Last week was an adjustment as we remembered the flow of a five day school week after several shorter weeks. We also began math homework last week-- Both 5th and 6th grade mathematicians did awesome with this adjustment and we really saw the impact that that little bit of extra practice had on students’ math understanding! We encourage setting a thirty minute timer and having students work on their homework for only this duration- even if it is not complete, we are looking for thirty minutes of effort. If students are having a difficult time with their math homework, remind them about the homework helper pages- which are a great resource for showing example ways of solving!
Announcements
- Reminder that at FGCS, we do not celebrate Halloween. If your student celebrated this over the weekend, please remind them that candy should stay at home and is not allowed at school.
- Our Out and About this week will take place in the backyard garden as students will be working on generating an inquiry question (*secret word*) related to our sustainable systems unit. Please remind students to dress accordingly. Amy will be gone this day, so classroom teachers will be leading this Out and About.
- Spelling homework will not start this week. It will start next week.
Project
Last week in project, students created their dream farms in groups. Using funds accrued through completing project work earlier in the year, groups purchased materials needed for the running of their farms. Additionally, students continued to think about our nature principles and began the early stages of considering how their interests and ideas related to the nature principles could turn into the creation of an invention or idea.
Ask your student about their team’s dream farm. What did their team purchase to help with the running of the farm? What difficult choices did they have to make in regards to funds?
As a culmination to our sustainable systems unit, students will be solidifying an inquiry question and investigation next week. We will also continue our dream farm simulation as students consider the costs of running their farm, the profits made from selling their goods and any additional purchases that they will make.
Literacy
Last week in reading, we really focused on reengaging our personal love for learning through having a good fit book. Students created a list of criteria that define a good-fit book including that the book “is so exciting that you don’t want to put it down” and that it “contains some challenging words, but you can still comprehend/ understand it”. We continued to read Pax together for read aloud outside, and shared some stories about times when we had injuries or had to get casts. In writing, students finalized two more poems, re-engaged with fire-writing, and turned in some typed poems
Ask your student about the good-fit book that they are reading in the classroom. How do they know that it is a good-fit for them?
Next week in literacy, students will continue to engage in their good-fit books. We are also going to begin the process of having students write in reading notebooks as they read. The intention of this process is for our students to engage in the deep critical thinking that is required to comprehend what is being read- then to go even deeper. Here is an article about the positive impact of writing about reading. Additionally, students will type and print all of their poems together for the poetry anthology, and illustrate and bind this compilation.
5th Grade Math
Last week in 5th grade math we worked on strategies for multiplying whole numbers by decimal numbers. With this, we focused on the area model for multiplication. Additionally, we took a pre-assessment for our next math unit (that will begin in two weeks) about multi-digit whole number and decimal fraction operations.
Ask your student to show you the area model for multiplication with this problem 2 x 5.42
As we conclude our current decimal unit for the next two weeks, we will be splitting into groups based on what students can benefit from reengaging with from the unit or what students could benefit from extending beyond.
6th Grade Math
Last week in 6th grade math, we continued our practice with the double number line to show ratio relationships, and then began to practice writing equations about ratio relationships. Later in the week, we used the ratio relationships and ratio tables to begin to plot ratio table points on a coordinate plane, which allowed us to visualize the increasing numbers, and also allowed us to visualize points in between the values that we already knew! Hefty stuff!
Ask your student about the coordinate plane dot-to-dots we did, and whether or not the plots made it easier to see the relationships between numbers.
Next week, we will finish our work on the coordinate plane, take a mid-module assessment, and begin to look at how ratios tie into rates.