Finally Friday!

Welcome back from Thanksgiving!

It's always hard getting started after a nice break, but we got a lot done this week.  

Unfortunately, I was out on Thursday, so my 2nd and 3rd grade math classes were not seen.  Fourth and first are not seen on early dismissal days.

Our LifeSkill this week was perseverance.  

• Be like a postage stamp:  Stick to one thing until you get there.
• Winners never quit.  Quitters never win.
• Failure isn't falling down, it's staying down.

Fourth Grade LA:

We continue to gather information for our biographies in the lab.  Now is where they are all in different places depending on their pace.  What I love about fourth grade is they can teach others.  I have those that are further, go back and teach their peers the step they just learned.  It's great to watch!  They were to synthesize their information to list at least ten important dates for their timeline.  Many have moved onto the next step which is finding five pictures to go on their timeline.  I'm showing them how to copy/paste images while multitasking in Word.  They pick up SO quickly with technology!  Some have moved onto typing up their ten events to paste onto their timeline.  They are very excited to share all they've learned and many couldn't wait to share, so they shared some with me.

Fourth Grade Math:

We continue with our logic problems.  With the days missed in math with this group, I can see that they are about done.  I have a few groups that are right in the middle of their current one and don't want to break it up yet.  I allowed some to move onto their dot-to-dot while those deep in logic continued.  Perseverance!  We only met once this week due to the early dismissal.  We'll finish up logic next week and go over the answers together.  I almost forgot to take a picture since I had them only once.  I quickly herded my stragglers into staging a picture for the blog, lol, great actors!

Second Grade LA:

This week we slowed our pace a bit.  Even though we've read, discussed and talked about the intricate plot that is happening, I wanted to see where each one of them was. We did a short five question paper answering questions from the story.  Most "got it", but I see I'll have to revisit a few concepts as we read, but they also reviewed during our game of Jeopardy. They were given time to re-read chapters 1-5 to prepare for their big Jeopardy Showdown!  We are on chapter nine now, so I thought it best if they went back to refresh their memories.  We had a great time playing the game and reviewing what's happened so far.  It's funny how when you're up there on the spot . . . your mind just goes blank!  It was much easier to remember the answer when they were in the audience.

Second Grade Math:

We used a Kagen technique called Rally Table to review our dollar amounts.  As you can see from the picture below they are all actively engaged in the activity.  How it works is a piece of paper and pencil starts with one person and is then passed around.  We used it to show different ways to show a dollar amount.  If I showed them $1.32.  One person would write down one way to show that using coins.  It was passed to the next person and so on . . . they could not repeat what had already been written.  This group quickly got into a pattern, so I had to break it up by requiring them to use at least three different coins.  It stopped the 132 pennies right away.

Third Grade LA:

I was excited to start this lesson on the real life modern legend, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"!  Students first listened to the poem aloud.  We talked about the mood and the colors they'd use to depict that mood.  We read the poem again asking them to visualize the story as they heard it.  I gave them time to draw a sketch of the story based on what they heard.  They listened to it once again as they added more detail until no white was showing.  I asked them what they thought the music would sound like . . . then we listened to the song.  Later we watched a short clip on the tragedy from the History Channel and further discussed.  They really got into this!

Third Grade Math:

This group started a fun fraction activity.  They had to make a street with certain requirements which all referred to fractions.  1/8 of the houses are for sale, there are trees in the front yard of 1/2 of the houses, 2/8 of the homes have dogs outside, etc.  They were anxious to jump in and get started.  After they worked for a while, they were allowed to send one "scout" out to check out the other neighborhoods.  Also, they keep moving through their facts and building their cones.  Congratulations to Brandon, Jack, Tyler and Caysen for passing their latest test!  Great job!

First Grade LA:

We finished up our persuasive paragraphs on whether all first graders should learn Pig Latin.  It was good for them to go from their pre-writing to their actual paragraph together because eventually they will do one on their own.  We also graded our writing using a rubric which makes it very clear what is expected. There's a place where they had to suggest another word to use, so I showed them how to use a thesaurus.  It took them a while to understand the concept of ABC order even though I know they do that in class.  They started off flipping page by page looking for their word which would have taken forever!

Look for these on our HA board. They did a really nice job on them!

First Grade Math:
We did a tough addition maze together.  They had to work their way through the maze by adding numbers.  Once they found their sum, they followed the path to their next problem.  We introduced regrouping which is not a first grade skill, but they were anxious to learn the next concept.  It has us winding our way though, so we will continue this into next week.  I apologize for not attaching a picture.  I forgot on Wednesday, then was out on Thursday.  I'll make sure that I get one next week.

Yours in education,

Mrs. Koedyker