Pruett's AIG Blog for IBJ

3 Third grade CogAT results were mailed to all families this week. The IBJ AIG Services Committee will meet in early January to begin the qualification process. With new qualification standards, students will continue to qualify based on available data. Enrichment Study Groups   Both 4th and 5th grade ESG have been deeply involved with “Great Rescue” simulations. Although a couple of teams have completed their missions, we’ll have to wrap up after winter break 4:  Great Solar System Rescue Teams collaborate to locate and save four space probes lost in the solar system. 5:  Great Ocean Rescue Teams collaborate to locate and solve four ecological disasters around the world. Ask your kids about this work! It can be contentious and challenging! Advanced Subject Group Math   4:  Hands On Equations This work uses math tools to make abstract algebra concrete. Students work through seven self-paced lessons - with challenging wor...

Today we had a brief but poignant meeting to honor the participants in the Noetic Math Competition. Everyone was honored with certificates, and I was touched by the celebratory applause for each/every student! Our Team Winner and National Honor (top10%!) winner received medals from Noetic. Here's a  LINK  to the Noetic awards page. Happy Holidays, you marvelous mathematical minds!

Our last story from Junior Great Books in fourth grade was Lois Lowry's Crow Call . It's a sweet story about a daughter and her father going on a crow hunt. Doesn't sound sweet, maybe, but perhaps it's helpful to know that no crows were harmed! Liz, the story's protagonist, learns a lot about her father during their time together. Fourth grade AIG reading students were to sum this up in a diary entry from Liz about her father. Here's a good example: Dear Diary, After going hunting I believe that my daddy is trying to make a stronger relationship with me. Letting me have cherry pie that early in the morning proves that he is trying to improve his relationship with me. Of course the war might have changed his parenting. I learned that there is something he didn't lose... his love for me, my sister, and my mother. I know this because he is caring for me and my family super well. I know why my daddy didn't shoot the crows - because when he saw ho...

Occasionally, AIG students have an opportunity to work with ThinkFun games. These games are visual and logical. They allow students to think and manipulate shapes in lots of different way. Typically they start fairly easy and become more challenging rapidly. Students often struggle with higher-level tasks, and that's great! Even if they can't immediately solve the puzzles, it's that effort that builds synapses in their brains to become better thinkers and students!

Hey, here's our latest winner from the IBJ 4/5 Grade Math Problem of the Week! Congratulations!

IBJ is fortunate to have Mrs. Julie Brown as a math specialist. As our work has recently involved the review of angles and their measurement, I jumped at the chance to extend this to work with compasses! These math students completed an assignment that involved geometry, measurement, fractions, and not a little fine-motor coordination! All to make a lovely holiday object! Not everyone, btw, was able to complete this assignment!

I discovered this doodle on a Hands-On Equations sheet today. It made me smile! I know just how they feel!

Noetic Learning is an organization dedicated to bringing high-quality mathematics learning materials to students, parents and educators. This year Jones had 23 contestants in the fifth grade competition  who took pencil and paper in hand with over 20,000 students from 473 schools. Noetic honors students scoring in the top 10% nationwide as well as those with the highest score in their school. There are medals for both awards! This year, our sole National Honor and Team Winner is Lily Foo . Lily’s perseverance in the face of a VERY challenging exam led her to this honor. Noetic also honors Honorable Mention efforts, those scoring in the top 50% nationwide. Jones has 6 such honorees:  William Euler, Liam Cooley, Emery Fishcher-Schmidt, Isaac Fertel, Gray Martin, and Jameson Swinger. This contest was sponsored by IBJ PTO and supported by Sarah Cain, Marvin Smith, John Pruett, Julie Brown, and Jenn Warren. You'll hear more around 12/18 when we'll award the...

It has been my pleasure to learn more about and help out a bit with Science Olympiad. Ms. Ross's efforts have been amazing, and I look forward to moving toward to actual competition. This week students were assessed about their scientific knowledge AND took place in a cool construction challenge. Here they are hard at work:

Here's another math student accepting the award for successfully completing the Problem of the Week! Remember, correct responses are entered into a drawing. Keep up the good work, Jones' Mathletes!