Tomorrow is blanket fort and gum day!!

For our 1st jewel celebration, tomorrow students may bring a blanket and gum.  We will make blanket forts with our blankets and desks, and then have DEAR time with them, while chewing our gum.  It should be pretty fun!

So yes, they may bring a small comforter or blanket, and yes, they may bring gum!

 

Today, we had a really good talk about exponents.  We focused on the idea that exponentiation is raising a base to a given power by multiplying the base by itself an exponent number of times.

We also talked about the pattern we see in exponents, and used that to extrapolate something raised to the power zero, and to the power of negative 1.

Exponent notes: ExponentNotes

Tomorrow we will take a quick quiz on order of operations and I hope we can move on, as the students picked this stuff up quickly.

 

Tonight students have another sheet of equations to evaluate.  It also has two of the ’24’ problems at the bottom.  I love math puzzles!

OOPs homework 3

In Language Arts we talked a LOT about author’s purpose, and why they would choose a particular text structure for their work.  Tonight, students have another collection of short paragraphs to analyze.  They should give me this information about each paragraph:

1. Type of text structure used

2.  Graphic organizer presenting the information

3.  I believe the author used …. because…..

For number 3, I don’t want them to justify their answer for number 1.  I want them to explain why an author would pick that particular structure.  Why would they choose problem and solution?  Why would they choose sequence?  What are they writing about that makes that text structure work best?

Text Structures Shoes

As an example, here is the first one (that we did together)

1.  Sequence

2.  (graphic organizer here)

3.  I believe the author used sequence because they are teaching something, and the best way to do that is to tell someone how to do something step by step.

 

 

In Science we talked again about DNA and watched a quick animation that explained how DNA is replicated into RNA, and then used by ribosomes to create new proteins.

We also had a discussion about learned versus inherited traits, and it seems that the students already have a good grasp of the idea that you inherited your eyes and your chin from your parents, but not the fact that you may or may not like baseball.

 

 

so, tl;dr

One last set of order of operations problems:

OOPs homework 3

 

One set of text structures, answering the question “Why would the author use THIS text structure?”

Text Structures Shoes

 

also read!

 

P.S. I apologize if my request yesterday that you allow your student to do their text structures homework independently was frustrating.  I understand completely!  But I appreciate your cooperation, and I’ll try not to do it again!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

A high of 70?  Seriously?  North Carolina is ridiculous.

 

Order of operations is going just swimmingly.  For the most part the students have internalized the idea that we do the most powerful operations first, unless we are told implicitly otherwise.  Today we did a lot of work with parenthesis, which can trip even the best of us up and become confusing when they are nested within each other.

A thing that I used to do when I was young was connect the open and close parenthesis like they were bubbles.  This way I could see where they started and stopped, and I could focus in on the inner-most ‘bubble’ and start there.  If this helps your student, by all means encourage them to do this until they get the hang of it.

an example: bubble parenthesis

 

Tonight they have a new page of equations to evaluate, as well as a little puzzle at the bottom.  At the bottom they are given 4 numbers, and they must put those numbers (all used once and only once!) into an equation so that the answer will be 24.  There is an example in case they have forgotten.  There are also rewards depending upon how many equations they can come up with!

OOPs homework 2

 

In language arts we had to have a talk about the paragraph that was homework last night.  Many students simply wrote a paragraph comparing the CONTENT of the two passages, instead of comparing and contrasting the TEXT STRUCTURES used by the authors.  We took a look at what this kind of comparing and contrasting might look like, and came up with this basic framework:

In the Helen Keller passage the author used the ….. text structure. In the Alexander Graham Bell passage the author used the ….. text structure.  I believe the author used ….. in the HK passage because….I believe the author used …… in the AGB passage because….

Tonight students should take this framework, and fill it in.  This will replace their work from yesterday.

Students should also complete a worksheet on text structures and graphic organizers, just as we have been doing in the past.  please DO NOT ASSIST YOUR STUDENT WITH THIS WORKSHEET.  I am trying to get a good idea of where students are at with these understandings, and I’m using this worksheet to assess this.  Please allow them to work completely independently on this, regardless of how much it may drive you insane as you see them make a silly mistake (Welcome to the story of my life).

 

In Science we started talking about heredity and genetics.  This is always a really interesting topic where we learn all about what makes us what we are and what we look like.  Tonight ask your student why they weren’t born with 4 heads and 9 noses, and see what they say!

 

so, tl;dr

one math worksheet on order of operations, with a puzzle

OOPs homework 2

Re-do paragraph comparing text structures of Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell selections

One text structure review sheet (to be done individually, no matter how it may vex you!)

TextStructuresDec3

And as always:  read, read, read

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

Today we finally said goodbye to our plants.  We took our planters out to the woods and emptied the soil so that it could be used by other plants.  We also got to pull out the plants and look at their root systems, which was very interesting.  Many of the students were surprised by how long the roots had gotten, and how well anchored they were.  It was difficult pulling out many of the corn stalks.

 

In Math we continue to work on order of operations.  Just remember, we do the most powerful operations first (working left to right) unless we are told otherwise!

In case you need them, here are yesterday’s notes: OOPNotes

We did many problems together today as a class, and here are some examples in case you need them as well: OOPSExamples

Tonight the students have a simple page of expressions to evaluate using order of operations.  Included on this sheet are two problems that have answers, and the students must decide where to put parenthesis in the problems in order for them to evaluate to the given answer.

OOPs homework

 

In Language Arts we got to have many individual conferences about the students’ Goldilocks stories.  We went over their own personal rubric, and why they gave themselves the grading that they did.  It can be very difficult to objectively grade yourself, or look at yourself with a critical eye in general.  If we can get this down,  I believe it will make us into better writers.  If we can get the whole looking at yourself in general with a critical eye thing down, it might even make us into better human beings.  (maybe!)

We got through about half of the students today, and we’ll get through the next half tomorrow I hope.

 

Tonight in language arts, students should first write a short paragraph comparing and contrasting the two passages they read yesterday (page 19-22 in motivation reading).  I want this to be a compare and contrast of the TEXT STRUCTURES used, and NOT the content of the stories.  This means I DON’T want to see something like “One was about Helen Keller, and the other was about Alexander Graham Bell”.  What I want to see is something along the lines of “In the first passage the author used problem and solution to describe such and such, and in the second passage the author also used problem and solution to describe so and so….”

Students should also Answer the questions about the two passages on pages 23-26 in their motivation reading books.  As always, I expect reasoning!

 

tl;dr:

one simple sheet of expressions

OOPs homework

Pages 23-26 in motivation reading WITH REASONING and then a paragraph comparing the text structures of the txt structures of the two passages (NOT THE CONTENT!)

 

as always, read for 35 minutes

 

Have  a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving break!  Mine was full of food and naps.  It was wonderful.

 

Today we started talking about the order of operations.  I was pleasantly surprised that no students had weird ideas about PEMDAS or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.  Basically please don’t tell your students these things, as they oftentimes give students mistaken ideas like they should do multiplication before division, or addition before subtraction.  Instead, we took a good amount of notes on the ‘big idea’ behind order of operations, which is that we do the more powerful operations first, unless we’re told implicitly otherwise.

Together we came up with the basic rankings of operations as follows:

multiplication and division are most powerful

addition and subtraction are less powerful

 

This is because multiplication and division are the inverse of each other, so they’re equally powerful.

Same with addition and subtraction.

So what about that ‘implicitly told otherwise’ thing?  That means before we do those, we should do anything in parenthesis, starting at the innermost, and working our way out.

 

Finally, there are two things we haven’t learned much about, but are worth mentioning: exponents and radicals.  These are both more powerful than basic multiplication or division, so these go before those operations.

Which means our final Order of Operations goes:

1. parenthesis
2. exponents and radicals
3. multiplication and division
4. addition and subtraction

The notes we took: OOPNotes

We talked about doing problems one step at a time, and looking at each step and determining what is the most powerful operation, moving from left to right.

 

Tonight students have a very simple page of exponents to do, along with two expressions to solve, using order of operations.

ExponentsDec1

In Language Arts, we talked at GREAT length about what Mr. Potter is looking for in our stories.  The students got a copy of my grading rubric for their Goldilocks stories, and they themselves graded their own paper, and a peer’s paper.  For many students, it looks like it finally got them to look at their own papers with a critical eye.  We will continue exercises that will get the students to critically examine their own work in the future.  I’d like for this to become a habit, and not something that we have to ask them explicitly to do.

Here is the rubric we used: Goldilocks Rubric

 

Tonight students have some text structure review.  They should read the two passages on pages 19-22 in their motivation reading book.  After each passage, they should draw a graphic organizer that corresponds to the text structure used for that story.

In Science, we took all of our plant data, and put it into excel.  The students then got to play around a good bit with creating graphs in excel.  We had a lot of fun messing around with the different settings, and thinking about what kind of graphs and what settings would represent our data the best.

Later we will add in temperature data and talk about comparing graphs, or maybe even plotting multiple data points on one graph!  It should be fun.

 

ok, so tl;dr

one page of exponents, and two problems to answer using order of operations

ExponentsDec1

Read pages 19-22 in motivation reading, and after each passage draw a graphic organizer that corresponds to the text structure used in each story.

As always, read and get your reading log signed!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

24 hours to freedom!!

*ahem* I mean, I can’t believe there’s only one day left in the week!

Today was a whirlwind of back and forth doing little bits of this and that.  First we did some work on the computers, then we did some work all together, then we did some small groups, and then we did some work all together again, and then finally some more work on the computers.  I’m exhausted.

Stories are DONE.  Even if they’re not done, WE are done with them as a class.  Tomorrow we are printing them out, and making little picture books.  I’m looking forward to reading the final versions!

We are doing some review of decimals to get ready for our end of quarter Case 21s.  We’re actually a good bit ahead of the normal 5th grade curriculum, so we’re doing some review at this point just to iron out any lingering problems.

Tonight students should do page 63 in their motivation math books as a review.

In Language arts, we talked a lot about text structures, and comparing two different texts based on their text structures, and the way the author presents the information.

As a class, we read two passages.

One on the troubles facing polar bears:

Polar bears

And another on the survival traits of some animals:

Survival_Tactics_article

Tonight students are to take a good look at these two articles, and first determine the text structures that each author used to present their information.  Next they should look at the information the author presented, in an attempt to understand the author’s purpose for writing.  Finally, they should compare and contrast the two articles, paying particular attention to the ways the authors presented their information.  To help with this, they can fill out this handy chart:

CompareContrast

It’s a light load of work, because I expect a bit of a light turn-out tomorrow.  HOWEVER, if you do show up tomorrow, we have a few special and fun things planned 😉

so, tl;dr

decimal review: Page 63 in motivation math

compare and contrast these two articles:

Polar bears

Survival_Tactics_article

On this sheet:  CompareContrast

As always, read for 35 minutes!

 

have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Monday, but feels like Wednesday….

 

So this morning we put some finishing touches on our stories in the computer lab.  We re-formatted our stories so that we can print them out and then make little books out of them.  Almost everyone is on track to get this done tomorrow!

 

We started to talk about triangles today in math, and took a bunch of notes.  Tonight students have a page of triangles to classify, as well as a page that *should* be review of different operations with decimals.

the triangle notes:

TrianglesNotes

And the classification worksheet:

TrianglesClassificationNov24

 

Students should also do page 62 in their motivation math book for decimal review.

 

In Language Arts, we had a great conversation about media, commercials, and advertising.  We talked about what advertisers are trying to do (persuade you), and about different advertisements that persuaded us, and those that did not.

We made lists of the characteristics of advertisements that we trusted and those that we did not.  We found that we tend to trust those that we either have previous experience/knowledge about, or that go along with our own beliefs.  We tend to be distrustful of those that we are uninformed about, have no previous knowledge of, or that go contrary to our views/understandings.  We then started talking about how it’s good to check things, whether we initially believe them or not.

Tonight students have a short passage along with the media theme, about the internet.  It is on page 208 in their motivation reading books.  As always they should answer the questions that follow, WITH REASONING!

 

Finally, we talked briefly about the digestive system once again, and got a chance to take our quiz.  Tonight ask your student about what happens to food after you eat it.  Make sure you do it during dinner so they can totally gross you and themselves out!

 

so, tl;dr

triangle classification sheet

TrianglesClassificationNov24

P 62 in Motivation Math – decimal review

P208 in Motivation Reading – answer questions with reasoning!

 

and read!

 

have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Tonight is McTeacher Night!  If you want to see me slinging fries, just come to the McDonalds on the corner from 5-7pm.  A percentage of all food sold during this time will go towards our PTA funds!

 

This morning was again a lot of work with shapes.  Overall, most of the class is getting it, and I’m confident we can fill in the last few gaps in understanding.

Tonight, students have a sheet that looks VERY similar to their sheet from yesterday.  However, tonight students shouldn’t label the shapes.  Instead, they should list the attributes of each shape, in this format:

number of sides

number of pairs of parallel sides

number of equal sides

number of 90 degree (square) corners

 

I’m not looking for things like ‘square’ or ‘parallelogram’.  I simply want the students to pay attention to the above attributes, and name them for each shape.

ShapeAttributesNov19

 

In case they need it, here again are those notes we’ve taken!

QuadrilateralNotes

 

We then had an absolutely bone-chilling 20 minutes of recess, before Mr. Potter (and most of the students) had enough.  We finished up our recess nice and cozy inside, with many of us playing some cards or board games.

In Language Arts we took a look at our paragraphs from yesterday.  Many students simply wrote down the problem (coral reefs are dying) and their solutions.  We had a talk about if this is really what we are going for when we are writing about problems and solutions.

We figured out that if there is a problem and we are presenting our reader with solutions, then what we probably want to do is PERSUADE our reader, and we talked about ways to do that.  Tonight students should re-write their paragraphs, with an eye to persuade me that this is a real problem that needs addressing, and also that their solutions are good ones.

ProblemSolutionPromptNov18

Students also received a new set of short passages to read.  They are to determine the text structure used with each passage, and draw a simple graphic organizer for each. (They’re about dinosaurs!)

TextStructuresNov19

 

Next we worked on our plant graphs a bit, and we were already out of time.  Can you believe we’re already half-way through the quarter somehow?

 

Unfortunately, I won’t be in the classroom tomorrow, as my wife is having a root canal done and she is not the biggest fan of the dentist.  I am sure the students will be fine, and the day will go like any other.

 

so, tl;dr

One sheet of shapes – name their attributes

ShapeAttributesNov19

re-write paragraph from yesterday – PERSUADE ME!

ProblemSolutionPromptNov18

Make some graphic organizers and identify some text structures

TextStructuresNov19

and as always, read for 35 minutes

 

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

shapes shapes and more shapes!

Our talks about shapes, area, and the way we classify objects have been going very well.  The students seem to have dusted out their head-cobwebs, and lots of things are suddenly clicking, or at least being remembered.

Tonight students again have some classifications to do.  For the shapes they must classify, they should list everything that each shape is.  That means square isn’t sufficient.  I want polygon, quadrilateral, parallelogram, rectangle, rhombus, and square.  For the questions that ask them to draw a shape, any example will do.

ShapeClassificationNov19

In case they need it, here is the hierarchy chart from yesterday (that they SHOULD have in their math journal!)

QuadrilateralHierarchy

 

In Language Arts we had some problems (hah!) comparing problem and solution with cause and effect text structures.  On yesterday’s homework many students confused the two, and we talked about how with cause and effect, we are given something that occurred, and the reasons for WHY it occurred.  With problem and solution, we are given something that has occurred/is a problem, and the solutions for it.  They are quite similar, and mixing up the two is common.

 

Tonight, students have to take a short passage that we classified together as cause and effect, and re-write it as a problem solution.  We used a graphic organizer to identify the cause and effect stated in the passage.  For their own paragraph, students should identify the problem, and then come up with 1-2 solutions to that problem.  They should write a paragraph, using the problem and solution text structure to express their ideas for solving the coral reef dilemma.

ProblemSolutionPromptNov18

 

In Science  most students should be done with their rough draft graphing of plant growth.  We will be comparing our growth charts, and then finding some information about rainfall and temperature to which we can compare our data.  I wonder what kind of connections we can make…

 

so, tl;dr

One page of classifying shapes

ShapeClassificationNov19

write a short paragraph using problem-solution talking about the dying coral reefs

ProblemSolutionPromptNov18

 

As always, read for 35 mins!

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Tons of stuff today!

 

First, we went into the computer lab and worked on our Goldilocks stories.  These are coming along nicely, and we are starting to add some pictures so we can make a little storybook.

In order to do this, students are making cartoon pictures over at www.toondoo.com.  Today students made a login, and started playing around with the different options.  They are more than welcome to continue this at home, and they should have a good idea of how to create pictures and save them to their account to retrieve later.

 

Next we talked a good bit about different shapes.  We’ve been doing a lot of work with area, and now we’re going to connect that to defining different shapes.  Eventually we’ll talk about how basically everything can be broken down into triangles (even circles!) which is kind of how trig/calculus/all that other stuff works.

We also made a neat little shape out of straws.  Ask your student what shape it ALWAYS is, and what shape is it SOMETIMES.

Tonight we have a sheet full of shapes that they should define according to the notes they took in class.  Basically they should go from least-specific to most specific, naming everything that the shape is.  For example they shouldn’t just say “square”, they should say “polygon, quadrilateral, parallelogram, rectangle, square”.  If they need it, the little cheat sheet chart is here:

QuadrilateralHierarchy

And the homework is here:

ShapeClassificationNov17

 

In Language Arts we talked about text structures, and the reasons an author would pick a specific structure to tell their story.  We took some notes on this as well, which focused on ways to spot different text structures.  Tonight students have a collection of short passages to read.  They should identify the text structure of each passage, and then fill in a short graphic organizer detailing that structure for each passage.  The notes and the worksheet are here:

TextStructuresNotesNov17

TextStructuresNov17

 

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

 

so, tl;dr

One math worksheet, naming shapes (all the way from general to specific)

ShapeClassificationNov17

One LA worksheet, naming text structures

TextStructuresNov17

And as always, read for 35 minutes!

 

 

Also, this week is McTeacher night.  If you come to the McDonalds on Wednesday night from 5-7, you might see me taking your order!

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Where did the week go?!  Having a holiday on Tuesday can totally throw you for a loop.

The students have been absolutely phenomenal this week.  This morning they were 100% on task during morning work, and only talked to help each other with the morning problem.  We’ve ended almost every day at negative five, and we have cut our calling out in half at least.  Just great stuff.

This morning we went over yesterday’s homework and it appears most students are getting it, and we’re clearing up our general division misconceptions or misunderstandings.  Tonight students have four new problems to do:

365.3 ÷ 0.4

251.5  ÷ 0.001

467.4 ÷ 1.5

111.111 ÷ 2

Some of these might require that they multiply both dividend and divisor by some factor of ten, and some they might be able to do without doing this.  It is up to them to figure out which works best.

 

In Language Arts we talked a good bit about bubble maps, and picking main ideas that we can support with details from the text.  Tonight students have a passage that we did a bubble map for together.  There are some questions also associated with this passage.

GaspingForAirBubbleMap

Students then got to take a Time for Kids of their choice.  They should pick one of the articles in the Time for Kids (one of the page long ones!) and create a bubble-map for it.

Next we did some work on their Goldilocks stories.  Many got a chance to talk with Mrs. Woodlief about them.  She was very impressed with the writers in our class!

 

Finally, we made a big long list of all of our data points for our plants.  Most students finished this, and can begin their graphing tomorrow.  This took a LOT longer than I thought it would!

 

so, tl;dr

4 division problems

365.3 ÷ 0.4

251.5  ÷ 0.001

467.4 ÷ 1.5

111.111 ÷ 2

One set of reading questions and one Time for Kids bubble map!

GaspingForAirBubbleMap

as always, read for 30 minutes

 

ALSO tomorrow we are having pajama and a movie day.  Students may come to school in their pajamas if they like, and we are going to watch a short little animated film during lunch/recess and maybe have some popcorn.

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter