Learning through FUN!

Oh my goodness! Our vocabulary costume event was amazing today! Check out our padlet we made to show some of our favorites. https://padlet.com/heather_lambrig/VocabCostumeEvent Even I learned some new vocabulary! Did your kiddo?

After special, in Counting by 7's, Willow is still just going through the motions. She is distraught and now in Children's Services. While there, she fainted and cut her head and needed stitches. At the hospital, she decided to ditch the service worker and Jairo, her cabbie, has picked her up. Where is she headed?! In the middle of our chapter, we had a fire drill. But, we earned a potato head piece for our awesome behavior during the drill. Next, we paraded around and mingled among the classes learning about each other's costumes and inspiration. Again, very cool! Thank you for all of your help! After our event and padlet, we got caught up on literacy: Columbus State blog, writing, doodle note and reading. In math, in my room, we completed an equivalent fraction puzzle and learned about line plots, while in Mr. Smith's room, they made a fraction human. Mrs. Tanner's class found unit prices using only the entire pack and in Mrs. Kelly's class, they found how many little ketchups fit into the big ketchup. Our day concluded with creativity and multiple perspectives by looking at trick or treat as fictional characters... what would Elsa dress up as? what would Shrek go as?

Typical :)

Today was a typical day...which is so nice to have!! After special, in Counting by 7's, Willow explained about her interactions with Mai and how she is happy and hopeful for a friendship with her. (I also expressed my disappointment that only 11 students completed their blog that was homework last week.) In literacy, we got a new doodle note for the greek root, -dict, continued writing our, "Nothing Ever Happens on ______" story, read a government article that we'll discuss tomorrow and either read/visited the library. As historians, we discussed primary and secondary sources that we had been using for the Titanic and then I dumped out my school bag. They had to make observations and inferences based on what they found. Then, they partnered up and did the same for each other using their desks and tubs. In math, in my room, we corrected our equivalent fraction pre-tests and took the next pre-test while in Mr. Smith's room, they also took the pre-test. 5th graders are still working with decimals and division. Our day concluded with playing the kahoot's they made for homework last week. (Well, only 13 kiddos did them.)

Friday, finally!

We began our day, after special, with an Arrow team meeting. We discussed:

~Food drive: Tharp is collecting non-perishable food items for the Hilliard Food Pantry

~Lost and somewhat found: Oh my goodness...we have a large collection of sweatshirts and lunch boxes but I think we claimed what we could and put the rest in Tharp's lost and found 

~Miss Alaineus: Vocabulary/Flocabulary Costume Event will be Wednesday, bring your costume, don't wear it!

~No touching; just friendly smiles: We are getting comfortable with one another and play is beginning to get too rough and go too far

~Clubs: new extra-curricular clubs came out this week (Mr. Smith has a coding club!)

~Give "5" to 6: ask your kiddo what this means :)

Then, in Counting by 7's, Dell Duke gave Willow a new category...GENIUS. Now, it's game on for both of them. In literacy we celebrated finishing up our first round of ABBC (Any Book Book Club) with sharing our commercials (fiction) and making a pie (non-fiction). We also worked on our story prompt from yesterday. Today we finished up our Titanic sources activity. **If your kiddo has not submitted yet, they need to before Monday!** In math, in Mrs. Tanner's room, they completed a puzzle trying to figure out what symbols meant, in Mrs. Kelly's room, they finished up an Exemplar about a guy measuring bamboo while in my room, we secured our understanding of equivalent fractions through puzzles and in Mr. Smith's room, we continued working on our cooking project. Our day concluded with our Genius Hour projects. 

Assessing reading

I spent today reading with the kiddos and assessing where they currently are as readers as well as what we can improve upon. For the most part, they are all great readers! Some need to slow down and pay attention to details because they are missing some pieces of information that are important. Others need to work finding the deeper meanings of text and using inferences. We also need to put ourselves in the shoes of the author to look at the author's craft.

Hopefully, your kiddo can let you know how their day went with Mrs. Wiksell. After special, they read, Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street and then used that story as inspiration to write about their own neighborhood. They also finished up their ABBC for tomorrow, blogged and read. They continued their Titanic accounts as historians and continued equivalent fractions in 4th grade and something mathematical in 5th grade--sorry, I wasn't able to find out. After recess, they worked on their genius hour/wonder time idea.

Alan Gratz!

So inspiring! Listening to Alan speak was so inspiring and awesome! He told us about some of his books and how he got inspiration for them. He shared with us his writing process and even how he loathes revision. He shared a little about his next book and even that he has been approached about making Refugee into a movie! All in all, it was a great experience! The kids even really enjoyed eating in the classroom~said it was like a celebration!

After special, in Counting by 7's, we met Mr. Dell Duke, Willow's school counselor and our first impression is that he is not a very good counselor. Ask your kid about his classification of STRANGE kids. LOL~I'm an oddball. :) In literacy, we continued to work on our ABBC commercial or pie slice and went over our greek root -struct and latin root -vis/vid. I never realized some of the words with these roots but when you know what the root means, it makes total sense. We continued our work as historians with the Titanic and in math, 4th graders continued working with equivalent fractions and 5th graders are reviewing and pretesting for their next unit!

Fun times!

This week, although it's only Tuesday, is flowing very nicely. We are getting more organized and prioritizing the tasks to be completed so that we are not rushing at the last minute. Thank you for any and all help you are doing at home to help make this happen~I'm starting to see improvement!

After special, in Counting by 7's, we learned a little bit more about Willow and her very high intelligence--so much so that her principal thinks she cheated on the aptitude test because she got a perfect score! She also shared her thoughts on middle school and fashion. :) During our literacy time, we worked on our -vis/vid doodle note as well as our ABBC project for Thursday's final meeting with these groups and for these books. We also shared our doorbell writing prompts with each other and instead of using author's chair to share our own writing, we shared parts of each other's stories that we enjoyed. As historians, we continued reading primary source accounts of the Titanic to determine how it sank--intact or broken in half first. 4th graders got into new groups for math and began studying fractions and equivalence while the 5th graders worked with powers of 10. After lunch and recess, we ended our day continuing our research or learning for Genius Hour/Wonder time.

Wonder time/Genius hour

Since we finished Refugee last week, this week, students will be researching something they are curious about. I'm researching gas prices...I'm amazed at how they fluctuate based on where the station is located. (I have always known this to be but see larger differences lately, i.e. $2.26 on one side of Hilliard and then $2.50 on the other...?!) What is your kiddo learning or researching? I hope you heard because when I said it was time to clean up for home, they groaned and said, "Nooo!" LOVE IT!

After special today, we began a new book for read aloud, Counting by 7's. We are just beginning, however, Willow Chance is weird and we already love her! In literacy, we worked on a new latin root, -vis. (They LOVE doing these so much that they even asked for one!) We became historians after literacy and are looking at primary and secondary sources through the lens of the Titanic. They were super interested, especially after showing a video of a dive that showed the Titanic underwater. In Math, 4th graders finished up with multiplication and division and will be grouped differently today while those 5th graders just keep trucking along with multiplication and division of whole numbers and decimals.

It was a great day!

So much fun!

I am so thankful for the Hilliard library being just a hop, skip and a jump away! We had so much fun!! If your kiddo does not have a library card, let me know and next time we go, we can get them set up.

Conferences consumed my evening last night but yesterday in class, we finished Out of My Mind--ask your kiddo how it ended and what they thought about the book. We had some really great discussion about it. As scientists, we (4th) finished up reviewing/understanding the different types and kinds of energy, the energy we use each day and energy efficiency vs. energy conservation. The 5th graders finished up their solar system work. In math, in my room, 4th graders took the NNAT3 which is an assessment all 4th grade students in Hilliard City Schools are taking for identification in creative thinking. Those in Mr. Smith's room kept working with multiplication and division while the 5th graders continued their work with multiplication of decimals. Mahmoud made it to Germany in Refugee!!

Today, when we returned from the library, we got into our Any Book Book Club groups and shared our puppet shows (fiction) and word clouds (non-fiction). Once again, some of their work way surpassed what I had expected. :) I will be putting some videos up on Facebook later and I tweeted out some pictures too. In math, Mr. Smith gave the rest of the 4th grade students the NNAT3 while my group worked on multiplication and division as well as making sure they are explaining their thinking and attending to precision while the 5th graders kept going with their multiplication of decimals. Finally, we finished Refugee today and completed a padlet sharing our thinking. https://padlet.com/heather_lambrig/refugeevimmigrant

Gifted Conference

I was out today for the OAGC (Ohio Association for Gifted Children) fall conference. I got to see some pretty amazing presenters and am bringing back a ton of good information that I can use this year!

So, we had a sub today and hopefully, the kids are able to share about their day! I know what I left for them to complete but maybe their take is better than mine! :)

Work in progress...

This prioritizing and organizing is a work in progress but we desperately need to find a way that works for us! We tried to write down the tasks to be completed this week either in our planners or on notes on our iPad. We will be checking them off as we complete them and are working to complete them in the order that they are due or that we think will take the most time. I signed planners today with my initials to make sure that everything was written down. Please have your kiddo show you how they are organizing and prioritizing. Like I said, it's a work in progress and we are still finding ways that work for us to organize. Feel free to share how you organize and maybe that will speak to them.

After special, in Out of My Mind, a very tragic event happened. I'm not sure why this had to happen but I'm hoping the author explains it because it was just awful. Penny, Melody's little sister was hit by her mom as they were pulling out of the driveway. Melody tried really hard to warn her mother but due to her not being able to talk without her Medi-talker, she seemed to only be causing an outburst. I know that it further emphasizes how smart she is and how important communication is but there's just so much bad happening to her right now that it makes me hurt. Next, we went to browse the book fair--they created a wish list on their ipads! We didn't have a ton of time for literacy but they need to either create a puppet show/skit type of thing from a scene in their fiction book for Any Book Book Club or if they've been reading non-fiction, they need to find 10-20 words that are specific to their non-fiction topic and create a wordle or word cloud (either digitally or on paper) to share for their ABBC group. My doorbell camera caught a funny site last month with a grasshopper and there have been many other funny animal encounters so we used this as inspiration for writing a story this week. As scientists, 5th graders did some work with asteroids and meteors while the 4th graders began the Ohio Energy Project! I'm not sure what the 5th graders did in math...(I think they are still working on dividing?) but in 4th grade, we completed an Exemplar about dog years and worked on an efficient strategy for long division. We still need lots of work with this. Help your kiddo remember to practice their basic facts to make things more efficient! Unfortunately, it was indoor recess but after, we continued with Mahmoud's story. He's in Greece and heading to Serbia but it's always just one bad thing after another.

Organize

Students have homework over the weekend to organize their work. I think the binder is the best for this, however, I offered them the option of folders with the understanding that folders will come back and forth to school each day, just like the binder. If they chose folders, I gave them some to bring home. Please help your kiddo to organize their binder but please, as tempting as it is, don't organize it for them. This is an executive function skill that we are working on achieving.

After special, we went to the library to play "Alan's Allowance" with Mrs. Schultz about Alan Gratz in preparation for his upcoming visit. Congrats to Jimi (he won a book!) as well as Dylan, Alexa and Luciana for winning! In Out of My Mind, Melody and her family got all packed up and ready to head to Washington, D.C. for the whiz kids competition, however, when they arrived at the airport, they discovered that there was poor weather and the flight had been canceled. The new flight wouldn't arrive until after the competition so mom asked what the other members had decided to do and the airport lady responded that the entire team actually came earlier and made an earlier flight after they had all had breakfast together. They left her. On purpose. Something happens in this next chapter but we didn't have time to figure out what it is-can't wait until Monday! Then, we read, visited the library, worked on our conference presentation, finished decorating our door for the book fair contest and worked on our word study doodle notes. Next, we dropped our Mars landers and hoped our astronauts made it safely to Mars. Some were more successful than others. Some groups were also more successful than others and we discussed the skills we need to improve upon to make the next time better: communication, planner and working with groups. In Math, Mrs. Tanner began unit 2 with decimals, my group tested on multiplication and division, Mr. Smith's kiddos also worked on multiplication and division and Mrs. Kelly was working on multiplication. After lunch and a very cold (in my opinion--see picture below) recess, we listened to Mahmoud's story which was very sad today. We also watched Flocabulary's Week in Rap!

We NEED to better prioritize...

We are not prioritizing our work very well. I try to give about a week for most assignments and make sure to remind and write due dates up so that we can complete our work, of high quality, in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, we are not doing this on our own. So, starting next week, we'll be writing more in our planner--even if it isn't homework--and will be working together to prioritize our work. You can help by checking the planner with them and making sure they are making progress on their work. Most work is in their binder or online/Canvas so they can always work at home if they need to get caught up.

After special, in Out of My Mind, the quiz team went out to dinner and Melody kept recognizing how different she was...when she couldn't get up the steps to get into the restaurant and when she needed her mom to feed her while everyone else ate themselves... She is also really stressing out because her team doesn't enjoy that she is getting all of the attention. The reporters are the ones making her special. She just wants to be normal! Then, we finished up with our SMART goals, finished our blogs for Columbus State, worked on our conference presentation, decorated our door for the book fair contest, read, visited the library and learned about Alan Gratz in preparation for his visit. As scientists, we completed our Mars landers and will test them out tomorrow. In my math class, some chose to take the post-test but really should not have as they did not practice last night and their scores showed. So, they'll have a chance to retake it tomorrow but I told them to make sure they practiced tonight! Mrs. Tanner had a substitute but they seemed to have fun with computer ants with lasers?! I'm not sure what they did in Mrs. Kelly's room but in Mr. Smith's room, they began a Movie Theater project using multiplication and division. After a blustery recess, we just listened to Mahmoud's story in Refugee and were left on a cliffhanger with Mahmoud falling into the cold Mediterranean Sea!

Edible math!

I have been talking about dividing skittles for 2 weeks (I always say, "If I have ____ skittles and I want to divide them between ____ people, how many does each person get?") so I decided to bring in skittles to have them actually practice with today! Hence, edible math! :)

After special, in Out of My Mind, Melody's team won the whiz kids quiz competition and are headed to Washington, D. C. We still have so much left so I'm curious (and a little scared) about what will happen there. Then, we read, visited the library, worked on our conference presentation, worked with me on SMART goals and anything else that needed to be completed-literacy related. We met up as scientists and discussed the engineering design process and then followed the process to design a Mars lander. Some began building today but we'll definitely spend tomorrow building and either test tomorrow or Friday. After recess, I read more of Refugee--Mahmoud's family made it safely to Turkey but there are so many refugees that there isn't room for them anywhere. They also listed to it on Epic! which they said made it feel more realistic because it is being read by a male (like the character) who also has an accent (like Mahmoud). Finally, they should have or will be completing a padlet entry comparing and contrasting themselves with Mahmoud. (https://padlet.com/heather_lambrig/meandmahmoud) if you'd like to read them!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...lift off!

We "launched" our rockets today! In our Mission to Mars project, we worked tirelessly to stay within budget and keeping to the power and mass limits while also keeping in mind the Science return (what are you bringing back?). It was challenging but once we completed it, we rolled the dice (literally) to see if we lifted off. Most of us did! Woohoo! It was worth the work!

After special, in Out of My Mind, Melody...made the quiz team!! Of course, Claire and Molly made nasty comments about her and how she'll make them "look" bad on TV but thankfully, Mr. D apologized to her and said how he underestimated her intelligence. Then, we worked to read independently or visit the library, complete our word study and work on our conference preparation before meeting up for Any Book Book Club. In ABBC, the fiction groups made text message conversations between two characters in their book while the non-fiction group used the interesting facts they made last week to ask follow up questions and have great discussion about their texts. (They seemed to be having a pretty good time!) After science, in Math, the 5th graders got together and worked with exploding dots! while the 4th graders in my class played games to solidify their understanding of remainders and factors and the 4th graders in Mr. Smith's class took their post-test. We had lunch and another scorchingly hot recess but after some quiet time to cool down, we first looked at some vocabulary and maps to understand more about Syria and what Mahmoud is going through in Refugee.

Lots to do!

Oh my goodness! I feel like we never have enough time and there is just so much to do! I came in on both Saturday and Sunday so I feel a little less overwhelmed but still... Just keep checking in with your kiddo for if they are behind and need to continue working at home. The biggest thing is their small moment story that was to be completed last Friday. We also began our Columbus State blogging experience today (well, we started blogging today but got the books a week ago.) Half of the class is blogging this round and the other half will have the opportunity to blog next time.

After special, in Out of My Mind, Melody tried out for the quiz team today against the teacher's wishes, pretty much. I'm still flabbergasted at how he treats Melody. As she has tried to explain, her cerebral palsy keeps her arms and legs from working but not her brain! She might even be a savant! Before teaming up for science, we read or visited the library, worked on our Columbus State blog, worked on our Greek root -bio doodle note, worked with me to write their SMART goal for their WEP and started preparing for conferences next week. Phew! Like I said, a LOT to do! We worked to stay within our budget of $250,000,000 as well as stay under mass and power while gaining a lot of science return, in our Mission to Mars! In math, in 4th grade we worked on an airplane 3-act task about seats on the plane and in 5th, they took a pretest, I think. (Sorry-they were both out today!) After recess, we read, Dreamers, about a woman that brought her son to the United States and found a place where she felt alone until she found a library and books! Then, we read the beginning of Mahmoud's story in Refugee. Alan Gratz will be coming soon and we want to read at least some of his writing. We're going to continue our conversation on immigration and some have shared that maybe some of you have immigrated to the U.S. Please share your story with them so they can share first hand knowledge of the Why? How? and experience you had.

SHARP

Today was our first SHARP awards! SHARP awards are recognizing students by the students. In our class, Hayley was nominated by two different people so she was the award winner for this six weeks. We also played an awesome team version of giants, wizards and elves with some guests (all of the gifted intervention specialists had their meeting at Tharp today so they could say hello to the kids!)

In Out of My Mind, Mrs. V decided that instead of being sad because of what that not-so-nice teacher said, they would study and practice and make the quiz team to show him how smart Melody is! We also read an article on Newsela about a turtle that was injured and has a "wheelchair" to help it move now. Then, we read independently, visited the library, worked on our greek root word study, published our small moment story (if they didn't finish in class, they need to complete it over the weekend!) or anything else they needed to work on. In our groups for Science, we finished up deciding upon our main goals for our mission and what kind of spacecraft we are making and received our budget of $250,000,000. We can't wait to start constructing! In Math, multiplication and division have been everyone's focus. We are trying to find a strategy that is efficient and works for us. In 5th grade, that is most likely the traditional method and in 4th grade, it's either partial product or the area model. No repeated addition!

Asthma stinks...

I'm blogging from the couch as I comfort my daughter who has been out of school since last Friday due to an asthma flare up. She started on a steroid yesterday and seems to be doing ok, however, she pulled all of her rib muscles from coughing and just really wanted mom today. So, in short, asthma stinks. :)

Yesterday

We began our day by writing a SMART goal for the day. Then, in Out of My Mind, Melody received her talking device and started programming it to be her voice. We also looked at Stephen Hawking and how he uses his device. Melody mentions him and how he inspired her to get her talking device so we wanted to see how his worked. We then read independently and/or finished our character foldable work from ABBC and worked on publishing our small moment story. As Scientists, we filled out applications for our NASA project: Mission to Mars and got information about our mission. In Math, 5th graders moved on to Unit 2 while 4th graders continued their work with multi-digit multiplication and division. After recess, we practiced working together and cooperation by completing an activity where we tried to put pieces together to make squares and hexagons. Unfortunately, I made it a little too challenging so even I (who made it) had difficulty! However, we used cooperation and followed directions and had fun too!

Today

We wrote another SMART goal and in Out of My Mind, I was very offended by how Melody's teacher and how he treated her. Children not understanding and treating her poorly is one thing but her teacher should really know better. We read independently, continued publishing our small moment story, worked on word study (this week we are working on the Greek root, -bio), visited the library if it was our day and finished up some other things we may have needed to complete. As Scientists, we got into our groups and began our mission to Mars! In Math, we continued with what we had been working on yesterday and after recess, the sub is reading, The Invisible Boy and talking with them about feeling invisible and encouraging others. 

We don't eat our classmates...?!

We have been focusing on cooperation and being a family so today, after lunch and recess, we read, We Don't Eat Our Classmates. It was a funny take on empathy and self-discipline and just being there for each other.

After special, in Out of My Mind, Melody got an aide that helps to write and talk for her in class and she invited Rose to the aquarium with her. Although Rose said she had a good time, there was an encounter with Claire and Molly that is making Melody wonder if that is true. The fiction groups for Any Book Book Club worked with characters today so we discussed the character types in Out of My Mind (ex. protagonist, antagonist, etc.) The non-fiction group wrote down some interesting facts they found in their books. (D also told us a lot that he learned about elements!) As Scientists, today, we-Tanners and Lambrights-looked at Mars with an artistic eye and then created our own universe! In Math, 5th graders took their unit 1 assessment and in 4th we continued our work with multiplication and division.

Collecting words

Since we began reading, Out of My Mind, we've been discussing words and how Melody wishes she could communicate. So, today, we read Word Collector and are collecting words like the character in the book! If you have any cool words, share them with your kiddo so they can bring them in to add to our collection. Melody also joined her first inclusion class and made a new friend!

We also read and worked on our word study as well as continued to revise, edit and publish our small moment story. As scientists, we finished up our separate work and will be together tomorrow again for some fun with Mars! In math, we looked at a different way to multiply in my room, finished up unit 1 in Mrs. Tanner's room, multiplied using the traditional algorithm in Mrs. Kelly's room and played Factor Captor in Mr. Smith's room. We finished up our day discussing our S.M.A.R.T. goals that we wrote: were we successful? Why or why not? We also brainstormed our strengths and areas we can grow in. We'll be writing a few more daily/weekly goals before writing our goals for our WEP (Written Education Plan) next week.

**Send in family photos! I want our room to feel more like home so if you have a photo of your family (framed or not--I have a couple) send it in to be placed around the room! :)