Busy busy busy.

We started today with a lot of ‘housekeeping’ things.  We changed our seats, talked about the field trip a bit, and finished up our points and tickets from the last week.

About half of the class seems to be getting the whole ‘volume’ thing.  We did a lot of work with pop-cubes today, finding different rectangular prisms that have the same volume, and building prisms with given dimensions to find their volume.  We finished up some notes as well:

Units of Measurement

 

Tonight students have some questions to answer.  They are SURPRISINGLY similar to the notes that they took.  They were advised to take their math journals home.  They also have some volume questions to answer.

MeasurementsHwkApril29

Volume_WorksheetApr29

 

In Language Arts we seem to have some problems still with figurative language.  It’s tough to think of the meaning behind idioms, similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and all of that good stuff.  It’s a much higher level thinking skill than, say, simply answering a question about the names of characters or where a book took place.

We played Figurative Language Trashketball, and that was a lot of fun.  Hopefully the students also have a bit of a better handle on hyperbole and personification.

Tonight students have a set of figurative language to identify.  They should include why or how they know which type of figurative language each selection is using.

figurative-language-worksheet-02

Next we started looking at poems, and talking about their real meanings.  It’s not always obvious, and sometimes the figurative language is a big part of it.  Other times, there is a great deal of symbolism.  We talked about and analyzed Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay poem together.  Tonight students should look at the first stanza of William Blake’s The Poison Tree, and write the first four lines in their own words:

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

 

Finally, we had just enough time to crack open our science books and look at the chapter on forces a bit.  Tonight students should define these 4 words in their science journals:

force

friction

magnetism

gravitation

 

 

so, tl;dr

volume questions and problems (look in your math journal!)

MeasurementsHwkApril29

Volume_WorksheetApr29

Identify the figurative language used (ALSO look in your language arts journal!)

figurative-language-worksheet-02

Write the first four lines of this poem in your own words:

The Poison Tree, by William Blake

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

Define these words in your science journal:

force

friction

magnetism

gravitation

 

as always, read read read!

 

Have a good one,

 

Mr. Potter

 

 

Very sorry about no update yesterday.  I had a doctor’s appointment that kept me out of the classroom all day.

Our Substitute, Mrs. Thompson, told me that the students did a fantastic job while I was out, so today started on a great note.

In Math we started talking about volume.

When we are measuring distance, we use things like centimeters, meters, kilometers, inches, feet, etc etc

When we measure area, that doesn’t work anymore, so we have to start measuring with squares.  We count how many squares we could fit into an area.  So we measure two dimensional objects with things like square centimeters, square meters, etc etc

Well if we start talking about how much space an object like a box takes up, we can no longer use centimeters, or even square centimeters.  Now we have to start measuring with things like cubic centimeters, cubic feet, etc etc

Today we took lots of different boxes, and figured out how many cubes (pop cubes) we could fit inside of them.  This is the way that we measure volume: we find out how many cubic units can fit inside of a given shape.

Today we were dealing with rectangular prisms, and found that if we can find how many cubes will lay along the bottom of a box, we can then simply multiply that number by the height of the box to find out its volume.

Tonight students have some basic volume activities to do.  These should be fairly straightforward, and I just need them to be thinking about how volume is a different measurement than distance and area that we have done so much of up to this point.

VolumeApril28

 

We then spent a lot of time talking about figurative language, and how we can use it to make our poetry more interesting.  We had some difficulties at the end of 3rd quarter with some of the different types of figurative language, so we did a quick review of our types of figurative language.  We then examined some poems together and found the figurative language in them.  Tonight students have another poem in which to find figurative language.  They should find TWO examples of each type of figurative language shown in this handout:

FigLanguageInPoetry

 

Next we spent some time listing characteristics of people in our families.  We came up with a good list of descriptive words and phrases for each person, and then made a metaphor for each person.

Tonight students should write a metaphor poem, about their family.  Here are two excellent examples:

FamilyMetaphor

 

By this time we barely had time to talk a bit about forces, friction, gravitation, and magnetism.  This also meant we didn’t have time to get to our science homework (BLAH!), so that will be added on tomorrow!

 

so, tl;dr

Volume practice

VolumeApril28

Find 2 examples of each type of figurative language in this poem:

FigLanguageInPoetry

write a metaphor poem about your family:

FamilyMetaphor

And as always, read read read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

 

PS: students took home today an assumption of risk form.  This is basically an “it’s ok for my child to ride the boat” permission slip from Carolina Ocean Studies, the company that hosts the first part of our field trip.  If you could get it signed and back in quickly I would really appreciate it.

This morning we got a LOT of work done.

We spent almost an hour straight doing multiplication problems.  Many students weren’t quite 100% with the standard algorithm this morning, so we did quite a bit of practice to really get that whole process stuck in their heads.

I must say it makes me very happy to see students more comfortable with things like partial products or the area model than with the standard algorithm.  It means they are capable of doing the problems in their tiny pieces, and they understand what is really going on ‘under the hood’ of the standard algorithm.

 

Tonight students have 4 more problems to do.  They should do these just like they did yesterday: area model, partial products, and then finally with the standard algorithm.  Here again are the notes from yesterday in case they need them:

StandardMultAlgorithmNotes

The four problems they must do are:

356 x 6

612 x 57

274 x 33

152 x 17

 

Next we talked about our vocabulary list, and how we are really bad at making sentences.  Most of this stems from a lack of grammatical understanding, and misunderstandings concerning parts of speech.

We spent a lot of time talking about nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and how we use these different types of words in sentences.  If you know something is a noun, then they way you use it in a sentence is different from a word that is a verb.

 

Too often, we were getting sentences like:

I edict in the courtroom.

Or

I like to get a predict.

 

So tonight students have some homework dealing with identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  They should also REWRITE their ten sentences for their vocabulary list.

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Parts of Speech

 

Finally, we talked some more about our poetry.  The students poems from yesterday were VERY impressive, and ran the entire spectrum from hilarious to horrifying.  We have some great poets in this class.

Tonight students should just make a quick acrostic poem.  Nothing too fancy, just something new for us to try.

 

so, tl;dr

4 multiplication problems just like we did yesterday:

356 x 6

612 x 57

274 x 33

152 x 17

 

Parts of speech exercises:

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Parts of Speech

 

Also, one acrostic poem in their writing journals.

 

Finally, read for 35 minutes

 

Not too bad.  Next week will start getting real though!

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

 

Our first week back is going very well!

This morning we got back into our normal schedule, and actually started our day with math.

In the upcoming month we will go through essentially everything we have done in math up until this point.  We will fill in a few of our gaps, and we will also learn some of the standard algorithms for operations.  Today we talked a good deal about the standard algorithm for multiplying multi-digit numbers, and how we’ve been doing the same thing all along with our area model, but now we will use a short-cut.

 

Tonight students should do 8 multi-digit multiplication problems.  They should do these in three separate ways for each problem: area model, partial products, and the standard algorithm.  We took some notes today and did three examples.  Their homework should look EXACTLY like these examples:

StandardMultAlgorithmNotes

These are their problems:

1. 15 x 8
2. 26 x 3
3. 88 x 7
4. 45 x 32
5. 68 x 25
6. 75 x 22
7. 145 x 56
8. 257 x 46

 

In language arts we talked a good deal about poems, and did some “see, think, wonder” readers responses, where we said what we saw in our mind when we read the poems, what we thought about, and what we wondered about.

The poems from yesterday were mostly well done, but we had a problem with focus for some of them.   So tonight, students should write a three stanza poem, where they write their own see, think, wonder BEFORE they write their poem.  They should write down:

I want the reader to see……

I want the reader to think about….

I want the reader to wonder about/feel …….

This should hopefully give them some focus for their poem.

 

We also read and analyzed this together:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I love this poem, and if you get a chance tonight, ask your student what they thought/felt about it.

Finally, we spent some time in the computer lab reading some science books on Big Universe.  If you haven’t taken a look at this website, it’s a neat little online library, that students also have access to at home.

their log-in is wcp######, where ###### is their lunch number

their password is their lunch number

the group name is wcpss

Today they read some books on gravity, and took an on-line quiz about it.  Our average was an 80%, which is not too shabby.

so, tl;dr

write a 3 stanza poem, with a real topic/focus

establish this by first answering (and writing down) these:

What do I want my reader to see?

What do I want my reader to think?

What do I want my reader to wonder/feel?

Do the following 8 multiplication problems in 3 ways: area model, partial products, and standard algorithm.  Do them EXACTLY as we did them in our notes today: StandardMultAlgorithmNotes

1. 15 x 8
2. 26 x 3
3. 88 x 7
4. 45 x 32
5. 68 x 25
6. 75 x 22
7. 145 x 56
8. 257 x 46

As always, read read read!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

 

The students are adjusting well.  Two days down, and no casualties yet!

This morning we had a little competition to see which groups could get a perfect score on the Math Case 21 working as a group.  Two groups got REALLY close, and missed only 1.  In general our performance on this Case 21 was the best out of the three, but I think we can do better.

 

In Language Arts today we talked a lot more about poetry.  We talked about rhyming schemes, and that not every poem has to rhyme every line, or even every other line.  We came up with a few poems as a class.  Some of them were actually pretty neat:

The universe is big and black
now don’t you have a heart attack
it’s easy to get lost in space
no need to find a hiding place

 

And some….not so much:

penguins are black and white
Although they are slow
They put up a fight
And slide all around in the snow

 

Which led to a great discussion as to how we could improve things, and that we’re really never ‘done’ writing.  Revising continues to be one of our weaker points.  Many of our students are still of the “I filled the whole page, I am done!” school of thought.  We will keep hitting on the idea that we can always go back, improve things, and completely change things if we so choose.

 

Tonight students should write a total of SIX 4-line poems.  Two of the poems should have rhyming schemes of AABB.  Two more should have schemes of ABAB, and the last two should be AABA.  In case they need some extra help here is the handout we did together in class:

RhymeSchemes

 

Students should also do a sentence for each of their next five vocabulary words.  We purposely DID NOT go over these words.  It is the students’ responsibility to figure these words out, and to come up with actual, correctly put together sentences for them.  We will have many assignments like this in the upcoming weeks.  This is to prepare them for middle school where they will often have to figure things out on their own, or they will be expected to actually study things beforehand on their own and come prepared.

 

In science we talked a lot about forces, gravity, and why our knees and legs were sore after we did a ton of dancing and singing to Hello, Goodbye by the Beetles. That was a TON of fun, by the way.

 

We talked about gravity, and then how Earth’s gravity affects all things equally regardless of mass.  We watched this neat video:

 

 

And then before you know it we had a bit of DEAR time, and it was time to go.

 

Students got their report cards today.  I have no idea why, but it AGAIN didn’t print some students’ comments.  It printed this quarter’s comments fine, but then not some of the older quarters.  *sigh*

 

Please take a look at the grades and the comments, and if there is anything you would like to discuss concerning your student’s progress, I would love to talk to you.

 

so, tl;dr

6 poems, 2 each of these rhyme schemes:

AABB

ABAB

AABA

 

5 sentences using our last 5 vocab words.  Also they should fix any of their sentences that I circled this morning.

 

As always, read for 35 minutes!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Welcome back!  I hope you had a fantastic track out, and got some much needed rest.

 

Today we eased our way back into a routine, and having to actually do work!

 

First we talked about syllables, and that they are units of sound usually centered on a vowel. We talked about spot and dot strategies for breaking words into syllables, and that we can also count syllables by paying attention to when our mouth opens to make a vowel sound.

This all led into our discussion of haiku.  We’ll be dabbling with some poetry this quarter, and we’re starting with something nice and easy.  We came up with a few haiku on our own, and then came up with some ‘riddle’ haiku, and challenged our groupmates to guess the topic of our haiku.

Tonight students should write a simple haiku about something they did on their break.  It should be riddle-like, and we’ll be guessing at each other’s haiku tomorrow.

Here’s some info that we went over about Haiku:

Haiku

Here’s mine about my break:

splish, splash, petting, yay!
Mira screams and laughs loudly
We go there in May

 

We then went over our new vocabulary list.  Tonight students should make 5 sentences, using each of the first five words.

 

We then spent a good amount of time looking at our science Case 21s, and finding where we made our mistakes.  Our performance was not stellar on these, but there were a few questions that I felt were really ‘gotcha!’ type questions, and I am never a fan of those.

 

Finally to end our day we took a trip to the computer lab, where students took a Star Test.  I had an idea I wanted to try out, and I was fairly successful.  The Star Test measures things like vocabulary and grammar skills, and basically whether you have been reading or not.  I had each student take the test, and then I guessed at how many books they had read over track out.  For the most part I was right on the money, guessing TWENTY ONE out of TWENTY SEVEN students correctly.  I literally simply looked at their score, and if they didn’t move since track out, or went down, I guessed zero books, and more often than not, I was correct.

 

It is so extremely important that students keep reading.  There’s only so much we can do with 5 instructional hours of school each day.  Reading each day for 30 minutes to an hour is an absolutely gigantic addition to that time.  Please make sure students are reading at home.  It is the most beneficial thing you can do for their education.

 

so, tl;dr

write a simple haiku riddle about something you did over track out

write a sentence using each of the first 5 words on our vocab list this week.

read for 35 minutes!!!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

 

PS: I hate the program that we use to make report cards, and it was down for most of the day.  As such I could not print out report cards.  They will be going home tomorrow!  My apologies.

Last week of third quarter!

 

So today we took our Science Case 21 assessment.  The average for our class was a 61% and the median was a 63%.

I’m surprisingly alright with that result.  Honestly this assessment  was quite difficult, and almost the entire class getting the same grade tells me that it wasn’t that some students weren’t listening and some students didn’t prepare – we simply didn’t get to cover some things with all of our missed school.  Almost everyone missed the same questions.  The things we DID cover, the great majority got correct.

 

Tomorrow, we have our Language Arts Case 21.  Please make sure you get a good night’s rest and eat breakfast.

 

Tonight for homework students should keep reading their North Carolina Children’s Book Awards book, and also get at least one of their book summaries done.  Tomorrow I will collect one summary.  On Thursday I will collect the 2nd summary, and on Friday I will collect the third.  If students are behind reading their book, they need to put their nose to the page and tough it out.

 

This week’s schedule:

Tomorrow (Wednesday): Language Arts Case 21

Thursday: Math Case 21

Friday: EARLY RELEASE at 12:30.  Also track out day!

 

Short and sweet today, cause we are just in testing mode at the moment.

 

Get a good night’s rest!

 

-Mr. Potter

Homework on a Friday?!

 

Well, not really.  But students MUST get some reading done this weekend.

 

I was very happy that every student that came in today had a rough draft to turn in.

 

We spent our morning reviewing the math skills we had learned this quarter:

finding equivalent fractions

adding/subtracting/multiplying fractions

 

We then just stuck our foot into the pool of dividing with fractions.  We will explore this a LOT more in 4th quarter, but today we just talked about how we can turn division problems into multiplication problems, and vice versa.  Just like we can turn addition problems into subtraction problems, and vice versa.

4 ÷ 1/2 = 4 x 2/1

3 x 4 = 3 ÷ 1/4

 

3 + 4 = 3 –  (-4)

3 – 4 = 3 + (-4)

 

Next we talked about figurative language, and what we know about onomatopoeia and alliteration.  I LOVE alliteration.  I have read Dr. Seuss’ ABC book probably 100 times, and read the students some of my favorite parts.  We then wrote some of our own sentences about donuts, using alliteration.  It was distinctively delicious.

 

We then took our weekly math and language arts quizzes.  I was impressed with how most of the class really took their time this week, and many double checked their work.  I went on a tirade this morning about making sure you are actually answering the question that is being asked, and hopefully some of it stuck.

 

We quickly reviewed conduction, convection, and radiation, and then took a short quiz on that as well.  This is still a bit of a rocky area for many of the students, and we need to keep talking about it until they can process the differences and fit them into their own ideas about how things work.

 

We closed our day with a trip to the computer lab where we took our STAR test.  These tests help us gauge students’ vocabulary and language arts aptitude.

 

This weekend, students need to get finished with their third North Carolina Children’s Book Awards book.  They have three summaries (one per book) due to me by next Friday.

 

They also have their final draft of their paper due next Friday.  I will read the rough drafts over the weekend, and give them back on Monday with any ideas for changes or corrections.

 

So, tl;dr

Have a good weekend and read!!

 

-Mr. Potter

Tonight we have a LOT of writing to do!

 

So this morning we had another assembly where a gentleman came and did a lot of neat science experiments for the students.

 

While awesome, it does mean that we had even less time in the classroom, so of course, we got to rush through things…..AGAIN.

 

Today we got a nice round of Math centers done, and talked a good bit about problems we are having with word problems.  Word problems require a good mix of skills in order to do successfully:

Reading comprehension (do I understand what the problem says and what it’s asking?)

Number Sense  (do I understand what the numbers mean?)

Math Ability  (Do I understand how to do the actual math?)

 

In order to help a tad with the first one, today we talked about PISA strategies.  This is a strategy where students actively think about understanding the problem by moving through some steps:

P: Underline the problem (the question)

I: box the information (the data, the numbers)

S: decide on a strategy (the equation, or model you will use to solve the problem)

A: Does your answer make sense? (did you answer what the question was asking? Does your number make sense?)

Tonight they have written down a problem in their math journal and they should use this strategy to solve the problem.  We started it together:

PISA

 

We then talked at length about conclusions to our research paper.  We came up with this formula for our conclusion paragraph:

Your conclusion paragraph ‘wraps up’ your paper.  It is a summary of what you have told your reader.  Use your introductory paragraph as a guide, and essentially restate what you have told them.

re-state what you said in each of your three paragraphs. Go back and look at your topic sentences/questions for each paragraph. Write them in a different way.

Finish up with a strong concluding sentence. It should give your essay closure.
Play the “so what” game – read your sentences and ask “why is that important?” “why should I care?” and your answer should be your concluding sentence.

Tonight students should write their entire rough draft of their research paper, and it should be ready to hand in to me tomorrow morning.

At this point we were already basically out of time, and never even got to science.  This means there is likely science to be done over the weekend!! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN………

 

 

so, tl;dr

Answer this question using PISA strategies:

PISA

Finish your rough draft and be ready to turn it in tomorrow!

As always, read for 35 mins

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

This morning was a tad disappointing.

Approximately half of the students came in today without their research rough draft paragraphs completed.  When we are so strapped for time, not getting these things done is really unforgivable.  It is IMPERATIVE that students get caught up tonight on this paper.  The rough draft in its entirety is due on Friday, and the final paper is due next week on Friday.

 

In Math we finally got back to our Center Rotations.  Since we are doing review and getting ready for our end of quarter benchmark, we are doing Centers a tad differently.  Each center has the problems to be done as well as the answers and walk-throughs on the back so students can check their work themselves after each center.  This way they can hopefully find their mistakes and realize what they are proficient with, and what they still have to work on.

 

Tonight students have four MULTI STEP word problems to do.  These are NOT simply grab the numbers and perform an operation problems.  If students do not slow down, think about what the question is asking, and in many cases draw a model, it will be very difficult to get the answers to these.

Word Problems March 18

 

In Language Arts we kept working on our papers, and also finally took our vocab test from last week.  Tonight students NEED to get their intro and 3 main body paragraphs written out.

 

In Science we finally had a good talk about transfer of energy.  We talked about what kinds of things are good conductors of heat, and what are poor conductors (or insulators).  Tonight students should finish the back of the sheet they took home yesterday.

Heat_Transfer

 

so, tl;dr

Multi step word problems: Word Problems March 18

Conduction, Convection, or Radiation? Heat_Transfer

Intro and MAIN BODY PARAGRAPHS!!! for weather research paper

 

as always, read!  Some are still not finished with their second NCCBA book.  This means they will have less than a week to finish their third book.  Not good.

 

read!

 

And have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter