Mrs. Lyjak

Target on 05/04/09

Today is the last day of Target, so we thought we would organize our blog in a way we have never done before.  We are going to tell you about our day from the longest project to the shortest project.  We had a bunch of Above and Beyond presentations.  The projects we listened to were about The Great Wall, Beijing, White Bengal Tigers, How to go Green, Seashells, Earthquakes, Ohio State, the Top Ten Most Dangerous animals, Moray Eels, Light sticks and Blue Jays.  Presenting our projects took a lot of time.  

Our next longest activity was Vocabulary Cartoons.  Since we finished a unit in Vocabulary Cartoons today, we will look forward to playing Vocabulary Jeopardy at the beginning of Target next year.  Do not throw your Vocabulary Cartoon Cards away over the summer.  

In our constellation unit, we learned how to use a planisphere.  We also made a constellation of our very own.  We wrote a story to go with it and shared it with the class.  We discussed the star maps and identified constellations that are only in the Southern hemisphere, only in the Northern hemisphere and constellations we can see in both hemispheres.

Remember to keep your vocabulary cartoon cards and logic.  Clean everything out of the unit section.  Keep the papers in the miscellaneous section.  Think about topics for Above and Beyond projects during summer break.  

Target on 04/20/09

Dear Parents,

A stands for Above and Beyond projects.  Three people zigzagged through Above and Beyond projects.  They were about Bakugan, Ladybugs and Sharks teeth.  There are only two classes left to present projects before the end of school because of CRCT testing and Field Day.  

B stands for Build It Between.  In Build It Between, we worked in groups and read clues that told us how the cubes should be arranged in a specific order by color.  No one figured the pattern out yet.

C stands for Constellation video.  We saw two video segments and when they were over we answered questions about the video.  We tried our best to avert getting the answers to the questions wrong. We learned that our galaxy is the Milky Way.  The Southern celestial pole has no main star unlike the northern celestial pole which has the star, Polaris.  People who live in the Southern Hemisphere do not see many of the same constellations we do.

D stands for Do You See What I See?  Using star maps of constellations in the northern and southern hemispheres, we compared the constellations on each of the star maps.  Some of us need to complete this assignment for homework.

R stands for Reviewing "Who Am I?"  We learned strategies about how to skim information and find the answers to the questions.

V stands for Vocabulary Cartoons.  Last week's words were fervor and wad.  Fervor means that you like something so much you want to do it all the time.  Wad means a small mass squeezed into a sphere.  Our words are hidden in our blog. Can you find them?

Remember to bring your Target Tally, binder, snack, and water bottle.  We don't have Target next week because of CRCT testing.

Target on 04/13/09

Today was a very exciting day full of action.  First we tried to do our Vocabulary Cartoon Cards.  Suddenly the power went out.  But, thankfully, we had an emergency light and the windows, so we continued working and were calm because we have so much fervor for Target.  Then Mr. Smith came into the trailer to tell us to go inside the building.  We stayed in our classrooms for a while and then Mrs. Lyjak came to our classroom to tell us to come back to Target.  We completed the rest of our vocabulary cartoon cards.  Can you guess what our words for this week are?  They are somewhere in our blog.  We went to our class for Specials because the power came back on, but then the power went off for a few more minutes during Specials.  The other Target activity that we did was Constellation Riddles.  We learned that Perseus is a son of Zeus and he held Medusa's head.  A long time ago, Draco was called Laden with a hundred heads.

We went to get our lunch and eat in the trailer so we wadded our trash when we finished eating.  Finally, one student presented an Above and Beyond project on Thomas Edison, a famous inventor.  Today was a dramatic dark day!

Remember to bring your Target binder, a signed Target Tally, a nutritious snack and a water bottle.  There are only four more weeks left to present your two Above and Beyond projects.

  

Target on 03/30/09

The most exciting thing we did today was reading a book called Follow the Drinking Gourd.  We talked about how the author used the song, Follow the Drinking Gourd, to write the book.  The book was about three slaves who followed the Big Dipper to freedom using the Underground Railroad to get to the North.  We thought the book was sad in the beginning, exciting in the middle, and happy at the end.

The next most awesome thing we did was to play Equate.  Our scores are getting higher now that we are getting better.  Then we enjoyed finding the circumpolar constellations by finding the North Star also known as Polaris.  The easiest way to find Polaris is to find the Big Dipper and look for the two stars of the dipper part; they point to Polaris.  Other circumpolar constellations are the little Dipper, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and Draco.  We loved to look for the constellations.

Finally, one student presented an Above and Beyond project on how to make dumplings and we got to try a dumpling which were outstanding.  We also completed Vocabulary Cartoon cards.

Remember to bring your signed Target Tally and Target materials.  There are two Above and Beyond projects due this nine weeks.  Also bring a snack and a water bottle.

 

Target on 03/23/09

Today we started our day off by putting our stuff down, greeting Mrs. lyjak with a hug, a high-five, or a handshake, and began working on our first Vocabulary Cartoon cards for this session.  After we complete our Vocabulary Cards, we started working on logic.  Then we worked on our Constellation Research with our assigned partner.  We learned myths, a major star, when the constellation is visible and what the constellation name is.  We all wrote down information about constellations so we have it to study for our post test at the end of the unit.  Next we worked on identifying constellations and some of us had to have other people give us succor.  For our constellation quiz we had to write down what a constellation is like and why it is like that thing.  Because we didn't get to play Equate last week, we finally got to play it this week.  At lunch there were sandwiches with fowl in them.  Today was a good constellation learning day.  

Remember to bring your water bottle, binder, and several nutritious and delicious snacks to help us get to lunch.  Also, make sure you have at least five pencils with erasers.  

Target on 03/16/09

Today instead of doing vocabulary cartoon cards, we did a creativity packet.  In our creativity packet we had to rhyme, identify the correct word in the sentence that started with "cl", use the clues to identify the remainder word after we cut out all the other words, and put shapes together to make certain pictures that we were told to do.  We also looked at sloppy pictures to figure out what kind of a drawing it was.  After that, we prepared to do our constellation retelling stories.  Watching each others constellation story performance was interesting.  One was a Greek myth. Another was an East Indian story.  The other two legends were Woodland Indian and Shawnee Indian.  Then we figured out what constellation went with which story.  Next we brainstormed things that we might put in constellation stories that ancient people did not have.  Finally, we started our constellation research.  To end our day, a student presented their Above and Beyond project on Categorizing and Classifying Animals.

Remember to bring your Target supplies and signed Target Tally.  Also, bring a nutritious snack and a water bottle.

Target on 3/9/09

After we walked in the Target trailer door, we reviewed our vocabulary cards.  We were getting ready to play Vocabulary Jeopardy and take the quiz using the remotes.  A lot of us liked using the remotes.  After that we talked with a partner about what we saw when we watched the moon in February.  We learned that the moon changes every night because of the Earth revolving around the sun and making a shadow on the moon.  Next Mrs. Lyjak gave each group a constellation myth and we will retell this myth next week.  We added more details and interesting words and discarded some words to make the constellation myths better.  Then three students in our class presented their Above and Beyond projects.  We learned about the Boston Red Sox, spiders and magnets.  Many students are participating in the Science Fair on Thursday to get Above and Beyond project credit.  After Above and Beyonds, we played Equate in three groups.  Several people earned 60 points or more.  It was great to use our brains in Target!

Remember to bring your Target binder and supplies (dry erase marker), your constellation myths, a water bottle, and a delicious and nutritious snack.  

Target on 03/02/09

Today in Target we had to come in the door next to Mrs. Lyjak's desk because the stairs were icy.  After that we greeted Mrs. Lyjak with a handshake, a hug or a high-five.  Then we started our vocabulary cartoon cards.  We were learning about enroll and amble.  Last week's words were remainder and endorse.  Please study your vocabulary words for Vocabulary Jeopardy and a quiz.  

We learned that the Big Dipper is not actually a constellation.  It is an asterism because it is a recognizable group of stars in another constellation called Ursa Major.  We heard two retellings of legends from ancient Greece and the Algonquins about Ursa Major.  One of the legends also talked about Ursa Minor.  

Our Above and Beyond project presentations were Dr Pepper, Dr. Seuss, yellow jackets, octopuses, and the First Emperor of China.  We have only one week to present our projects for this nine weeks.

Remember to bring your Target binder, signed Target Tally, a nutritious snack and a water bottle.

Target on 02/23/09

Today in Target, we came in and greeted Mrs. Lyjak with a high five, a handshake or a hug.  Then we worked on our Vocabulary Cartoon cards.  Can you find our vocabulary words in our blog?  Last week's vocabulary words were afloat and carp.  When we finished vocabulary we read our clues and tried to figure out our logic problems.  Then we created our heliocentric and geocentric solar system models.  The heliocentric theory is that the sun is in the center of the solar system.  The geocentric theory is that the Earth is in the center of the solar system.  Our class endorses the heliocentric theory.  After recess and specials, two students presented Above and Beyond projects.  One of them was on Alabama and the other one was on Koalas.  Now the remainder of the time we have left to do projects is two weeks.  After that we completed a test called Countdown 3,2,1.  On the test we had to answer questions about three famous astronomers, how they saw space and two theories about the earth and the sun.  We did not get to figuring out Tim's number so that is a remainder for next week.  

You can submit a Science Fair project for one of your two Above and Beyond projects.  The last week to present Above and Beyond projects is in two weeks.  Remember your Target binder and supplies, a water bottle, nutritious and delicious snack, and a signed Target Tally.

Target on 02/09/09

Today in Target the best thing we did was our Above and Beyond projects.  There was an Above and Beyond on handkerchiefs and one on rainbows.  Then our next favorite activity was comparing heliocentric and geocentric where we began to make models of what geocentric and heliocentric would look like.  Heliocentric was a belief that the sun was in the middle of the solar system and geocentric was a belief that the Earth was in the middle of the solar system.  Number Shapes was fun because we had to use clues to try to solve the math problem.  Our thoughts stayed afloat in Number Shapes.  Some of us carped because we could not figure out Tim's Number.  We will try to figure out TIm's Number next week.  In Magic Marbles we put a multiple number of marbles down between two rulers that were taped parallel on the table and we flicked one marble that was a few inches away from the others and we saw what happened.  We learned that the first marble stopped and the last marble kept on rolling.  This activity demonstrated Newton's First Law of Motion which is that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless an outside force acts on it.  Finally, we accomplished two vocabulary cartoon cards.  Last week's words were gape and outfox.  Can you find this week's words in our blog?

Bring your water bottle, binder, a delicious and nutritious snack and a signed Target Tally.  Keep looking at the moon and working on your Above and Beyond projects.