Moving Past September by feature blogger, Griffin and blographer, Maddie

On Monday, it got really colder and we had to wear pants instead of shorts. It got colder because of all the rain we’ve had. Also it is fall. There have been a lot of leaves on the ground where we go for our mask breaks outside. 

We played a game called Shadow Lands when we were out for our mask break. It is a game where there’s lots of squares and you can step on the squares. There’s some that are the "light" ones and some that are the "dark" ones. You have to step on all the light ones to WIN. We played Shadow Lands on the first day of school too. We might do Shadow Lands with Mrs. B. tomorrow.  

Lily got sick today. She had to go home because her tummy wasn’t feeling good. We also did language arts today. 

On Tuesday, it wasn’t that cold so most of us wore shorts. We didn’t play Shadow Lands with Mrs. B. today. At our mask break, we played tag. 

We paired up to do math and when we were done we played SET. If you have not played SET before, I’ll tell you what it is. It’s like a matching game where there’s different shapes and you can make a set with three cards. 

At 2 o’clock at home, we did the I-Ready test with Mrs. Genson and we did math on the I-Ready test too. I personally think everybody did the best they could and they did a good job.

On Wednesday, we played Apples to Apples. This is how it works. Someone picks a green card and people have 5 red cards. Whatever the green card says, like "funny," everybody would pick the funniest card and put them in the middle. One of us would read the cards out loud and pick the best card. Then whoever placed that card got the green card "funny." 

https://www.amazon.com/Mattel-Apples-Party-Crazy-Combinations/dp/B00112CHCK/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Apples+to+apples&qid=1601782357&sr=8-3

We did the faces of the moon assignment. We also did some Language Arts, 3.3 Ocean adventures.

On Thursday, we were in school till 1:30. If you’re new to the blog, we’ve been usually ending school at 1 o’clock and starting at 8:30. 

We did an activity involving straws, toothpicks, and marshmallows. We did it on a paper and there were circles with numbers inside of them. 

We would have to put one marshmallow on the start, then put a toothpick on it and then get a straw and connect the toothpick, straws, and marshmallows together. This would make the toothpicks touch the circles with numbers inside of them. 

How many points were inside of the circle would be how many points we get. The highest number inside of a circle was 4. It was a fun challenge.

A Busy Week, by our feature blogger, Mia and Blographer, Chase

On Monday

We played a game that’s named SET. Everybody loved it! It was a little like the matching game. After, we did a writing assignment. 

We had to finish it to go outside, so we finished it.

Then we had a snack break and mask break. At the end of the snack break, we did races and it was me vs Maddie. We were tied and BAM! Me and Maddie slammed into each other and our knees were covered in blood. It was the first injury of the year. 

But after, we worked on some math. We went over some homework and then we got to go home!

On Tuesday 

We first did language arts. In language arts, we practiced cursive writing and we did a worksheet. 

Then before we started math, we had a snack break. After the snack break, we did a fun math game called "Around the World." It’s a game where you go against one of your classmates and you try to get the correct answer before the other person. Next, we did some science. Me and Lily got some free time because we already finished what we needed to do. So after that, we got a little homework and packed up our bags. 

 

Mrs. Bredemeier read Stories with Holes and then we went home.

On Wednesday  

The day went by very fast. We did a lot of language arts and that took up most of the day. 

After that, we went outside and had a snack. We also made a video of ourselves reading our worksheet about how we feel. 

Then we went inside and it was already 11:00! When we went inside, we did a little more language arts. We did some math and then it was 12:45. We packed up and got a lot of homework. Then it was time to go home.

On Thursday

We had to say the three words to Mrs. Koch about the kinds of sentences we studied on Monday: declarative, interrogative, and exclamatory. 

 

After that we practiced doing summaries about bats and we did that pretty much the whole day. 

 

We also played SET, a lot of people got sets. 

At the end of the day we looked at the blog and had a little homework and then we were done!

Sadly there will not be a post about Friday but maybe in the future there will be. I hope you have a good day.

Working on Our Flexibility (Our Teachers' Perspectives)

Mrs. Bredemeier and I have been so impressed by how hard the students worked this week. Despite the challenges, the students have shown a positive attitude and a desire to succeed.

At the start of our week, we had a discussion about what it takes to be successful: successful in big and small ways. I drew an iceberg on the board and discussed how what we see above the water is only about 20% of the whole iceberg, 80% is unseen, underneath the water. We discussed how this is like success and the students brainstormed many of the qualities and actions it takes to achieve success. Being flexible in the journey was an important aspect too. I used the many popular memes to complete our list and wrote those words on the lower part of the iceberg. The image below includes the words the students generated.

Our days have been a bit of a rollercoaster with some technology problems, but the students are getting better at being flexible. We are working to break down the steps to work in and submit their Edgenuity virtual lessons. The students have learned their logins and passwords and they are proficient at logging into each of the applications on their iPads. This week they created file folders to organize their completed work before submission. They are better handling their frustrations as we continue to seek out new work arounds. Mrs. Gensen, the students' Virtual Academy teacher, has been helpful working with us to get all of the students online and moving forward. We appreciate her efforts and input as we figure this all out.

https://www.whsd.net/2/Content2/intedgenuity

Our mask breaks a such an important opportunity for the students to visit, socialize and get their wiggles out.

We have several enrichment alternatives we have turned to when we couldn't move forward with our online work. This week the students were introduced to the TOPS (Techniques in Problem Solving) Math decks.  It is an individualized math program where the students progress through a series of sequential cards. TOPS allows the students to challenge themselves until they reach a correct answer before moving forward. The students will use these problem solving skills and strategies, singularly or in combination to solve each card.

• Make an organized list
• Work it backward
• Solve a simpler problem
• Draw a picture or diagram
• Find a pattern
• Make a table
• Use reasoning and deduction
• Guess and check

Flexibility of thought is a key attribute of a successful problem solver! TOPS also builds resilience and tenacity as students learn to view mistakes and incorrect answers as challenges and opportunities to grow and learn new skills.

This week we started a read aloud chapter book, Lulu Walks the Dogs. The kids are enjoying a funny and cantankerous relationship Lulu and Fleischman share.  If they are enjoying this story, they may like two others in the series by Judith Viorst.

We have also been learning about the components of creativity:

• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Originality
• Elaboration

Flexibility is something we have needed in almost every lesson we have completed this week. It is definitely a great life skill. 

• Flexibility is the ability to change your way of thinking about a problem or situation.  It is the ability to think of alternative ideas and to adapt to different situations.

We ended our day exploring our blog for the first time. The students were excited to see we have had visitors and surprised by the many locations in which they live. Receiving comments and questions will allow the students to write their own replies.  We are just beginning to learn about digital citizenship, online safety and how to create quality posts and comments. We are looking forward to getting to know some students and friends that live in different parts of the world.

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