K-Buddy Sledding Party

The new snow will be put to good use from 1:25-1:50 on Monday. We will go sledding with our kindergarten buddies. This is our make up date from before the Holidays when it was too cold. Bring you winter gear!

The Best Ice Fishing Place in the World Video & Fraction Practice & Haiku

Identifying Fractions

Equivalent Fractions

Compare Fractions

Simplest Form/Lowest Terms

Mixed to Improper Fractions

Student Haikus & Fish Houses

Here are two more student Haikus. Below you will find a slideshow of some interesting fish houses.

Short Week- Ice Fishing

A couple of notes for the short week:
No spelling!
Conferences are Tues., Feb 24th 4-8PM, Thurs., Feb. 26th 4-8PM, and Friday Feb 27th during school hours.


This week we reading about ice fishing. Check out picture to link to the article. We took a short survey about being out on the ice. Here are the results:
Have been on the ice (at least once) 100%
Have been ice fishing 75%
Have skated on a lake or pond 92%
Have been in a car on the ice 52%
Have been on a snowmobile on the ice 52%
Have been on an ATV on the ice 24%
Have played hockey on the ice 56%
Have skiied on the ice 28%. Here are a couple YouTube videos we watched about ice fishing:

"Red Writing Hood" Video

No Concert Tonight- Haikus & "Red Writing Hood"

Archery is postponed until tomorrow.

Word Choice:
Students were asked to come up with one interesting word that came into their head with the following prompts. Here are the results:
Prompt/Student Responses-
1. My mom:
fun, loving, snuggly, awesome, protecting, responsible

2. Tonight's postponed concert:
shocking, disaster, lucky

3. Math:
Awesome, interesting, confusing, grrr

4. Pinguard:
painful, dangerous, injustice

5. Iowa:
Molly, nose, CRAZY, flat, wheaty, corn

6.Domino's Day:
delicious, greasy, tasty

7. Harry Potter:
magical, mystical, Guy

8. Mr. O's hair:
fluffy, scarce, stylish, sideburns, bald (ouch!)

More Fractions and Haikus

Homework:
21.3 Ordering Fractions-see web sites below.
Blue Sheet
Think About It Questions and Story Pyramid




Ordering Fractions Web Site

BBC Fraction Ordering Web Site

Advice for comparing fractions:
Check the denominator- if they are the same it is as easy as counting 123.
Check the numerator- if they are the same then the bigger denominator, the smaller pieces of the fraction are.
Is one piece missing? What score would you rather have? 1/2, 2/3, 9/10, 19/20? If only one is missing the bigger the denominator, the greater the fraction's value.
Less than half, half, more than half- categorize your fractions in these groups and go from there.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Red Writing Vocab

View more presentations from Dan O'brien. (tags: vocabulary elementary)

Haikus, Fractions, and Spelling Words

Fraction Identification- Circles

Fraction Identification- Lines

Identify Fractions- Groups

Renaming Fraction in lowest terms (reducing)

Equivalent Fractions- Higher



Spelling this week (Tues & Fri). Rule: adding suffixes to words that end with -y.
families, worried, ugliest, funnier, happily, easily, heavier, earlier, tiniest, supplied, luckily, relied, activities, countries, enemies, hurried,
Spelling vocab words:
triumphantly, desperately, injustice, circumstances.
Bonus Words:
contradict, oxymoron, memorandum, omniscent

Happy Valentine's Day

Today we kicked off our Chip Shoppe Fundraiser to raise money for books for our school. The book fair begins on Tuesday (there is no school on Monday). Below is a sample of animal haiku poems. This is from Adam.

If Not For the Cat ...Haikus

Today in class we read a great poetry book by Jack Prelutsky called If Not for the Cat. Prelutsky has written 17 haiku riddle poems describing different animals. The tie-in to our writing class is Prelutsky's examples of interesting word choice. We wrote a few haikus in class. Look here in the near future for some examples of student haikus. Here is a sample:

Chicken
On my precious egg
I contemplate the future
Destiny nugget

The video below is from a warm-up activity we did to reteach syllables. We picked 8 great words from the story, divided them up into syllables, and had groups of students chant the individual syllables. A volunteer student, that had left the room, had to come in and guess what the word was.

Homework: Finish A-Z booklet, Finish math packet and white circle sheet. Complete blue math sheet.

Tomorrow is the last day for the 2nd trimester AR goal and Valentine's Day. Students are encouraged to bring in Valentines, treats, and mailboxes.

Wednesday Notes

A little homework tonight ...
Finish A-Z Animal Story- illustrate and go over text with black marker/pen
Complete pg 129 in reading workbook-Summarize and Paraphrase
Math-Double check 18.3 for errors, complete 18.4-Venn Diagrams
Please check the conference times in your child's planner to make sure they work.
Have a great night!

Quadrilaterals

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Quadrilaterals

View more presentations from Dan O'brien. (tags: elementary geometry)

Quadrilateral Practice

Test your knowledge of quadrilaterals!




Homework:
18.3 Quadrilaterals- both sides all
Reading- Read In the Days of King Adobe and complete Think About It questions. Complete workbook pages 126 & 127 in reading workbook.
Complete Blue Math sheet for tomorrow.
Phy. Ed. tomorrow.

In the Days of King Adobe Spelling List

Homework:
Complete A-Z Verb Rough Draft for tomorrow
Complete Vocab Notebook and Spelling Study
Math page 18.2-Types of Triangles (both sides)
Complete Blue Math Sheet
Library and Art Tomorrow.

Spelling for February 9th-13th, 2009:
In the Days of King Adobe:
nonstop, replaced, inactive, refill, incorrect, rethink, nonfat, reread, retell, return, incomplete, repay, nonfiction, nonsense, indirect, independent, thrifty, generous, rascally, fascinated.
Bonus Words:
alliteration, characterize, chronological, irony.

This Week's Vocabulary Words:
thrifty
rascally
fascinated
generous
rougish

Friday Notes

Homework:
18.1- Polygons- Regular & Irregular
A-Z Verb Planning in Journal due Monday
Please note 2 important papers in the Friday folder:
1. Conference Schedule
2. Student List for Valentine's Day- We will exchange Valentines on Friday, Feb 13th. Students are encouraged to bring a decorated mailbox for their Valentines.

For practice with shapes- check out the site below.
Have a great weekend!

Adventures in Art- Sculptures

Homework Tonight:
Spelling Test Tomorrow
Blue Math Sheet
Any missing work for the week
Enjoy the Imagination Fair

Yo-Yos & Valentine's Day Notes & Geometry Quiz

Today Dazzling Dave entertained Shirley Hills students with his yo-yo tricks. Yo-yo order forms are in tonight's homework folders.

Our Valentine's Day party is next Friday (2/13). Students are invited to pass out treats and Valentines. Students are also encouraged to create a Valentine's Day mailbox to receive Valentine's from their classmates.

Tomorrow we have a math test on Chapter 17 (angles, lines, rays, segments, intersecting, parallel, and perpendicular lines). Look here for a video quiz once I get it uploaded to Teachertube.

Homework:
Reading workbook pages 119-121
Math Chapter 17 Review Sheet (Both sides)
Blue Math Sheet

Tomorrow we have Adventures in Art with Mrs. Kuehn!
Yo-yos can be purchased before school and during lunch from Mr. Halvarson.

17.3 Web Version

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

17.3 Web Version

View more presentations from Dan O'brien. (tags: lines geometry)

Pen Pal Letters Arrive

Today students were excited to receive pen pal letters from Mrs. O'Brien's second graders at Clover Ridge Elementary in Chaska. Check out the excited faces.
Homework:
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Pablo's Nose- Think About It?s, sequence notes, and story pyramid.
Finish pen pal letter draft
Math:
17.4- Draw a diagram & Bluesheet

Monday Notes- Ice Skating Tomorrow!

Spelling for The Case of Pablo's Nose.
unused, dislike, unclean, unheard, disagree, disabled, unkind, unfriendly, unable, unhappy, unsafe, disobey, uncertain, disappear, undecided, dishonest, sculptor, alibi, muttered, strengthening
Bonus:
uncorroborated
unapologetic
uncatalogued
unlicensed
Homework:
Spelling Word Find and Practice
Vocab notebook for The Case of Pablo's Nose.
Math: 17.3 all- Intersecting, Parallel, and Perpendicular lines
Math Bluesheet
Library Tomorrow