Let's Give it a Try Together!

Post a sentence that uses a synonym for "little or small"  to describe the fire ants.  Remember to use a capital letter to begin your sentence and punctuation to end the sentence.

Mrs. Lewis's Example for Synonyms for Little/Said

The miniscule boy trembled in front of his ginormous opponent.

Circle Map for Small/Little

Circle Map: Synonyms for Small/Little

Take Home Reading

Practicing reading at least 20 minutes every night will help you improve your reading.  Your child's b-bag contains one or two books that should be “Just Right” for him/her.  It should not be too easy that your child can read it and know every word and read it very smoothly.  The book should not be too hard so that he/she has to fix-up 4 or more words on a page.  This will make the book too hard to understand.  A “Just Right Book” should challenge a child to practice using your reading fix-it strategies 2-3 times on a page.  Your child's job every week is to READ BOTH BOOKS EACH NIGHT—Monday through Wednesday.  He/she rereads the books each day so that by Wednesday, your child should be able to read the bookfluently like a story teller with great expression, appropriate pauses and a just right rate.  If your child gets stuck on a word, use the bookmarker that is in the front pouch of the book bag.  Please help your child complete the reading log in the b-bag by having the family member who listened to him/her read check off and sign that the assingment was completed each night.  If you don't have the log, you can download a copy of the Reading Log Form .

On Thursday RETURN THE BACKPACK, READING LOG, BOOK, AND BOOKMARKER!!!!!!  I hope you and your child enjoy the booksJ

Family members and students, please feel free to use the area below the reading log to write down any comments, questions or concerns regarding either the book, activity, or the reading program.  Your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Learning about Rural Communities--Lesson Revision

While taking a course on gender differences in the classroom, I modified one of our History Alive Lessons to accommodate male learning needs.  Boys store information better when it is organized into clear, logical form. Therefore, I incorporated a structured overview graphic organize to utilize boys' memory needs. To capitalize on their need for movement and their spatial reasoning strength, I have added in a kinesthetic component called “statues.” Students act as statues for the different components of the rural and urban areas. In addition, catering to their spatial preferences, I would have the class make a map of the communities with their statues and include drawing as an option for responding/assessment. See the completed, revised lesson below.

 

Activity Materials

•         Social Studies Alive! My Community Student Editions

•         Structured Overview

•         Transparency 2.3

•         Student Handout 2.3 (write 1 word per child on sentence strips)

•         Sentence strips with yarn for hanging around necks

•         Placards 2.1A and 2.1E

•         Quick Write Paper

•         White Drawing paper

1.      Show Project Transparency 2.3: Urban and Rural Communities. Ask these questions: What do you see here? What kind of community is the one pictured on top' (urban) How are the buildings different in each community? Which community is less crowded?  Which has more traffic? Which has more land? Which has farms? Which has fewer stores? Where would you see more animals?

2.      Read aloud. Read pages 12 and 13 in Social Studies Alive!  My Community as children follow along in their books and complete the structured overview.  For page 12, discuss what is found in rural communities. For page 13, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of living in a rural community.

3.      Have children categorize features of urban and rural communities. Follow these steps:

·          Give each child one word necklace "Urban Features" or "Rural Features" on Student Handout 2.3: Features of Urban and Rural Communities.

·         Have children become stationary and moving statues of their feature. Students may place themselves at a high level (standing), a medium level (kneeling or bending), or a low level (sitting or lying down). Students should not block any other student from the audience. Students can team together to make larger structures like hospitals or hotels.

·         Tape Placard 2, IA: An Urban Community at the front of the room and Placard 2. IE: A Rural Community at the buck of the room.

·         When all children have devised completed their drawings: ask them to stand next to the placard like statues that shows the community in which their item would be found.  The class can indicate whether the child is standing in the appropriate community by showing thumbs lip or thumbs down.

·         Have the rural community members create a “Map” of a rural community with their “statues.”  Have the urban community members create a “Map” of an urban community with their “statues.”

4.       Assessment:  Students may answer this question “What is the difference between a rural and urban community” by either:

a.       producing a quick write

b.      drawing a picture

Gender and the Sciences

I read an article, "Gray Matter and Sexes:  A Gray Area Scientifically" at  believe that effort has a great impact on product. Woman may not physiologically have the same brain advantages as men but if they work hard they can achieve anything. I remember a male college Precalculus and Calculus professor and a college Statistics professor giving pretests the first day of class. At the next class, he handed them back and told the class minimum scores that predetermined your success.  If I would have listened to either of them, I would have dropped the classes right then. Instead, I knew I was a good student and I would work hard. I was in the top of the classes and EARNED A’s. I think the key is encouraging and bolster their self esteem to prevail.

Angier and Change state that a discrepancy in performance arises somewhat in adolescence. I have to wonder how much puberty, hormones and the awakening to male-female relationships alters students’ performance. Guiran states that hormonal fluctuations have shown effects on testing.

It was intriguing to me to read that “the masculine edge in math (is) unique to the United States.” If the tests are the same, I would like to see how our girls compare to the other countries girls and boys. I would like know how our boys stack up against the other countries girls and boys. Based on the article, I would agree that the variance in performance must be linked to the expectations and structure of the different countries. My mother is a Japanese immigrant. Maybe that is why I felt compelled to succeed regardless of my gender. I know my mother expected it from all three of children—two girls and a boy.

Reminder Gadget

I found an intriguing gadget this summer called the Watch Minder 2.  It sale price through August is $59.  It can be a prompter, timer, and scheduler. And it’s not just for students!

This watch can be set at an interval tone for a student to self monitor behavior.  It vibrates and light a display that can be set to read from either 65 preprogrammed messages like “Pay Attention” or a custom message like “How is Jason doing?” 

Another use would be a scheduler.  Some students benefit from warning when a transition is coming.  The watch could be set to reflect upcoming transitions like “lunch is in 5 minutes” or “Music is in 5 minutes.”  I would set it in advance to prepare them for the upcoming transition.

In addition, it could be also used as a countdown timer or a reward timer.  The child works for 15 minutes and plays for 5 minutes.  It could also count down timeouts or cool downs. 

As a teacher I could wear the WatchMinder to remind myself to give positive reinforcement to students throughout the school day. The best part is it is all very discreet!

Give With Target

Target has a program called Give with Target. They are giving K-12 schools up to $10,000 each in Target GiftCards® for books or any supplies they need. You can help by voting for our school each week. Rally your friends because for every 25 votes our school receives, Target will send a $25 gift card. Vote now. So please try to make this a week thing until it is over, we have lots of great kids to help out.  PASS IT ON!

Thanks for helping out our students!

Favorite Summer Reading

What were some of your favorite books you read this summer and why?  Do not forgot to include the title and author so all of our friends can read it, too! 

I have been reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford.  Mr. Lewis and I visited an exhibit about him during spring break in Chicago this year.   It is a very interesting read.  This one man really conquered most of Europe and shaped much of the world as we know it.  Click here to learn more about Genghis Khan

SUMMER GOES

Russell Hoban

Summer goes, summer goes
Like the sand between my toes
When the waves go out
That's how summer pulls away,
Leaves me standing here today,
Waiting for the bus.

Summer brought, summer brought
All the frogs that I have caught
Frogging at the pond,
Hot dogs, flowers, shells and rocks,
Postcards in my postcard box -
Places far away.

Summer took, summer took
All the lessons in my book,
Blew them far away.
I forgot the things I knew -
Arithmetic and spelling, too,
Never thought about them.

Summer's gone, summer's gone -
Fall and winter coming on,
Frosty in the morning.
Here's the school bus right on time.
I'm not really sad that I'm
Going back to school.