Bear Bites

 

THANK YOU: I would like to thank all who attended and/or contributed to Quest’s annual auction. Your support is invaluable. It was wonderful to see and talk with you outside of school. I hope that you enjoyed the night as much as I did. A special thank you to anyone who provided money to put the teacher raffle boxes and/or bid on items. Congrats to Kayden who got the Bear project and a VERY special THANK YOU to Helen Lodowsky for making the project possible!!!! Thank you so much for participating!

HIGHLIGHTS: The absolute highlight of the week was the Stone Soup show!!!  Students in kindergarten through second-grade performed an original rendition of the story. The Bears demonstrated remarkable singing, acting, and dancing talent. The set and costumes were phenomenal as well. Bravo to the children Mrs. Armentrout, Mrs. Sala, and Mrs. Hastey for all of the hard work they put in!!!

MATH: After being introduced to fractions, the Bigers (my math group) learned about decimals. Students understood that numbers after the decimal point represent only a PART or a fraction of a whole number. Children learned about place value, comparing decimals, adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers with decimals. These concepts were reinforced through differentiated games, assignments, and activities. A few activities included:

• building structures using ones, tenths, and hundredth blocks. The children then calculated the total value of their towers
• coloring graph paper to make designs and calculating the fraction/decimal/percentile of each color used
• Various leveled scoots
• Comparing decimal dice games
• Number Top-It with math cards

The class also spent time going through the steps of how to solve multi-step story problems. The group went over how to explain their thinking in words. Students were given different exemplars to work out using the steps (I know that, I want to know, I will, the answer is, I know this makes sense because)  on separate Google Slides. The group took their Unit 5 tests and pretests for the next unit which will focus on geometry.

SOCIAL STUDIES: The Bears and Tigers finished presenting the presidents that they researched. The projects turned out amazing. The Bear class kept taking the reports one step further, incorporating concepts that they learned during writing and reading such as figurative language and dialogue. Individuals decided to add idioms, similes, and/or metaphors on the arms of their presidents and famous quotes on the legs. In addition, they added juicy adjectives to the front. These will be sent home after they have been on display in the hallway.

The second graders began studying the continent of Asia. After learning basic information about the people and land, students used atlases to complete maps which included all of the countries. The Bears and Tigers learned about all different types of maps before deciding that political maps would be best in order to complete this assignment. Students listened to a book called A is for Asia which contained wonderful information. Your children all brought study guides home with them last Friday. Students will be TESTED on this information on Friday, March 23.

WRITING AND SPELLING: The Bears attempted to describe their story settings but many had trouble visualizing where their stories would take place so they printed pictures online to write about. As students stopped to share what they had so far, we noticed that they had used many of the same adjectives such as big, good, pretty, cool, and nice. We then declared these types of words DEAD (not usable). Students chose two words each to look up in thesauruses. They recorded synonyms for their words and posted them to the R.I.P. wall of DEAD words. We created a big word wall to utilize so that we no longer have to resort to using boring describing words. Bears learned six interesting hooks, or ways to begin (dialogue, interesting fact, detailed description, opinion, question) narratives, and practiced using each before choosing their favorite hook which they will use in their realistic-fiction stories. Also, the Bears learned how to punctuate direct dialogue. They applied their knowledge by adding dialogue on blank comic strips. Students learned spelling patterns to apply when making singular nouns plural (changing y to ies, adding an s, and adding es).

READING: The class and I continued reading Starry River of the Sky which we LOVE. We model and practice many reading strategies as we go. Students practiced summarizing various fiction texts that they read aloud with partners. Individually, children were assigned current event articles to read and summarize whing who, what, where, when, why, graphic organizers. We then discussed the different articles. Students practiced using the covers, backs, picture walks and reading the first pages of books to form predictions. Then, the Bears talked about the importance of questioning while reading. The class learned the difference between thin (deal with specific content or words) and thick questions ( involved, complex and open-ended). Groups of students were assigned various texts to read and write both question types for. They will meet together to discuss their questions and books before reading the next assignment in small guided reading groups.

BRAINWORK: Students were given a survival scenario which is detailed below. They were provided with character cards with details about each person who was on board. After much consideration, children selected four crew members to exit on the raft. They worked independently and then had to persuade or compromise with a group of three Bears in order to choose a crew together. I LOVED listening to the conversations. I think that all the Bears chose to bring the little boy and simply could not separate him from his father. The other two seats were debatable. One student even realized that they would need a female in order to grow any future civilization!! EEEK! These are gifted kids!

SCENARIO: A light plane crashes somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, with the nearest land a day away. The impact with the water causes the electronic systems to be damaged, meaning that no may-day message can be sent.  There were only twelve people on board. The life raft on one side of the airplane can be used; however, there is only room for four people in it. You must reach a decision as to which four people can enter the life raft.  Which people would you choose to start a new community with until being rescued? Who deserves to be saved? What’s more important: their character or their skills? Their past or their future?