GATE Conference

The GATE cadre of teachers and Principal Brooks attended the Central Cities Gifted Children's Association Annual Conference in Pasadena yesterday. Teachers chose from a variety of lectures and presentations to enrich their classroom and to help deliver differentiated instruction. The focus this year was  the shift towards the California Common Core Standards and what that means for the gifted child, classroom, service provider, and parent. Information and techniques learned at the conference will be shared with the other teachers on campus.

Thank You

A special thank you to the parents who contributed to our successful holiday party. The children had a good time. Thank you to those parents who helped set up and facilitate; it allowed the teacher to have a short break on "celebration day" which very often isn't the case. It made a big difference and was much appreciated.

FYI

A quote lifted from Room 11 Blog from a previous year:

"FYI: I read a book about Santa Mouse (a treasury from my childhood) to the children. A child asked me after I finished story 2 the other day, "Are you sure that's true?" Hmm....So the legend goes, that if you should happen to find a small (tiny) gift tucked somewhere in your tree, perhaps tied with a yellow bow, then you will know that Santa Mouse has been to your house. *Shrugs* I don't know, it's just what I heard. Who knows how these stories get started?"

The same book was read again this year. The comments were quite different than in the past and varied. A debate ensued. The teacher neither confirmed nor denied the accuracy or truth to any of the claims made in the book or the comments made by the students. The management would simply like to advise all tree displayers to carefully check the branches of their holiday trees before proper disposal or storage for any possible gifts wrapped with a yellow ribbon.

Math test statistics are forthcoming.

Seventy-Seventh Day of School

Math test postponed to Thursday. No homework tonight.

Two children were able to publish a computer version of their unit writing and save to their flash drive.

Friday we will have our first classroom celebration if students would like to bring treats to share.

Seventy-Fifth Day of School

We have been working on our persuasion pieces. Many are through with the rough draft. Their published piece will be a flyer (hopefully some will have a chance to publish on the computer) persuading people to come to their personally designed event.

Dismissal tomorrow (Tuesday) is 2:04.

Our topic 11 math test will be Wednesday.

Reading logs are due on Friday.

Clarification and Miscellaneous

Parents, the homework to which I referred in a previous post was not an optional assignment. Please read. This assignment is the basis for half of our Unit Project.

The students now have 3 stanzas of our poem at home. We have also covered  long-i spelled 'igh'.

The 1st grade teachers have decided that 1st graders will be wearing a red shirt for their winter performance on Friday the 14th.

Seventy-First Day of School

Today we worked cooperatively in groups to produce a persuasive writing piece. Students were not graded on the quality of their writing but rather their ability to work and produce as a group. Of the 21 students present, 17 produced consistently for the 30 minute work period; four did not. Groups will have time to improve their pieces to be judged with criteria tomorrow.

Unit 3 Week 2 Preview

This week we ask the question: What do family members do with one another to have fun? Our comprehension skill focus will be to make and confirm predictions using the strategy of analyzing story structure. We will take a brief look at alliteration (consonance). We will continue our exploration with long vowel spellings in particular: long vowel-i spelled i_e (like, nice) or 'i at the end of a syllable' (pilot, riding). In grammar we will examine present-tense verbs. We will be using the skill of persuasion in our writing over the next 2 weeks.

Our oral vocabulary words are typical, possessions, connections, relief, and support. Our high-frequency words are call, funny, how, more, so, there.

As you read with your child at home, please continue to predict and confirm as you read (What do you think will happen? Do you think Goldilocks will get caught?). When finishing a fiction selection or chapter, ask your child to confirm predictions and summarize what happened. When reading a nonfiction selection, have your child state the main idea and details.

Please continue to have your child collect family jokes, anecdotes, and riddles for the next few weeks in order for us to complete our Unit Project.

We have also been learning a poem to recite in front of our classmates.

In Social Science we will continue to compare the past and the present. We will also work towards understanding our location in the world while learning the continents and the oceans (tested). We will compare globes and maps.

In science we will continue our exploration of the forms of matter, in particular small particle solids. We may even get a bit messy again. No worries, everything will wash out.