This is the last week for Pioneers for this school year.  I know there are field days, field trips, special speakers and other events.  I’ll be packing next week.  The Pioneer Program is moving to another location next year. 

Tomorrow is our field day.  So, if your child is planning on purchasing a school lunch, be aware that it will be a sack lunch.  Pioneers will be having class as usual. 

We’ve had a great year and I am already planning for next year. 

Don’t forget to return those late library books or books you have borrowed from the classroom.

No Library – Hand in all books.  Late notices will be coming out next week.   Clean out those bedrooms and find those lost books!!!

4th and 5th Graders worked on writing Sonnets.  Some of them are actually published already. 

Partner Read

Read an iBook together give a short report and recommendation. 

Get Netbooks logged into and ready

RECESS 10:45   2nd and 1st

 MANGA MATH # 12

Lunch 12:00

RECESS 12:30 4th,3rd, and 5th

Read Aloud “My Side of the Car”  (This goes with our science experiment about weather)

An interview with the author (Kate Feiffer) and illustrator (Jules Feiffer).

Lesson & discussion about Air Pressure, Barometer, High Pressure, Low Pressure and what to expect.  BrainPop about Weather

Science Experiment – Change in Pressure…..It can have crushing results!   We had to do a lot of problem solving in order to get this to work.  The water really needs to be boiling for 30 seconds or so.  I had done it before, but it had been a long time.

am work Chromodoku – It’s sudoku but with color. 

Logic – Big Pumpkins

Gifted Kids Survival Guide – Perfection Infection – Who’s afflicted and what they can do about it.

BrainPop on Poetry – we wrote 2 couplets in the pattern aabb with 4 beats per line. 

Such as…HumptyDumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty together again. 

Students used StoryKit to illustrate, take photos, record their poems. 

Read aloud  – The Quiltmakers Gift It is about being selfless and not materialistic.

Math

Presentations of Couplets

Tuesday

Chromodoku

Logic – Save the Children

Couplets such as Humpty Dumpty (above)  Students wrote, edited, checked for the correct number of beats per line, and correct rhymes…All of this while still trying to make their poems make sense.  Then they published them to iPods/iPads on Story Kit.

Read Aloud – Dog in Boots.

BrainPop Jr.  Poems

Math

Presentation of Poems.

Wednesday

morning work.  Chromodoku or other Challenging Puzzlers.

Logic – The Bake Sale – It was a tough one!

Library

Silent Reading

GKSG – Perfection Infection pg 60

Sonnets – 14 lines to declare you love, complicate things (metaphor),

create conflict or twist things up & resolve.

LUNCH

RECESS

ReadAloud – The Quiltmaker’s Gift

Color Quilt Piece in the snail’s trail or follow the leader pattern

Math – Don’t be so negative!  Adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers, decimals, & fractions.   Really, these kids are AMAZING.

Geography – Stack the States or Countries (if you dare)

 Seven YouTube Channels Not Named Khan Offering Math Lessons

Logic as usual…Those first graders are getting to be much more independent thinkers.   Most of the second graders are already independent and accurate. 

In math we learned about angles.  Second learned how to use a protractor.  This skill was beyond my first graders.  There are just too many numbers and markings.  But we did learn about 90 degree angles and the parts of an angle.   I reinforced the ideas from last couple of weeks about circles, and using a compass. 

I just got some more $$ in my iTunes account.  Students offered advice on which educational apps we really needed  the full version.   They are full of opinions.    I got…Stack the States, Stack the Countries so far. 

Wednesday (April 18) and Thursday (April 19) I will be administering the MAP test.  So sorry no Pioneers.  I am confident that our students will do their best and amaze us with their results. 

Friday I will have 5th Grade.   We are giong to work on evaluating expressions in math.   In literature we will be leaning about Shakespearean Sonnets on Shmoop.com.  Perhaps even publish some….. 

I most recently read to students about Helen Keller.   Consequently, we also did a brief study of Louis Braille.  

The iPods,  iPads & Netbooks continue to provide students with an alternative way to learn.   

Students are being introduced to different math tools through a variety of art projects.         Rulers, Safe-T Compass, Protractors.   

During MAP testing (April 11 & 12, 18 &19)  I will not have 3rd or 4th Grade classes.

Please do not allow your children to bring toys to school.  They are very distracting and causing unnecessary conflicts.  This includes, but not limited to, Pokemon cards, stuffed animals, bionicles, legos.  Thank You! 

Students that own an iPod/iPad may bring them to Pioneers…IF it is OK with their parents. 

2nd Grade got introduced to multiplication and how to use a multiplication chart.   

1st Grade worked on their addition & subtraction facts

4th Grade  Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers and Mixed Numbers into Improper Fractions

3rd Grade figured out how much a million is using grid paper

5th Grade learned about scientific notation and decimal places

Read Aloud Grades 2-5  Odyssey  The Archery Contest

Read Aloud Grade 1 The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.  Students then learned how to structure a friendly letter and wrote to the “Big, Bad Wolf”  who landed in Piggy Jail.

A reminder that students need to bring some type of earbuds or headphones to use with the NetBooks, iPods, & iPads each week.   Students can bring them back and forth in their backpacks if they choose.  I also have baggies to keep everyone’s earbuds separated into a larger class baggie.   Students have had their noses to the grindstone all week. 

I have been reading The Odyssey to grades 2-5.  Odysseus finally got to his home island of Ithaca after 19 years of wandering.  He is in disguise staying with the pig farmer.  The pig farmer is loyal to Odysseus.  Athena went to get Telemachus (Odysseus’ son) who was off searching for information about his father.  When Telemachus arrived at Ithaca, Athena sent him to the pig farm.  There is major trouble brewing at Odysseus’ home.  Young suitors are trying to get Penelope to marry them.  They are making a mess of the royal house.  Not to mention eating up all the food stores and drinking all the wine. 

I read Pinduli to 1st grade.  It is a story about a young hyena who is made fun of by other animals of the savannah.  The overall theme is to accept people who are different than you.   Differences are a good thing and not to judge people by how they look.

Grades 3-5 did a Mensa for Kids Poetry Study.  We studied the poem “No Man is an Island” John Donne.   There is a video of Martin Luther King, Jr. quoting this poem during the Civil Rights Movement.

The app of the week was Glass Towers 2.  You have to use logic and problem solving to get rid of the blue glass blocks while retaining the red glass blocks.  It sounds simple, but it is not. 

Next week we will do a mini lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr. 

1st and 2nd grades participated in a  symposium.  What talented students we have!  They were all so respectful of each other. 

First grade is only 3 compliments away from a COMPLIMENT PARTY!!! 

Here’s where every class stands.

First  12 out of 15

Second 5 out of 15

Third 8 out of 15

Fourth 2 out of 15

Fifth 5 out of 15

To allow students more variety and opportunities in school we switch the class day for Pioneers at 2nd semester.

The new schedule is…

Monday 2nd Grade

Tuesday 1st Grade

Wednesday 4th Grade

Thursday 3rd Grade

Friday 5th Grade

 PICK 3 ACTIVITIES TO DO FOR YOUR SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPATION

Things to bring on the day of your grade level Symposium.

Bed sheet to fashion into a garment.

Pillow to recline on during symposium.

Baggie of bite-sized snacks.  Examples:  grapes, crackers, fruit, vegetables, cheese, yogurt, bits of bread

Juice in a box or other non-carbonated drink.

Rules for Symposium from Ancient Greece.

No dropping your drink.

Do not tap or whistle to music.

Do not laugh at inappropriate times.

Do not spit at others in the symposium.