Monday PE | Tuesday PM Visit to Fernhill Wetlands | Wednesday NO SCHOOL | Thursday ELC | Friday Art |
- May 7th - Final Fernhill research day, 12-2, sign up to volunteer (STILL NEEDED!)
- May 8th - No school
- May 10th - Level 3&4 Party --> 5:30-7:00 Same as always, All school meeting location
- May 21st - Present research @ Clean Water Services (12:30-1:30).
- May 27th - No school, Memorial Day
- May 30th - Celebration of Learning, 5:00-6:30
Students will have reading and math this week. For writing, we ask students take some time to make sure that your Ancient Civilization research is complete and keep on-track with your outline. Caught up? Free write or work on Geek Out!
Literacy
This week was full of ancient civilization research. Students worked to select great sources, books and online articles, to learn about their three chosen focuses for their research report. We had to be really organized by collecting good info about each source, and taking careful notes.
Ask, what is the most surprising fact you learned about your ancient civilization this week?
Talk about which of your topics you still need to research.
Extend the learning by looking as a family for an online article or library book that your child could use for research.
Project
This week was all about Ancient India and China. In one simulation, students were randomly assigned an Indian caste, and experienced how their daily life was affected by their social class. I loved the philosophical debate that ensued as students discussed the justice of different social structures (mystery word). Later in the week, student teams created and curated a variety of Ancient Chinese artifacts, using clues to determine which dynasty they may have originated from.
Ask, what caste were you assigned? What was it like?
Talk about how social classes are determined in the US today, and what would make it more fair!
Extend the learning by visiting the Chinese Garden in Portland, or learn more about Buddhism or Hinduism.
6th Grade Math
6th graders have been excited to dive into Algebra! So far we've practiced the order or operations, including how to deal with exponents. Additionally, we've looked at how to evaluate expressions when given a known amount for a variable.
Ask, what is the answer to 10 - 2 (3) + 4
Talk about why an x is not used to show multiplication in algebra.
Extend the learning to writing algebraic expressions for situations in your life.
5th Grade Math
Fifth graders built and exchanged "function robots," made a math-y dictionary full of clues that show up in word problems to tell us what operation to use, and began to pick apart tricky word problems. This week, we'll be working up to a test on Friday!
Ask, what operation does "split up" stand for? "Per day?" "How much more?"
Talk about what a function robot is! Ask to bring yours home to share with your family.
Extend the learning by working through the test review on Tuesday or Wednesday.