Monday PE | Tuesday In & About -Meet CWS scientists & Bridge Bust | Wednesday Art | Thursday No School -Attend goal setting conferene w/ child | Friday No School -Attend goal setting conferene w/ child |
- 10/22 & 10/23 Goal Setting Conferences, No School
- Call the office to sign up for your conference, students attend the conference too
- 10/23 @ 12:00 November Lunch Orders due
Volunteer Needs
- 11/03 from 12-3:00 I am looking for volunteers to go to Nana Cardoon's with the Merlins.
News of the Week
Goal-Setting Conferences
On Tuesday or Wednesday, your child will be coming home with a sealed envelop. The contents will be your child's Academic Snapshot. It gives you a quick "snapshot" of where your child is at with reading, writing and math, given our time together so far this year. It's helpful if parents can review these before the conference. And, it's intended for the parents / adults of the family. The conference will have your child discussing his or her strengths and areas for improvement. I will chime in when needed, regarding successes and concerns. And together (child, family and myself), we'll make a plan for the year.
Madeline's Newsletter
6th grader, Madeline, is wanting to write a newsletter, where kids can contribute the content. She did this last year and the kids really enjoyed it. She is asking for kids to submit content to her to be posted. You and the students can see her newsletter here. Merlins can email her at [email protected]
Project: Bridges & Fernhill
Our Bridge Bust will take place on Tuesday! We’ll test to see what creates the strongest bridge.
Students will be looking at different variables like: number of toothpicks, number of triangles, cost
of the bridge, teamwork, time efficiency and design. It will be fun to see what relationships we find
looking at this variables. Merlins also conducted their first data collect at Fernhill this past week. It
was a beautiful day to be doing science. And, what a change from the Fernhill we saw this time last
year. This week, we’ll review our data with scientists from Clean Water Services. What’s cool is how
the bridge project has helped us think like engineers. This will start coming into play as we start to
examine how we can use nature to help us engineer sustainable solutions to problems.
Ask, what variable do you think will relate to a strong bridge?
Listen to what research you child is doing at Fernhill.
Extend the learning by conducting other scientific experiments.
Literacy
In writing, we delved deeper into our poetry study. We tried our hands at Haikus and 3 days of
poems using similes, which added imagery and emotions. We’ll set goals in writing
and continue to write different poems this week too.
We finished Love that Dog, last week. The last part of the book had us crying as we learned why
it was hard for Jack to write about Sky. Then, it had us cheering as his love poetry grew and enabled
him to meet a favorite poet of his, Water Dean Myers. This is an author we’ll read later this school
year! Goals will be set in reading too!
Ask, what do you think was the most important lesson from Love that Dog?
Listen to your child talk about what types of poems he/she has enjoyed writing.
Extend the learning by reading favorite poems or writing poems together as a family.
6th Grade Math
Sixth graders can feel proud having their first test under their belt! This test is quite a bit
different than what they experienced their previous years as a mathematician. But, the good news is
that 7th and 8th grade are very similar to this year. After a test we reflect, do test corrections and retake
problems we had incorrect. So, this is what our week will have in store as well as getting ready for
goal setting conferences. In the future, test corrections and retakes will happen as homework, but for
the first time we’ll work on it in class and as homework. Parents, you’ll see that you are to sign the test
and go over misconceptions with your child.
Ask, what are the 4 steps to problem solving?
Listen to how your child felt about the first math test.
Extend the learning by writing equations that require you to use order of operations. See if you all get the same answer.
5th Grade Math
Last week, the 5th grade mathematicians reflected on the first unit's pre-assessment and set leaning goals for the unit. Students will compare their score and reflection to a post assessment at the end of the unit. Partners worked to create their first math forum presentation poster for the year. Tomorrow, mathematicians will participate in a math forum, where selected partners will have the floor to present and take questions on their solutions. 5th graders will also spend some time preparing for this week's Goal Setting Conferences. We'll end the week with an extension of our current investigation in which students will be challenged to determine how much cardboard it would take to make the boxes for Brad's Baseballs.
Ask to solve this together: A box holds 425 balls. Each layer has 17 balls. How many layers does the box have?
Listen to your child describe the math forum.
Extend the learning, Discuss and solve this challenge problem: Rachel is redesigning her classroom, which is the shape of a rectangle. Rachel knows the area of her classroom is 180 square feet. What are all the possible whole number dimensions of Rachel's classroom?