Math Olympiad will start next week. This is an optional math enrichment/competition for 4th and 5th graders. Math Olympiad tasks are complex but fun problems designed to foster flexibility in problem solving and to teach problem solving strategies. We'll meet before school from 8:15 to 9:00 on Tuesdays starting October 8. We'll have 20 meetings – 15 lessons for practice and review and 5 competitions. We won't travel anywhere for the competitions; the kids will complete their work here at school and I'll submit scores to the Math Olympiad electronically. The cost will be $195 for the whole session (ends on March 11 – but I'm open to looking into traveling for a state competition in the spring). Please let me know if you're interested.
It looks like Mr. Bailey will be hosting a before school program at QAE! See the description below.
Math Olympiad will start next week. This is an optional math enrichment/competition for 4th and 5th graders. Math Olympiad tasks are complex but fun problems designed to foster flexibility in problem solving and to teach problem solving strategies. We'll meet before school from 8:15 to 9:00 on Tuesdays starting October 8. We'll have 20 meetings – 15 lessons for practice and review and 5 competitions. We won't travel anywhere for the competitions; the kids will complete their work here at school and I'll submit scores to the Math Olympiad electronically. The cost will be $195 for the whole session (ends on March 11 – but I'm open to looking into traveling for a state competition in the spring). Please let me know if you're interested.
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Here's what we were up to last week...
Reader's Workshop Students continued to practice becoming strong readers by stopping to think when the story line becomes unclear. At that point they are using different strategies to clear up the questions. Writer's Workshop Students are getting ready to publish a personal narrative story. They are continuing to edit and go through a checklist of requirements. When they are ready they will be recording their stories rather than typing. When we have accomplished this task, likely in a couple weeks, you will be invited to a celebration! NW Coast People Students have created their environment and identified their natural resources. We have begun to figure out how we will meet our basic needs (food/water, clothing and shelter) using natural resources and skills. Students will be developing their characters and figuring out how to work as a tribe to build our new dwelling. Math We are continuing work with place value up to millions, specifically working towards rounding. The students were challenged this week with a couple difficult logic (tug of war between grandmas, acrobats and a dog) and word story problems. It's exciting to hear students share their strategies. Most the time, students build off classmates knowledge and challenge each others thinking. Students explored Khan Academy and the features (map, practice questions, tutorial videos) that they will use this year. We are still unable to sign students up under my account but will let you know when we figure it out. Other The students participated in a cooperative activity. Each group had to save a worm, Fred was his name, who was trapped on top of a raft (cup) with his life preservers stuck underneath the boat. Fred couldn't swim so the students needed to figure out how to save him. The only tools they could use were paperclips. The students could only use one hand each. We shared different strategies on how to work together. Homework Earlier in the week a student recalled hearing about an organization that built instruments from garbage. After speaking with her parents, they sent me a link to a video for Landfillharmonic. After viewing the video the students were quite inspired to make their own instruments (not to mention, inspired to help the kids out in other ways too)! It's a beautiful story! The gallery this week sounded a bit different than usual because students were given an opportunity to move around the room (gallery style) and play classmates instruments. At the end of our session, we got together and played our instruments all at once (see video under photo gallery - homework tab). In a way, its our own Landfillharmonic orchestra! First, I want to apologize for the late communication. I unexpectedly needed to leave school early on Friday and missed Monday as well to take care of some personal things. After today I am feeling like we are back in action and making progress!
Reader's workshop - I am still continuing to test for new levels. I expect to have levels set in the next week and a half. At that time, literature circles will begin! For now, we are practicing our skills and becoming stronger readers (making mental movies, stopping to ask questions, etc.). Writer's workshop - Students are continuing to work towards creating personal narratives. They are diving into the editing process by looking carefully at their own work by using a rubric. They are also working together by becoming editors of classmates work. They are offering helpful and detailed compliments and suggestions. In the next week or so students will begin to publish their work. Instead of typing personal narratives, students will be reading and recording stories. This idea was inspired by a special series on NPR called Story Corps: Recording the Lives and Stories of Everyday. Eventually students will post their recording on their websites. Math - We are continuing work with place value (standard form, expanded form, comparing numbers and rounding). Students are getting use the centers/stations and taking advantage of that time. Students are also focused on word story problems and logic puzzles. Social Studies - We are continuing to establish our setting for the NW Coast, the backdrop for our role play. This week students will create families and characters. Word work - Last week students began the routine for work work (Mon.-Wed.) and Greek and Latin roots (Thurs.-Fri.) each morning. For word work students will be looking at different letter patterns and sounds, which will help with spelling and reading. Each week they will get a new set of words, receive a lesson, sort based on patterns and complete various activities for practice. Greek and Latin roots will help with vocabulary. Students will participate in different activities, including word sorts, illustrations, discussions and matching. Class meetings - As usual, the compliments that take place at the beginning of each meeting are incredible! Students are continuing to solve problems from our notebook by offering suggestions to challenges that students are facing. This week we will focus on a range of strategies that can be used to solve problems before we write them in the notebook. Other notes: Students received a class calendar, which will be used to help keep track of important dates. This is meant to help students take responsibility and be prepared for school. For example, students should be remembering on their own to bring instruments and homework on specific days. They could update their safety patrol schedule or play dates. Students should bring to school each day. Feel free to add important dates specific to your family as well. Students have been busy taking photographs of different events and activities that take place. Of course we miss various moments but hopefully you will get a sense of what takes place each day. Please check the 'Photo Gallery' section of my website. All student photos pages are password protected. Look in your email for the password. I hope to see you at Open house on Thursday! I will be going over more specifics on how things operate in our classroom and you can take a look at what students have been up to so far! We were busy this week and time flew! On Friday, we were all wiped out by the end of the day! Below is a run down of what we were up to... Reader's Workshop Students have been independently reading, focusing on selecting a "just right" book. I am in the process of testing students on their reading level. In a couple weeks I hope to have that completed and will send the info out. Writer's workshop We have spent a good amount of time generating small moment story ideas. We have verbally shared our ideas with each other and realized that each others stories spark memories. Thus, we can think of other small moments to add to our list! Most students have chosen their first personal narrative and have begun writing. I always deliver a lesson for the day and then let students continue writing and practicing the lesson. While students are writing I confer with several students each session. This time allows me to focus on the needs of each student and offer other strategies during that time. Math This week we established our math center/station routines. Basically, there are 4 centers (teacher lesson, practice, board games/challenges and computer programs). Depending on the length of the lesson, students may rotate to all centers or just two for the day. Centers allow me to group students based on their needs and deliver lessons accordingly. Reading buddies Every Friday students participate in reading buddies. This year we are paired with Ms. Smith's first grade class. The 4th graders get to become the teachers by reading out loud and helping 1st graders read. It is a beautiful scene! Homework I was really excited about the effort and time that went into so many projects. Most students fully challenged themselves to create unique and interesting objects or tools. Some developed and redeveloped their ideas throughout the week. Students brought in key chains, magnetic teaching tools, hangers, hair clips or pins, earrings, marionettes, tweezers and other useful objects! We were able to reflect on our projects during a gallery walk by asking questions and commenting on each others work. Some students had really great ideas but forgot to bring their project. Please help remind students it is due on Friday! See the gallery below for a sample of projects. New homework projects will be posted on my website each week, under the section titled "Homework." Look for the tab underneath titled "Projects." Some students have told me that their parents are expecting them to do reading and math in addition to the projects for homework. I fully support that idea as long as effort can also be put forth on the projects/challenges. I will let you know when Raz-Kids (a reading source for leveled books) and Khan Academy (a math tutorial website) is up and running. These are great sites to use because I can access the students accounts and see what students have been working on at home. Class Meetings This week we established our class meeting expectations. Students discussed how to come quick, quiet and safely to the carpet and they became very good at it. We begin meetings with compliments and I was impressed with the genuine and sincere comments. I wanted to tear up at one point because I was so impressed with 4th graders ability to share feelings towards classmates! After compliments we focused on our first problem in the class meeting notebook. It was a friendship problem between two students. The students involved in the conflict asked their classmates for help in finding solutions. The list was incredible and the students chose a couple ideas to try (circled ideas)! In our meetings we also discussed how we can take care of ourselves when we are frustrated. We know that we need to calm down before we can speak rationally or learn. So, students were introduced to the alone zone, which is a comfortable space to relax and calm down (the strategies circled below can be used in the space). Students understand the expectations around the space and it seems to be working. Other activities Students have been participating in various activities that support social skills in the last few weeks. Mostly, I have been focusing on sharing ideas, how to take turns, understanding perspectives and asking intriguing or challenging questions. Students participated in Think/Pair/Share where they are asked questions, given think time to develop their thoughts, pair up with a partner quickly then take turns sharing. Students also participated in Like/Dislike, where they each determined their opinion and then shared reasons with partners. They also participated in Agree/Disagree which allowed them to share their perspectives on some challenging statements. Instrumental Music
We have a new music teacher this year! He will be visiting our school Wednesday the 18th to introduce himself and share about the program. I think he is bringing instruments for students to check out as well. If your student is interested look for paperwork soon after! Safety patrol Thank you to those students and parents who are participating! If you have questions about your post days/times or need to cancel, please be in touch with Mr. Bailey. I receive the schedule in the morning of each day but don't have any part in changes that need to be made. Please help your student plan ahead so that they can focus in class and not be worried about what to do about not being able to make their post for the day. As I was setting up the classroom this summer I was trying to map out exactly as the year would go, including some very small details. I sat in every portion of the room and continued to build my ideas from last year. I had a plan!
Of course, the first moments did not go as I had planned! Actually, it was better than I could have ever imagined. They class kept me on my toes and reminded me that they have ideas of exactly how the school year should go too! After the first few days I came to some conclusions. This group is dynamic, creative, opinionated, thoughtful, generous and funny! I am so excited to share our discoveries and learning as time moves forward (planned or unplanned)! I will blog at least once a week and I hope to always include an update of topics (academics, social/emotional) that we covered as well as photos. Some photos will be attached to the blog but most will be under the "Photo Gallery" section of my website. Look for detailed descriptions of the photos. The photos will be password protected and that info will be sent in an email soon! This week we spent time discovering ourselves and each other. We played games (Find someone who..., Two truths and a lie), completed activities (Time capsule, Who am I? circles) and did a lot of sharing (class meetings). We also established the way our class will work (class agreements, class job descriptions, open mic, routines and the schedule). We accomplished a lot together! |
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