Monday PE | Tuesday In and About | Wednesday ART | Thursday | Friday ART |
3/13--ADHD Presentation by Graduate students from Pacific University's School of Professional Psychology. See school-wide email.
3/24 -- Final draft of fantasy due
3/24-- Map check
Part of our project work focused on making sense of our Fernhill data from 2 weeks ago. Many of the students seemed skeptical if Clean Water Services would care to review our data. It turned into an interesting conversation about why we do these long-term projects and that it's up to us (students and teachers) to make the project worthwhile. In other words, let's give CWS a reason to care about our results!
Ask what could you differently to make sure CWS is interested in your data?
Listen to your child explain our latest findings with Mystery Classroom.
Extend the learning by looking at seasonal changes.
Literacy
It's time! We're now at the point where our rough drafts to our fantasies should be finished, so the next two weeks we will take time to apply some editing and revision strategies to improve our stories. It's been so fun to see and hear students show enthusiasm for this project, "No, we need our writing time, Gretchen!"
We're drawing to end of our 2nd literature circle books too. Last week we focused on "turning into interesting words." My hope was that interesting words they found in their books would make their way into the fantasies that they're writing. I've been reading Tuck Everlasting as our latest read aloud book and the kids are amazed at the vocabulary and word selection of this book.
Our spelling lesson last week focused on the Greek/Latin root word "equa" meaning equal. I surprised by what an interesting discussion we had because of this word. Students wanted to know why "sequel" didn't follow the pattern and why "adequate" did. We pulled up definitions and talked about what each word meant.
Ask, what spelling pattern do you have this week?
Listen to your child review the fantasy checklist to see if he/she has met the requirements.
Extend the learning by looking for words that fit this week's spelling pattern.
6th Grade Math
Last week we wrapped up our first unit on ratios. There were 2 concepts that seemed to confuse us: converting measurements in the metric system and converting different area measurements. The metric system was tricky if one didn't remember the value of the prefix. And, like I discussed last week many students forgot that when converting an area measurement one has to account for converting both dimensions. Test reflections and signatures are due by Friday. Please review misconceptions with your student or email me a time when he/she could come in to get extra help. We'll be moving onto rates this week!
Ask, how do you covert 2/5 into a decimal? How do you convert 1.21 into a fraction?
Listen to your child go over the problems he/she got incorrect.
Extend the learning by discussing rates you use in your everyday life--we'll get into this later this week.
5th Grade Math
Last week, 5th grade mathematicians completed Fraction Block 2 tests, corrections and reflections. We spent time reviewing concepts and problems. Mathematicians who did not score an 80% or above will retake for proficiency. That can happen as early as Tuesday. I do have Monday and Wednesday study hall from 3:30-4:30 for 5th graders who need some reteaching or supported review of a concept. At the end of the week we kicked off our mini-unit on geometry and learned the legend of Rene Descartes' invention of the cartesian plane and coordinate graphing. We spend some time going over important vocabulary and then practiced plotting coordinates and connecting them to make an image. This week our focus is on using coordinate graphing in a real-world application. Over the first several days, we will complete multiple applied projects, including looking at weather, students had-span and foot measurement and plotting our archaeology digs (the kick off for Ancient Civilizations Study).
Please watch for your mathematician's test, test corrections and reflection. I ask that students share these with you and that you sign them and return to me.
ASK your mathematician to tell you the story Rene Descarte and the Cartesian Plane.
LISTEN to your mathematician walk you through the coordinate plane (including the axes, origin, coordinates, ordered pair and first quadrant).
EXTEND the learning by looking for real- world applications with the coordinate graphing.