Productive Week

First Grade Language Arts

We had perfect attendance in our group this week:) It was so nice to be back together!  I introduced the students to a constrained form of writing in which the use of certain letters is prohibited, lipograms.  We used higher-level thinking skills to replace words with words that have similar meaning and do not use the forbidden letter(s).  For example, the word fetch can be replaced with the word grab to avoid using the letter e.  It is not easy, but the students persevered.  I'm proud of them for hanging in there! We will continue with our study of lipograms next week.

Second Grade Language Arts

I began by showing the students a classic educational video.  They seemed to enjoy watching the Grammar Rock video on prepositions.  I believe this was the students' first introduction to prepositions.  We went on to list/review/briefly discuss the other parts of speech.  A four-level sentence analysis is a nice stepping stone to diagramming sentences. While completing a four-level analysis on one sentence, we discussed parts of speech, subject/predicate, and prepositional phrases.  Using 4 different Patricia Polacco books, our exploration of author's style began.  We will be learning about author's style next week.

Third Grade Language Arts

With almost everyone back this week, we moved on to fables in our study of folklore.  "The Ants and the Grasshopper" was our introductory fable.  Working in small groups, the students read and answered several profound questions.  Students were able to refer to our Change Generalizations poster for reference.  Using dictionaries, the students worked together to fill out a vocabulary map for fables.  Over the next couple weeks, we will continue our study of fables.

Fourth Grade Language Arts

Divide and conquer.  That's how our 4th graders progressed beautifully on their Anne Frank biography project.  Half the students put the finishing touches on the Anne Frank timeline poster.  Half the students began putting together a Google Slides presentation.  All the students will be working on the Google Slides presentation next week.

First Grade Math

As our study of geometric attributes progresses, our lessons require an increased level of critical thinking.  Students worked in pairs/small groups to evaluate two attributes simultaneously.  While looking at two attributes, the students had to decipher if shapes had one or both of the attributes.  Students were not simply sorting shapes, they also had to draw shapes that had one or both of the attributes.  Our HA curriculum calls this a two-loop puzzle.  The graphic organizer used is also known as a Venn diagram.  Working on this activity in pairs required the students to focus and stay on task.  You might ask your child if they did their best work with their partner.  

Second Grade Math

As you may recall from last week's blog, we moved on to 3D shapes.  To compare/contrast 2D and 3D shapes, we worked together and analyzed the differences between a cube and a square.  Both 2D and 3D shapes have vertices.  2D shapes have sides, but 3D shapes have faces and edges.  I apologize for not getting any pictures of your math students.  We had a couple students arrive late due to a special video project they were working on in the studio.  Once we were able to start class, we used every second to do our work.  

Third Grade Math

Using an array for reference, we examined order, structure, numerical patterns, visual patterns, operations, and inverse operations.  "Arrow math" uses arrows to point students in a particular direction on an array.  The students figured out what the mathematical rule is for each arrow (there are 8 types of arrows: straight up, straight down, straight to the left, straight to the right, up to the left, up to the right, down to the left, and down to the right).  They also had to follow a combination of arrows.  Arrow math will continue into next week.

Fourth Grade Math

This week's lesson was a continuation of last week's lesson.  As you may recall, students were given word problems that lend themselves to being solved algebraically.  After analyzing what they know and need to know from the word problems, students were instructed to approach the problems as puzzles and use logical reasoning and problem-solving strategies.  Instead of writing and solving equations, the students used the guess & test method and made an organized list.  After finding the answers, the students had to write their answers and brief explanations in sentence form.  I have included a picture of a student's work below as an example.