Monday PE | Tuesday In & About -- Fernhill work | Wednesday ART | Thursday Class O&A Team Build | Friday ART |
5/8-- Smarter Balanced Testing Starting
5/9 --Fernhill Present at Clean Water Services building in Hillsboro
5/12 --Fund Run
Project
Tuesday was such a fabulous time out in Fernhill Wetlands, seeing kids collect data despite some wet weather. We'll be working hard to get these presentations ready for Tuesday the 9th. We've enjoyed getting our hands dirty in our ancient civilizations simulations. This week we read about Ancient India--our hands on simulation was at Nana Cardoon's for that lesson and we started to look into Ancient China by examining some of the famous dynasties. It's interesting to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the civilizations we've examined so far.
Also, Tracy returned to our classroom last Wednesday to talk about mindfulness again with us. This time the lesson was geared towards how anxiety and worry can keep us from being present. In particular we learned about the old part (amygdala) and new part of the brain (pre-frontal cortex.) Be sure to ask your kiddo about these lessons.
Ask how did Ancient China and India differ when it came to what position you could hold in those civilizations?
Listen to your child explain how our Ancient China simulation took place.
Extend the learning by thinking about what would make the best civilization?
Literacy
We've done a lot of reading of ancient civilizations and even practiced some note-taking strategies. A different topic we covered had us think how we'd take all the information from our zoo debate and turn it into a narrative. We came up with some good strategies and of course, all the lessons from our fantasy unit apply--but kids will produce a piece of writing in a few days. The English-Language Arts Smarter Balanced Test will start Monday the 8th.
Ask what did you read about Ancient India that was surprising to you?
Listen to your child talk about what's hard with note-taking.
Extend the learning by finding interesting topics to read about regarding ancient civilizations.
6th Grade Math
We'll be wrapping up statistics early this week and moving onto algebra--kids actually started the test on Friday. I am going to keep the test on the short side seeing that skills take so long to carry out. I enjoyed seeing the sixth graders go from unsure and confused with the statistics material to then feeling confident! And, I look forward to us moving into algebra--it'll be a fun way to end the year.
Ask what's your favorite statistics skill that you've learned?
Listen to your child explain the mean absolute deviation.
Extend the learning by examining uses of statistics.
5th Grade Math-
Last week was all about measurement conversions. We ended the week with a unit assessment comprised of basic customary and metric conversions and applied story problems, and mathematicians will use the beginning of the week to complete this assessment. Watch for the assessment and reflection comping home this week for your revise and signature. After that, we'll move on to an expressions and equations unit. This will be comprised of using parenthesis and braces to simplify expressions and equations, order of operations and solving equations using order of operations.
ASK your 5th grade mathematician how her or she felt about the test and what she or he did well on and what he or she will need to practice more.
LISTEN to your 5th grader share the mnemonic for remembering the order of operations in an equation.
EXTEND THE LEARNING by making up equations and using order of operations to solve them.