Today was such an exciting day at Christie. I got to participate in Christie City. This was a truly authentic learning experience for our 4th graders. They got to work in shops, earn pay checks and spend their hard earned money. The kids had a lot of fun and definitely learned some good / hard lessons. They learned that if you spend all of your money you can't just go to the bank and ask for more. The employees at the bank realized that work is hard and that you can't just stop because you want to. It was a wonderful experience for everyone. A big shout out to the 4th grade team for helping to make it happen, and a HUGE shout out to Mrs. Amini for putting in hours of extra work at night and weekends to bring this amazing experience to Christie for our students. I really do work with the best people on earth. I hope everyone has a great break; it is well deserved for everyone, students and teachers alike.

I am so proud of my second graders and how far they have come in the last few weeks.  They started subtraction needing to use base ten blocks to solve 24 - 9 = ? and now they can solve problems like this 345 – 263 = ? without blocks.  They have realized that numbers can be written in many different ways and that helped them to realize that subtraction isn’t so scary.  For example

 

  345

 -263

            Both of these are ways to represent 345, but the second one makes it easier to solve.

             345

 

300      40      5          3 hundreds, 4 tens, 5 ones

200    140       5         2 hundreds, 14 tens, 5 ones

 

It is a great way to use place value to transition them to the standard algorithm without them losing the number sense related to what they are doing.

 

 

  345

 -263

 

 

As we near the end of October I look back and think about all of the fun happenings that have occurred here at Christie this month.

I went back to my roots and taught sight words to first graders.

I worked on sound symbol correlation with 2^nd graders.

With 4^th grade I have been working on capitalization and punctuation.  I even taught Idioms in one class.

 

Yes, I know I am known for my math, but I can do LA too!  Don’t worry though; I also did plenty of math.

First graders are working hard with their basic facts and strip diagrams.  Just today my group was so proud that they didn’t have to think about 7 + 7, they just knew it was 14.

Second graders are going to be pros at subtraction with regrouping.  They have been working so hard on it and I am so proud of them. 

Last, but not least, 4^th grade is tackling the art of multiplication and division.  They too have been working hard and it shows when you see them in their classrooms.

 

On top of all of that learning we had lots of fun with our school wide create a literary character from a pumpkin challenge and our Falling into Good Character assembly. 

November is just around the corner and I can’t wait to see what exciting things it will bring.

A message form Mr. Steele

All,

Due to the forecast calling for heavy rain tomorrow, field day will be postponed until next Friday. Unfortunately, at this time, it looks like it may rain next week as well. If it rains heavily starting on Wednesday of next week, we will once again postpone field day until May. We want to thank you all so much for your understanding – fingers crossed we have a sunny week next week!

Christie Elementary

 

Christie Elementary PTA has gone digital!  
See what's going on and mark your calendar.

English  -> http://elist.pisd.edu/eNews/0112_99_Christie_PTA__eNews_Oct_2015_English.pdf

Spanish  -> http://elist.pisd.edu/eNews/0112_99_PTA_de_Christie__eNews_Oct_2015_Spanish.pdf

 

Well, I know we are back at school because I am back to waking up at 3 am and thinking about stuff.  Usually the thoughts that keep me up at night are….“How can I make this lesson better?  How could I have taught that objective differently?  Why didn’t they understand, what can I do different with it tomorrow?”  This time, however, I was thinking about a question Mr. Steele had asked us about lessons when we were in school.  I’ll admit it’s been a loooooong time so, specific lessons are hard to remember, but what does jump out in my mind were the teachers.  The 7^th grade science teacher who started the first day of class with a metal garbage can lid and it had a map of the earth drawn on it.  He insisted it was correct.  We spent the entire period trying to convince him it was not and that the earth wasn’t flat.  Man did it make us think and present really valid ideas.  He also let me sit on the lab tables during class, now you may think this is silly, but I’m not that tall and the board was behind his big lab table.  This simple thing made me realize that he cared about the fact that I couldn’t see the information and let me do what I needed so I could see.  The 6^th grade math teacher who insisted I “show my work.” I giggle a little inside every time I say that to a student.  I now understand why he asked it so I sympathize with the kids when I say it to them.  At that age I just didn’t understand why he didn’t get that I just “knew it”. I remember my 11^th and 12^th grade science teacher who reached out a helping hand when she knew I needed it.  Whether it was to help with balancing science equations, giving me little tricks to remember the periodic table of elements (AU get back here with my gold, AU the name for gold.) to just helping me survive the jungle that is High School.  I remember the gymnastics coach / PE teacher that I have from 7^th grade all the way through graduation, she supported her students in any way she could.  There are many more, but I’ve come to realize it wasn’t necessarily the specific lessons that got me, but he way they approached life and their students that helped make me the person I am today.

I can't believe it, but summer has come and gone.  Now we are getting ready for school with our Jump Start program.  It was great to see my students collaborating and communicating to complete the challenges given to them.



Can you build a bridge so that Bill and Betty can reunite? The 4th graders can.













































Can you build a fishing pole?  These kids not only planned them, they built them.  Rods, reels, and fish Oh My!

Look at how creative we can be when trying to build a tower.

WOW, what a week........

Engineering Expo came and went, it was amazing. The kids did a great job.

Team CUBD is putting the final touches on our plans, yes,the end is near.

Looking forward to the long weekend.  I think everyone definitely earned it.

Can't wait to see what next week brings.

Can’t believe it is already May.  I’m currently a little nervous, excited and scared as the coaches embark on new territory.  We are getting ready to start writing our lessons for next year.  Conference room get ready because here we come!

Feeling a little lost today, it was Thursday, but no CSI.  Kids are already asking about it for next year.  Guess I better start looking for some new experiments.

We had our last session of CSI yesterday and I was sad to see it end.  I hope the kids had as much fun as I did.  It was great to watch their faces as we did some of the experiments.  Yesterday's experiments were all about straws.

Can you make a trombone using a straw and a bottle of water?  These kids did.

After seeing this one a student stated that the straw looked like "a set of stairs".  I thought that was a great way to describe it.  I hope you can see it in the picture.

It's straight, it's bent, it's fat, it's thin....How can this be?

We talked about the fact that light travels at different speeds through different things and that's why this straw looks so crazy. 

Looking for a fun way to review coins?  Check out these videos to help your kids remember what coins look like and their value. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ARNqyQ0CuY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb-w3rqRoJ8

Third grade had a lot of fun putting their measurement skills to good use during their mini Olympics. How much mass does a handful of marbles have? 

Science in math......

3rd graders mixed a solid and a liquid to create a gas. They were surprised to find out that not only did they make a gas, it made the container cold!

CSI session 1 is off and running. We had a great activity about surface tension. Try it at home and see what happens. Fill a bowl half way with water. Cover it with pepper. Dip the corner of a piece of bar soap in the middle of the bowl and watch what happens. The kids were very excited and surprised by what happened.

Spent time over the break getting supplies for my science club.  Can't wait to get started with the kids next week.  I hope they enjoy science as much as I do.  Can you make raisins dance?  Well, the kids are going to see if they can.