Pruett's AIG Blog for IBJ

You may know that IBJ was privy to many visitors from the Revolutionary War era today. Here are some snaps of some of our distinguished guests.

The results from the fifth grade Noetic Math Challenge should be in this Friday. Here's a couple of snaps from some participants, hard at work! The challenge was just that - a challenge! The work was quite difficult, and that's a good thing. Brains develop neurons and get bigger, stronger, and faster when faced with challenge!

You never know where our dynamic principal will be! Or what she'll be up to! Here she is reading to Mr. Brown's class! Happy Turkey Day, y'all!

Fourth grade students in our advanced subject group for math have been working with tools to help understand (and solve!) equations. This system of hands-on materials is called Hands-On Equations. We began this work with review of expressions and equations before moving on to solve fairly complex equations with the pieces (math tools!) shown. Students will work through seven lessons and then some word problems. Ideally we'll wrap this work up prior to winter break. Ask your young scholars about this work! Here are some snaps to show kids at work:

Maybe you've heard of Shirley Jackson, the author who wrote The Haunting of Hill House  and the famous story The Lottery . She also wrote a great story called Charles that was the focus for a fifth grade AIG reading group. In this story, a young student makes up a character to hide his atrocious actions at school. Sorry for the plot-spoiler! Students were asked to write letters from Laurie's teacher to his parents as a culmination of our reading. Here are a couple of them. You should note there are no last names in the story, so there's some creativity in filling in. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Washington, Laurie has had some difficulties in the first couple weeks of school, but is definitely adjusting. He needs to learn to work with other kids and he definitely needs to learn to respect adults. He has had to be smacked some times and can definitely improve. Moving past all these naughty things, he is now mostly a helper. What I must ask though, is where did he learn such l...

As many of you know, I'm an avid reader. One way this manifests itself is through my classroom library. I've got a pretty good selection of books, both fiction and non. Students can always check them out. That having been said, it hasn't been prevalent. However, this student found a good one, Pygmalion , and I asked him to present a brief review. Enjoy!

Mrs. Brown and I have begun offering a Math Problem of the Week to all fourth and fifth graders. Each week students can choose to participate by taking a problem sheet, completing it, and returning it to Mrs. Brown or myself. The contest will begin each Wednesday. Responses should be returned by the following Wednesday when a new problem will be available. Correct responses will enter a random drawing for prizes. Congratulations to him and our future winners!

Our wonderful PTO provided a great new screen for the Jones Media Center. Here it is in action - broadcasting a simulation for some fifth grade students.