Monday PE Studyhall before school | Tuesday O&A to Fernhill Studyhall before school | Wednesday ART Studyhall before school | Thursday Kerry's Last Day :( Studyhall before school |
4/7 -- 5th graders Science State Test (come well rested and with a good breakfast in your belly)
4/8 -- No School
4/14 -- No School, Student Led Conferences (please call the office to schedule your child's conference)
4/15--No School
4/29--No School
The Merlins and I will be soaking up as much as Kerry as we can this week. Her last day is Thursday and then she’ll be off to her 2nd placement at the ELC! We are grateful for her engaging lessons, friendship, caring and humorous personality. She is going to be dearly missed. I’ve decided I should record her laugh, so that we can play it everyday!
Literacy
- Writing homework this week: Performance Task and/or Typing Web
Kerry and I have enjoyed meeting in the small groups to discuss the books kids are reading for their literature circles. We are looking at how the main character experiences the major events of the story. As a class we are reading Crash and examining the significance of each chapter, by asking “why did the author choose to include this as part of the story.”
For writing, we are actually doing a practice reading performance task, which is a section of the state tests. Last week, students read different articles arguing for or against school uniforms. They had to find pieces of evidence that they would want to use in their own persuasive article. This will be our focus this week—to actually write the articles. Many will end up working on this as homework.
Ask, how is your character experiencing the major events of the story?
Listen to your child explain his/her perspective on school uniforms.
Extend the learning by reading and discussing a realistic fiction story as a family.
Project
There wasn’t much time for Project Work this week with the tying up of loose ends, and this week will also be tricky as we have Fernhill and a short week. However, we’ll be doing some preliminary activities to kick off our Healthy Bodies unit.
6th Grade Math
Sixth graders started the week by reviewing what we learned before break, in terms of adding and subtracting fractions. Then, the rest of the week had us literally writing on the tabletops to understand what multiplication of fractions means. We ended the week by taking our rich discussions and hands on experiences to see the algorithm to multiply fractions and how you “cancel” numbers that have common factors before multiplying across.
Ask, what is 3/7 of 28/32?
Listen to your child explain what we were drawing on the tabletops!
Extend the learning by looking at how fractions are a part of our everyday life.
5th Grade Math-
5th grade mathematicians started the week with review of multiplication of fractions and mixed numbers. For most of the week, mathematicians explored the definition of a fraction by a non-zero fraction. Solving problems such as 5 divided by 1/3 and 1/3 divided by 5 using the definition supported the understanding of the algorithm for division of fractions. This coming week, we'll use the beginning of the week to review multiplication and division with fractions in preparation for the unit test on Tuesday and Wednesday. At the end of the week, we'll head into division of whole numbers.
Ask Your Mathematician to solve 1/7 divided by 5 using the definition A divided by B = C if A = C x B.
Listen to Your Mathematician go over the unit review before the test and how he or she feels they did after the test.