Monday PE -ODS paperwork due | Tuesday -O&A -- Garden | Wednesday ART | Thursday More Geekin' Out | Friday ART |
Upcoming Dates
| Volunteer Needs Click here to help with: -sharpening pencils -washing classroom rags -volunteer on O&As --Nana Cardoons 9/19 !! Wishlist: -handheld vacuum |
Our engineering theme continues to inspire the many facets of our day. Merlins applied for classroom jobs, so our classroom can run smoothly and efficiently. I hope to hire employees by Monday. We've written an Important Poem about our class to showcase our expectations for each other (I'll share that next week after we wordsmith it a bit more.) Erin and I want to include something called "Geek Out Hour" where kids get to explore a topic that fits our theme. So, this past week students thought about how their passions / assets could address a need they see. We watched a video on a guy who invented an edible spoon that food carts could use in India, to address the disposable plastic spoon problem. It already got kiddos thinking about what they might want to design / invent.
For social/emotional learning we used this week to really think about perspective. Kailey read us a fun book to have us think about seeing things differently. Next students were given part of a picture where they that they had to consider what else would be in the image. It was fascinating how students had different twists on their image. We talked about perspective all week and realized considering alternative perspectives can make us better engineers!
Ask, what is most important to you when you think about perspective taking?
Listen to your child explain the cup stacking team building activity or the image activity led by Kailey.
Extend the learning by researching engineers.
Literacy
There's so much great stuff to include, it's hard to know where to start! Hopefully you've heard your child talk about Love That Dog. It's a book we're reading as a class to kick off our poetry study. The first page of the book helps us empathize with Jack who feels like he can't write poetry, it's not a boy thing, in his mind. We've had interesting talks about his perspective and mimicked some poems the story showcases. I've enjoyed watching kids take risks to try out their own poetry.
Ask, are you like Jack when it comes to poetry or do you feel differently?
Listen to your child explain the Important Thing poem and The Red Wheelbarrow Poem.
Extend the learning by finding poems to read together, talk about structure and the sound of the poem.
6th Grade Math
I've really enjoyed getting to know this group so far! One way we've learned about each other is through math games. I hope your child will tell you about them because they are games you could play home to build mathematical thinking: Roll 5, Tic-Tac-Toe Sum & Products. We also spent time getting to our textbooks which we'll delve into next week. It's important to me that families get to know the textbook too, so that you can support your child in his/her learning. Finally, each day we spent a little time working on a beginning of the year assessment. I look forward to continuing our work as a team to have a great year.
Ask, which game did you prefer and how is it played?
Listen to your mathematician explain our beginning of the class routine.
Extend the learning by playing math games at home.
5th Grade Math
Last week, 5th graders started to explore how mathematicians can combine numbers in different ways to create expressions. We also refreshed our multiplication math facts by playing the "product game." Students will receive a copy of this game Monday to try out at home. This week, we'll be working on a pre-assessment and finishing a project called "Figure Me Out" in which students create original expressions to share facts about themselves with the class.
Ask, what was today's math warm-up - were you able to solve it?
Listen to your child's feelings about our first assessment of the year.
Extend the learning by playing the Product game together and trying to discover strategies to beat your opponent! Use coins as markers (instead of pencil) so that you can play over and over.