional connection with something.  I emailed parents about a homework assignment due Monday.  The badges of personal connections the students will be doing for homework will be used for a shield of connections next week.  Thank you for your support!  

SECOND GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS

Students finished sorting connections into the categories they created.  When they shared them with the class, it was interesting to see how they sorted and named their categories differently, yet everybody's made sense.  Although their posters varied from one another, we were able to make some generalizations about connections.  Connections show relationships between objects, people, ideas, and places.  The connections can be physical, social, emotional, or intellectual.  We brainstormed examples of the different types of connections.  There were a few profound examples I was extremely proud of them for thinking of on their own.  

THIRD GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS

Third grade pairs shared their posters on change with the class.  Discussing each group's poster was a nice lead in to generalizations of change.  Change can be natural or caused by humans, be random or systematic, occurs at varied rates of speed, be positive or negative, and is everywhere.  Not to be ignored is the idea that some things never change.  The past never changes, for example.  Looking ahead to the genre of myth, we had a little fun with the quote, "Aim for the stars; if you fall short, you'll land on the moon."  The students were fascinated that a classic quote has an unknown author.  The students worked in small groups to plan & present a skit on the quote.  It's great to see these students present posters/skits to their classmates.  I hope these brief public speaking opportunities help them feel more comfortable and confident speaking in front of a group.  

FOURTH GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS

Fourth grade pairs shared their posters about change with the class.  We then used some of their examples as we generalized change.  Change can be natural or caused by humans, positive or negative, random or systematic, happens at varied rates of speed, and is everywhere.  Some things never change.  After our profound discussion on change, it was a complete shift of gears to discuss things that don't change.  The past never changes, time/calendar doesn't change (60 seconds in a minute/7 days in a week).  We also switched gears to do a brief review of nouns/verbs.  Subject nouns was our focus.  The students seem eager to explore other parts of speech.  We found that although they know some parts of speech by definition, locating them in a sentence is a challenge.  The high ability curriculum is consistent between the Duneland 4th grades.  Since they travel to Camp Goodfellow at different times, we had some extra time on our hands to have that brief subject noun review. 

FIRST GRADE MATH

Quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons were our focus this week.  The students took turns writing attributes on shape posters we have up in our classroom for reference.  I also gave them a couple tips to remember the key numbers to the shapes.  Hexagon and six both have an x as the third letter, and a hexagon has six sides/vertices/angles.  Quad means four.  A quadrilateral has four sides/vertices/angles.  I also showed them how some people look at a lowercase q and see a 4 to help them remember that quadrilaterals have four sides.  Although there are other tips I could have given them to help remember, these tips seemed most appropriate for them at that time.  They quickly realized that the shapes have the same amount of sides as they have vertices and angles.  Angles seem to be the most difficult part of the shapes to grasp, but we're on our way to building a great foundation for geometry.  We ended class with a challenge.  Name a shape that has the same amount of sides and vertices, but not the same amount of angles.  The shape is not one that we have talked about in HA.  They partnered off and tried to figure it out.  Have you thought of it yet?  If not, ask your student.

SECOND GRADE MATH

Symmetry was our focus this week.  The students learned that some shapes are not symmetrical.  They learned that symmetrical shapes may have one or more than one line of symmetry.  We folded shapes to evaluate whether or not they are symmetrical.  We used small mirrors to see if shapes reflected a symmetrical image matching the shape itself.  Before we dove into symmetry, a few students told me they'd rather work with numbers than shapes.  It seems to me they enjoyed their symmetry lessons even though it wasn't about numbers.  I assured them there are a lot of numbers in geometry, but we've got to cover the basics first.  

THIRD GRADE MATH

As last week's blog post explained, we worked with the name Sarah to begin focusing on repeated patterns.  Repeated patterns using names got personal this week.  Students used their own names to do some pre-algebraic thinking. I encouraged students to think out loud.  Our conversation took a natural turn towards division.  I went with it, and we spent some time on division.  It was a nice, brief intro to division.  If they'd like to work/play with The Name Game at home, they each have a couple blank copies.  They can also set up The Name Game (it works with any word, it doesn't need to be a name) on any paper.

FOURTH GRADE MATH

Due to Camp Goodfellow, we only met once this week.  We spent some time reviewing setting up problems in the language of algebra.  After that, we worked together to solve a couple equations.  Division was necessary, so we had a brief division lesson.  We will be differentiating between expressions and equations next week.

 

We had a fun week in HA!

First Grade Language Arts

In first grade language arts, we began exploring the concept of connections.  We started by observing/discussing illustrations connecting with words in a book.  There are obvious physical connections, there are connections that aren't visible, there are endless connections.  The students have a brief homework assignment to find four connections in their home.  If you haven't already read it, I emailed first grade language arts parents about the assignment due Monday.  The students were successful finding many connections here in our classroom, so I'm confident finding four connections at home will be a breeze and hopefully create interesting conversations. The fun part will be sharing them, discussing, and making even more connections with the topics they bring from home. 

Second Grade Language Arts

Second grade language arts is also exploring connections.  We began our study of connections by sorting a variety of connections (for example: slide/playground, mother/daughter, sad/crying) into groups and naming categories.  It's interesting to see how the students divide them differently and name categories differently.  As you can see in the pictures, the students are working on individual papers/posters.  The pictures do not capture the students' interesting dialogue. The students seemed to enjoy hearing how each other interpreted and categorized the connections differently.   

Third & Fourth Grade Language Arts

Both third and fourth grades began discussing change.  We brainstormed examples of things that change.  Many things in nature change.  Weather changes.  Our moods and feelings change.  Some things change naturally, but humans also create change.  Then the students worked in pairs to create a poster on change.  They first had to come up with twenty examples of things that change.  When I asked them to divide their twenty examples of change into groups, they became a bit indecisive.  Although each example of change is unique, the similarities are plentiful.  Putting their examples into just a few groups proved challenging, because many examples can overlap categories.  We will finish this activity next week and continue contemplating change.

First Grade Math

When I first told the students we are going to be learning about triangles, I think they were unimpressed.  Once we began discussing the attributes of triangles, they were intrigued.  When I asked them to get down on the floor to make angles with their bodies, they were all in for geometry!  We sat on the floor with our legs in front of us and bent at the hips to create acute, right, and obtuse angles.  Our hips were our vertices.  Our bodies made up the angles.  The students' interest is perked up.  I'm looking forward to dissecting more shapes with them!

Second Grade Math

Second grade also began geometry by investigating triangles.  The second graders also enjoyed the physical study of angles by getting down on the floor and creating acute, right, and obtuse angles.  A right angle is 90 degrees, an acute angle is less than 90, and an obtuse angle is more than 90.  Our hips were our vertices.  Vertex is singular, vertices is plural.  We thoroughly discussed the attributes of triangles.  It was a great introductory lesson to our study of geometry.  We also began digging into writing in math.  Putting our thoughts into words to explain/support our answers is a skill we will be working on throughout the year.  We used a think frame to organize our thoughts on triangles.  We will use think frames repeatedly to help us organize our thoughts/supports/explanations.   

Third Grade Math

This week we started working on a foundation for algebra.  Our current focus is repeating patterns.  Learning to look for and work with a pattern will help students make predictions and generalizations about the continuation of a sequence.  We worked with the name SARAH and its repeated pattern.  If you wrote the name SARAH x amount of times, how many letters would you write?  If you wrote SARAH 100 times, what would the 87th letter be?  If you wrote SARAH 175 times, how many times would the letter A be written?  We will continue working with names and repeated patterns next week.

Fourth Grade Math

Fourth grade math students finished their pre-assessments.  Our district has anxiously been awaiting the delivery of our 4th grade algebra curriculum.  It finally arrived, so we will begin that soon.  In the meantime, I've been supplementing with Zaccaro algebra.  I've talked to the students about the language of algebra.  We've been reading problems and setting them up in the language of algebra.  

Pre-Assessments 

     This week was spent taking pre-assessments.  Before starting the Indiana Department of Education High Ability Curriculum (1st - 4th grade language arts), Mentoring Young Mathematicians (1st & 2nd grade math), or Mentoring Mathematical Minds (3rd & 4th grade math) material, it is helpful for me to get a feel for what the students already know.  Much of what they saw on the pre-assessments was brand new to them.  Many students were excited by getting a sneak peak into some things we will be learning about this year!  At the end of the year, students will be taking the same assessments.  I will staple their originals to them, so each student will have a "proud packet" of their growth.  The students impressed me with their positive attitudes this week.  There was no complaining about the pre-assessments.  There was no shame in seeing questions/material that they know little or nothing about.  I saw them make educated guesses.  I heard them expressing interest in learning new things and being challenged.  It felt great to be surrounded by eager, young people.  

       

 

First week fun!

It was a great first week meeting with groups!  We spent our time doing activities devised to help us get to know each other.  I enjoyed learning about students’ likes/dislikes, travels, pets, siblings, and other interesting tidbits.  The students seemed to enjoy learning about each other and learning about me.  As you look at the pictures and see their happy faces, please ask your student what activity we were doing and what they learned about their classmates or me.  I’m looking forward to getting to know them better as the year progresses!