DOWN TO THE WIRE!!!

Important dates:

Friday, June 17th: SCIENCE EOG

Wednesday, June 22nd: LANGUAGE ARTS EOG

Thursday, June 23rd: MATH EOG

 

Wednesday, June 29th: 5th grade ceremony

 

 

This morning we took our last STAR test of the year.  We talked about how important it is to do our best on these types of assessments.  I was quite impressed with the results.  Our little ones are growing up!

This week is a whirlwind of math and science review.  Today we talked about the Coriolis effect, wind, air pressure, the jet stream, and all of those neat weather topics.

Tonight students have a weather review packet they should be reading.  It talks about weather, weather instruments, and the basic forces that drive weather on the Earth.

Tonight students should also pick five new vocab words, and write them in their science journal just as they have been.  They should be in their own words.

This is everyone EXCEPT Nicole, who complained that it was only five words.  SO, Nicole can do ten words instead!

Cat’s response: “HAHAHAHAHAHA”

Nevaeh’s response: “THAT’S WHAT SHE GETS!”

 

 

In math, the students worked on word problems.  Our goal continues to be that we check our work.  We continue to make simple mistakes, or not actually answer the questions that were asked in the problems.  When we have a word problem we should do the following:

1.  Write down what the problem is asking.
2. Write down what you know
3. Draw a picture or a model to determine how you will solve the problem
4. Solve, and check to make sure your answer makes sense

That last one is still something we need to work on!

Tonight students should FINISH their math review packet.  This packet essentially covers the big ideas from the year.  If they can understand and do these problems, they are golden.

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

 

so, tl;dr

5 more vocab words in the science journal

Read/Do weather review packet

Finish math packet

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

And read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Number Drummer!

This morning we had a REALLY neat assembly in the gym.  Our students learned about keeping beats, rhythm, and how essentially everything is based on math.  The students were given different types of sticks and then made some music.  It was super interesting and I hope the kids got some new understandings and a newfound appreciation of music and math.

Again this morning students had to solve some challenging math problems, and then one at a time explain their thinking, their process, and their answers.  Every single student was able to do this.  I was quite impressed.

After our assembly we looked at our science review sheets, and talked some about weather.  We made some clouds in a bottle again, as some students had forgotten about high and low pressure systems!

Ask your student if they remember what high pressure and low pressure systems indicate! (high = clear, low = cloudy)

Tonight students should pick EIGHT words from their review packet or their journal, and write definitions for them in the back of their science journal.  This should bring their weekly total to twenty words.

In math we received a review packet.  We will examine this packet in great detail tomorrow and next week.  It essentially covers everything that we have talked about this year.  Tonight students should do the first four pages.  They received plenty of time to work on this in groups and ask questions, so hopefully they don’t have much left to finish.

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

At this point it was already time to leave.  The assembly made today seem extremely short.

Read tonight!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

 

5th grade commencement meeting tonight at 5pm in room 137 (next door to our room)

 

And the review continues!

I’m VERY happy with how well everyone has retained their knowledge of ecosystems, plants, and animals.  We learned a lot from our gardens, and I’m glad the students enjoyed them enough to make some memories.

Tonight students should pick SIX more words from their science journals or science review packet, and write their definitions in their own words in the back of their science journal.

In math we did some quite challenging word problems, and students were tasked with explaining their methods and proving their answers.  Many had to go back, think some more, try something else, think again, and re-do their work.  The most impressive part of this whole process was the perseverance displayed by the kids.  Every single student in the class was able to solve the problems, explain their thinking, and prove their answer.

Tonight students have some more word problems to work on.  They should be able to explain how they came up with their answer, AND prove their answer.

WordProblemsJune8

They should also do pages 182-183 in their Math coach – it’s more volume stuff.

 

Tomorrow we have a Drum performance that Mrs. Roach has lined up for us.  It should be fun.

 

Remember to read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

THE HORROR!!!

Today we talked about student loans.  The eyes popping out of the students’ heads would be hilarious if the actual situation weren’t so scary.

Students took their total cost of education that they researched, and then figured out what their monthly loan payment would be if they paid it off in 20 years.  Some students found this to be quite scary.  So did Mr. Potter.

 

In science we continued to talk about ecosystems, and the effects of organisms being removed or added to an ecosystem.  Just one organism being removed or added can have a dramatic effect.

Tonight students should finish up their review packet on animals and ecosystems.  They should answer questions 21 – 40.  They should also pick FOUR new vocab words to write in the back of their science journal (under the two from yesterday).  They should write the definition for these in their own words.

 

In math we reviewed adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing with decimals and fractions.  At first I was really worried that we had forgotten all of this somehow, but after one or two little reminders we were back on track.

Tonight students should do pages 18–181 in their math coach (more volume stuff)

They also have some decimal and fraction problems to work out.

Math Problems June 7

If they need them, here are the notes we took today:

Math Notes June 7

 

Not much today, so I don’t think we really need a tl;dr.

EOGs are in less than 10 days!!!

 

Read tonight!

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

 

 

What a great Monday!  I had a meeting this morning, so the children were left a bit to their own devices during morning check-in, and they did a fantastic job.  We have a firm grip on our routine at this point.

So we did some review of plants, animals, ecosystems, biomes, food chains, food webs, and all that kind of stuff this morning.  We have received a big ol’ review packet, and took a bunch of little quizzes to see how much we remember.  It went much better than expected!

Tonight students should answer questions 1-20 in the packet.  We did 1-5 together in class.  They should also pick two words from the packet (or from their science journal) and define the words in the back of their science journal in their own words.

Next we did some work on our project.  This week students are figuring out their taxes, utilities, and their student loan payments.  To say the children were surprised at the amount of money they would be paying in taxes is an understatement.  They were also in a bit of shock after we talked about utilities and other necessary bills.  All of a sudden students realized they have much less money  than they thought they did.

We had an opportunity to talk about how sometimes when parents say we can’t go out to eat every day or we can’t buy every video game in the world, it’s not because they are being mean.  I really like some of the discussion and questions the students have brought up with this project.

This also gave us a great opportunity to review multiplying by decimals, as we worked out our tax rates and net income!

Next we talked about the basic mathematical operations, and did some more work with volume.  Tonight students should finish pages 172 – 179 in their math coach.  This deals mostly with volume and area.

 

 

so, tl;dr

Finish questions 1-20 in the science eog review packet.

Pick two words from the packet or science journal, and define them in your own words in the back of your science journal.

Pages 172-179 in Math Coach

 

Read!

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

 

Just a very quick update today.  I have too many meetings to go to.

 

Today we talked a bit about memorial day, and read In Flanders Fields:

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.

 

This led us on a talk about wars, world wars, nuclear weapons, and all sorts of stuff.  It was very interesting, if somewhat depressing and scary.

 

After this we continued our review.

Tonight students should read this passage:

Whales

Just as they have been, they should answer the questions with reasoning, write a summary, analyze the text structure of a paragraph, and tell me a genre and sub-genre.

 

In math we did more fraction operations review today.  We also started talking about volume!!

Tonight students should check all of their math sheets from this week.  They received the answers in class.  Anything they missed, they should re-do until they understand why they missed it, and how to do it correctly.

Students should also do pages 168-171 in the math coach.  It’s introductory volume stuff, and should be pretty straightforward.

 

And read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing 3-day weekend!

 

This week we will be getting into the real nitty-gritty of our My Success project.  Students have researched their career, written a resume, and had an interview.  Today they were assigned jobs and salaries!  Using these, students must now create a budget.  They will be learning about spreadsheets and using google sheets in order to come up with a monthly budget that is realistic.

They will be finding a place to live and shopping for food and the necessities this week.  More info is on the My Success page!

Students are welcome to work on this at home but they should have enough time to finish most of it in class.

 

Our homework tonight reflects our devotion to review – For the remainder of the quarter our homework will focus on basic understandings that students NEED to have before they leave 5th grade.

 

In math, students should pick ONE of the following to finish tonight.  They should focus on what they need the most work on.

adding_mixed_numbers

subtracting_mixed_numbers

multiplying_mixed_numbers

fractions_divide

 

In Language Arts students should read this selection and answer the questions with reasoning.  This is also a good quick review of atmosphere.

atmosphere5th

 

Next, on a separate piece of paper, they should do the following with the above selection:

1.  Summarize it
2. define the genre of the selection
3. pick one paragraph, and identify the type of text structure used in it.  Is it sequential?  problem solution?  cause effect?

 

 

Not too much tonight I don’t believe.  Remember to read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Interview day!!

This morning was so much fun! (Unfortunately we didn’t take a picture when everyone was dressed up – my bad)

Many students came to their interviews prepared, and dressed to impress.  Some students went to Mr. Zoller, others went to Mrs. Lecorchick, still others went to Mrs. Frazier, Mrs. Woodlief, and many teachers around the school.   The response from the teachers was overwhelmingly positive.  They enjoyed taking with the students and said the students did admirably.   I hope this was an exciting and worthwhile experience for everyone.

 

This took up much of our morning, but we still had some time for quick language arts rotations.  Tonight students should finish two stations from this week.  If they spent their center time wisely, these should be close to done already:

Inferences3

Genre4

 

In math we are really working a ton with bar models.  We did quite a few exercises together as a class, in groups, and then individually.  Tonight students have some problems that they should work out using bar models.

BarModels1

 

If they are confused they should look back at their math journals, where we did a lot of problems together as examples:

BarModelExamples

 

 

Tomorrow is quiz day, so make sure you look back at your notes concerning genre, bar modeling, operations with fractions, and forces!

 

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

What a great day!  We got to negative 8 today thanks to the students being absolutely fantastic this morning.

 

Tomorrow is interview day!

Students have been assigned an interview time with a teacher or administrator tomorrow.  They have written this time down and are responsible for showing up on time.  They are encouraged to dress to impress, and also to prepare themselves for the interview by knowing all they can know about their chosen field, and prepping answers to these three questions that each interviewer will ask (they might ask more though):

1.  Tell me about yourself
2.  Why do you think you would be a good fit for this position?
3. Do you have any questions for me?

We talked about how good answers for these types of questions should be geared towards our career.  Don’t say you hate doing math if you want a job as an engineer.  Likewise don’t say you can’t stand dogs if you want a job as a veterinarian.  If you want a job working with computers, explain your experience with computers.  Be positive, and make sure your answers highlight your good traits!

 

In language arts we talked again about genres.  In our center work we have been making some mistakes when assigning sub-genres.  We seem to be pretty solid on fiction vs. non-fiction, but can get mixed up after that.  For instance just because a book about hurricanes is scary, doesn’t make it horror.

 

In math today we started talking about bar modeling with groups.  We found that sometimes if we are very careful and precise with our bar models, we can find the answer to somewhat challenging word problems quite easily.  For example we did this problem in class today:

BarModelProblem

 

We then talked about multi-step problems and how we would continue to use our steps (what is the question asking?  What do I know? draw a picture – solve) to help us solve them.  Tonight students need to work backwards, and take two sets of equations, and write a word problem to go with each set.  They will be writing a multi-step word problem that would be solved by these series of equations:

number 1:

10 – 1/2 =

9  1/2 –  1  3/4 =

 

number 2:

1/5 + 1/2 =

3 – 7/10 =

 

At the end of the day, we had just enough time to finish watching Room on the Broom that was a leftover from our ice cream sandwich party.  Darn power outages!

 

 

so, tl;dr

Come up with good responses for your 3 basic interview questions:

1.  Tell me about yourself
2.  Why do you think you would be a good fit for this position?
3. Do you have any questions for me?

dress to impress!

 

Come up with two multi step word problems that would be solved by these sets of equations:

number 1:

10 – 1/2 =

9  1/2 –  1  3/4 =

number 2:

1/5 + 1/2 =

3 – 7/10 =

 

and read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

A much better day!

This morning we got a good bit of language arts and math review in.  We are a mere 4 weeks from the end of the quarter and EOGs……jeez.  Can you believe it?  We will be doing a ton of review and just a few new concepts in the upcoming weeks.

 

In math we’re still talking about the operations, and how we visualize them.  When we are working with word problems we are asking ourselves these questions (and answering them on our paper!)

1.  What is the problem asking?
2. What do I know?
3. Draw a picture!
4. How do I solve given what I know?

Tonight students should come up with 4 new word problems that are solved by these equations:

1.  3 + 3/4
2. 3 – 3/4
3. 3 x 3/4
4. 3 ÷ 3/4

And they have to be about ice cream sandwiches!

Speaking of ice cream sandwiches, we also had our ice cream sandwiches today.  It was pretty delicious.

 

In Language Arts students have some centers from last week to finish.  If they spent their time at centers last week well, they should have little left to do.

Inferences5

FigLanguage

At the end of the day we lost power in the school for the better part of 2 hours.  This was a tad problematic, as we normally do everything through the Smartboard.   Somehow we managed.

 

Honestly not that much tonight.  As we get heavily into our review, that will change drastically.

 

remember to read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter