Monday PE | Tuesday Out and About to Fernhill--be ready to take data! | Wednesday ART | Thursday & Friday See you @ conferences! |
Important Dates
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*Students will have math, reading and typing homework this week. Obtaining a parent signature is part of homework.
On Thursday about half of the Merlins were able to present their Geek Out Skill Shares. It was so fun to just be the person touring around, seeing the Merlins have the teacher role. Kids were teaching about soccer, running, slime, volleyball, piano, drawing, robots, and remote control cars.
Certainly the highlight of the week was going to Fernhill so that students could explore such a beautiful place and learn about their research options. The students saw so much wildlife, red-tailed hawk, a bald eagle that startled hundreds of geese, praying mantis, wooly bears, snakes and more! It always brings me pleasure to see young people enjoy the great outdoors. We also took time to investigate some crises that happened in our Merlin Valley--people got sick and habitat degradation led to decreased salmon population. I was impressed that so many community members wanted to use their profits to make for a healthier community.
Ask what was your favorite station of Fernhill Wetlands?
Talk about why it's important to get involved in community discussions.
Extend the learning to determine decisions Forest Grove has made about caring for our watershed.
Literacy
We had our first writers' share this week, where kids were able to share a highlight from their Tall Tale. It was fun to hear exaggerations about one another and share some popcorn. Also, students have been working hard on learning how to write informative paragraphs. We've outlined writing for wetlands, Fernhill in particular and even mapped out some background to our Leaf Pack Experiment. Flush also continues to keep us captivated and our discussions are hard to end as we all have so much to say.
Ask, what format does your paragraph writing follow?
Talk about why scientific writing is important.
Extend the learning by writing informative paragraphs about a topic important to your family.
6th Grade Math
Sixth graders are building up their tolerance to taking notes and listening to math presentations. This week we focused on algorithms for multi digit multiplication and division. I appreciated how almost all students turned in their test components on-time and they all performed so well. Great work, mathematicians. Markus, a parent of a 6th grader and one who provides volunteer support during our math instruction is hosting an after school math club on Fridays. He will talk to our class about it on Monday.
Ask what is different with multiplying decimals?
Talk about the importance of focusing during lectures and taking notes.
Extend the learning by using the grocery store as a way to generate scenarios to multiply decimals.
Even though there was a short week of math, the 5th graders were inquisitive mathematicians. One activity that challenged us was called "Little Boxes" where we use our understanding of volume to pack boxes efficiently. The substitutes were impressed with our perseverance and interest in this activity as well as playing the Product Game.
Ask, why are games like the Product Game good to play?
Talk about the importance of understanding units of measure like volume.
Extend the learning by looking at how volume plays a role in our everyday life.