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Week of February 4, 2008

Fourth and fifth graders will create their models of their new species of fish from the materials they have brought from home.  Then, we will have a "Conferernce of Ichtyologists" who will present their newly discovered species to their classmates in oral presentations.

We will also determine the meaning of the phrase "man eating shark," and find out just how dangerous a pairing of man with a shark can be - and which of the two is really the most dangerous to the other!  We will also study the three basic symbiotic relationships in nature and determine some animals that live in these relationships.

HOME EXTENSION:  Students need to bring in at least 3 resources about their shark.  At least One resource MUST be a book.

Please send in a flash drive/jumpdrive labeled with your student's name.  In the very near future, he/she will be working on a Power Point presentation (4th) or computer movie program (5th) about a selected shark.  While this will be an in-class project, the memory allocated on our system for students will not support the detailed work done by our students using these programs.

Week of October 29, 2007

     Beware, the Sope Creek Sleuths are closing in on the culprit who stole our recipes!!  We unraveled two important clues this week.  First another mysterious message.  This one handwritten.  We learned about chromatography, and carefully analyzed the source of the note. Through our deductive skills we were able to piece together the last clues that led us to our thief.
      Third grade worked on review Lesson 4 in Hands on Equations. Second Grade has become expert plexer solvers with their "Word Bogglers" and other logic puzzles as "The Jewel Theft" and the "Tell Tale Footprints."  We had some Halloween fun stretching our imaginations with "Things that go Thump in the Night."

                                   CALENDAR REMINDER
      It is hard to believe, but with our new December testing schedule, we will be ending our first term in two weeks.  Due to the students' holiday on Monday 11/5, we will only have one more session with 3rd grade on 11/12.  Second grade will meet 11/9 and their last session will be 11/16.

    Reminder:  Book Reports and Presentations due:
                      3rd Grade   Monday 11/12
                      2nd Grade   Friday 11/16

We will also have an end of the unit celebration on these days. Each student is asked to bring a "mystery" snack in a bag to share with the class, and write one clue as to what it is.

Home extension:  Work and practice your mystery book report.

      We wish you a happy and safe Halloween this week.

Judy Bullard, Liz Goldstein, Lee Lindsley, and Val Verduci

      

Week of October 22, 2007

     The list of suspects is getting smaller.  Our detectives are focused on three suspects, who have still not been able to substantiate their alibis.  An unusual new clue surfaced this week, a coded message.  Our sleuths diligently broke the code to decipher the secret message.  We made a list of how to use our forensic skills in order to obtain more evidence for the source of this secret message.  We are getting closer and closer to finding our missing recipes.

       To keep their deductive thinking skills sharp, students completed various activities and logic problems.  Third grade completed lesson 4 in Hands on Equations, and second grade worked with a complex mystery number activity.

       Home extension:  Complete the "Number Pattern" activity.
       REMINDER:  Students should be completing their mystery novel reading,  working on their book report, and begin preparing their oral presentation.
                                 3rd Grade due Nov. 12th
                                 2nd Grade due Nov. 16th

      Judy Bullard,  Liz Goldstein,  Lee Lindsley,  Val Verduci

Week of Oct. 21 4th and 5th

Tally for Week of Oct. 21, 2007   

We are having a great time with our bridge unit.  We want to thank all of you who sent in the necessary popsicle sticks and wood glue.  Here are some highlights for the week of Oct. 21:

Fourth graders will be practicing our Hands On Equations skills with Lesson 8: Practice.  Fifth graders will be working on Hands On Equations or other Math activities according to individual needs.

We will continue straining our brains with our Halloween logic puzzle.  We hope to be able to find out which partygoers are behind their masks by using our powers of deduction.

We will continue planning and start building our popsicle stick bridges in our construction crew groups. We hope to be able to construct strong bridges and stay within our crew budget.  We're learning that time is truly money!

We are planning to finish our "Who Am I?" bridge PowerPoints this week.  Our text boxes are finished and all pictures which were turned in by the due date have been scanned in.  We've edited, chosen colors and backgrounds, picked graphics, and imported our Excel graphs into our slide shows.  The presentations are looking really impressive and we plan to share them with each other next week.  We'll see if we can guess which bridges we have been researching just by the facts presented in each presentation.

Home Extension:  Answer this question in two or more paragraphs:

What are some techniques we can use to build a better bridge with fewer materials?

Week of October 15. 2007

     Third grade continues to develop their skills with Hands on Equations as they completed extra practice Lesson 3.  Second grade put their basic computation skills to use to solve a complex math puzzle.

      Both grade levels utilized their matrix logic skills in order to narrow our suspects list and further substantiate their alibis. Our detectives are closing in on the culprit who stole our chocolate recipes. Classes completed various activities from past weeks, such as the imaginary mystery keyhole scene and story, as well as a missing person report.  Students solved the "Case of the Rocky Alibi", and used their creative talents to create a disguise. 

    Home Extension:  Solve the "Prizzles Puzzle", and do not forget to read your mystery novel and work on your book report. 

   Judy Bullard, Liz Goldstein,  Lee Lindsley, and Val Verduci

Week of October 8, 2007

       Where were our suspects on the night of the break-in?  Today we questioned our suspects, all of whom had alibis for their where abouts the night of the robbery.
We proceeded to use our detective skills and our deductive thinking strategies to substantiate their alibis.  We practiced our technique of using syllogisms and making valid conclusions from true premises.  This technique helped us when we investigated the suspects' alibis.

     Third grade continued with Lesson 3 in Hands on Equations.  Classes solved a logic problem,  completed a missing person report using detail descriptions, and utilized their observation and memory skills on an eyewitness exercise.  Third grade enjoyed watching the clever detective skills of the famous Sherlock Holmes in "The Mystery of the Red Headed League."

       Homework extension:  "Using Logic" activity sheet.  Continue reading mystery novel for book report.

       Judy Bullard,  Liz Goldstein,  Lee Lindsley, and Val Verduci

Week of October 1, 2007

    What busy detectives we have? 
    Our second grade and third grade investigators examined new evidence this week.  They were very careful to note the difference between poor generalizations and valid conclusions based on known evidence.  We used some of our new information to complete a logic problem.  As we continue to gather more information about the recipe robbery, we are recording our findings on our "What, Where, When, How, Who, Why" chart to narrow our suspect list.
    This week we had a modified schedule for third grade due to ITBS testing in the morning.  Second graders had additional time to work on their logic skills to
complete a  Word Boggler and a mystery math riddle. Second graders used their imagination and creative talents to create an imaginary mystery scene as spied through a keyhole.  We were also introduced to the famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

    Parents and students,we hope to see many of you at Octoberfest on Saturday.
    Look for the Target Teachers' Auction:
          "TARGET AT TARGET"......come join your Target teacher for dinner at Houlihan's and an outing at the new East Cobb Target book department.

       Keep up the good mystery novel reading and logging your time on your homeroom reading log.

     Judy Bullard,  Liz Goldstein,  Lee Lindsley,  Val Verduci