Monday -PE | Tuesday -O&A to Mercy Corps in PDX (bring lunch and water bottle) | Wednesday -ART | Thursday |
11/11 -- No School, Veteran's Day
11/21-11/25-- No School
On Monday, Merlins will be bringing home their first goal reflection sheet. On Friday we reflected on our Stewardship, Citizenship and Scholarship goals. Please look this over with your student, sign it and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. This Thursday, we'll either reflect on reading or writing!
Wow! What an exciting week for Project Work! On Tuesday we revisited our Leaf Pack site to retrieve our packs. Students were astounded at how different Scoggins Creek looked after just 3 weeks. The water was cooler, faster and deeper. Good thing our packs were attached solidly to trees and such along the bank. But, even so, we lost 2 leaf packs to the stormy weather. Our classroom turned into a laboratory and students excitedly, yet systematically, dug through their packs to find so many macroinvertebrates. It was the first year we found crawfish and a fish! And, did I mention the number of stoneflies we found! It was so cool! We used our other project work times to start writing our Leaf Pack lab report. I am going to ask students to type up the report as their typing homework this week as their typing practice.
Ask, what was the overall water quality of Scoggins Creek?
Listen to your student talk about the steps to analyzing the Leaf Packs.
Extend the learning by searching for critters in other bodies of water.
Literacy
We used some of our writing time this week to work on our lab report. Kids noted what a different writing style it was compared to the profile article or writing a story. Lab reports seem so dry! We are nearing the end of Flush and students are 4 days into a 12 day independent book study. This week and next we are analyzing tone and mood in the books we are reading. Tone is the way feelings are expressed in characters and mood is how the reader feels while reading the piece.
Ask what are the differences between tone and mood and show an example of each in your book.
Listen to how the independent book study works.
Extend the learning by looking for tone and mood in books together.
6th Grade Math
What a busy week it was! We worked on math challenges in multiplication and division, we fixed our misconceptions from our most recent test and we started practicing some math concepts associated with our fraction study--greatest common factor. Tests will be sent home early in the week for you to review with your child. I can schedule a time to work on misconceptions with your child before or after school--just let me know. The reflection page of the test needs to be signed and returned to me by Thursday! We'll begin our fraction study this week, which will be a combination of work from the textbook and handouts that look at the mathematical definition side of fractions (which was the approach used last year in 5th grade math.)
Ask how do you find the greatest common factor of 56 and 72?
Listen to your child review the test with you.
Extend the learning by finding fractions in your everyday life.
5th Grade Math-
Last week 5th graders received their first test back. Mathematicians reviewed their test score, completed reflections and worked on test corrections. Most of the errors were operations (addition, subtraction and multiplication), not a misunderstanding about procedure of steps to solve division and multiplication problems. 5th graders were asked to look over and discuss their test with family members, complete test corrections, have a family member sign the reflection and return this to me by Friday. I'll let you know if I have not received the corrected test and reflection back. Students that did not demonstrate proficiency can begin retakes this week. Please let me know you have any questions about this. Toward the end of the week, 5th graders jumped into our study of fractions, beginning with addition and subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators. this week, we continue our investigation of fractions, focusing on the mathematical justification for procedures.
ASK your 5th grader to explain how to solve 7 3/7 - 2 1/2.
LISTEN to your 5th grader explain why 5 + 7/4 can not be condensed in the mixed number notation.
EXTEND the learning by looking for ways you use fractions in everyday life.