Today was a GREAT day.

The students did a wonderful job meeting expectations today.  Our lines were great, we had just one calling out problem the entire day, and in general everyone was hard at work when they were supposed to be hard at work.  It really was fantastic.

We are doing a lot with area lately, and are starting to move away from simple rectangles.  This ends up often-times turning into a sort of puzzle as we think about how to calculate area and find different sides of objects.  Tonight students have a short worksheet dealing with these types of problems.

Missing_Sides_Area_Oct30

In Language Arts we read some Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.  We reached an interesting part where Reynie and Mr. B have a conversation about the nature of people, and whether people are inherently wicked.  It sparked some thinking, and tonight students have a response to complete in their writing journals.  They should tell me whether they agree with Reynie:

Reynie:  Most people are wicked

Or with Mr. B:

Mr. B: Wickedness stands out more than goodness.  Therefore most people are good, but you don’t notice it.

 

They should tell me which viewpoint they agree with and why.  It seemed that most students realized this was a thinking question, and that their reasoning should reflect some thought.  It goes without saying then, that I expect this to be more than two sentences.

 

In our reading groups, we read an interesting non-fiction piece about the health effects of laughter, and how it can affect the cardiovascular system.  It really surprised many of our students.

 

Finally we watched some quick interactive videos on the cardiovascular system, and got to see a real-live heart beating.  I might have timed this poorly as many students may have been finishing up their snacks as I switched over to this video.  Oh well!

 

so, tl;dr

math worksheet on area/perimeter

Missing_Sides_Area_Oct30

one writing journal response: do you agree with Reynie or Mr. B on the wickedness of people?

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

Today was a bit of a roller coaster

We had an absolutely amazing morning, where we got 6 paws in the hallway just on our way to Science.  Then on the way back, however, we had to practice walking in straight, quiet lines.

 

We did very well during math centers, and we got to talk quite a bit about area, and how we can find missing sides of a rectangle given area or perimeter, and one side.

For homework tonight, students have but a single problem.  I expect it to be done perfectly:

Please draw a rectangle with the following properties:

One side equal to 5cm, and a total perimeter of 60 cm

 

In Language Arts we read a short text about hiccups, where we talked about genre, and point of view.  We had a very lively discussion about whether the text was written in first, second, or third person point of view.  We didn’t even come to a consensus by the end of the discussion.  Many students had very valid points for their belief that the text was written in first or second person.  How about you?  What do you think?

Hiccups_Oct29

For homework tonight, students should finish this short packet, answering the questions with reasoning.  They should also finish questions 9-14 on pages 124 and 125 in their Motivation Reading books.

 

In Science, we finally finished discussing the cardiovascular system in small groups.  Many students had really good questions about how blood, arteries, veins, and your heart work together, and why they are moving about in the first place.

 

I had promised the students some quiet reading time, so after that we quickly measured our plants, and then took a vote on what we will do for our celebration of earning our Gold medal (We earned our first jewel today by the way!).  We are a tad behind with celebrations, so we’ll try to get a few done in the next few weeks!

The students ultimately decided upon extra recess, so we’ll have a super-long recess period on Friday!

 

so, tl;dr

One math problem:

Please draw a rectangle with the following properties:

One side equal to 5cm, and a total perimeter of 60 cm

 

finish Hiccup packet

Hiccups_Oct29

Questions 8-14 on pages 123/124 of their motivation math books

 

and as always, read for 35 minutes!

 

Also a quick reminder about parent teacher conferences.  Many people have already signed up, and I look forward to talking with you in the upcoming days!  If the spots fill up completely I will add more, and please remember that if none of those times work for you, I am here most days at 6:30 and stay until around 5pm, so if there is a time that works for you, simply let me know and I’ll figure something out.

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

I was told this morning by a student that I “stink at handing things out”.  They are completely correct, and I apologize!  The end of the day is usually so hectic with trying to get everything done, that handing stuff out becomes a last minute event.  I’ll try to get better at this!

 

We started off our day going over the handout from yesterday, in fact.  Many students need a review of area and perimeter, which was evidenced from yesterday’s homework.  We spent a good bit of time going over it, and talking about the relationship between area, perimeter, and multiplication.  Tonight they should FIX their homework from last night, as they will be turning it in for a grade tomorrow.  They also have a new very short and quick sheet dealing with factoring and area.

Area_FactoringOct28

 

In Language Arts we talked more about making good annotations in texts which we read.  Many students are able to explain that the purpose of this is to slow down our reading and improve our reading comprehension.  However, not all are truly stopping and thinking, and instead are simply putting down something to get ‘done’.  I had many students re-do this assignment from yesterday.

Tonight they are going to re-read a selection they have already read (p 119-122 in motivation reading) and annotate as they read.  They should then answer some questions about the passage they read on page 123 and 124, numbers 1-8.

In science we began talking about the cardiovascular system in small groups.  We only got to half of the students today, and I’m hoping we can finish up the second half tomorrow.  As such, we won’t have any homework in science today.

Our plants are really coming along.  It blows my mind every day that they are still going strong.  We have a TON of cucumbers, a good amount of tomatoes, a few carrots, and two of our corn stalks are beginning to husk.  Can you believe it?  Next we have to do some research to find out when it’s alright for us to start picking things.

 

 

so, tl;dr

One new set of problems on area/factoring

Area_FactoringOct28

fix worksheet from yesterday, have it ready to turn in for a grade

Read pages 119-122 in motivation reading, annotating as you go.

Answer questions 1-8 on page 123 and 124, WITH REASONING

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

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

 

busy busy busy!

We had a very long morning due to the PLT schedule.  We started off with a short review of perimeter and area, and students took some quick notes:

PerimArea

We then spent some time talking about how to determine perimeter, area, and the length of sides given certain attributes of a rectangle.

We did this using little square unit tiles, and the students took those home tonight to help them with their homework.  Their homework tonight is fairly straightforward.  They are to find all of the possible rectangles they can make with the given attributes, and then answer some questions about them.  It is very important that they double check their work using the tiles, and that they read the worksheet very carefully to ensure they are answering all of the questions asked.

AreaPerimeter

In Science we talked a little bit about muscles and bones, and the musculoskeletal system.  We made some movements and felt our muscles in an attempt to discern how they were really working.  Finally we watched some videos to confirm what we had thought was going on.  We determined that muscles only pull, not push, and that what we thought was a push was really just the muscles relaxing.  So for our body parts to move in a direction, they must be pulled by skeletal muscles in that direction.

 

We then took a look at our Goldilocks stories, and did some typing in the computer lab.  Students are now free to begin brainstorming how they will end their story.  What happens after they go to sleep in the bed is completely up to them.

 

To end the day, we talked about using annotations to help us understand a passage.  We discussed how our goal when reading is to best comprehend what we read, and the best way to do that is to actively think about what we are reading.  We then came up with four different annotations we can make to ensure active reading:

We can underline or circle words we don’t know, and make inferences as to their meaning

We can write short summaries of what we have read in a section or paragraph

We can make personal or academic connections to what we read

We can ask questions about what we read

Tonight, students have an article to read about the original 13 colonies, and annotate as they read.  They have been told they should have at least one annotation per section, chosen from the above four.  They should be doing their best to think about what they read, and not just plow along until they hit the last period on the page.

13_colonies

 

so, tl;dr

one math worksheet dealing with area, perimeter, and side measurements of rectangles

AreaPerimeter

read and annotate the following article

13_colonies

Students also received a good amount of correspondence in their Monday folders.  Please take a look.  Also included is a Conference Letter.  I have a sign-up page set up here.  If those times don’t work or you have other concerns please send me a note, an e-mail, or a call.

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

It’s Thursday already.  Jeeeeeez

This morning we finished up some notes on multiplication and division.  We talked at length about how they are the inverse of each other, and the vocabulary used with both.

Then we started talking about how to find the factors of a number.  We know that a factor times a factor gives us a product.  So a factor is one of two numbers that when multiplied, will give us our original number.

a (factor)  x   b (factor)   =    c (product)

 

So for instance, the factors of 12 are…..

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12

because….

1 x 12 = 12

2 x 6 = 12

3 x 4 = 12

 

We then went on to talk about common factors.  In this case we are given two numbers, and we are trying to find all of the factors that the two numbers have in COMMON.

So if we were given the numbers 4 and 10, the common factors would be 1 and 2 only.  This is because these are the only two factors that 4 and 10 have in common.  We can see this by making a list of each number’s factors.

Factors of 4: 1, 2, 4

Factors of 10: 1, 2, 5, 10

Tonight for homework, students have a list of 10 pairs of numbers.  They should find the common factors for each pair.  They are:

1. 7 and 24
2. 16 and 48
3. 32 and 64
4. 11 and 95
5. 27 and 35
6. 58 and 20
7. 100 and 10
8. 36 and 48
9. 2 and 3568
10. 12 and 1,456,374

Number 9 and 10 are thinking problems!  Don’t kill yourself making it more difficult than it is.  For example in number 9, the only two factors of 2 are 1 and 2, so the only POSSIBLE common factors for 2 and 3568 are 1 and 2.  So you just have to check them with 3568……

 

In Language Arts we talked more about our Goldilocks stories.  The students did a MUCH better job coming up with “why I did it”s last night, and we started re-writing our stories using these ideas.

Tonight students should finish their re-write up until the point where they fall asleep.  They are WELCOME to make changes to the story to fit with their new ideas, and I look forward to reading these this weekend!

 

Finally, we went outside and we have TONS of new growth.  It is fantastic.  I asked students to “pick one of your vegetables to start measuring its growth!”, and one student only heard the “pick one of your vegetables”, so we had a bit of a pre-mature picking of a cucumber.  That was fine though, because we chopped that little thing into 24 little pieces, and we all got our first little taste of our garden.  It was great!

 

 

so, tl;dr

10 common factor problems

1. 7 and 24
2. 16 and 48
3. 32 and 64
4. 11 and 95
5. 27 and 35
6. 58 and 20
7. 100 and 10
8. 36 and 48
9. 2 and 3568
10. 12 and 1,456,374

 

re-write goldilocks story using new ideas and motive for breaking and entering!

cucumbers are delicious!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

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