What Does Division Mean?

Division can be tricky! What does it mean, anyway? 

A division equation can be read two ways: either dividing a total amount into a certain number of groups, or dividing a total amount into groups of a certain size. 

Here are some division strategies that we have practiced in class:

And here are some strategies that our students use: 

Week of December 11-15

Hello Families,

This week we started doing announcements for the school. Some students were nervous (and understandably so!), but I could see they all felt a huge sense of pride after they were finished! If your child feels anxious about doing the announcements, just let me know and I can send home what they'll be saying so they can practice at home.

We talked a lot this week about what a good partner and group member looks like, sounds like, and feels like. I have noticed our talking in partnerships has been much more focused and purposeful! Students have also commented that our turn and talk time feels so much better as well. :)

It was great seeing families for our Pizza, PJ's and Publishing Family Night! Our students...I mean YouTubers...got a chance to teach their viewers what they've been writing about and leave some compliments for their classmates.

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 4.
• As it starts to get chilly and snowy outside, please remind your child that they need to have their winter gear of hats, mittens, snow pants, and boots!
• Half birthdays are starting to come up for those students with summer birthdays. We do celebrate half birthdays! If your child's birthday is during the summer months, feel free to bring in a half birthday snack if you'd like. 

Upcoming Events

December 12: NO SCHOOL
December 13: Holiday Wear
December 21: Pajama Day
December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL Winter Break! :)

Curriculum Update

Math: We finished up Unit 2 this week and took the Unit 2 test. Next week, we will fix up our incorrect answers on our test so we can learn from our mistakes! We'll also begin Unit 3, which focuses on place value, rounding, and addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers. We will work to understand place value next week by making drawings of numbers (representing ones, tens, and hundreds), identifying each digit, and understanding place value in word problems. A letter should be going home today with your student explaining more about the kind of work they will be doing in Unit 3 so families can understand this too! :)

Writing: Students were excited to see how many compliments they got on their writing after Family Night! We have been working hard to elaborate on our information writing by adding ideas and facts and connecting our paragraphs and chapters by adding transition words. Next week, we will work on our introductions, conclusions, and adding expert words. We will also be spending time with a partner to help understand where our writing gets confusing and what we can do to clear up that confusion.

Word Study: This week we continued to learn more about suffixes and practiced building words with suffixes. We also talked about how the suffix -ed can make three different sounds: /d/, /id/, or /t/. Next week, we'll go over some more vowel teams (ou, oo, ue, ew) and practice correctly spelling words as we write them in a sentence. 

Reading: This past week we really dug into note taking the main idea of a chunk and chapter of a book and finding the key details that support that main idea. This is tricky but important work. Students are doing a nice job at trying it out. This next week we are starting to think about the authors purpose and perspective of nonfiction texts. We will also talking about how WE can grow our own ideas when reading nonfiction. Remember students should be reading independently at home in their fiction books. Nonfiction can be extra if they'd like! :)

*Scholastic book orders are due December 13. If you would like a gift for the holidays and want it private please let me know and we can work something out. kabarac@kaukaunasd.org

Content: We completed our world maps by adding in some rivers. We also focused on close reading an article about Australia. Close reading is when we look closely and thoughtfully at a text to find evidence of main ideas and key details to help us understand more about the text, like why the author decided to write it or what ideas we have now. Next week, we will begin our centers where students will work in groups to learn more about the world through maps, modeling, statistics, images, reading, and video.



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

Week of December 4 - 8

Hello Families,

It's hard to believe it is already December! It was another quick week. I have noticed that I often have to stop myself or a student when sharing because some classmates are talking or not paying attention. We have been talking about how this affects ourselves and others when this happens and ways that we can improve. Feel free to have these conversations with your student at home as well. Sometimes that extra reinforcement helps! Remind your student that they can be (or can continue being!) a role model for our class and our school through their respectful actions and kind words.

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 6.
• If you haven't yet returned your student's portfolio, you can send it on back so we can fill it with more of their work!
• Some students have a ring of cards attached to their agenda. These are words that I have noticed they have misspelled in their writing that they should know. Students should write these words five times both at school and at home. 
• Your students convinced me (through their opinion writing!) that they should be able to bring in something for share other than pictures. So, for one "round" of shares, they can bring in something to talk about - as long as it can fit in their locker and it is not a pet! :) On Monday we'll figure out who will be sharing this week.
• Half birthdays are starting to come up for those students with summer birthdays. We do celebrate half birthdays! If your child's birthday is during the summer months, feel free to bring in a half birthday snack if you'd like. 

Upcoming Events

December 5: Kaukauna Parade
December 7: Pajama Day
December 7: Family Night: PJ's, Pizza, and Publishing
December 8: NDLC Wear
December 12: NO SCHOOL
December 14: Holiday Wear
December 21: Pajama Day
December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum Update

Math: We have been working on solving two step problems! Next week, we will continue to work on these types of problems. I sent home a review for students to work on each night for about 10 minutes. If they work through the review, that will help them greatly to be prepared for the test. The test is formatted exactly as the review is! We will go over all that we have learned in Unit 2 (and so far this year!) and take our Unit 2 test at the end of the week. 

You can help you child in math by asking them what math facts (like 5x7 or 2x9) they are working on right now. Have them tell you a strategy they use for solving them. They have about 6 math facts to practice at a time. The more we practice these facts, the more fluent and efficient they will be!

Writing: This week we started our next unit, information writing. We compared teaching things we know a lot about in our writing to YouTubers teaching what they know to their viewers. We also looked at the most effective ways to set up our table of contents for our audience and different ways to structure our writing. Next week we'll work on saying more about each of our facts and writing a lot of books! On Family Night on Thursday, you'll get a chance to see some of your child's writing!

Word Study: This week we learned about suffixes and how they change the meaning of the baseword. I sent home a Word Study packet at the beginning of the week, but it doesn't need to be returned until the end of next week! Next week we'll work on building more words with the suffixes and our trick words: sure, use, and used. 

Reading: This past week we started reading nonfiction books! We are learning that it is very important to take some notes so we can become experts AND teach others what we learn. We learned that we can take these notes by using a boxes and bullets format. The main idea is written in a sentence in the box and the details support it. This is different from second grade because in second-grade students had to write the topic in the box and facts that went with that topic in the bullets. So students are taking the jump to be more organized and get more out of their readings. We will continue to work hard on this. Students are reading mainly nonfiction at school. I'd like students to keep their fiction skills still strong so for homework I would like students to be doing SOME fiction reading. They can also read nonfiction but fiction should be happening. :)

*Scholastic book orders are due December 13. If you would like a gift for the holidays and want it private please let me know and we can work something out. kabarac@kaukaunasd.org

Content: We are continuing to learn all about continents, oceans, and mountain ranges! Next week, we'll learn about some rivers and put them on our maps. Students will start to gain more independence in doing their own learning at different centers that will be set up with maps, pictures, videos, and more!

Here's the link to the continents video/song we watched/sang along to. I apologize in advance if you have been hearing this song on repeat! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6DSMZ8b3LE




Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

November 27 - December 1

Hello Families,

Since it is a very short school week, the blog is coming a little early! I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy spending some extra time with your family. This Thanksgiving, I am so incredibly grateful to have each one of your children in class! I love learning with and from them. I know this is all made possible by the time and effort you put in with your child at home, so thank you for that!

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 6.
• Some students have a ring of cards attached to their agenda. These are words that I have noticed they have misspelled in their writing that they should know. Students should write these words five times both at school and at home. Because some students have been misspelling these words for a couple years, it takes a lot of practice for our brain to realize the correct way to spell the word. That is why we practice so much! Once we see that they can spell the word correctly in their writing, we'll take it off the ring!
• At home, students can write these words with paper and pencil, markers, fancy pens, "skywrite" with their arm, use a dry erase board, rainbow write with different colors, or any other ideas they come up with!
• Kwik Trip Gift cards Fundraiser -- NDLC earns 5% back on each gift card sold and 10% back on non-fuel purchases made in store with the gift card. Orders are due November 29th and can be picked up at Family Night. 
• Do you ever get frustrated when working with your child on reading? Do you ever wonder why they are making those mistakes? Well, try it out! Below is a simulator on experiencing what a young child goes through when learning to read. Reading is a hard and complicated process! Students need strategies to learn how to tackle the tricky parts.
  https://www.understood.org/en/tools/through-your-childs-eyes
• This is a friendly reminder that your Book Clubs orders are due by 12/13/17 this month. I set the order early in December so the books can hopefully be shipped before winter break! You can place your orders online at scholastic.com/bookclubs using my class activation code: P8W4T or you can write a check from the paper copy.
  
  
  Happy Reading,
  Miss. Kabara
  

Upcoming Events

November 22-24: NO SCHOOL
December 7: Pajama Day
December 7: Family Night
December 8: NDLC Wear
December 12: NO SCHOOL
December 14: Holiday Wear

Curriculum Update

Math: So far in Unit 2 we have finished up the remaining multiplications, meaning we learned to multiply with all factors from 0 to 10. The next part of Unit 2 focuses on problem solving and multiples of 10. Next week, we will work on two-step word problems. These can be challenging as they require multiple steps to solve AND students need to decide which operation to use. We will also multiply with multiples of 10.

Check out some efficient strategies that your students came up with for multiplication and division! :)

Writing: This week we finished our Opinion Unit. I saw students get more interested and engaged in this unit since after all, they do have a lot of opinions to share! We even saw how far we have come since the start of the unit by comparing our first piece of Opinion to our last. Next unit will be information writing. We'll start with our on demand and then brainstorm ideas and understand the structure of information texts. 

Word Study: This week we will learn about suffixes, specifically -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, and -est. A new word study packet will go home on Monday for students to practice with during the week. 

Reading: This week we completed our mystery unit! Students did an AMAZING job being real detectives and solving the mystery of "WHO STOLE OUR CHAIRS!?" They now know what it takes to be a great reader-- reading carefully for details (clues) and thinking of the characters (suspects)! This next week we will be beginning our next unti-- Nonfiction reading! We will be reading to learn AND reading to TEACH others! I don't want students regressing all they've done in their fiction reading so about 3/4 of each Reading time I will have students switch to reading a fiction text. They will also most likely be bringing home a fiction book for their reading homework. The big goal of this unit is to get students to figure out the main idea and details of a text. We will be practicing by note-taking using boxes and bullets!

*Scholastic book orders will be sent home when we come back from Thanksgiving!

Content: Students have been loving our world unit! This week we discussed directions and continents. Next week, we'll learn about the oceans, mountain ranges in the United States, and rivers. Feel free to ask your child what they have learned about the world and share what you know too!

Check out some pictures of students exploring the world through different maps, books, a globe, and searching in online databases!

 

Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

November 13-17 AND 20-21

Hello Families,

It was good to see some of you for conferences on Thursday, and I look forward to seeing everybody else next week! I'm sure these next two weeks will fly by as we have an early dismissal on Friday, and then the next week there are only two school days! I hope you enjoy this extra time with your family and stay warm with this chilly weather.

Reminders/Updates

• Conferences will continue on Tuesday, if you didn't have yours already on Thursday! 
• Our new shipment of MathBoards (a dry erase board we use for math) came in, so we can send our old ones home with families! I will have them available at conferences for you to take home, but if you didn't get one or would just like another, let me know. 
• Don't forget to order Square1Art! The deadline for orders was Friday, but you can still order online this weekend :)
• There are also extra Funset Boulevard wristbands if you did not get some yet. We're still taking orders through Monday!
• This month New Directions is showing how to BE Thankful!  As a way to bring us together as a school community we are going to have an "Appreciation Station" set up for students and families to use at conferences.  At this station you will be able to write a note to someone you are thankful for in your lives. It can be someone from the school or someone from somewhere else in your lives.  Please look for the station outside the cafeteria by the 4K classroom and stop by to let someone know you are thankful for them!  
• Monday will be Day 5. Next week Monday (11/20) will be Day 4. 
• Next week Friday is an early dismissal. Students will be released at 11:30, and lunch will not be served at school. The following week students do not have school on Wednesday-Friday!

Upcoming Events

November 14: Portfolio Conferences
November 16: Funset Boulevard
November 17: Early Dismissal at 11:30
November 20: Badger Sportswear
November 22-24: NO SCHOOL
December 7: Pajama Day
December 7: Family Night

Curriculum Update

Math: This week we fixed up our mistakes on our Unit 1 tests so we can learn from them! We will continue multiplication and division in Unit 2, so your child does have more time to master these concepts. As students are building on their knowledge of multiplication and division, they will begin to look for more efficient strategies! So far this week we multiplied with 6 and 8 and found area of rectangles. If your child seems like they're struggling in math, the best thing for him/her to do at home is to practice their facts. They can copy down the facts that they're working on at school so they have a set at home. You can ask your child to say the fact and show it (with a picture, using count bys, using other known facts, or any other strategy they have). Next week, we will work more with story problems and matching equations, multiplying and dividing with 7, square numbers, and becoming more fluent with all of our facts (since we will have learned facts with 0-10!) 

Writing: We have been working on writing convincing persuasive speeches! We listened to a powerful speech from a student our age to learn what moves she did as a speaker to give a powerful, persuasive speech. Next week, we'll have a mini celebration by giving our speeches and listening to others' speeches. I'm hoping to do this through Seesaw so families will be able to see as well! We will then start petitions and work on becoming more independent writers.

Word Study: We have been working on our five closed exceptions, -olt, -ild, -ost, -ind, and -old and our "trick words" goes, pretty, and done. If you haven't turned in the Word Study packet yet, that's okay! Just turn it in next week :) We have been working to remember a capital letter at the start of a sentence and a punctuation mark at the end as well! Next week we will review all we have learned so far and take the Unit 3 test. 

Reading: This past week students enjoyed reading as many more mysteries as they could with their partners. This next week we will be staying in our mystery unit, BUT we will be reading regular fiction books with our partners. We will transferring all we learned in reading mysteries to reading ANY type of fiction! The week of Thanksgiving we will be doing our celebration. We will also do some "book stacking." This is where students will get to find ALL the books they read in this unit and stack them up and take a picture on seesaw. Be on the lookout for how many books your child has read! It should be exciting. The last day of school before break we will do a pre-assessment on Nonfiction reading to see what skills students are using as they read. After thanksgiving we will be beginning our first nonfiction reading unit! It should be so exciting!

Content: This week we did a close reading of an article to learn more about geographers and cartographers. Next week we will finish close reading the article and investigate what we know about the world by looking at different maps and globes. In particular, we will be discussing the seven continents, five oceans, and cardinal directions!


Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

November 6 - 10

Hello Families,

It's hard to believe that we're already in the month of November! I hope that you all enjoyed yourselves (and stayed warm!) on Halloween! This week was a little bit abnormal with your students having a substitute teacher for two days and also with Halloween. Being gone made me realize how much I enjoy having each one of your children. I was truly ready to get back to these awesome students that I get to spend the rest of the year with :)

I also must say, I had a completely positive note from the substitute teacher on Wednesday. She said EVERYONE was helpful, respectful, and responsible! Kudos to your student!

Check out the pictures from our Halloween celebration with our first grade buddies! Ms. Wittman read us all a book, students drew a costume for their teacher, and we watched "Halloween is Grinch Night" while eating a snack!

Reminders/Updates

• This month New Directions is showing how to BE Thankful!  As a way to bring us together as a school community we are going to have an "Appreciation Station" set up for students and families to use at conferences.  At this station you will be able to write a note to someone you are thankful for in your lives. It can be someone from the school or someone from somewhere else in your lives.  Please look for the station outside the cafeteria by the 4K classroom and stop by to let someone know you are thankful for them!  
• Monday will be Day 6.
• I will be absent for a few more days next week for training. Please remind your child to be the respectful, responsible students that they are for the substitute teacher on those days!
• If you haven't yet, sign up for conferences! They will begin this week on Thursday and continue next week Tuesday. The sign up is similar to how the sign up was for Meet and Greets through PTCFast.com

Upcoming Events

November 6: Packer Wear
November 7 Miss Feldkamp will be gone
November 8: Dress Like Your Parents Day
November 8: Miss Feldkamp will be gone
November 9: Portfolio Conferences
November 10: Red, White, and Blue for our Veterans
November 10: Yoga with Mrs. McEneany
November 11 (Saturday): Families visiting Kindred Hearts
November 14: Portfolio Conferences
November 17: Early Dismissal at 11:30
November 20: Badger Sportswear
November 22-24: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum Update

Math: We completed Unit 1 this week by taking the Unit 1 test! We also started math fact fluencies with multiplication. Your child has a bag of about 6 cards with multiplication expressions that they do not yet have mastered. These may be problems that students answered incorrectly or that they had to think about for a while to get the answer. As we practice our facts, students will learn and apply efficient strategies to get the correct answer quickly. As they master these multiplication expressions, new cards will be added. Next week, we will be starting Unit 2. We will learn to multiply and divide with 6 and 8. We will also solve area word problems and work to write our own word problems. 

Writing: This week we chose an idea that we are passionate about and wrote long to get all of our ideas down on paper. We then organized our writing to find reasons that needed more evidence to make our speeches that much more convincing! Next week, we will start our drafts by writing fast and furiously with paragraphs, choose strong, emotion-evoking words, and look into writing petitions. 

Word Study: This week we took the Unit 2 test. I was impressed with the progress students are making! Taking the time to work through the Word Study packets at home has really helped some students to grow and solidify their knowledge. We also learned about the five exceptions to closed syllables: -ild, -ind, -old, -ost, and -olt. Next week, we will focus on vowel teams. A vowel team is two vowels that together make one sound (like ai in bait.) Learning these "rules" and concepts will help students to decode words in their reading and to correctly spell words in their writing!

Reading: This past week students have been reading like detectives! They are paying attention to small clues and being aware of "fishy" suspects! Students have finished SO many books in just a short amount of time! This is amazing to see. This coming week we will start talking about red herring clues and thinking about what kind of mind work we should be doing. We will continue to read more mysteries!

*I will not be sending home a November scholastic book order because there will be scholastic books available at conferences!

Content: This week we played Kahoot! to review what we learned in the Land and Water unit and took the end of unit test. Next week we will start our first Social Studies unit about the World. We will do a close reading of an article on geographers to get our brains interested in the world!


I am looking forward to seeing everyone for conferences this next week! Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

October 30-November 3

Hi Families,

What a quick week! Hopefully you find time to do something you enjoy on this long weekend :)


Check out some pictures of students showing area with Cheez-Its! Students made a rectangle from 24 Cheez-Its, and then had to split the rectangle into smaller arrays, writing the equations to find the area for each. Brennan gave me the tip that they should be called "Cheez-It Array engineers!" :)

Here's some of the different ways they split up or divided the array!

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 1.
• Join your child's Seesaw account if you haven't already! You will get to see things that they have been working on in the classroom. (Check it out this week for some pictures/videos of our dam engineers and "Cheez-it array" engineers!)
• If your CHILD would like to log on to their account, go to this link to sign in. 
• If YOU would like to sign in (as a family member), go to this link, choose your child from the list, and make an account. 
• If it is not working for you, let me know and I will try to troubleshoot! 
• I will be absent for a few days these upcoming weeks for training. Please remind your child to be the respectful, responsible students that they are for the substitute teacher on those days!
• Students will have their Unit 2 Word Study test on Tuesday. I'll send their graded test back later in the week, so be looking for that to see how your child is doing :)
• Conference sign up will be emailed to you on Thursday. You will be able to sign up for a 15 minute block on Thursday, November 9th or Tuesday, November 14. The sign up will be similar to how the sign up was for Meet and Greets. 
• The first date for Kindred Hearts visit is Nov. 11 from 9-10 am.  Families will meet at Kindred Hearts and read stories and their writing/books to residents.  Families will need to bring books/writing with them.  

Click here to sign up to attend the first visit. Please contact Kristin McEneany kristin.mceneany@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you! 

•  Typing Club - Some students were wondering if they could practice typing at home. Of course! They can go to feldkamp.typingclub.com and enter in their username and password. Their username does NOT include the @kaukaunasd.org. Remind them that they can only move on to the next level if they get 5 stars!

Upcoming Events

October 30: PJ Wear Day
October 30: Miss Feldkamp will be gone
October 31: Wear Orange and Black
November 1: Miss Feldkamp will be gone
November 1: Picture Retake Day
November 2: Unit 1 Math Test
November 3: Unit 1 Math Test
November 3: NDLC Wear
November 6: Packer Wear
November 7 Miss Feldkamp will be gone
November 8: Dress Like Your Parents Day
November 8: Miss Feldkamp will be gone
November 9: Portfolio Conferences
November 10: Red, White, and Blue for our Veterans
November 10: Yoga with Mrs. McEneany
November 11 (Saturday): Families visiting Kindred Hearts
November 14: Portfolio Conferences
November 17: Early Dismissal at 11:30

Curriculum Update

Math: Unit 1 is winding down! Next week, students will fix up their quizzes and work to solve and create story problems. On Thursday and Friday, students will take the Unit 1 test to demonstrate all that they have learned so far! Please let me know if your child has any anxiety over the test and we will work to lower that so they can do their best work. 

Writing: This week we brainstormed ideas for persuasive speeches. Students learned to directly address their audience to make their writing much more convincing. Next week, we will set goals for our persuasive writing. We will also work to categorize our reasons, include examples for each reason, and take out any reasons that won't help to convince our audience. On Halloween, we will be meeting up with our 1st grade buddies during Writing!

Word Study: We are working on making words using glued sounds, like ong, ing, unk, ang. Next week, we will review all we have learned in this second unit and take the Unit 2 Test. We will then learn about vowel teams, or two letters that together make one sound (like "ai" makes the long a sound in "bait.") Let me know if you have any feedback on the Word Study homework packets, good or bad! :)

Reading: The next week we will learn new strategies when reading mysteries. We will also be reading VERY closely so we can try to solve the mystery before the detective in the book. We will even start digging a little deeper in mysteries and think of patterns and characteristics of mysteries. The goal is that students are reading A LOT! Many students already finished a book or two within 3 days! This work should keep on going. You'll notice that your child is reading the SAME book as their partner. Their partners and them have set goals on what to read each night for homework. This has helped their book stamina increase! :)

Content: This week we finally were able to test our dams!! Check out the videos on Seesaw to see how well your child's dam worked to protect the houses (or, just ask your child--if they haven't told you already!) Next week, we will switch over to a social studies unit about the world. Students will be learning about the continents and oceans.



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny