Weekly Review - September 17 - 20

FOR ALL

Equations
Equations is a math game for grades 3 - 5.  If you'd be interested in being a coach please let me know.  This activity is open to all students at Flynn Park, not just GATE students.  We need to get weekly practices going in October.  The competition will be Thursday, March 14.  There are parent workshops on Sat. Oct. 27 from 11:10 am - 12:40 pm at Wydown Middle School or Thursday, Nov. 8 from 4:30 - 6:00 at the Gifted Resource Council offices in Webster Groves.

Please let me know if you are interested.  I'll be getting the flyers out to students next week.

Saturday Classes
Gifted Resource Council offers Saturday classes beginning Oct. 6.  You can go to their website: www.giftedresourcecouncil.org for more information.

Program Goals

Each day I review the days activities with the children and we talk about which of the GATE program goals we have addressed.  I love this activity.  It really gets them thinking about their learning as well as seeing the hard work they are accomplishing.  Please ask your children which goals they have addressed each week.

First Grade

First graders are learning how to be analytical thinkers using activities with Sybil the Scientist from our PETS program.  This week they were given many creatures (called Limpets) and they had to choose a characteristic to use for categorizing them.  After we spent some time discussing the possibilities I was thrilled when each child chose their own ideas.  They did a wonderful job.  This page should have come home with them Wednesday.

We also talked about Flat Stanley and the adventures he had because he's flat.  The children colored a flat version of themselves that we will send off to a "far away" friend.  This is a wonderful project on letter writing and geography.  If you do not have a relative or friend that can help, let me know I have some spare relatives and friends that would be happy to help out.

Next week we'll continue our classifying activities and prepare our Flat selves for our journey.  If time allows we'll begin a short series of activities based on the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst.  These will be part reading comprehension and part philosophy.

Second Grade

Second graders began their class in the Flynn Park library searching out fairy tales that were not Cinderella stories.  I want them to read many different tales as we learn the components of most fairy tales.  In their binders is a chart that lists just some of the foundations for a fairy tale.  Please review that with your child.  Also, they should be filling out at least two stories on that chart.  Most of the children came home with books to use or you can take them to the UCity Library.  You do not have to use the books they checked out.  This research will help them when it's time to write their own fairy tales.

They also worked on their PETS activities - Logic Puzzles.  This was a lot of fun.  After we did a couple together the students worked together to complete a couple of puzzles on their own or with a friend.

Third Grade

We jumped back into Hands-On Equations this week.  I'm thrilled to have Mrs. Debbie Schwartz back to help.  She is catching up a few children who didn't learn the program last year and I took the "oldies" a step further and we did word problems using our manipulatives. It was very challenging for the old group and I heard the new group really enjoyed the lessons.  They did two lessons in one day.  Fabulous.

When we got back together I introduced Think and Touch.  This is a series of activities that require critical thinking while allowing the children to touch something to help them solve the problems.  The problems include: Magic Squares, Roman Numeral, Money and Geometry work.

Last, we went back to the Doggone Mystery and completed one more step.  Ask your child to show you the logic elimination grid we did to eliminate one more suspect.  Next week I hope we'll finish the mystery.   With the little time we had left, the students were able to read more of their Cam Jansen mystery that they started last week.

Fourth Grade

Fourth graders went to the library to search for information on their chosen topics.  I spoke with each students about their choices.  Ask them about the funnel analogy about choosing a topic.  Many topics were too broad and there were also quite a few that were too narrow.  This week they are simply trying to see if they can find 26 subtopics that will fit into their A to Z book.

I also introduced Language Arts Mind Builders.  These are critical thinking activities focusing on the areas of grammar, language, usage, writing and reading.  It's a great way to screen for what the children already know  and what they don't.  I'll be showing them a great resource, Scholastic Books, Checking your Grammar.  This book is full of great information.  I'll teach the children how to use it as a reference and sometimes it even holds the answers to our questions.

Fifth Grade

Fifth graders are busy learning about brands, companies and their stock prices.  We reviewed the homework carefully.  While I don't mark a score, I do look to see that everyone has completed the work. This homework is essential to doing well in the game. We then had a wonderful group discussion about the many types of companies that we interact with each day, week or month.  We talked about diversifying our portfolios (not keeping our eggs in one basket).  Each Stock Market Game team brainstormed lists of companies they are interested in buying.  For homework they should be tracking the stocks and researching the history of their chosen stocks so that next week they are ready to make their first purchases.

They worked so hard on the stock market game I gave them a little extra free choice reading time. :)