Monday PE | Tuesday In and About Matter Lab | Wednesday ART | Thursday ART Geek Out Tree House | Friday ASM-Bow Ties and suspenders |
Upcoming Events
| Volunteer Opportunities Cooking Chemistry 9:00-11:30--help us investigate chemistry through a series of cooking style lab stations. |
Students will have math, reading & spelling homework this week in addition to reviewing math goals on Google Classroom.
Project
On Tuesday, we saw a program called, "Don't Just Buy That." The message was about thinking through our wants and needs and not be duped by advertisements. It was a cute, comical, purposefully cheesy at times and informative production that kept us engaged. We had a good discussion afterward about how we can be more critical consumers.
For our social/emotional learning we discussed what is needed for a healthy relationship. Using some silly and serious scenarios, we came up with guileless for what makes up a healthy relationship.
Finally, we did kick off our chemistry until by first understanding the definition of matter. Students had to first define the term on their own and then after learning the official definition prove if certain things were in fact matter.
Ask, what stuck with you from the performance?
Talk about the definition of matter--what isn't matter?
Extend the learning to discuss content of advertisements you see.
Literacy
We wrapped up Gossamer this week. Although a bit backwards, we looked at how a writer might use a story planning sheet by applying Gossamer to the planning document. Hopefully it will help us with planning our own fantasy stories this next week. We also looked at a variety of activities to get us into the fantasy genre--we read picture books, wrote summaries, told our own stories and did some quick writes on different fantasy prompts.
Ask, what was your favorite part of Gossamer?
Talk about the different activities we did in Google Classroom to get thinking about fantasies.
Extend the learning to write a fantasy story as a family.
6th Grade Math
We took part of the week to review multiplying fractions and then investigated dividing fractions. We used models and then a proof to see why multiplying by the reciprocal of the divisor works. It's definitely hard for kids to put into words, but it's important they don't just see the technique as a trick. We'll take our block 5 test later this week.
Ask, what is 7/8 divided by 1/3 ?
Talk about how simplifying before you multiply can save time.
Extend the learning to discuss how you can tell a fraction multiplication problem from a fraction division problem.
5th Grade Math
Just like 6th graders, our fraction unit is coming to an end soon! Last week, we focused on two strategies to find common denominators so that we can add, subtract or compare fractions. We also introduced how to switch between an improper fraction and mixed number.
Ask, did you prefer the "easiest common denominator" or the "least common denominator?"
Talk about why common denominators are necessary for adding fractions. How do you solve 1/2 + 3/5?
Extend the learning with some mixed number fraction math.