Last week in Level 3, we came back from a long weekend and took the opportunity to revisit our expectations and agreements with each other, we had some great outdoor play time at B street and came back together as a community. Keep reading for level 3 announcements, an overview of our learning from last week and a preview of this week!
Announcements
- Here is a link to this year’s family directory.
- Please continue to support your student in practicing their spelling words throughout the week. We will continue to give spelling words on Monday for a Friday spelling test.
- Our Out and About this week we will be at Roger’s Park. Please see the bottom of this post for photos from last week's Out and About at B Street Trail. There are also lots of pictures of Kestrels engaging in Out and Abouts!
Project
This week in project, we thought about conservation (secret word, write in your agenda for bonus points) and did some research on plants and animals. Students utilized this background to choose a “being” to be the focus of our current “council of beings” unit. After choosing their being, students created a web of information that they already know about their being and drew their being.
Ask your student which being they chose and why. What would this being have to say about conservation?
Next week, students will take a deep dive into their being as they engage in research, create slides to organize this research and write a paper from the perspective of their being. The big idea for the council of beings is for students to consider conservation from the perspective of a different being. Through this, students will share what they have learned about their being as well as issues related to conservation that affect their being.
Literacy
This week in literacy, students continued to build their schema of writing about reading. Through this, students thought about the “big ideas” in their reading and found quotes to support their big ideas. The Merlins also organized their writing about their reading and thought about the characters, setting, important quotes and questions from their read-to-self books. In writing, students engaged in some fire writes (short, quick, off the top of the head) speaking from the perspective of the plants and animals they were considering, to help guide their being decision.
Ask your student about their fire writes- which plant or animal would they be and why?
Next week in literacy, students will be incorporating drawing into their writing about reading through sketchnoting as they read. Students will try out sketchnoting both with their read-to-self book and with our class read aloud, Pax. Here is a short video that we will be watching in class that demonstrates the power of sketchnoting.
5th Grade Math
This week in 5th grade math, we worked on multi digit multiplication. We engaged in multiplication using both the area model and the standard algorithm and discussed the relation between the partial products in each. We also practiced estimating and discussed how estinatibgn can help us to catch errors in our computations. Students also worked with their table group to solve a story problem requiring multi-digit multiplication to solve. Tables worked together on this, then created a poster that contained the problem, their math thinking and a written explanation. Students completed a gallery walk of these posters and practice leaving post-it note feedback like a mathematician.
Ask your 5th grader which method of solving multi-digit multiplication they prefer- the area model or the standard algorithm.
Next week in 5th grade math we will be extending our understanding of multiplication operations to multiply numbers with decimals. We will also be learning about the different functions of parenthesis in math!
6th Grade Math
This week in 6th grade math, we used our understanding of rates to practice converting a rate from one rate unit (yards per second) to another rate unit (feet per second). We talked a lot about the process of solving certain mathematical problems, and how at times, the process is more important than the answer. This is especially true in our current work in which our focus is converting the units that accompany the numerical answer, not the number itself.
Ask your 6th grader if they can recall certain conversion rates (there are 3 feet in every yard) and see if they can describe in their words why the process matters.
Next week in 6th grade math, we will use the understanding we built of unit rate conversions to explore rates in different contexts like rates of travel. We will also begin to practice rounding during our daily 3 minute practice, instead of multiplication.
Thank you so much for trusting me with your children, they teach me so much every day, and bring endless joy to our classroom.
Hilary