Mrs. Lyjak

Target on 04/29/09

Time Travel is over!  Instead of time travel today, we watched a video called Eusebio's Dream.  It was about a modern day Inca village in Peru.  We learned that everyone needs to a legal title to their land to have property rights.  Two-thirds of all people in the world do not have property rights.  Even though the movie was short we learned a lot.

In the beginning of the day we created Vocabulary Cartoon Cards.  Last Target Day's words were fervor and wad.  Fervor is a passion or a love for something.  Wad is a soft ball of squishy material.  Can you guess what this week's words are?

Today Mrs. Lyjak made us get in a line so we would avert the small white board falling over.  We carped a lot about it.  We had to zigzag around the white board to get to the door.  

After finishing our Above and Beyond presentations, we got back to Hands On Equations.  We also finished our book discussion from last week.

There are only two weeks left of Target this year.  Please be prepared to present your Above and Beyond projects in the next two weeks.  Remember to bring your Target binder, a signed Target Tally, a water bottle and a nutritious snack.

Target on 04/15/09

Today two new students ambled in to Target.  We started off the day with Vocabulary Cartoon cards.  Did you guess our words from before Spring Break?  They were runt and prevail.  Runt means a very small animal or person.  Prevail means to be victorious or to persuade.  Can you guess what this week's words are?  They are hidden in our blog.  

Our class had fun time traveling to Ancient India, Ancient China and the Ancient Americas.  This is our last week of time travel, but we have an extra week to finish our time travel journals.  We have developed a fervor for time travel so we hate that this is our last week.  In Ancient India, people threw bricks at each other for fun.  In both Ancient China and Ancient India, people believed when you died you were reborn.  If you were good, you would be reborn to a family that was wealthy and had nice relatives.  If you were not good, you would be reborn as an animal or a poor runt.  In some civilizations, what color you wore was important.  If you work hard on your time travel, you will not have wads of homework.  We will carp about not doing time travel any more.

Several people presented Above and Beyond projects.  They were about Coke, modern day pirates, Ancient Egypt, ghosts, paper airplanes and Lake Nottely.  Next week we will not present Above and Beyond projects due to the CRCT but there are three weeks to present them after that.  We will carp about not having much time for Target next week.  The only thing we will do is to have our book discussion on The Egypt Game.  Please finish reading the book.

Next week the ONLY thing you need to bring is The Egypt Game book.

Target on 04/01/09

Today we did nothing in Target.  April Fools!  Actually, we traveled to ancient India, China and Mesoamerica.  Usually we have four groups but because of schedule, group 3 had to split up.  Chinese people used an abacus to do mathematics.  There was a lot of information about the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans.  We learned that we copied the Hindu/Arabic number system for our numbers.  The week after Spring Break will be our last week of time travel.  If you work hard on your time travel journals, you will prevail.

Did you guess what last week's vocabulary words were?  They were fowl and succor.  Fowl is a bird that you eat.  Succor means to give assistance or to help comrades.  Can you find this week's words in the blog?

One of the kids brought in cookies and they were not runt cookies.  We prevailed on Mrs. Lyjak to let us gobble the cookies while we contributed to the blog.  We are glad that we did Hands On Equations today. From now on we are doing Hands On Equations every week so we don't forget how to do Hands On Equations.  One person did an Above and Beyond on Harbor Seals.  Harbor Seals got their name from living in harbors.  We have five weeks left to do both of our Above and Beyond presentations. 

Remember to bring your Target binder, your water bottle, a nutritious snack, signed Target Tally, your book and Time Travel journal.  Do not come to Target next week.  Mrs.Lyjak will not be here!  Have a Great Spring Break.

Target on 03/25/09

Today we had a new ancient civilization introduced.  We had one group time-travel to Ancient China.  The other groups went to the Roman, Greek and the Mesoamerican civilizations.  China invented paper, gun powder, silk and the wheel barrow.  The ancient Chinese used an abacus to do math.  Mesopotamians invented wheels.  Romans and Greeks had the same gods but they called them different names. We gave succor to our group members to help them with their information.  We might not know everything about ancient civilizations but with the clues and artifacts, we have to make our best inference.

We started reading a book called The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  We have four weeks to read the book and our book discussion will be on April 22nd.  The main characters are April, Melanie, Marshall and the Professor.  Mrs. Lyjak has read this book and she says that it is very good.

Finally, we created Vocabulary Cartoon cards again after a couple of weeks of break.  Can you detect the words in our blog?

Today for lunch only three people had fowl.  The rest of us had corn dogs or brought lunch from home.

Remember to bring your Target supplies including The Egypt Game book.  Also, remember your water bottle and snack, a smile, and your completed time travel journal and math packet.  Of course, bring your thinking caps.

  

Target on 03/18/09

We've been traveling through time but we've made a pit stop.  We will continue with our time travels next week.  One group went to Ancient Mesopotamia.  Another group went to the Ancient Americas.  Two other groups went to Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece.  Most groups need to visit Ancient India and everyone needs to visit Ancient China.  We've learned that different cultures have different styles of burial or cremation.  Both Ancient Mesoamericans and Egyptians used mummification but they did it their own way.  There are still many things to be learned about the past.

We are finally doing Hands On Equations again.  Many people finished their lesson sheet but they had to review something in it.  We were reminded about how to do legal moves and how you know that you have done all of the legal moves that you can.  Our goal is to get to at least lesson 7 by the end of the year.  Some people will go further.  We hope we can continue Hands On Equations next week.

One person presented their Above and Beyond project today.  It was about Frederick "Boots" Blesse.  He was a fighter pilot.  A lot of people did not know who he was, so it was a great topic to learn about.  

Remember to bring your Target binder and supplies along with a signed Target Tally.  Also, bring a water bottle and snack.  There are two Above and Beyond project due this nine weeks so start thinking about what you want to do.  Our in school field trip is tomorrow in the Target Trailer at 8AM.

Target on 3/11/09

This week we introduced a new ancient civilization and that was India.  The other groups visited ancient Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, and Egypt.  We discovered information about death and burial, communication and writing, daily life, people and mythology of these civilizations.  Ancient India's math packet was really easy because our current decimal number system came from Ancient India.  Egypt's math packet seems pretty easy too because it doesn't have place value.  The ancient Mesopotamian number system is a bit hard because the same symbol in a different place means something different.  The number system from Rome is pretty easy because we still use Roman numerals today.  We have learned so much about these civilizations but there is still more to learn about the past.  

Five people presented seven Above and Beyond projects total because two people presented two projects today.  They were about Mars, Sponge Bob, chess, cigars and why they're bad, Rutherford B. Hayes, whitetail deer, and Okefenokee Swamp.  Tomorrow is the Science Fair for those people who are doing Science Fair projects instead of an Above and Beyond presentation.  Today was the last day for this nine weeks to present Above and Beyond projects.  However, next nine weeks we need to present two more projects.

Remember to bring your signed Target Tally, Target supplies, a happy smile, time travel journals and math packets, a water bottle and a nutritious snack.  

03/04/09

Today we had lots of Above and Beyond project presentations.  They were about Bakugan, Hungary (with food samples), root beer (with drink samples), Japan, knots, Sea anemone, and money.  Next week is the last week to present Above and Beyond projects for this nine weeks.  

We started our day by playing Vocabulary Jeopardy.  Then we took a vocabulary quiz using the remotes.  Everyone got either a 100% or 95% so we learned lots of new words that we can use.  

Today we time traveled to Rome, Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.  We found lots of interesting facts in our research.  Mrs. Lyjak endorses us to finish our Time Travel journals and to do our personal best.  We also need to complete our math packets correctly.

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

Target on 02/25/09

This week in Time Travel, we traveled to Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Americas, and Ancient Egypt.  We learned about how people lived their lives.  In general, only rich people had tombs.  Many people died when they were quite young.  We learned about the religions and burial practices of these civilizations.  We need to complete our Time Travel journals and evaluate them by next week.  Some people still need to turn in their Time Travel journals from last week.  

Mrs. Lyjak endorses us to study for Vocabulary Jeopardy and quiz next week.  Last weeks words were endorse and remainder.  Can you find this week's words?  They are hidden in the blog.  

If you enroll in the Science Fair that will count as one Above and Beyond project.  Mrs. Lyjak wants us to amble more quickly when we come back from lunch so we can finish our blog.  

We had two Above and Beyond presentations on Korea, and the Terracotta Army and the first emperor of China.  We only have two weeks left to present our Above and Beyond projects for this nine weeks.  After Above and Beyond presentations, we worked on Hands On Equations.  Some people needed to review how to check their work.  Please keep your Hands On Equations sheets in the brainteaser section of your binder.

Remember to bring your Target binder, a snack, a water bottle, your Time Travel journal, and a signed Target Tally.

Target on 02/18/09

Today we got into our time travel groups and each studied different ancient civilizations.  We divided into four groups.  Each group got a laptop and some books.  There are a total of seven ancient civilizations that we will be visiting.  They include Egypt, India, Rome, China, Greece, Mesopotamia, Aztec, Inca and Maya.  First, all of the groups watched a video.  From our visits, we will create a time travel journal flip book for each civilization.  We will learn about the math in each civilization by completing a math packet.  A few people are finished with their time travel journal but the remainder of the students need to finish their work at home.  The cool thing about this assignment is we get to use laptops and Smart board tablets.

  

Two people presented Above and Beyond projects.  They were on aircraft and crystals.  Mrs. Lyjak endorses early presentation of Above and Beyond projects so that we don't have to watch a whole bunch of them in two weeks.  There are three weeks left to present your two Above and Beyond projects for this nine weeks.  One of our vocabulary cartoon words is in the first paragraph and the other is in the second paragraph.  Can you guess what they are?  

Remember to bring your field trip permission slip for our in school field trip on March 19th.  Be sure to put the money envelope in the safe.  Bring your binder with five pencils in it and your signed Target Tally.  We also need a water bottle and a nutritious snack.

Target on 02/11/09

We've been digging through the past but we're not dirty.  Today we all got together and created our Puzzled by the Past rubric.  We will use this rubric to score our journals that we keep when we visit our Ancient Civilization centers.  The four grades in the rubric are pathetic, OK, good and WOW.  We thought that pathetic was a better word choice than poor.  We watched seven Above and Beyond projects today.  The topics were Tim Tebow, Nintendo, dogs, Harvard University, Valentine's Day, dolphins, and mirrors.  After that Mrs. Lyjak reviewed Hands On Equations.  We are trying to learn and remember how Hands On Equations works.  We have three people who are new to Hands On Equations and for the rest of us, it has been two and a half months since we did it.  We did afloat and carp as our Vocabulary Cartoon words.  We are still studying about archaeology because there is always more to learn.

Remember to bring your signed Target Tally, your binder, a nutritious snack and a water bottle.  Work on on your Above and Beyond projects.  Also, bring your field trip form to Mrs. Lyjak and put the money envelope in the safe.