Frugal Friday . . . on a Thursday!!!

Welcome!

• Most people do not listen with the intent to understand.  Most people listen with the intent to reply.  (Stephen R. Covey) (ACTIVE LISTENING)
• Patience is not simply the ability to wait-it's how we behave while we're waiting. (Joyce Meyer) (PATIENCE)
• Picture right is for RESOURCEFULNESS
• Look for 3 things in a person-intelligence, energy and integrity.  If they don't have the last one, don't even bother with the first two. (Warren Buffet) (INTEGRITY)

In the past, I have sent parents the pictures that I've taken over the school year.  I've stored them in folders along the way.  If you'd like the folder for your child, please let me know.  For example, I'll just send you the second grade LA folder with all of the pictures.  I've taken more than what's shown up on the blog too.  Warning:  I may have mixed a few of them up, lol!  You may get a math in the LA or even the wrong grade in there.  Just not sure. . . As a mom, I know getting a glimpse into their world is priceless and appreciated.  Just send me an email letting me know and I'll send the folder to your email after we've wrapped everything up. Thanks!

Wanted to share a picture of how our Math Masters' Wall finished up.  As you can see the colors are all mixed up which is great!  It just means that the students pushed passed what they were expected to for their grade level.  My kindergartners got acclimated with just taking a timed test and did really well!  I had first and second graders on multiplication and third and fourth on division, exponents and beyond. . . .  They all worked so very hard and I couldn't be more proud!  

Here's a key for the colors of the squares above.

red = fourth grade

orange = third grade

yellow = second grade

green = first grade

blue = kindergarten  

Has your child logged onto Sumdog at home yet?  There's a few in each grade that have yet to log in, but I can see that others have really taken to it.  After we play in class, I select the "Your classmate's best" drop down box and they enjoy it when their name is listed.  It shows the top scores for all students at Yost (yes, the phenomenon is catching on across the school!) and not just their grade level.  Also, I just discovered how they can play against other Yosties.  I know many have attempted this at home with no success.  On their page to the right, there's a button that says Play world.  If they click that, they can select Class or Robot.  Choose class.  It will wait so long for a Yostie to show up, if not they will play against Robots instead, lol.  I'm sure there's much more we can learn about Sumdog and I'll share when I do!  What a great way to have fun learning and to refresh those math skills!

Kindergarten Math:

We finished up our most of story problem worksheet before moving to the Smartboard.  Since I've met with my kindergartners for such a short time, I wanted to introduce them to this great technology! We have a giant white board in our room that I can use with different programs.  It's basically a giant touch screen they interact with.  They each took turns writing the problem on the board.  It even knows what color they have in their hand by which pen they select.  How awesome is that!  After they each got a chance to use the Smartboard, we took turns playing Sumdog.  Due to an absence, one student had yet to see how this neat program works, so we had to show him!  It's hysterical how excited this group gets when we're stacking garbage on Junk Pile.  It's so funny to watch them as it wobbles!  Congratulations to Attix for passing his plus 2's and Camren for passing plus 4's!

Fourth Grade LA:

They are still ISTEPing, so this was my one and only day to see them.  We had some quiet time to read from our Brixton Brother's book.  I'm sending the book home with them to finish up, so that we can play a jeopardy game with questions from the novel.  I put some real doosies in there!  They were excited to finally finish it at home.    The latter part we played Sumdog.  This was the first time for many since our time has been sporadic.  I sent their login information home.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Fourth Grade Math:

Did not see due to ISTEP testing and scheduling changes.

Second Grade LA:

We finished up our persuasive group write.  Jointly we came up with supports that commercials can't always be trusted.  We reviewed how to use transition words in their writing.  We also went over the rubric on what would be expected on the post assessment.  I originally had it scheduled for next week, but they chose to take it Tuesday, so we could ease up a bit next week.  I left about five minutes to introduce Sumdog to our last few.  For some reason our smartboard wasn't cooperating, so we had to use my mouse and coordinate who was next.  Great team effort by all!

Second Grade Math:
We moved from the Sudoku puzzles onto word problems.  They were tough and some looked at it as impossible.  With pictures and a little coaching they started to see that they could solve it.  For example, seven cats each caught seven mice that each caught seven bugs . . . how many cats, mice, and bugs are there all together?  They got lots of practice with these because each one stayed with a consistent number.  Tough stuff.....  The next day they explored Sumdog in the lab with the new things we've learned.  
  

Third Grade LA:

We finished listening to Alice before launching into the movie.  We launched into a discussion about Lewis Carroll's ideas for the book.  He ended with a letter to every child who loves Alice.  It helped bring the book into perspective.  We are now watching the movie while taking note in our Venn diagram.  I started them off with a few similarities and differences, but for the most part, they are doing this on their own.  I've had a few run out of room which is fantastic!

Third Grade Math:
We finished up our unit on decimals and fractions by playing Think, Pair, Write, Share.  After putting them into two teams, I gave them several problems to solve.  For example, in the number 1234.567 the number 3 is in what place?  What I love most about this activity is the coaching that goes on.  They each get time to solve it on their own, but when they pair together and see someone has a different answer . . . they coach.  We've built such a community in here all year long, that that's exactly what happens.  They don't just have them change to the correct answer, they teach their classmate how to get the right answer.  Not only is the student learning who had the incorrect answer, but the one who knew it will understand it more because he's able to verbalize it.  Now THAT'S why I do what I do . . . plus many, many more!  Congratulations to Jack for passing improper fractions, amazing!

First Grade LA:
We finished up our unit on hieroglyphics.  They were very interested to learn all about it!  We took time to fill in our KWL chart after reading a book and watching a short video clip.  They enjoyed hearing about the Rosetta Stone and how it connects to hieroglyphics.  They each were given time to fill in the L part of our chart for what they learned.  I also gave them a chance to log on to Sumdog in the computer lab.  They were individually able to explore the many wonderful games available.

First Grade Math:

Unfortunately due to early dismissal we only met one day this week.  I signed up the lab and gave them each time to explore Sumdog on their own.  I have two first graders who've yet to login at home, so they had a chance to try many of the neat games out.  We also had each add them to their friend list.  We now know how to play other Yosties!

Wow, only two weeks left!

Yours in education,

Mrs. Koedyker