From the Fitzgerald School Challenge Teacher, Miss Barr...
June 2010
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I am writing to you today to let you know that I will not be returning as the Challenge teacher at the Fitzgerald and Northeast Elementary Schools next year. I have transferred to a 4th grade teaching position at the Stanley Elementary School in Waltham. Although I have enjoyed my role as Challenge teacher, I have missed being a classroom teacher very much. This decision was a very difficult one, but one that I know is right for me.
It has been a pleasure working with your children over the past several years. It has also been wonderful getting to meet many of you and to work with you to help your child get the most out of his or her school year. For the parents of new Challenge students, I'm sorry I won't get to work with you and your children. Please know that I will meet with administrators at both schools to ensure a smooth transition.
I wish each of you a wonderful and restful summer!
Sincerely,
Vicky Barr
Challenge Teacher- Fitzgerald and Northeast
President- Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education
BarrC@k12.waltham.ma.us
781-314-3093 ext. 7454
Challenge Program at Fitzgerald
May Highlights
Kindergarten
In Mrs. Church's class I worked with a small group on math extensions. We practiced our money skills by finding the value of missing coins.
In Ms. Kindred's class I worked with students during Writer's Workshop. I was impressed with all of the great ideas and stories they shared with me.
In Mrs. Sgruggs and Mrs. Nunes' classes I worked with students on literacy skills. One of our favorite books was Two Crazy Pigs. We challenged ourselves by using sub-texting strategies to think like the characters in the book.
First Grade
I started working in Mrs. Coyne's class. We worked on math skills including grouping objects into 100s, 10s, and 1s to make it easier to count.
Third Grade
My third graders started the month by exploring fractions. We found out that we already knew a lot about fractions! I was excited to hear that the students love fractions. We went on a fraction "scavenger hunt" in the classroom to find examples of fractions. 4/5 of the desks had the chairs up, 22/23 of the books were put away, and ¾ of us were wearing blue. We also explored the idea of a fraction of a number, and even tried to string fractions together. What is ¼ of ½ of 2/3 of 36?
We returned to our project about Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar. We are in the process of making a Power Point presentation about the math in the book.
Fourth Grade
Some of my fourth graders worked on strengthening our fraction sense by increasing or decreasing recipes. We found that we really needed to pay attention to the questions being asked. We also worked on decimal problem solving skills. We realized that if we thought about what we already know about money and fractions, decimals got a lot easier to work with.
Other fourth graders worked on writing poetry. We analyzed the structure of poems and even borrowed the structure of a poem called "If I Were in Charge of the World" to write our own poems.
Fifth Grade
In preparation for MCAS we worked on division with remainders. We decided if we needed to round down, round up, or ignore the remainder. We also started a project on investigating patterns and rules in data. We are working on turning our written language into math language!
In literacy, we read stories from our anthology about wild animals. We kept track of our thinking by writing ourselves quick notes about our thoughts and ideas. Then, we shared our own thinking with the group.
Challenge Program at Fitzgerald
April Highlights
First Grade:
I finished up my time with Mrs. McDermott's class and moved on to Ms. Melanson's class. We practiced our reading skills. I enjoyed learning about dinosaurs from my new first grade friends.
Second Grade:
My time in Mrs. Ebert's class ended with a great discussion on culture, traditions, and ancestors. I enjoyed working in Ms. Carney's class as the students continued to work on their descriptive writing piece about a carousel creature they invented. We found many exciting words in the thesaurus.
Third Grade:
My third grade math students worked on problem solving and organization. We want to make sure that we can accurately share our thinking with others. We found that using pictures, tables, and labels really helped! We also got to explore tanagram puzzles. Who knew you could make so much with 7 shapes?
In Writer's Workshop we took inspiration from another rainy day to write "simile" stories about our own topic. We are working on publishing these pieces uses clip art to illustrate our figurative language.
Fourth Grade:
In fourth grade math we focused on problem solving and open response strategies. We also practiced the forgiving method and traditional method for division of large numbers. We also explored fractions by thinking about how you can make fractions from other fractions.
In Writer's Workshop we continued to try to make our stories the best that they can be. A writer's work is never done!
Fifth Grade:
In math we focused on geometry. We explored the idea of classifying shapes. We also focused on decimals. We found that using what we know about money really helped with our decimal number sense. We even practiced our decimal computation skills by completing "Decimal Magic Squares."
In literacy we focused on character traits as we read three different selections about the Revolutionary War. Some of us practiced summarizing by writing "Haiku Summaries."
Challenge Program at Fitzgerald
March Highlights
March was a busy month! I spent the beginning of the month working with second grade as part of our new screening process. I spent the rest of the month back in classrooms.
First Grade
In Mrs. McDermott's class we continued to work on literacy skills and vocabulary development.
Second Grade
In second grade we worked on a variety of strategies for subtracting double digit numbers. We also explored the science topics of weather and ocean animals.
Third Grade
We were so excited by Mitsumasa Anno's The Multiplying Jar that we have decided to do a project with the book after vacation. We started by planning out the different steps involved in the project and splitting up the work in a fair way. Who knew 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8x9x10 would equal such a large number?
In Writer's Workshop we continued to edit and revise our rough drafts. One of the skills we focused on during editing was splitting our writing up into paragraphs. We are proud of our final drafts.
Fourth Grade
In math we continued to work on angles. We practiced using straight angles to find the measurements of other angles without using protractors. We also continued to work on multi-step word problems and organizing our work.
In Writer's Workshop we worked on improving our personal narratives by adding figurative language such as similes and metaphors.
Fifth Grade
In math we continued to work on angles. We practiced using straight angles to find the measurements of other angles without using protractors. In addition, we explored angles within polygons by using triangulation. We also worked with the idea of congruency.
In Writer's Workshop we worked on various writing projects. Our focus was on improving our writing through editing and revising. We also worked on character traits.
February Highlights
February always seems to fly by! I hope everyone had an enjoyable winter vacation. Hopefully spring is right around the corner! Starting after vacation I had to take a break from my regular class schedule to screen 2nd grade students for the Challenge Program using the TONI non-verbal assessment. This is a part of our new screening process and I enjoyed working with my 2nd grade friends.
First Grade:
In Mrs. McDermott's class we continued to work on literacy skills and vocabulary development. I also had the chance to participate in the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Second Grade:
Mrs. Ebert's second grade class worked on "detective" thinking with a story about our friend Dudley the Detective. We had to solve mystery riddles and puzzles using our strong detective skills. I also worked with students in Mrs. Carney's class on literacy skills.
Third Grade:
In Writer's Workshop we continued to work on adding details and descriptive language to our writing. We are working on drafting and have some great ideas for revising our writing.
In math we worked on problem solving activities and perimeter. We read three of Mitsumasa Anno's math books: Anno's Seeds, Anno's Hat Tricks, and Anno's Multiplying Jar. We loved working on the math problems as we read. We were so excited by The Multiplying Jar that we have decided to do a project with the book after vacation. If you're looking for a great way to combine literacy and math I highly recommend you check out other books by this author.
Fourth Grade:
My fourth grade math students continued to work on problem solving that focused on multiplication and organization of lots of information. I am very impressed with the enthusiasm this group had for these problems. My other fourth grade explored the idea of "analytical" thinking with a story about our friend Sybil the Scientist. Sybil discovered some new creatures and it was our job to group them into 4 groups according to a rule. Other students also explored the concept of analogies.
Fifth Grade:
My fifth grade math students were busy working on fraction problem solving. Our main focus was on the idea that we can rename fractions to make them easier to work with by finding equivalent fractions. In literacy we read the story The Fear Place and discussed how the author builds suspense.
January Notes
First Grade:
I had the opportunity to work in Ms. Bigham's class and Ms. McDermott's class during January. We worked on literacy skills and vocabulary development. We also learned about "inventive" thinking with a story about our friend Isabel the Inventor. We had to think of new and inventive ways to use a whisk!
Second Grade:
I had the opportunity to work in Ms. Carney's second grade class during literacy this month and Ms. Giangregorio's class during math. We worked on our reading strategies in literacy and elapsed time, addition and subtraction strategies, and problem solving in math. We also learned about "detective" thinking with a story about our friend Dudley the Detective. We had to solve mystery riddles and puzzles using our strong detective skills.
Third Grade:
It was a busy time in third grade this month. I was able to teach each third grade class about "analytical" thinking using attribute blocks. We had to think about the characteristics of our shapes and how we could make 1, 2, or 3 changes to our shapes to solve a maze.
In addition, in math we focused on problem solving skills and logical reasoning using Ano's Hat Tricks by Akihiro Nozaki and Mitsumasa Anno. We also worked on number sense puzzles called Zupelz.
In Writer's Workshop we focused on adding details to our story and drafting. Next up…working to improve our drafts.
Fourth Grade:
I worked with the fourth grade classes to explore the idea of "analytical" thinking with a story about our friend Sybil the Scientist. Sybil discovered some new creatures and it was our job to group them into 4 groups according to a rule.
In Writer's Workshop we worked on improving our writing through editing and revising strategies. In math we focused on problem solving strategies, organizing open responses, and working with big numbers.
Fifth Grade:
In literacy we worked on reading strategies, vocabulary development, and literary discussions. In math our focus was on problem solving with division of larger numbers. We also worked on solving problems with missing information… we needed to be good math planners in order to be prepared to solve the problem when we were given the missing information.
Bentley's A Step Ahead:
The Bentley service program, A Step Ahead, will be beginning in February at Fitzgerald School. This program offers reading enrichment to students in grades 1-3.