First Grade Language Arts
Since all the students drew and cut out their badges of personal connections at home, we were able to get right to work making shields of connections:) While students were assembling their shields, we discussed the reasons behind the badges they designed. We focused on the reasons/explanations not being a simple three word answer. We worked on expressing ourselves more deeply. Consulting the rubric, we went over goals to keep in mind while presenting to the class. I told the students that if they speak loud enough to be heard, don't look down the whole time, and offer more than "I like ______," then they should be extremely proud of themselves. The presentations were a great experience for these young students! They really gave it their all! The shields will go home eventually, but they are currently hanging on our classroom wall.
Second Grade Language Arts
Have you read "Eldorado" by Edgar Allen Poe? Your second graders read and interpreted the poem this week! We used a reading analyzer (graphic worksheet) to help us understand the challenging poem. We pulled out new/interesting words, discussed the mood and how it changes in the poem, and tried to understand the main idea. The main character's connections to people (or apparent lack thereof), places, and ideas are unlike any we have previously discussed. The students enjoyed watching a four minute video about the poem and a snippet of a documentary on Eldorado, the lost city of gold presumed to be in South America. I apologize for not getting any pictures of your second grade language arts students in class this week. Edgar Allen Poe's challenging text needed all our focus.
Third Grade Language Arts
To begin our study of "The Changing Faces of Story," the students read several Native American, Norse, and Greek Myths. Time was limited and some of the myths were lengthy, but it was a nice introduction to the genre. Each student chose two myths they found to be most interesting, because we will be working with them again next week. As a class, we read, discussed, and filled in a retelling story map (graphic organizer worksheet) for Raven Steals the Sun, Stars, and Moon. The raven shapeshifts more than once and it is difficult to follow, so the graphic organizer proved valuable.
Fourth Grade Language Arts
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, HA curriculum is consistent across the school district. In effort to stay in tune with the other schools' 4th grade classes, we stalled our study of change. Parts of speech is always a good thing to brush up on. We used Mad Libs as a fun way to get in some practice with parts of speech and creative writing.
First Grade Math
We continued our study of triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons this week. LINGO is a game similar to BINGO that we used to review the shapes. The game board has a nice variety of shapes, so it does challenge the students. For example, there is a variety of pentagons versus just the typical pentagon shape that most people picture as a pentagon. After playing as a group, students played in pairs/small groups. Playing in pairs/small groups added the task of checking each other to make sure both people were accurately identifying the polygons. It was a challenging and fun review of the polygons we have been discussing in class.
Second Grade Math
Second grade continues to focus on symmetry. What at first glance appeared to be a simple exercise in manipulating triangles to fit into squares proved to be a valuable lesson on symmetry. The hands on exploration of symmetry helped them further understand how some shapes have more than one line of symmetry.
Third Grade Math
Building on our understanding of repeated patterns from the last two weeks, we are moving on to growing patterns. Growing patterns grow with respect to a rule or function. As you can see in the picture below, students can begin filling in the table by adding one on the top and two on the bottom. That basic math can only take us so far. Enter algebra! Through great dialogue, the students came up with two rules to complete the table. One rule has multiplication and addition. The other rule solely uses addition. Both formulas work for this lesson. This exercise has us trying to figure out how many fish can sit at a given amount of tables (I know, silly;). Solving for f (amount of fish), we double t (amount of tables) and add two. At this point in time, we wrote it in ways the students can understand.
tables + tables + 2 = fish
t + t + 2 = f
tables x 2 + 2 = fish
t x 2 + 2 = f
We did not get to the point of 2t + 2 = f. We made great use of our time, but we'll have to save that for later. The students understood our lessons and seemed proud. It warms my heart to see their wheels turn, the lightbulbs go on, and the pride that comes with it.
Fourth Grade Math
3n + 4 = 55 is an example of the algebra we did this week in 4th grade math. I asked the students to pick a number between 1 and 30, multiply it by 3, and then add 4. The students then gave their answers (in the above example, 55). We then worked backwards to solve for n (the number between 1 and 30 that they started with, in the above example n=17). We worked backwards to solve the equation. They loved it! They really got into it! Division was necessary, so we had some nice practice dividing. Using a think frame graphic organizer, we started differentiating between expressions and equations. The think frame is a great tool to organize our thoughts and help us learn to express our thoughts about math in words.
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