Compass Learning 10/28-11/3

The Students are using Compass Learning to grow their academic skills.  

 Please check the front of your child's agenda for their user name, password and log in information. Also, each child received an index card with this information listed on the card.  Let me know if you need additional copies.

Make sure that you type in Franklin County as the school district.  Let me know if your child can not log on to the site.   Compass learning is a wonder way for your child to increase tier academic skills while engaging in meaningful lessons that on each child['s individual learning levels. 

 Look at our class on "Team Up Against Drugs Day."

 We enjoyed our basic addition fact game.

 Students each had three tries at the pumpkin toss addition game.   Ask your child how we added the facts by "counting on" to a number.  All students practiced their basic facts on their dry eraser boards as children took turns at the toss game.

 Each week we play the "Put On Your Thinking Cap!"   These are word problems that require using higher order thinking skills.   The students are allowed to work in small groups to solve the problems.  These problems require using prior knowledge and usually require a multi-step approach to problem solving,

Here is last week's word problem:

Ivy and Reena have 10 prizes in all.  They do not have the same number of prizes. How many prizes can Reena have?

(there is more than one answer) 

Teams of students were given 5 minutes to solve the problem.   No one answered the problem correctly.   We started by highlighting the part of the problem that stated They do no have the same number of prizes- which means 5 and 5.   Keep in mind that almost all the students said that this was the correct response .  So, we then moved on to a hands on approach to the answer.  We "role played the answer."  

 Reena is Anthony - with 9 prizes.  and Nicholas is Ivy with 1 prize.

Reena now has 8 prizes and Ivy has 2.

 Reena  has 7, Ivy 3

 We did this process until we fully worked the entire problem.   Modeling the correct response is an important part of the learning process for every student.  We are trying to teach the students to use higher order thinking skills and their knowledge of basic facts.

 Alex enjoys having his mid-day Healthy snack at 9:30 each day.  Remember that we have snack time each day.  Keep in mind that candy is not allowed as a snack.   

Students in the  class participate in at least one play each month.   This month we all worked on the same play.  "Gloo McFoo's First Halloween."

 We always start reading lessons by looking at the vocabulary words that might not be familiar to every child,  Here is the list.  We use our decoding skills to figure our unfamiliar words.  We look for the "root" word, prefixes, suffixes...  to figure out the meaning of each word.

 Students used magic fingers to read the story on their own, prior to us reading it all together.

 We talk about the use of voice when we read.  Reading with expression and the way that the characters in the story might sound if they were with us in real life.

 Small groups of students were paired together and assigned one page to read and act out during the play.

 Students are given time to practice their performance skills.

 Puppets were added to their rehearsal time.

 We preformed the story in the library.  We have a video of the performance  for any family that would like to view your child's performance.
During the performance we stress "audience behavioral expectations."   We are working hard on learning the importance of showing respect to others when they are speaking.

  

 Our Fun Friday Math lesson : Symmetry
First we defined the word and broke it down into terms that the children can understand.  But YES, we do use these big words in class.  Students need to understand the definitions.
Symmetry : property of sameness : the property of being the same or corresponding on both sides of a central dividing line.   We started with the term central dividing line,   Ask your child how we made the central dividing line on our symmetrical pumpkin.

Our Fall class celebrations was lost of fun! The students enjoyed participating in the play, playing pumpkin toss math and making a symmetrical pumpkin.  As a conclusion to the day we read and then watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  Students identified the characters, setting, main idea, supporting details and central message of the story.   Keep in mind that all activities addressed the first grade learning standards, yet the students had a great time participating in their end of October celebration.  Learning can be fun in Team Tipton

Kick off to November Lessons:  Election Day  Activities  

We read Duck for President:  and listed the main idea and 4 supporting details.

 Making words: from the letters in the word election.  Students worked in table teams to generate a list of words.  They played :  " Beat the 5 minute clock" to see which table could work cooperatively to generate the most possibilities.       Here are the words that we generated together for our class chart.

 Uncle Sam helped us learn about the election process.

 Each student had to show their Identification prior to entering the voting book.   Darrian checked id's and students had to sign in at their precinct location.

 The lines at the poll were very long.

 After voting, London gave each child a  "I Voted " sticker.

 Ask your child about our class ballot and the voting results.

NO SCHOOL ON TUESDAY NOVEMEBER 4th.  

I am encouraging each child to visit the voting polls with an adult.  This will help our lessons all make more sense and give the children the hands on experience connection.,  

CODE WORD: to Whisper in Ms. Tipton's ear on Wednesday.    Election