High Ability Update

Our-way udy-stay of-way ig-pay atin-lay ontinues-cay! Our study of Pig Latin continues! After reviewing how to translate words into Pig Latin, we started learning how to sing a song in Pig Latin. Please click the button below to hear the song and ask your student to sing along. I must warn you, it's a catchy tune. Oceed-pray ith-way aution-cay, ecause-bay it-way ay-may et-gay uck-stay in-way our-yay ead-hay. Proceed with caution, because it may get stuck in your head. Since these kids cannot get enough of Pig Latin, I sent them home with a Pig Latin packet just for fun:)

Visualization & spatial reasoning are important geometric processes. To develop these skills, it is beneficial students first manipulate concrete objects and then represent them mentally. Students viewed & recreated a shape composed of two or more shapes, created a mental image of that shape using visualization & spatial memory, and then described a new shape that results when one of the component shapes is moved or removed by another student. The students did very well, and they enjoyed doing this by playing a game called What Happened.

Due to Halloween festivities, we did not have HA on Monday. On Tuesday, we recapped what had been happening in our story. I reminded the students how the stories within the story are intertwined. The students took turns reading aloud. We did pause to discuss, but our primary focus was to read, read, read. I apologize for not getting a pic of this group again. I get so engrossed in what we are doing that taking pics slips my mind, but I will try harder next week. Please help your student remember to do his/her reading before Monday. Homework: Read chapters 30-33

We compared expressions relationally this week. Students were shocked when I told them they are not allowed to add the addition problems to determine whether or not the expressions are equal. Looking at a pair of expressions, students thought about them relationally to decide if they are equal or not. They interpreted whether numbers were greater/less than and paid attention to place value to determine equality/inequality. After becoming more comfortable with that, we used the same sort of thinking to find a missing number in pairs of expressions.

For example: 58 + 24 = 56 + ____

Without adding 58 + 24, students figured out that the missing number is 26. Since 56 is two less than 58, the missing number needs to be two more than 24.

Turning our attention to tall tales, our study of folklore continues. After introducing tall tales, I read Johnny Appleseed to the class. Although most had heard this story before, they listened with a new set of ears. We paused and discussed what makes it a tall tale. Our discussion took interesting turns touching on life expectancy and modern medicine. These students crave profound discussions, and I am happy to accommodate them. The students added tall tale to their folklore posters. More tall tales to come next week.

The exploration of addition using the base-three system provides students deeper insight into regrouping in the base-ten system. Grouping, trading, and renaming are essential skills in any base system. Instead of ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands in our base-ten system, students worked with gickles, bickles, rickles, and trickles in the base-three system. The students had a lot of fun with their new math lingo;) Students played a base-three game in pairs.

The Halloween parade was during 4th grade HA, so we didn’t have class on Monday. On Tuesday, students acted as teachers to discuss our suffix wall. Students took turns reading the suffix definitions and providing examples &/or observations. I must say we have some natural educators in the group:)

Our HA math curriculum provides opportunities for students to think beyond the lessons to take their understanding to another level. Being the students have mastered solving variable puzzles, they were ready to be challenged by a "think beyond" creating their own variable puzzles. Creating variable puzzles is harder than solving the puzzles. Each student created two variable puzzles. They switched papers and solved one another's puzzles.

Email: kapeterson@duneland.k12.in.us
Location: Jackson Elementary School, North 400 East, Valparaiso, IN, USA
Phone: 219-983-3680