Monday PE | Tuesday Archeological Dig-- be sure to dress for the weather | Wednesday ART | Thursday ELC | Friday ART |
Important Dates
3/24--Map check and Fantasy due
3/27-3/31--spring break
Project
In case your students have mentioned it--Tracy Nye (the school psychologist that serves our school) came in a couple of weeks ago to present to us on mindfulness. This is a concept we've talked about as a class a few times and done a few activities on. Tracy presented 2 interesting videos and allowed students to discuss their ideas about mindfulness. She'll return on Monday and a few other times during the spring.
Also, maybe you heard that we were able to finally use our solar ovens! Erin got us started on this fun engineering project as a connection to our space unit, but the weather had prevented us from giving them a go. Even though Thursday morning started out cool, their ovens easily made a s'more! The chocolate was wonderfully goopy and melty!
Another successful component of our project work was determining where our Mystery Classrooms are located--in terms of approximate line of longitude. Get this...first, we determined the time difference between sunrise in Greenwich and the sunrise of mystery classroom using something called "universal time". Then, we converted that to minutes. Then, because the rotates 1 degree every minutes we divided the minutes by 4 and viola! Approximate line of longitude is found! We could also determine if the classroom was in the eastern or western hemisphere.
Ask what worked well with your solar oven, what could improve?
Listen to your child explain why we only see 1 face of the moon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j91XTV_p9pc (some students wanted me to include the link.)
Extend the learning by watching the night sky on a clear night--go out a couple of times and see how the sky changes.
Literacy
What a week to wrap things up! Merlins finished their 2nd literature circle book and will use this week to compare how the main character in their story changed from book 1 through book 2. They also took time to cite evidence of how the author wrote dialogue--my hope is that they could take ideas to apply to their own fantasy.
We worked on several revision strategies this week with our fantasies. First, we looked at our books for ways to have dialogue sound varied and more interesting. Then, we looked at the lengths of our sentences and made sure we had variety--long and short are key. To wrap up the week we looked at how we can incorporate transitional phrases, so our reader can understand our passage of time.
Ask, what will you need to do to turn in your FINAL draft this Friday?
Listen to your student read a section of their fantasy they want to make sound better.
Extend the learning by talking about what makes good writing, good writing!
6th Grade Math
It's been great to see the 6th graders have a lot of confidence with ratios and now rates! Having these units come after our long fraction study has really paid off. On Friday, we looked at how to compare different rates. It was interesting to see the variety of methods kids used. Some compared the unit rate, others used the cross multiplication algorithm technique and others basically used a common denominator technique. I love when students can see that there are so many options to solving the same problem. Many students missed the deadline of turning in the last test on time--be sure to ask to see/sign the RRS Block 1 test.
Ask, Ben bought 3 pounds of asparagus for $6.60. Tricia bought 5 pounds of asparagus for $11.25. Which person spent less per pound of asparagus?
Listen to your student explain what a unit rate is.
Extend the learning by looking at how rates are used in our daily lives.
5th Grade Math-
Last week, 5th graders worked to identify attributes of 2 dimensional shapes and classify them into a hierarchy of categories and subcategories. This week, we'll start off spending a little more time on this concept before moving into volume, which focus topic for 5th grade. Our volume study will have a more hands-on approach than earlier units.
ASK your mathematician to tell you all the names for a 4 sided shape with 4 right angles and 4 congruent sides.
LISTEN to your mathematician explain the quadrilateral hierarchy.
EXTEND the learning by looking for measures of volume in everyday life.
ART Update!
- Art Show/Concert Painting Melodies Poster- This art show is going to be awesome. Painting Melodies will be from 5-7pm (or later depending on when performances end)April 7th at the district office. The 8th grade ConnectED team has been working super hard to pull this together. They have booked 3 local bands, we will have over 100 pieces of artwork on display and a cake decorating competition. Mark your calendars for April 7th!
- Cake Decorating/Silent Auction at Painting Melodies- The art show/ concert has a sweet tooth. Students, parents can community members can participate in the cake decorating competition at the art show. Please fill out the cake art show flyer and turn it into the art room. You must have your cakes to the art show, finished, by 4 pm onApril 7th. If you would like to donate art to the silent auction, please fill out the flyer and have artwork to us no later then April 1st.
- Yearbook Cover Contest- Its that time of year already, time to participate in the yearbook cover contest. Please feel free to design a yearbook. Check out the flyer for more information. Submissions due April 7th.
- All School Art Project- This year for the All-School Art project we will be painting a mural! This is exciting and everyone gets to help. The mural will be placed on the back of the Level 3 modulars facing the parking lot. The theme will be BOOKS! I put an example of a mural like the one we will create from the Kansas City Public Library below. We can always use parent helpers for projects like this. I truly feel it will be a positive experience for all!