Late again...maybe Monday should be the new Friday?

OMG...I am writing THIS week's post right now and saw that LAST WEEK's post (this one) never posted...OMG...then you'll see that my first line is REALLY appropriate...'cause this post is SUPER LATE. I am almost done today's post and was so excited to be "on time"...here is last week...this week's is on it's way....

I guess I need a nickname...how about "Late Kate"? I'm really sorry...that's all I can say!

Let me tell you about last week...

First of all...we've started our Entrepreneurs unit...I'm sure you've heard about it by now...the kids have formed six companies within the classroom...and last week they brainstormed products, worked through finances to see what materials they could afford, which type of advertising they'd use, and their cooperative skills were put to the test!! It's hard when EVERYONE is a leader! So after they decided which materials they needed and what types of advertising they would do, they had to use mad math skills to figure out the cost of each individual product. Then, based on that amount, they had to set the selling price for their product...all in hopes of making INCOME!! This week they will specialize, complete production, create advertisements, and become interdependent...wish me luck!! ;-) Next week we will commence with two different Market Days...more on that at the end of this week!

In poetry we have continued our focus on figurative language and the tone and mood of poems. Today I introduced the "diamante" poem and the kids picked a person, place or thing to write about. Later this week we will be researching a famous person of choice to write a diamante poem about. We will use SIRS and I will instruct them on all the important components of that research portal while we gather info.

Last week in Math we worked with geometry...3D shapes, angles, lines...we got out protractors and measured angles to determine whether they were obtuse, acute, or right angles...we looked at triangles and categorized them based on their angles...we saw isoscolese triangles, scalene triangles, and right triangles...we determined the difference between prisms and pyramids, and made 3D models to help hone in those differences! We will continue with geometry this week.

And then finally, we spent five lessons last week focusing on Personal Body Safety. Your children have been extremely mature and have asked excellent questions. We have discussed safe touches, unsafe touches, and unwanted touches. They have been introduced to new vocabulary: victim, sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, and have been taught the difference between an OK secret and a not OK secret. The students created a Trusted Adult Directory so they know they have more than one person to turn to with a question or concern. At the end of each lesson the students are given a file card to jot down a question that they are wondering about...even if the kids do not have a question, I require them to write something down...this way, all questions are confidential since everyone has dropped one in the box. Again, I have been extremely impressed with their maturity handling this subject.

NEWSFLASH!!
In case you haven't noticed...IT IS REALLY COLD OUTSIDE!! Please make sure you are sending your child to school with hats and mittens...unless the temperatures drop below 20 degrees fahrenheit, we go outside...even for a short time...to run off some energy...SOOOO...please help your child remember all the necessary pieces of clothing to stay warm...thanks!

YOUNG AUTHOR'S CONTEST
I sent home information about the Young Author's Contest on Friday...unfortunately, we received this info kind of late, but your child does still have TWO days to turn in a piece of writing. Twenty kids put their hands up saying they were interested, and we sure do have some excellent writers, so I hope they'll be able to participate. I believe the entries are due Wednesday!

Whenever I find a contest that some of the students might be interested in, I try to send the information. Contests are such a great way to show off their talents...I believe I sent a paper home last week about an Economics poster contest, too. Check the Take Home folder for info on that!

I hope you and your families are enjoying this very joyous time of year! Stay warm and as always...email me with questions or concerns. Maybe I'll see some of you at the PTA meeting tomorrow night or the BOE meeting on Wednesday. I'm planning to speak at the BOE meeting...hope to see you there!!

Did you know it? We've got poets!!

BREAKING NEWS....

Someone is eating the PENCILS in our classroom!

They disappear at the drop of a hat!

If you would please replenish your child's pencil supply in the next week,

that would be very helpful...thanks!

Poetry is our focus this month in language arts...and all of the poetic elements that go with it...figurative language, mood, setting, tone, etc! We spent all week reading and analyzing poetry...and the kids wrote poems...they wrote beautiful haiku!! We read two fun books written in completely in similies, and one written completely in haiku poems...titled Dogku and written by our favorite...Andrew Clements! This entire unit is centered on reading and writing poetry...wait until you see the final products...you will be amazed...WE'VE GOT POETS!!

We will continue with poetry next week...each child will choose a poem of their own to memorize...they need to show the poem to me by Wednesday of next week. Then they will have 10 days to work on the memorizing. Their communication grade will be all about eye contace, volume, expression, and fluency. The poem has to be at least six lines...I will provide plenty of choices within the schoolday, but if your child would rather choose one from their own collection at home, that is perfectly fine with me! More on that next week!

Social Studies...this week we read about supply and demand, then we got in groups and discussed different situations and how supply and demand would affect prices and profit! The best part of our week was our visit from Mr. Judd, Mehta's dad. He is an economist and he brought his immense knowledge to us today...he shared where an economist might work, what an economist does, and why that work is important. Then he connected it all to the production of chocolate...we had a wonderful discussion about how and why chocolate bars are priced differently. We learned that some chocolates are made locally and others are made across the country. We found out that some companies participate in free trade and others do not. It was a morning of enlightenment and I believe we have a writing assignment that will come from all of it...more to come on that next week!

Math...give me a G, give me an E, give me an O, give me an M, give me an E, give me a T, give me an R, give me a Y...what does that spell!?!? A whole lot of fun, that's what! This week we worked with shapes...all the "gons", we talked about angles, we found right angles, obtuse angles, and acute angles...and today we began using protractors to measure angles!! Vocabulary is just flying around the room...words like: segment, ray, lines, angles, obtuse, enneagon (that was a new one to me!), quadrilateral, equilateral, equiangular, isosceles, scalene, etc...can you just imagine how all of your sponges are soaking it up!??!?! The Q1 post test was given today...I will try REALLY hard to grade them this weekend...but they take FOREVER (can you hear the whine! :-)) As soon as I have the post tests graded, I will share them with the kids and then I can let you know how your child did...feel free to send me an email mid week and ask for your child's score!

CURSIVE...aiyaiyai...we are working our way through the letters...most of the kids are fine when the letters are set apart from others...but once they start connecting them is where we run into problems...please keep an eye on your child while they are forming the letters and connections...it really does end up making a difference once they are required to write everything in cursive.

Have a great weekend!

SORRY!!!

This post will summarize last week and this week...sorry for the delay!

Language Arts
Last week we worked with a non-fiction book called Money, Money, Money...we have been focusing on main idea and supporting details. Regardless of your child's reading level, this is a very difficult skill. They are pretty good at identifying the main idea...but finding the best sentences that support it is a lot harder. In conjunction with this skill, the kids wrote main idea paragraphs about a subject at UES that they really enjoy. I chose for the kids to write about our school because it was American Education Week...it was fun reading the details they chose to support their ideas. This week we will take non-fiction articles about Thanksgiving and the turkey to refine these skills!

Social Studies
We are continuing our Economics unit...and this past week we focused on production and consumption. Many new vocabulary words were introduced...through the "Econ and Me" video series...the kids love the stories told and then we use those stories to discuss the concepts. We will finish up with that series this week. The kids are always sad when the "Econ" videos are over!!

Another writing piece the kids did this week was a "cinquain" poem about a producer. The kids are publishing those pieces as I type the blog. They will be graded for following the correct steps in writing a cinquain poem.

FYI...speaking of following steps or directions...many people get a slash mark in "following directions", and I often get a note that states something like, "Please let my child know when they are not following directions." Just to let you all know...I tell them every time it happens. Today in the computer lab I verbally told them to put their name on their published piece, AND the poem that I modeled was on the screen with a "by Mrs. Wills" at the bottom. At least EIGHT kids brought me poems without names...there are hundreds of examples like that daily and I always say, "So and so, that is a great example of not following directions," just so they know. I appreciate any note you send me, but since I see that one a lot, I thought I would address it here! ;-)

Upon our return from Thanksgiving, we will begin our Entrepreneurs unit where the kids will be creating companies, producing a product, using budgets, planning advertising, and eventually selling and making profits. It is a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing their creative business minds at work! If you have any recyclables that you think we might be able to use...cereal boxes, toilet and paper towel tubes, egg cartons...some of the items that will be in high demand...NO cans or glass, please...thanks!

Math
LONG division is our focus right now...we are broken into groups and we are working to master the algorithm of long division...while different groups are meeting, others are working on problem solving, some are looking at two-digit divisors, all are writing to explain their thinking in math. Today the kids will be taking timed fact tests...they should continue studying the multiplication facts, but once those are mastered, they should be working on division. I am hoping to give the Quarter One post test upon our return from Thanksgiving!

American Education Week

We did a lot of fun activities during American Education Week! We wore sneakers on Monday to kick it off! We wrote main idea paragraphs on Tuesday about our school and what makes it fantastic. We had an amazing Math Night on Thursday and then on Friday, we were privileged to have two parents come read to our class! Special thanks to Mrs. Rumancik and Mr. Beers-Arthur for joining us and sharing their love of literature! Also on Friday the kids got together with our buddy class and they read to the kindergartners! In turn, the kindergartners shared a letter they wrote with our class!

What I'm Thankful For...

WOW...that's a hard statement to follow...let's see if I can make my answer blog worthy...

I'm thankful for...

steve

sophie

maegan

helen

gabriel

jack

matthew

lucy

jerry

jude h.s.

mehta

jessie

emma l.

hasita

nikita

nicholas

sai

vincent

hayley

jude s.

nuhad

cherrie

allie

emma s.

trixy

maliha

hannah

aj

I'm also very thankful for...
...my family...they are my pride and joy...
...my friends...if only I had more time...
...my job...I am very blessed to wake up wanting to go to work!

...and so much more...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my favorite little people's families...enjoy your time together.

What an Amazing Week!

First of all...if you haven't seen the last post, make sure to scroll down...the kids' Chocolate Commercials are below and they are fantastic!

Speaking of fantastic...your kids are awesome. We have had such a great week....read on to find out more...

We started off on Monday participating in a major planting endeavor! We helped Mr. Esko's class plant 75 trees on our property...we planted half of them in the new Bioswale area near the firehall parking lot...and the other half we planted back behind the wetlands, near the wildflower meadow...there were two biologists, three teachers, a couple parents, and about 80 kids...it was a ton of fun, and the kids worked beautifully together in cooperative groups. I took a bunch of pictures that I will compile over the weekend into a slideshow...

The rest of this week has been just as good. We have been working with the Junior Great Books series...this series uses excellent literature to teach students to delve deep into the meaning of the stories...it uses the Shared Inquiry approach and the students are charged with answering questions using examples from the passage to support their thinking, and then we have in depth discussions where the kids can agree and disagree with each other in a very mature conversation...I have been BOWLED over by their ability to discuss literature. I have looked forward to every day and hearing their brilliant minds take apart the passages to make sense of them. We have also spent some time looking at stories told in third person vs. first person, and talked about the effects of the storytelling when either perspective is used. We took our own silent reading books and read passages from them to determine from which perspective their stories were being told.

In Writer's Workshop, I'm pleased to say, that I have conferenced with almost the ENTIRE class on their first published piece! Getting to the point of publishing is quite a process and most of the kids have done an outstanding job using the "pit stops" to help improve their writing. Each "pit stop" is designed to have them look at their piece from a "different set of eyes" to find new ways to enhance their writing. The published pieces are hanging in the classroom for the students to read whenever they choose.

We have started a new unit in Social Studies. Our unit focuses on Economics and is one of my very favorite units. More to come on that next week!

In Math we have been perfecting our multiplication, working with word problems, and delving into division...and then Wednesday, we did something I haven't done with my class before. I had given a quiz and was disappointed in the outcome...so I taught them how to make "test corrections"...every student who scored below a B was asked to complete test corrections to improve their grade. Those quizzes will come home today. Most of the kids made errors in following directions. In upper grades, your quiz score is usually your quiz score...but I feel like this is a transition year and it is important for the kids to 1. be able to show what they know, and 2. learn from their errors...the test corrections will be attached to the quizzes, so that you can review them together. The final grade is an average of the quiz score and the test corrections. We will spend next week solely on division and then be ready for the Quarter 1 post test (yes, I know, a little late...but in my world...better late than never!!)

NEXT WEEK IS AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK...

WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME IN AND

READ YOUR FAVORITE STORY TO OUR CLASS!?!?

Our school is doing lots of really neat things next week to celebrate American Education Week...and one of the things I'd like to do is invite any and all parents (or grandparents!!) into the classroom next week to read a favorite story or chapter from the story. Kids love to be read to and this is a great opportunity to visit our classroom and share your love for literature! Please email me and let me know if you're interested...give me the day you'd like to visit, times that would work for you, and a book you'd like to share. I'll send a confirmation email to you to let you know we'll be expecting you!!

SPEAKING OF GRANDPARENTS...it was so fun meeting so many grandparents this week! And for the grandparents that came Friday...please forgive me for being in PJs!! But teachers NEVER pass up the opportunity to wear our PJs for the day!! ;-) If you weren't able to come in for the breakfast, but want to visit sometime, just throw me an email and we can make that happen.

Have a great weekend...I think Mr. Winter is on his way...

Worth waiting for...the Chocolate Commercials!!

TRIXY

MATTHEW

NIKITA

GABE

EMMA S.

NICHOLAS

HASITA

JACK

LUCY

VINCENT

HANNAH

JUDE H-S

SOPHIE

STEVE

MALIHA

MEHTA

JESSIE

SAI

MAEGAN

JERRY

ALLIE

EMMA L.

AJ

HELEN

"A Really Fun Day!" - October 28, 2011

Well...one big project down!!

Here is the slide show of pictures I've been promising!

Please click on the link below "A Really Fun Day!" - October 28, 2011 and enjoy!!

ALSO...make sure to scroll down and see the other post from yesterday...especially the part about planting trees on Monday...kids should wear shoes and clothes for the outdoors!!!

"A Really Fun Day!" - October 28, 2011

Short, but sweet...

PUN INTENDED..

...wait 'til you see how our chocolate math unit has turned out!

It is SWEET!

Let me break it all down into small "morsels" for you...

The steps that got us to today's candy commercials...

-we created candy companies

-we explored arrays

-we designed arrays for candy bar shape possibilities

-we calculated the area and perimeter of each array in square inches

-we chose a particular shape for our candy bar

-we created a wrapper using 1/4 inch graph paper

-we calculated square inches using 1/4 inch squares (this was NOT easy)

-we brainstormed great "chocolate" words

-we wrote product descriptions

-we turned the product descriptions into commercials

-we visited the computer lab to make final copies of our commercials

-we practiced volume, expression, and fluency with peer suggestions

-and finally...film production!!

I will spend a good part of tomorrow loading the commercials...just be warned...you may have a hard time viewing if your computer is old...I know this from FIRST HAND experience!!

CHOCOLATE is not the only thing we did this week...not even close. Here is a quick (since I'm using the 'short, but sweet' theme) list of our week's "doings"...

-Completed editing and revising daphnia paragraphs.

-Completed final drafts of daphnia paragraphs.

-Read short stories from the Junior Great Book Series and worked on finding evidence to support our thinking...choosing relevant information using sticky notes while reading.

-Practiced the cursive letters i, t, u, w, l, and e.

-Had two fantastic Writer's Workshop periods.

-Visited the computer lab twice...once to practice keyboarding and once to use our keyboarding skills to complete final drafts.

-Saw an informative United Streaming video on Food Chains and Food Webs.

-Took a short science assessment.

-Found estimates using rounding and front-end estimation in multiplication.

-Worked on the algorithm for multiplication of one digit times three or four digit #s.

-Wrote multiplication word problems and solved them.

NEEDS FOR THE CLASSROOM!!!
We have been asked to help plant trees next week with Mr. Esko's class. They are planting trees in the new Bioswail area and down in the wetlands. We need parent volunteers for this undertaking! We will be planting on Monday from 9:45-10:30am and 1-2:30pm...we need help during both times. Please email me at karen.wills@fcps.org if you are able to join us. The raindate for this fun endeavor is Thursday.

We are in need of hand sanitizer and clorox wipes for the classroom. If you can donate some to the classroom it would be very appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

p.s...I haven't forgotten all the fun Fall Festival pictures... I will be very busy tomorrow...