Mrs. Lyjak

Target on 04/28/09

Today when we zigzagged into Target, we greeted Mrs. Lyjak with a hug, a high-five, or a handshake.  Then we worked on our new vocabulary cartoon cards.  The vocabulary words from last Target class were fervor and wad.  Fervor means you are so into something that you can't resist doing it.  Wad means to take some material and make it into a ball or a mass of soft material squeezed into a ball.  With this week's vocabulary words, we are going to prepare you for the word hunt!  Can you find our words?  Next we made our own constellation by sprinkling the recycled pieces from our hole punch on black construction paper.  Then we wrote a story about how our constellation got into the sky and presented it to our class.  Several students will present their stories next Target class.  Next we listened to five Above and Beyond presentations.  They were about roller coasters, earthquakes, alligator snapping turtles, how oil is lighter than water, and dogs.  Many of us still need to give Above and Beyond presentations and we need to be prepared in two weeks.  Next week there will be no Target because second grade is on a field trip to Callaway Gardens.  Finally, we played SET before lunch.  When we lined up for lunch we did not make a zigzag line to avert tipping over the white board.  

Remember to prepare for your Above and Beyond presentations.  Bring your binder, signed Target Tally, a water bottle, and a nutritious snack.  If you did not finish your constellation story, be sure to finish it before our next Target class in two weeks.  We only have one or two Target classes left this year!

Target on 04/14/09

When we came to Target, we started off with Vocabulary Cartoons.  We are going to hide our vocabulary words in the blog.  The answers for last week were prevail and runt.  A runt is a small person or animal.  Prevail means to persuade or to be victorious.  Then we worked on "Do You See What I See?"  At first when we looked at our Star Maps it looked like a wad of constellations.  We completed a venn diagram using Star Maps of the Southern Hemisphere and the Northern Hemisphere.  We learned that you can see some constellations from both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres.  The people that live in the Southern Hemisphere don't see some of the constellations that we see.  Mrs. Lyjak warned students to not wad their work but to put it neatly in their binder.  After that we practiced using a Planisphere.  A Planisphere is a tool that helps you search for constellations in the sky.  In order to use a Planisphere, you must know the date and what time it is.  We have a fervor for learning about constellations and stars in Target.  

After finishing everything, we enjoyed playing Equate before lunch.  We also saw two Above and Beyond presentations about Legos.  There was a lot of fervor about Legos in our class.  

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

Target on 03/31/09

When we ambled into Target, we started out with two Vocabulary Cartoon cards.  Try to find our vocabulary words in the blog.  The answers to last week's vocabulary word hunt were succor and fowl.  After we finished vocabulary cartoons, we worked on some constellation riddles.  We learned that we need to look at all the information in order to solve our riddles.  We also learned some other facts about constellations.  After that we watched two fun constellation videos.  In these videos we found out that one constellation can help us find many other constellations.  The constellations we see north of the equator are different from the constellations that people see south of the equator.  The North Star identifies where the circumpolar constellations are.  In the Southern hemisphere there is no star that the constellations appear to rotate around but there is a spot.  Next, two people presented Above and Beyond projects about Disney Faeries, and puppets.  We prevailed on Mrs. Lyjak to let us search for rain drops and objects on Disappearing Drops and Dancing Ducks.  Then we solved puzzles on the SET game.  Our two favorite things that we did in Target were the Disappearing Drops and Dancing Ducks activity and learning to play the SET game.

Remember your Target binder and signed Target Tally.  Bring a water bottle and a nutritious snack because you don't want to become a runt.  We need to present two Above and Beyond projects this nine weeks.  

Target on 03/31/09

When we ambled into Target, we started out with two Vocabulary Cartoon cards.  Try to find our vocabulary words in the blog.  The answer to last week's vocabulary word hunt was succor and fowl.  After we finished vocabulary cartoons, we worked on some constellation riddles.  We learned that we need to look at all the information in order to solve our riddles.  We also learned some other facts about constellations.  After that we watched two fun constellation videos.  In these videos we found out that one constellation can help us find many other constellations.  The constellations we see north of the equator are different from the constellations that people see south of the equator.  The North Star identifies where the circumpolar constellations are.  In the Southern hemisphere there is no star that the constellations appear to rotate around but there is a spot.  Next, two people presented Above and Beyond projects about Disney Faeries, and puppets.  We prevailed on Mrs. Lyjak to let us search for rain drops and objects on Disappearing Drops and Dancing Ducks.  Then we solved puzzles on the SET game.  Our two favorite things that we did in Target were the Disappearing Drops and Dancing Ducks activity and learning to play the SET game.

Remember your Target binder and signed Target Tally, a water bottle and nutritious snack.  We need to present two Above and Beyond projects this nine weeks.  

Target on 03/24/09

Today we started an awesome day in Target with Vocabulary Cartoons.  We began a new set of vocabulary words.  We will hide our words in our blog.  Can you find them?  Next, we read Follow the Drinking Gourd.  There was a song that went with the book.  The book was about a little girl that was a slave and lived with her mom and her brother.  They ran away and followed the riverbank, the tracks of Peg Leg Joe, and the North Star to freedom.  Then we learned that if you find the Big Dipper, you can find the North Star.  The North Star helps you find other circumpolar constellations such as Cassiopeia, Draco, Cepheus, and Ursa Major.  In our constellation research we found out that Orion got succor from someone when Scorpius attacked him.  Next we used the laptops to research constellations by figuring out the constellation riddles.  We will finish it next week.  The last thing we did in Target was Build It.  We had to build with blocks using clues and checking by the clues to make sure that they were correct.  We gave succor to each other to build with the blocks.  The last thing we did was eat lunch and no one had fowl for lunch.

Remember to bring your Target binder, signed Target Tally, water bottle and a nutritious snack.  Also there are two Above and Beyond projects due this nine weeks.  Make sure you have scissors in your Target binder.

Target on 03/17/09

Today we started the day off with a creativity packet.  We learned that we can match up sentences with sloppy shapes, we cut out words in different categories until we had one word that was the remainder, and we found words to complete sentences that rhymed with a person's name.  We finished our constellation research and then we played a game where we had to find constellations.  Then we wrote about how a constellation was like something else and why it was like that thing.  After Specials we played Equate and then we learned about SCAMPER.  SCAMPER is a game where you use your imagination.  

Remember to bring your Target binder including scissors, pencils, erasers, etc.  Also bring a water bottle and a nutritious snack.  There are two Above and Beyond projects due this nine weeks, so be thinking about what you want to present.

Target on 3/10/09

Today we ambled through the hot weather into Target.  We started off our day with a fun creativity packet.  We had to identify what were glorfs and what weren't glorfs.  We also had to match a picture with a sentence.  Another activity was to draw a creature.  After that we performed stories about how the constellations got in the heavens.  Then, we brainstormed things that we would make constellations of in the sky that people who lived a long time ago would not have.  

Two people presented really good Above and Beyond projects about Abraham Lincoln and the history of Disney.  Next we researched some constellations on the laptops using a web site.  We learned that the constellation myth for Leo the Lion says that he was killed by Hercules.  Another myth about Cassiopeia explained that she was put in the sky upside down to punish her for boasting about her beauty.  Today we learned amazing things in Target.

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

Target on 02/24/09

Today we ambled into Target.  We worked on our Vocabulary Cartoon cards and now we have all ten cards in the unit so we will be taking a quiz and playing Vocabulary Jeopardy next Tuesday.  Please study your words.  We began our study of constellations by reading a retelling of a Native American legend which was about a coyote shooting the stars around the sky to make constellations.  Mrs. Lyjak showed us how to find the Big Dipper.  The Big Dipper is an asterism which is group of stars that are part of a constellation.  Because the Earth is rotating the Big Dipper appears to rotate around the North Star.  Hopefully we can all find the Big Dipper in the sky soon.  Next, five people presented Above and Beyond projects.  They were about bulbs and herbs, Walt Disney World, making a cow out of paper, crocodilians, and plecos.  We finished our day by playing a nice game of Equate and writing our blog.  

Remember that there are only two more weeks to present Above and Beyond projects.  If you enrolled a project in the Science Fair then that will count as one Above and Beyond project.  Bring your Target binder, a nutritious snack and a water bottle.  Please study your vocabulary words and bring in your moon observation sheet next week.  

Target on 02/17/09

The fun things we did in Target today were finishing our Heliocentric and Geocentric models, vocabulary cartoons, and Countdown 3,2,1.  We presented our Heliocentric and Geocentric models of the Solar System and learned that the planets were millions of miles apart.  Our geocentric model had all of the planets going around the Earth and our heliocentric model showed that every planet goes around the sun. Heliocentric and Geocentric were theories that early astronomers argued about.  We now know that the Heliocentric theory is true.  Our vocabulary words were endorse which means to approve or support and remainder which means the part that is left.  Countdown 3,2,1 was basically a test about how astronomers first discovered space, the theories they had about the Earth and the Sun and what famous astronomers did.  

Remember to keep being astronomers and look at the moon.  Bring your Target supplies, a water bottle and a nutritious snack.

Target on 02/10/09

Today in Target we did four things.  Now we will tell you what they are.  We learned about heliocentric and geocentric.  Heliocentric means sun centered and Geocentric means Earth centered.  We began making two models of our Solar System.  One was geocentric and one was heliocentric.  We used foam balls, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, string, modeling clay, gum drops and several other things.  In the hundreds chart hunt we learned that we can find a multiple of a number by skip counting by that number.  We learned how to find numbers using clues and how to check our work.  When we completed our Vocabulary Cartoon cards we learned two new words.  Afloat is a describing word that means a floating condition.  The other word was carp which means to complain about something.  We enjoyed hearing one student's vocabulary story.  We had a great day in Target.

Remember to bring your Target Binder, a nutritious snack, signed Target Tally, and a water bottle.  Please work on your Above and Beyond projects  and try to look at the moon as often as possible.  Also, please bring some water bottles to replace Mrs. Lyjak's supply for those students who forget their water.