Monday PE | Tuesday In and About | Wednesday -ART -Passport Check #1 Test -Last day to get yearbook orders in |
Jan. 26th and 27th -- No School, teacher work days
Feb. 3rd--Geo Bee 10-1130 at the FG Library
Geography Work: During our silent classroom 8:35-9:00, Merlins will be studying different geography concepts. It's a program called "Passport Club". Each month they will take a test on that month's content. On Wednesday, Merlins will be tested on the major bodies of water, the continents as well as the Equator and the Prime Meridian. As they pass the tests they will earn different stamps to put into their passport.
Project Work
The Merlins have become budding scientists the past few weeks. We've been exploring what makes up matter, how to think scientifically, express our thinking through models and diagrams. This week we looked at how substances mix with water. Do they dissolve, settle? What's the best method to separate the substances, evaporation, filtration? And, we ended the week reading about chemical changes and when one can know a reaction has occurred. Let the fun experiments begin!
Ask what are the signs a reaction has occurred?
Listen to your child talk about the lab where we looked the properties of certain substances and what happened when they were mixed with water.
Extend the learning by finding science experiments/labs to do at home.
Literacy
The Merlins are enjoying their literature circle books and brainstorming for their upcoming fantasy writing project. We had interesting conversations this week examining the "point of view" our lit circle books were written in. Our books span from 1st person to 3rd person limited and 3rd person omniscient. For writing, we've done bare bone plotting of our stories and started to think about our main character. We'll spend the upcoming week brainstorming too before we start thinking about writing our opening scene!
Ask what is gained and lost by the perspective your literature circle book is written in?
Listen to your child talk about his/her ideas for their fantasy.
Extend the learning by examining what makes a really good story and how can those techniques be used in your child's fantasy.
6th Grade Math
Sixth graders learned the background for both multiplying and dividing fractions and should now be quite comfortable with the algorithms for both of those procedures. Some kids prefer to simplify the fractions before they multiply and others prefer to simplify after. The most difficult part seems to be knowing when a story problem is multiplication or division. If you can, work on some examples of this with your child.
Ask what is 3/8 x 2/9? What is 1/9 divided by 6/7?
Listen to your child explain his or her preference for simplifying before multiplying or after.
Extend the learning by examining story problems or real world situations to determine when fractions should be multiplied or divided.
5th Grade Math-
Last week (or what we had of it) began with review of the decimal concepts and skills in this unit so far - Changing a decimal fraction to a finite decimal and reverse, adding and subtracting finite decimals, comparing, ordering and rounding decimals.
After a whole class review, 5th grade mathematicians had the choice to begin the test on Thursday or review in a small group another day. Beginning of this week will be about all students completing the unit test. Those finished will complete a year so far review and challenge, as well as done do options. Homework this short week will be Minute Math where 5th graders will review skills and concepts from 4th and 5th grade.
ASK- What is 8 2/5 - 2 4/5?
LISTEN- To your mathematician share how she or he felt on the unit test.
EXTEND the learning by looking for decimal operations in everyday situations.
Level 3 Art:
Fantasy Creature Helmets
We will be making these morphing animal helmets out of paper mache and paint. Students will morph two animals together to make their fantasy animals. Watch out for a Pigasus!