Today we had fun with all 11001 students in our classroom.

We spent our morning talking about addition, subtraction, and then back to our main focus of multi-digit multiplication.  We talked about how addition is commutative, but subtraction is not.  Tomorrow we’ll talk about multiplication and division, and which of those is commutative, although the students were already shouting that out as we finished up.

Tonight students have a simple multiplication worksheet to finish.  They should do each problem using an area model, and also write out the steps as they do them.  The first problem is done for them as an example, but honestly everyone is pretty solid on this at this point, and I expect no problems.

DPoMoA_Oct22

We read a really neat book called Math Curse, where a little girl starts seeing math problems everywhere (because, let’s face it, math IS everywhere) and the students didn’t quite get some of the wordplay especially when they talked about binary.  This led us on a tangent where we talked about and learned some binary.  Hence, the 11001 students in our classroom.  Ask your student if they can count in binary tonight!

The Goldilocks stories everyone turned in were very entertaining.  However, many students lacked realistic motivation for their own character of Goldilocks.  I was hoping they might explore their own reasons for going into a strange house, eating strangers’ food, and for breaking their things.   Some took some liberties and explained things like they really secretly hated bears, or that they were going into a house of people they thought they knew.  To get everyone really thinking about why they would do these things, tonight students should write a simple “Why I did it” piece, where they explain their motivations for going into the house, and generally trashing the place.

We also talked about those wonderful explorers of old again, and the early days of the United States.  Students have a short piece on the revolutionary war to read tonight in their motivation reading books on pages 119-122.

Finally, we talked in small groups about the function of bones and muscles in the body.  We learned that bones are there to protect, support, and move our bodies, and that there are three main types of muscles: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac.  We will be exploring human body systems for the remainder of the quarter, one little bit at a time.

so, tldr;

multiplication worksheet

DPoMoA_Oct22

read pages 119-122 in motivation reading

Why I did it!  – explanation of their motivations as Goldilocks

have a good one!

-Mr. Potter

Day 2, and the students are doing AMAZING

Seriously, we have had an absolutely fantastic first two days back.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things never change.

This morning  we reviewed our math from the first quarter.  We took a good amount of notes on the distributive property of multiplication, and reviewed many of the concepts we talked about the last nine weeks.  I was very impressed with how much everyone has retained.

In the afternoon, we went over our Language Arts Case 21.  I was very happy with the majority of the students’ work on this.  Pretty much everyone had great reasoning for all of their answers right in their books, and was able to discuss it this afternoon.  The mistakes we had, many students were able to talk out and explain using their reasoning.  I again was impressed.

One of the biggest problems we had as a class was identifying first vs. third person, and the pros and cons of both.  Because of this, we then watched these two videos:

Three little pigs

The real story of the three little pigs

We talked about how the point of view that these stories are told in can completely change the story itself, and how you feel about the characters.  We had talked about this briefly with the Mysterious Benedict Society, and we revisited that conversation as well.  What if the book had been told from Reynie’s point of view?  Or Mr. B’s?  Or Mr. Curtain’s?

Next, we watched this: Goldilocks

Tonight, students are to re-write the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, as if they were Goldilocks themselves.  They should have taken their writing journals home, and should write the story from their own perspective up until the point where they go to bed.

Around this time, we had an something unfortunate happen.  A second grader trampled and cut in half some of our corn stalks outside. Two of our students were writing near the window, and saw the entire thing occur.  I have talked with the second grader’s parents and his teacher, and he will be experiencing some consequences.  We also had him come into our room and explain his actions to the class.  It was a very unfortunate occurrence, and it is really sad that something our students have worked so hard on for almost three months could be so easily destroyed by someone’s thoughtlessness.  One good thing, however, is that much of the corn is still standing, and the other plants were untouched.

After this we went outside and tended to the plants.  We were able to right a few of them, and we’ll hope for the best with the others.

Finally, we talked some more about cells.  We looked at some visual examples to give students a size of scale of cells and atoms, and then talked about cells in general, and microscopic organisms.  I managed to gross out the entire class when we started talking about living cultures inside of yogurt, and then I showed them a video of Lactobacillus wiggling around in yogurt under a microscope.  The revulsion in the room was palpable.  It was great.

Tonight, students should read pages A6 – A13 in their science book (surprise, it’s about cells!) and then answer the five questions on page A13.  They better have reasoning!

so, tldr;

I’m goldilocks story – up until you go to bed!

Read A6-A13 and do questions 1-5 on page A13 in science book

Read for 35 minutes!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Welcome back!

We had a very productive first day back.  Almost everyone remembered how to do decimal multiplication using an area model (whew!), and we spent our morning reviewing our Case 21 math assessment.  Overall, the students did very well on this, and I was happy with their work.  We did however run into the problem of silly mistakes because we didn’t check our work, or answer what the question was asking.  We will continue to work on these skills until the end of the school year I am sure.

We then spent just one final half hour in the computer lab, and I gave students an opportunity to make final improvements to their biome research brochures.  On the whole, the class average on these was quite low.  We had talked at length about how our purpose was to inform and persuade, but many students had trouble actually informing the reader in their brochures.  I am hopeful that they made some improvements.

In the afternoon, we did a brief introduction to cells.  We talked about how they are the building blocks of all living things, and some of the basic differences between animal and plant cells.  Tonight students have a short reading comprehension selection to read on cells, with questions to answer.  As always their answer should contain reasoning!

Oct20_Cells

After this we did some rotations where students spoke with me about their report cards (they went home today by the way!), worked on a word ladder, and took an assessment on Lexia.  Lexia is a new program that we will be using for language arts differentiation.  It offers targeted instruction for each student at their level, and I’m hoping they will enjoy it.  The link can be found in the language arts links above, and their username and password are their lunch numbers.  They are more than welcome to use the program at home, and we will be using it during rotations in the classroom.

Finally, we only had about 2 minutes to go outside and take a quick look at our plants, but they have gotten HUGE!  And we have cucumbers growing!  Maybe we’ll get to make some pickles 🙂

so, tldr;

One cell worksheet

Oct20_Cells

One word ladder

Oct20_WordLadder

And read for 35 minutes!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

We are almost finished with the quarter, can you believe it?

Today students took their final Case 21 – Science.

We then spent the remainder of the day finishing our biome travel brochures.  These will be our final reading/science grades.

For homework tonight, students have 4 reading/history worksheets to complete.  These were classwork, so if they have used their class time wisely this week, they should have very little left to do.

Report cards will be going out when we track back in.  This was not my decision, so don’t shoot me, please!  If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me through e-mail or give me a call/text.

Also please remember that the first payment of $16 for the field trip is due tomorrow.  If you have already turned it in, thank you!

Tomorrow we will be finishing up some housekeeping things, making sure all of our projects are turned in, and finishing any quizzes we missed.  Many of our students also have a celebration that they earned by attaining 50 tickets throughout this quarter.  They’ll be spending the afternoon in the gym playing some minute-to-win-it games.  It should be fun!

I hope everyone has a great track out, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone refreshed and ready for our fabulous second quarter come the end of October!

-Mr. Potter

It’s finals week!

err…..Case 21 week even!

This week students are taking a number of benchmark assessments.  Today they took a modified Language Arts Assessment, tomorrow (Wednesday) they will take a Math Case 21 assessment, and Thursday they will take a Science Case 21 assessment.

Not only do these assessments give us a good idea of what the students did or did not understand from the quarter, they provide good practice for the EOG assessments.  This year there are three EOG assessments; one for Language Arts, one for Math, and one for Science.

Because it is a week filled with tests, I am assigning only reading homework each day this week.  It should be very simple for students to have a perfect week of turning in homework.  All they must do is read, fill in their reading log, and get it signed.

Please remember that the first installment of the field trip payment is due this Friday.  The total cost is $80, but we have broken that down into five payments, the first of which is due on the 26th (3 days from now).

so, tl;dr

tests!

read!

get a good night’s sleep and eat breakfast!

Field Trip money ($16.00) is due Friday!

I love exclamation points!

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter!

Tonight is Math Night!

Please come out for some fun baseball related math games, maybe grab a burger or a hot-dog, and meet Muddy the Mudkip.

Two years ago the school where I worked actually had Muddy come out and read a story to the school.  He’s pretty hilarious.

Today we started talking about division.  We talked about relating what we have done in the classroom to the standard algorithm, and some other strategies for dividing numbers.  Tonight there are two division problems the students should do.  They can use either a picture model, they can work from an area model, or they can try the standard algorithm.  Whatever they choose is fine, however they should check their answer with a multiplication problem, utilizing an area model.

91.8 ÷ 6

36.2 ÷ 4

I was very happy with the students’ responses to last night’s question about SQ in the Mysterious Benedict Society.  many of them came up with ideas that I had never thought of myself.

Tonight they should read pages 149-150 in their motivation reading books, and then answer the questions on page 153-154.  The answers should as always be accompanied by reasoning.  We debated our answers to our last reading selection in small groups, and many of our students were able to sway others to their answer based on their reasoning.  This is a really great skill to develop, and we will continue to require reasoning for our answers throughout the year.

Unfortunately today we did not have time for science as we had to quickly get to the computer lab to take our end of quarter STAR test.  This test measures the lexille levels of the students, and let’s me know if they have been making progress in their general comprehension and vocabulary areas.

So, tl;dr

a lite night tonight, as I’m hoping some can come out to Math Night!

two division problems:

91.8 ÷ 6

36.2 ÷ 4

Read pages 149-150 in Motivation Reading , and answer the questions (with reasoning!) on pages 153-154

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter

Uh-oh….Track-out-itis is beginning to show in some of our students already!  We still have over a week left, however, and we won’t be slowing down until 2:55pm next Friday.

Math seems to be coming along well for many.  We’ll be wrapping up multiplication soon and moving on to division with decimals.  The students have already been doing division with manipulatives (money) in the boss/banker center, but we’ll be talking about doing it on an abstract level soon.

Tonight we will follow our normal routine and do 3 multiplication problems, all to be done with area models.  After some prodding, I agreed to do one together as an example, so it is here too:

33.3 x 25

.14 x .63

0.003 x 0.41

example 0.003 x 0.41:

DecimalMultExampleSep16

In Language Arts we talked some about the Mysterious Benedict Society, and the author’s choice of characters.  In particular we talked about SQ, who is a character on Mr. Curtain’s (the bad guy’s) side.  SQ is very silly, absent-minded, and generally likable.  He also has been very good to the children so far, and treats them well.  Why do we think the author included such a character in his book?  Tonight the students should write a minimum half-page response to why they believe the author included this character in the book.

In Science we are trying to think more critically about ecosystems and the effects changes have on them.  We looked at our pond ecosystem from our discussion yesterday, and thought about what might happen if we were to remove things from it.  Would it have an effect on the other organisms in the ecosystem?  Would it affect more than one organism?  Would the ecosystem be able to survive?  We started some of these questions but did not get time to finish them, so they will be homework tomorrow, instead of today.

In their place, we have a very simple ecosystem reading sheet, and some comprehension questions to go along with it.

EcosystemsSep16

so, tl;dr

3 math problems

33.3 x 25

.14 x .63

0.003 x 0.41

DecimalMultExampleSep16

A minimum half-page response to the question:  Why did the author of the Mysterious Benedict Society choose to include a character like SQ in his book?

Review Ecosystem sheet

EcosystemsSep16

Have a good day!

-Mr. Potter

Today the students were literally writing down their homework as they were walking out the door, so please make sure it’s correct!

Many of our students are making a lot of progress lately in math.  Now that we have established some goals, and what we need to work on, many of our kids are working with new purpose.

Tonight we again have 3 math decimal problems to do:

15.25 x 1.4

7.4 x 2.2

.04 x .2

Students should do these as area models.  It is vitally important that students understand that when they multiply 4 tenths by 5 hundredths, the answer is 20 thousandths.  It is important that they understand that multiplying 2 tenths by 4 tenths gives them 8 hundredths.  Please do *not* try to teach them shortcuts, or tricks to solve these.  These are very important conceptual understandings that they need to possess.

In Language Arts we got so wrapped up in what is going on with the children and Mr. B that we read two chapters.  We’ll be finishing up this book near the end of the quarter, and it will give students an opportunity to take one last AR test for a good chunk of points.

We really got into working with our biome brochures today in the computer lab, and the students are learning quite a few things about  navigating the Microsoft Office environment.  Ctrl + z is our friend!

In Science we talked a lot about biomes, and how all of the living and non-living things in an ecosystem are connected.  We are making some good connections to our gardens.  We had a good discussion about how without decomposers and something to decompose, eventually our soil in our buckets will run out of nutrients to feed our plants.  I wonder what we’ll do then?!

so, tl;dr

3 math problems:

15.25 x 1.4

7.4 x 2.2

.04 x .2

Students should also do page 152 in their motivation reading books.  It is the next three questions about the selection they read yesterday.  This should, as always, be accompanied by reasoning for each answer.

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

have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Can you believe we’re only two weeks from track-out?  Where in the world did the time go?

This means that we have Case 21 coming up!  As 5th graders, the students will be taking a Language Arts Case 21 assessment, a Math Case 21 assessment, AND a Science Case 21 assessment.

Language Arts: Tuesday, Sep 23

Math: Wednesday Sep 24

Science: Thursday, Sep 25

So this week will be us finishing up multiplying and dividing decimals, and then we’ll be doing some review.  Today the students made a list of the skills they are mastering in mathematics and whether or not they believe they have mastered them.

In math, students have three problems to work on:

48.12 x 98

75.5 x 25

1.3 x 2.5

Students should do these as area models!

In Language Arts, we are done with our sneakers stories.  We will print these tomorrow, so if it’s not completed as of this moment, I would be worried, and get that done asap.

Tonight for homework, students have a short story to read in their motivation reading books on pages 147 and 148.

They then should answer the first three questions about this selection on page 151 of their motivation reading book.  These should come with reasoning!

In Science, we spent a bit more time researching our biomes, and students tonight should finish their brochure rough draft pages 4, 5,  and 6.

If you’ve forgotten what goes on those pages, here it is again:

Pamphlet Handout

We saw some blossoms on a few of our cucumber plants today!  mmmmmm….cucumbers!

so, tl;dr

read pages 147-148 in motivation reading, do problems 1-3 on page 151 WITH REASONING

three math problems (area models!)

48.12 x 98

75.50 x 25

1.3 x 2.5

finally, page 4,5, and 6 of their biome brochure rough draft!

Sneaker stories due tomorrow!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

All of the things!

Today we began as always with our math centers, and  we focused more on multiplying with decimals.  For homework tonight students have three decimal multiplication problems to do.  They are:

37.25 x 34

295.15 x 27

125.01 x 100.05

These should be done with area models.  I know that some parents are unsure about area models, and have taught their students the standard algorithm.  I have nothing against the standard algorithm as long as it is backed up by understanding.  This is the reason that we do things with area models to begin.  Explaining how the standard algorithm works and using that comes next.  Too often students simply learn a procedure, instead of a concept.  Learning procedures instead of developing conceptual understandings will only lead to problems later on, and has already produced some problems with some of our students.

We spent most of our day working on our sneaker stories and our biome brochures.  I am thinking that the due date for the sneaker story will be next Tuesday at this point, and the biome brochure will be soon after that.  We *should* have plenty of time to get these done in class, as long as students use their time wisely.

Tonight, students have a short reading passage about sharks, and some comprehension questions to answer.  Each question should be accompanied by reasoning!

Students also have a rough draft of their biome brochure that they have started.  I expect to see the first 3 pages roughly planned out by tomorrow.

We also measured our plants today, and decided which ones look like they are getting too big, and need some extra support.  We will be adding some garden supports to them tomorrow first thing.

Starting next week, we will be making some little aquariums/terrariums in the classroom.  For this, we need some empty (preferably cleaned out) 2-liter bottles.  If you have any at home that you can spare, we would love to have them!

so, tl;dr

3 decimal multiplication problems (done with area models)

37.25 x 34

295.15 x 27

125.01 x 100.05

1 reading comprehension passage (with reasoning!)

sharks5th

page 1,2,3 of the biome brochure rough draft done

Here is the note-taking sheet in case you forgot what each page should have:

Pamphlet Handout

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter