Monday PE Studyhall before school | Tuesday O&A to Virginia Garcia Studyhall before school | Wednesday ART Studyhall before school | Thursday ELC Studyhall before school | Friday ART Earth Day Bike Ride |
4/18-4/22--Smarter Balanced Testing (first week of quite a few)
4/22--Earth Day Bike Ride --I hope to see many Merlins participate!!
4/29--No School
News of the Week
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State Testing will take this place for both 5th and 6th grades. We are starting with what’s called the “Reading Performance Task” which is basically what we practiced with the uniform essay. Students will be given different articles to read or possibly even a video to watch. Then, they’ll be asked to write something (a persuasive, informational or narrative piece) using evidence from the articles/videos.
How you can help your child this week during testing:
- Encourage your child to relax and do his/her best.
- Help your child get a good night’s rest.
- Staying hydrated and eating nutritious food will also help fuel your child’s success.
Thanks to all of you who were able to make your child’s conference. For those who got sick (such a bummer) I will be sure to send portfolios home, but would ask all the materials be returned by Friday. I loved seeing the kids own their successes and what they want to improve on for the remainder of the year.
Literacy
- Writing homework this week: work on memoir planning.
Literature circle groups continue to go well, but I wasn’t able to meet with groups with the short week. Crash, our whole class read aloud, still seems to be capturing our interest. The story is bringing up a lot of interesting issues for us to discuss.
This week for writing, I will be asking kids to start planning our last major piece of writing for the year, the memoir. The good news is that this project is very similar to the Elder Story we just finished, but now the kids get to write a significant, small moment from their own life. Another component of this writing project will be for kids to create a video of pictures and their voices for their story. It’ll be a great way to end the year.
Ask, what significant moment do you want to use for your memoir?
Listen to your child discuss the most recent events of their literature circle book.
Extend the learning by reading and discussing a realistic fiction story as a family.
Project
The Merlins had a lot of fun kicking off the Healthy Bodies unit this week by examining cells. Erin created a great cell lab where we learned how to use compound microscopes and looked at different plant and animals cells and tried to identify some of their differences. We have a little more to do with cells and then we’ll be off to examining some of our different body systems!
Ask, what did you enjoy most about the cell lab?
Listen to your child explain some differences between plant and animal cells.
Extend the learning by researching what steps your family could take to be healthier.
6th Grade Math
Even though it was a short week, it was nice to see 6th graders comprehend the division of fractions. I enjoyed attempting to show them why multiplying by the reciprocal makes division of fractions possible. I think this logic is still fuzzy for a some. We’ll be using this week to review multiplication and division of fractions and then take our test. Be sure to watch the homework page and your child’s agenda for the homework. Also, please let me know if you have any questions regarding your child's math conference.
Ask what’s the answer to 3 1/3 / 4 2/5 ?
Listen to your child explain why we use multiplication to solve division problems with fractions.
Extend the learning by looking at how fractions are a part of our everyday life.
5th Grade Math
We spent the short week doing collaborative review and test corrections for the unit 3 fractions test. We will begin the week with continued review of multiplication and division of fractions, and students will have the opportunity to retake the test toward the middle of the week. We will begin our unit on whole number division at the end of the week. Be sure to check out the homepage of the level 3 website and your child's agenda for homework updates.
ASK your 5th grader to explain 1/5 ÷ 6.
Listen to your 5th grader share the rhyme and riddle to help us remember how to multiply mixed numbers and divide with fractions.
Extend the learning by making up problems similar to the review packet and watching the videos.