gahhhh!  WE ARE SO OUT OF TIME!

 

So after specials this morning we had a middle school information session that ran 60 minutes over schedule, for a total of 90 minutes…….*SIGH*.

Tonight there is another informational session dealing with East Wake Middle School here at Lockhart.  It begins at 6pm in the media center.  If your student is going to East Wake next year I highly encourage you to attend.

 

This all meant math was extremely rushed,  as was the rest of our day (not like we weren’t already!)

We barely had time to talk about word problems and last night’s work.  However it  became quickly apparent that many of our students had problems with creating their own word problems (hah! pun intended)  Here is an example of what we saw today (some names are changed to protect the innocent):

I had 3/4 of a candy bar.  Mr. Potter had 2/3 of a bag of candy.  How many books are there?

This highlighted the fact that many of us were not really thinking about what the question was, or what our fractions were describing, or what we were actually writing on or own paper, or what planet we live on.  Some are simply taking the numbers and performing a random operation.

 

Tonight students should take these three problems and write a word problem for each.  Tomorrow we will drill these until we have a better idea of what each type of problem would look like.

4/6 – 2/5

4/6 + 2/5

4/6 * 2/5

 

In language arts we did a LOT of writing.  We will focus most of our time this week on getting our research papers done.  They aren’t due until the last day of school, but next week we will have little to no time to work on them with Case 21s taking up half of the week.

Tonight students should do any re-writing they still have to do on their intro and first body paragraph.  They should also come tomorrow with 3 paragraphs: intro, first body paragraph, and 2nd body paragraph.

In Science we looked at the Iditarod, and saw how the current first and second place are a father and son!  Past champions of the Iditarod even!  The weather has also been a problem, and 2 mushers got lost on the trail because of a snow storm.

 

Right now it is unseasonably warm, but they are still experiencing snowstorms, heavy winds, and snow.  It makes for a lot of neat things we can talk about.

 

We had little time after that, so we did a VERY quick crash course on transfer of energy.  Essentially we talked quickly about the Kelvin scale, and how what we think of as ‘cold’ isn’t really cold on a cosmic scale.  Ice and other things we think of as ‘cold’ have heat energy.

Even though we didn’t really get into the topic, I handed out the homework anyway.  I gave them this quick and dirty explanation of the three main types of heat transfer:

conduction:  things are touching and molecules are bumping into each other

convection: air and liquids are moving

radiation: the sun and fire

Honestly these are awful explanations, and tomorrow we will go much deeper into this.  I just wanted them to take a few stabs at the FRONT ONLY of the worksheet.  They don’t need to do the back, or fill in the definitions at all.  We’ll talk about them tomorrow when we really explore this topic.

Heat_Transfer

 

 

ok, tl;dr

Write a word problem that goes along with each of these:

4/6 – 2/5

4/6 + 2/5

4/6 * 2/5

Come in with intro and first two body paragraphs of research paper written (rough draft)

do the FRONT ONLY of this sheet:

Heat_Transfer

and read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

WRITING! RESEARCH! WRITING! READING! MATH!

 

This week is going to be HECTIC.  We have a research paper to finish, a 3rd book from the NC Children’s Book Awards to finish, a unit in Math to finish, tons more figurative language to talk about, and the list goes on.

 

In Math we went over our test from Monday and talked about the multitude of silly mistakes we are making.  We also addressed the fact that many of us don’t think about whether our answer makes sense.  If I have 4 melons, and I say that you have 1/2 as many melons as I do, would it make sense that you get an answer stating you have 8 melons?  It’s these kinds of mistakes and oversights we simply can’t be making.

Tonight students have some word problems to do. They also have a list of equations, that they should write word problems for.  For instance if they saw something like 1/2 + 3/4, they could say something along the lines of:

Mr. Potter had 1/2 of a candy bar.  Mrs. Seawell had another 3/4 of a candy bar.  Altogether, how many candy bars did they have?

FractionsWordProblemsMar16

 

In Language Arts we spent a LOT of time talking about and re-writing our research introduction paragraphs, and starting the body of our paper.  We talked about how a good opening paragraph should grab the reader’s attention, and make them interested in the topic.  We are writing a research paper, so we should avoid the use of “I”, and our paper is JUST the facts!

Tonight students should re-write their introduction paragraph, and also the first paragraph of the body of their paper.

 

We also started talking about idioms!  I love idioms, but they can be very difficult, because for the most part it is simply a you know it or you don’t type proposition.  We did this sheet together in groups, but if they are missing any of them, they should finish it tonight:

IdiomsMarch16

 

By the end of the day, we barely had time to talk about the Iditarod, and the weather in Alaska.  There have been some interesting developments, and I am looking forward to discussing it with the students tomorrow!

 

Students also got a hand-out about chaperoning the field trip.  We are very limited by space, and we can have 1, MAYBE 2 chaperones.  As such if you would like to be a chaperone, please fill out the paper your student took home, and I will pick two names out of a hat on Wednesday.

 

so, tl;dr

Math word problems (and create your own!)  FractionsWordProblemsMar16

Write introduction and first paragraph of research paper

Idioms! IdiomsMarch16

 

As always, read read read your NC Children’s Book Award book!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Fractions Fractions Fractions!

We need soooooo much more practice on fraction word problems.  For some students, we’re starting to make some headway, but many of us are still stuck on being able to model the question or create an image in our head of what is going on.

Tonight students have another small set of word problems to do.  They should use bar models or draw a picture to help them model the problem, and then perform the correct operation according to the model.

THE WORD PROBLEM BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

Word Problems March 12th

 

In Language Arts we talked more about figurative language and especially hyperbole.  We also spent a LOT of time writing and re-writing our introductory paragraphs to our weather research paper.

Some students are doing some very interesting things with their papers:  Some students are taking on and writing from the persona of a hurricane.  Other students are writing as if they were a weatherperson.  It’s pretty neat.

 

Tonight students have a set of sentences to identify as hyperbole or not.

HyperboleOrNot

They also have a set of lines from poems, and they should identify the figurative language being used, and explain their answer.

figurative-language-worksheet-01

 

In Science we kept up our discussion of the Iditarod race, and our examination of the weather along the race.  Many students had good predictions about today (fair and clear, no precipitation).  However the barometer keeps dropping, and we talked about what that might imply for the weather along the race trail.

Tonight students have a quick mix and match sheet where they unscramble the names of weather instruments, and then match them to their pictures and explanation of their use.

Weather_Tools

 

 

so tl;dr

WORD PROBLEMS!!

Word Problems March 12th

identify the hyperboles!

HyperboleOrNot

Identify the figurative language!

figurative-language-worksheet-01

Identify the weather tools!

Weather_Tools

and read read read!

 

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

So we are still really struggling with multiplying fractions.  Many students are still caught up in the false idea that when we multiply we should end up with a bigger number.  Please never tell your students this, and if you have younger children, make sure they never think this!

As we reviewed last night’s homework, there were MANY misconceptions and mistakes.  Therefore tonight we have more of the same in both Math and Language Arts.

In math students have yet more fraction word problems.  They should try to draw a bar model or some kind of illustration to help them understand the word problems if they are having trouble.

Word Problems March 11th

 

In Language Arts we revisited personification.  Many students are so used to expression like “time just flew by” that they don’t realize that time is an idea being given a human-like quality.  To get some more practice, tonight they have another batch of examples to analyze, and identify the personification within.

 

personification-worksheet-2

 

In Science we got to talk more about cute little doggies running 1000 miles across Alaska.  We looked at a video of the area, and saw that our predictions of clear skies and possibly warming temperatures were indeed correct!  I was very impressed with many students’ predictions.  Some even went so far as to write their predictions as if they were a weatherperson.  It was great.

 

Tonight students should write a new prediction about the weather in Alaska based upon this data:

Winds from the North at approximately 5mph

Temperatures of -20F, -29C

The barometer is dropping, currently sitting around 102.6 kpa

Radar and satellite shows a good amount of cloud cover and precipitation to the North

 

They should come up with a new prediction for the weather, and write it in their science journal!

 

so, tl;dr

math word problems: model them or draw a picture!

Word Problems March 11th

Personification examples

personification-worksheet-2

Predict the weather along the Iditarod trail using the data we collected in our science journals!

 

As always, read read read

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Another Tuesday with school!  We only have this week and next before Case 21s, which is insane.

 

Today we talked about ways to identify addition, subtraction, and multiplication word problems.  We discussed again how addition is combining, subtraction is difference, and multiplication can be a few different things that involve groups of a certain size, or repeated even groups.

 

Tonight students  have a set of word problems involving fractions.  They need to think about what the problem is asking them to do: combine? find the difference?  And then perform the correct operation.  All too often on assessments and homework students simply ‘tunnel vision’ to the numbers in a problem, pick an operation seemingly at random, and perform that operation.  We will be working on putting some fore-thought into our decisions and working on our reading comprehension with math problems.

Word Problems March 10th

In Language Arts we began writing our introduction paragraphs to our research paper.  Students should be wrapping up their research for the most part, and beginning on their first rough draft.  For the rest of the week we will be writing and re-writing this introduction, and get to the ‘meat’ of the paper next week.

We also talked again about figurative language, especially personification.  Personification is giving a non-human, sometimes  inanimate object human qualities or characteristics.  Tonight students have a list of sentences, where they are to identify the object being personified, and then explain the use of personification.

personification-worksheet

In Science we talked about how for the next week or so we will be following the Iditarod race (www.iditarod.com) and predicting the weather along the trail.  We looked at the different weather data points, and talked about how Meteorologists use this data to make their predictions.  Each group got one piece of information, and they made a prediction of what the weather might look like.  As we added more and more data, we discovered that our predictions no longer made sense, and we had to adjust them.  Eventually with all of the data (temperature, air pressure, wind speed, direction, and radar/satellite imagery) we agreed on some predictions.  Tonight students should write in their own words their predictions for the weather based on the data.

 

Students also received a weather DAZE passage that they should do tonight.

Rain_Daze

 

so, tl;dr

Math word problems:  Word Problems March 10th

Personification sheet: personification-worksheet

The weather on the Iditarod trail

Weather DAZE passage: Rain_Daze

as always, read for 35 minutes!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Edit:  Today the students decided they would like to have another electronics game and gum day to celebrate us earning another jewel.  Since tomorrow’s forecast called for rain, we will be doing it tomorrow!  Students may bring in an electronic device to play some games on, and gum to chew, during our lunch and recess time.  Should be fun!

 

I am looking forward to another full week of school!

 

Today we started talking about multiplying fractions, and what that would look like as a word problem/in real life.

We talked about how if it was 3 miles around a lake, and we walked around it 5 times, the total amount we walked would be 3 x 5 = 15 miles.

If the distance was 3/4 of a mile and we walked around it 5 times, the total amount walked would be 3/4 x 5, or 15/4 miles.

If the distance was 3/4 of a mile and we walked around it 1/5 of a time, the total walked would be 3/4 x 1/5, or 3/20 of a mile.

 

Just because we are doing something less than once, does not mean that we are not multiplying.  This can be very confusing for students to start, but we will be exploring this and doing much more practice with it.

 

Tonight students have a set of fraction word problems to do.  They should model these with bar models.  The first two problems we did together as practice:

FractionWordProblemsMarch9

 

In Language Arts we took a VERY large chunk of time and I finished the Mysterious Benedict Society #2 as I had promised the children I would.  It’s a great series of books, and I hope they are interested enough to find and read the 3rd one on their own.

 

We also took a look back at similes and metaphors.  Some of us were making mistakes, thinking that only similes compared things.  In fact both of these kinds of figurative language compare things.  Similes do it with like or as, and metaphors do it without.

Tonight students have one last batch of practice before a quick quiz on this tomorrow:

MetaphorOrSimile

 

Students also received a new list of vocabulary words, dealing with the root spec:

Inspect

Speculate

Perspective

Spectacle

Introspection

Spectator

circumspect

retrospective

spectacles

respect

 

Tonight students should use each of these words correctly in a sentence.  They also received a vocabulary sort that they should have cut out and can use for practicing meanings.

 

And before you knew it, we were out of time 🙁

 

so, tl;dr:

Fraction multiplication word problems: FractionWordProblemsMarch9

Simile or metaphor? MetaphorOrSimile

One sentence per vocabulary word

as always, read for 35 minutes!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

P.S. Picture day has been rescheduled to the 24th of March.  I’ll be sending out some more information about this tomorrow.

Fingers crossed that we get a full week of school!

 

So this morning we got quite a bit of work done in math.  We talked a lot about breaking wholes down into fractional parts, and how that can be very helpful when subtracting.  We talked about how it is very much like ungrouping numbers when subtracting whole numbers.

Tonight students have 5 simple word problems dealing with fractions. It should be fairly straight forward, and review.

WordProblemsMar4

 

In Language Arts we introduced and talked about a list of vocabulary words.  We are going to be doing a list of words from latin and greek roots from this week forward.  We discussed how a knowledge of latin and greek prefixes, suffixes, and roots can help us decode unfamiliar words.  If we know that ped means foot, and centi means 100, the word centipede becomes much more understandable.

 

Tonight students should take each word and write a sentence using the word.  There are ten total words, so I expect ten total sentences.

We then did some rotations, with some people getting on the computers to do research, some working in small groups, and some working on a short science selection dealing with rain.  I also pulled quite a few students to do M-Class assessments.  In Science tonight students should finish their reading and questions having to do with rain.

RainMar4

 

Also, we are GOING TO THE BOOK FAIR TOMORROW AFTERNOON!  If you would like to give your child some money to purchase some books, we will be making a final trip there as a class tomorrow.

 

I will not be here tomorrow.  I will be attending NCTIES, a conference on technology in education. (Why they would do this during the middle of the week I have no idea)

This means next update will likely come Friday.

 

P.S.  some students and parents have asked me about class pictures.  As of yet they have not announced the new dates.  As soon as I know them, you will know them!

 

so, tl;dr

fraction word problems: WordProblemsMar4

10 sentences (one per word) from our vocab list: PedList

One science reading passage and questions: RainMar4

as always, read read read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

School on a Tuesday?!  NO WAY

 

So we are having some trouble with simple mistakes.  We know exactly what to do, we are more than capable of doing it, but when it comes time to do many of our math problems, we are making silly mistakes because we want to take short cuts or just get ‘done’.  To combat this, tonight students have a STRICTLY regimented math assignment.

Students were given a list of questions/steps to walk through with each problem.  We did two examples as well:

SubtractionExampleMar3

For the following six problems, they should use one side of a piece of paper, divided into sixths, and done exactly as the examples.  They don’t need to write each sentence, but they should be thinking them as they do each step.

SubtractStepByStepMar3

 

In Language Arts we talked some more about similes and metaphors, and I let the students ‘grade’ each others similes and metaphors.  Wow do we have some tough cookies in here.  It was a very interesting experiment, and some students realized how difficult it can be to grade something without a rubric or clear cut guidelines.  We also came to the agreement that some similes and metaphors are better than others.

 

Tonight students have another set of simile and metaphor practice to do:

SimileMetaphorPractice

 

In Science we had some more time in the computer lab researching our chosen weather phenomenon.  We talked a good deal about google, what a search engine is, and what constitutes a good search.  We figured out that typing in a huge long question is unlikely to give us a good answer, and that with research we have to actually find information on our topic, read it, and synthesize it ourselves.  Google is not the all-knowing source of knowledge, it just shows us webpages that have to do with what we searched for.

 

so, tl;dr

fraction subtraction problems: SubtractStepByStepMar3

done like this: SubtractionExampleMar3

metaphors and similes: SimileMetaphorPractice

as always, read for 35 minutes and get your reading log signed!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Well three posts in a row that are Mondays……

 

Let’s hope I get to post again on a Tuesday!

 

We are just ridiculously behind at this point.  We are three weeks from Case 21….which means we have lost around 20% of our instructional time this quarter.  Not sure what we’re going to do, but it’s going to be a busy three weeks!

Today we talked much more about fractions, subtraction with fractions, and equivalent fractions.  We also talked about the link between division and fractions.  If we had something like 2 cakes to split among 4 people, each person gets 2/4 of a cake.  We can visualize this by thinking we would cut the first cake into 4 pieces, and give each person a piece, and then do the same for the second cake.  So in total, they would get 2/4 of a cake.  We then talked about what if there were 3 cakes?  4 cakes?  5 cakes?  We noticed this pattern:

2 ÷ 4 = 2/4

3 ÷ 4 = 3/4

4 ÷ 4 = 4/4

5 ÷ 5 = 5/4

Neat, right?

 

Tonight students have some more subtraction problems to work on:

FractionSubtractionMar3

 

In Language Arts we began our discussion of figurative language.  We came up with this awesome definition together:

 

Figurative language is literally language that you don’t take literally.

 

I love it.

Tonight students have two sheets dealing with similes and metaphors to work on.  As we deal more and more with figurative language, we will work on incorporating more of it into our writing.

SimilesMetaphorsMar3

 

Next we went and previewed the book fair!  If you didn’t know (and how would you seeing how I would have announced it last week!), we are having a scholastic book fair at Lockhart this week.  Students wrote down a list of books they would like.  We will be going in to purchase as a class on Wednesday but if students bring in money on another day, that would be fine.

 

We spent some time today talking about references and bibliographies for our weather research paper.  Students also got a hand-out for them to keep track of the books/websites/articles they use when answering their questions:

Research List

 

Students also have another DAZE passage dealing with rain.  They should read through the passage, and circle the word that works in each sentence.

RainDazeMar3

 

We also finally got around to getting a new Children’s book awards book!  It’s what they should be reading tonight!

 

so, tl;dr

one page of subtraction problems: FractionSubtractionMar3

similes and metaphors: SimilesMetaphorsMar3

DAZE passage dealing with rain: RainDazeMar3

as always, read for 35 minutes!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

I hope everyone enjoyed their second track-out!

 

Of course we are now in ridiculous make-up mode.

Today we jumped right into subtraction with fractions, and how we can use the same strategies we used with addition.  We also talked about how oftentimes it is easier to subtract fractions (and also sometimes add fractions) when they are in improper form.  It can be easier to do something like 13/10 minus 8/10 than to see something like 1 and 3/10 minus 8/10.

Tonight students have a few subtraction problems to do.  They should show me what form of one they multiplied or divided by in order to find equivalent fractions, and they should simplify their answers!  We did one together as an example.

SubtractingAndSimplifyingFeb23

SubtractionExampleFeb23

 

In Language Arts we talked mostly about doing research and how we are doing our best to become an expert on our chosen topic.  We are *not* typing in a string of questions in google and copying down some answers.  We talked about how many of our questions will lead to more questions that we must answer.

We then spent some time in the computer lab, on Ncwiseowl and Britannica doing preliminary research on our topic.  Students have until Friday to possibly change their topic, but by Friday we will have started an outline, and they will be locked into whatever they have chosen.

Tonight students have a short passage to read and some questions to answer on theme.  We will be moving on from our discussions of theme to figurative language this week, so this will be the last passage focusing on theme for a bit.

The Life of a Cat

CatQuestions

 

That was pretty much all we had time for.  Our days will be packed and I don’t see us getting to nearly everything we have to, so we might be doubling up on work going home, but I’m not quite sure just yet.  Let’s hope we can get back on track, even with this ridiculous weather!

 

so tl;dr

fraction subtraction problems: SubtractingAndSimplifyingFeb23

Show me the form of one you use! SubtractionExampleFeb23

Cat passage (theme): The Life of a Cat

and questions (with reasoning): CatQuestions

 

Also, all North Carolina Children’s Book Awards books MUST be turned back in tomorrow.  I have to return some and recheck some others out.

As always, read for 35 minutes!

As the students don’t yet have a new reading log, just getting a piece of paper signed will be fine.

 

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter