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

I hope you’ve bought your bread and milk!

Because I am realistic, students today got Monday AND Tuesday night’s homework.  I probably should have given them Wednesday night’s homework, knowing Wake County….

Due to the early release, today was basically a catch-up day.  We talked about mixed numbers, improper, and proper fractions, and how we can go from mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice-versa, and how they are ….. SURPRISE!…equivalent fractions.

Students have 4 pages of problems converting from mixed numbers to improper fractions, and also from improper fractions to mixed numbers.  This is two day’s worth of homework.  If we somehow have school tomorrow, then only the converting from mixed numbers to improper fractions sheet is due.

ConvertingToImproper

ConvertingToMixed

MixedImproperExamples

I expect each problem to have boxes filled out representing what is happening.  Many of our students could tell me “You just multiply the whole number by the denominator” but when asked “Why would you do that?” they had no idea.  That is a problem!  The point here is to understand that each whole number is split into that number of fractional parts in order to make an improper fraction.  Later we will be talking about why we would want to do this (sometimes it makes problems easier).

In Language Arts we took our STAR reading test, and for the most part our students are right on track, making a year’s worth of growth.

We took one final look at “If”, and tonight students should finally answer the questions that go along with the poem.  At this point they should have the entire poem written in their own words.

If Passage

If Questions

Next we quickly revisited our discussion of dialogue, and tonight students have a cartoon to fill in with dialogue of their choice.  They should then write the story using only text, as if their reader could not see the cartoons.  This time, the story should have dialogue AND normal text, so it shouldn’t be too difficult I don’t think.

CalvinHobbesDialogueStory

Finally in science we passed out some weather books.  Remember that students will be doing a substantial research paper on a weather topic of their choosing this quarter.  Students should have a piece of paper with some questions about their possible topic that they came up with.  Their homework is to use their book to attempt to answer one question.  They should also (hopefully in the course of trying to answer this question) come up with at least two MORE questions about their possible topic.

So, tl;dr

4 pages of converting fractions

MixedImproperExamples

ConvertingToMixed

ConvertingToImproper

If poem questions

If Questions

dialogue story

CalvinHobbesDialogueStory

Read weather book, answer question about chosen topic, come up with two more questions

Also students should be reading their North Carolina Children’s Book Award book!  I should basically be seeing reading logs filled out with these books until students have read three of them on their own.

Have a good one, and hopefully see you Wednesday!

-Mr. Potter

Just a real quick update and an answer to a request to post the video we watched today.

Today was just way too fast.  We quickly reviewed equivalent fractions then took a very short assessment.

Next we handed out our North Carolina Children’s Book Awards books.  Each student will have to read three books off of the list, and we will read two as a class.  They should use this weekend to get a good chunk of their first book read!

We had so little time I took an opportunity to show the students a classic twilight zone:

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi383559449/

We then had a really good conversation about the theme of this episode.   We also talked about how this story is similar to The Ugly Duckling, and Wonder, which many of our students are reading right now.

For the weekend students should read read read!  They should focus on their first book for the North Carolina Children’s Book Awards.

Next week is looking dicey snow and ice wise, so I assured the students that Monday I would give them the whole week’s homework in case we missed a day or two of school 🙂

Remember we DO have school Monday!

Have a good weekend,

-Mr. Potter

Another wonderful day!

We got all the way down to negative 10 today!  It was absolutely amazing.  The students met every expectation we had for the day.  I was very impressed.

In math we talked about putting together what we have done with adding and simplifying fractions.  Some students are still having trouble with these things because they have yet to master their math facts.

Multiplication tables and quick math facts are essentially a 3rd grade topic, and if students have not completely mastered them at this point, they need to be doubling their efforts outside of the classroom to get this done.  If a student can’t rattle off the answers to things like 8×9, 7×6, and 9×4 almost immediately, they will be ill prepared to deal with the majority of 5th grade topics, let alone middle school mathematics.

Tonight students have a sheet of fraction addition problems to do.  They should simplify their answers, and make sure they find the simplest form.  We did a few together as examples:

AddingSimplifyingExample

And a clean homework sheet:

AddingAndSimplifyingFeb12

In Language Arts we talked more about  ‘If’, and finished it together.  Tonight students should write the fourth stanza in their own words.  It’s a good one!

If Passage

In Science we talked briefly about weather patterns and meteorologists.  Unfortunately we ran out of time because we were talking about the North Carolina Children’s book awards.  Tonight students should read a short passage on weather patterns and answer some questions:

WeatherMaps

so, tl;dr

adding and simplifying fractions: AddingAndSimplifyingFeb12

Write the fourth stanza in your own words: If Passage

Read and answer some questions: WeatherMaps

as always, read for 35 minutes!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Also remember tomorrow is early release!!

Next week is looking really dicey….Snow and Ice Monday night 🙁

What a great day!

The students were absolutely WONDERFUL today.  Our math centers went smoothly, we had almost 100% homework turned in, and our afternoon was just as perfect.

In Math we started talking about simplifying fractions, and that we can divide by 1 without changing  the value of a fraction just like we could multiply by 1.  We can find the greatest common factor of our numerator and denominator, and then divide by a form of one with that factor as our numerator and denominator.

For example if I had something like 6/12, I could find that the greatest common factor of 6 and 12 is 6.  I can then divide 6/12 by 6/6.  6/6 is equal to 1, so I will not change the value of my original fraction.

Tonight students have a page of fractions to simplify.  It is important that they realize they are simply finding an equivalent fraction: a fraction with the same value.

Simplifying fractions Feb 11

In Language Arts we talked a good bit about theme, and how it is the author’s message.  This goes hand in hand with author’s purpose: Why did the author want to write this?  What did they want you to understand or know?  What did they want to tell you?

We talked about many Aesop’s fables, and identified the theme in a few of the more common ones like the Tortoise and the Hare and the Boy who cried wolf.

Next we looked back at our ‘If Passage‘, and together we wrote the second verse in our own words:

If you can dream, but don’t let your dreams control you
If you can think, but not just stop at thinking
if you can experience success and failure
and not treat them differently
If you can stand to hear people lie about what you’ve said
If you see something you devoted yourself to destroyed
And you bend down and start over

Tonight students should attempt their own version of the 3rd stanza just like yesterday with the first.

We also had Mrs. Carter come into our classroom and give us a great talk about bullying.  This is especially relevant as the children mentally prepare to move on to middle school.  We touched on cyber bullying, and how what you write online can get you in a good deal of trouble.  North Carolina has quite the no-nonsense cyber bullying law, and in fact YESTERDAY a 16 year old in Raleigh was arrested for cyber bullying.

So tl;dr

simplifying fractions: Simplifying fractions Feb 11

Write the third stanza of ‘if’ in your own words: If Passage

as always, read for 35 minutes!

have a good one!

-Mr. Potter

Today we finally got back into our center routine!!

annnnnd it was a disaster!!  We seem to have forgotten how to do work on our own! OH NO!  We had to model and discuss how independent and group work should look, and we will give it another go tomorrow.

We talked briefly about simplifying fractions, and how we can divide by a form of one just like we multiply by a form of one.  A simplified fraction is just an equivalent fraction that has been reduced to the least number of fractional parts.

Tonight students have another sheet of adding fractions and finding equivalent fractions.  They should draw a fractional representation of each number, and then find equivalent fractions where the denominators are equal before they add.

In case they need examples, here are those from yesterday: AddingFractionsExample

And today’s homework: EquivFractionAddingHomeworkFeb10

In Language Arts we talked about the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling.  This is one of my favorite poems, and probably his most famous.  (In case you’re thinking the name seems familiar, he’s the one who wrote The Jungle Book).  Tonight students should re-write the first stanza line-by-line in their own words.  Here is the poem:

If Passage

In Science we talked quite a bit more about weather and clouds, and took some notes.  We also went outside and looked at the great nimbostratus clouds outside.  The kids complained about being cold the WHOLE TIME and we had to go inside quickly 😛

Tonight students have that weather passage I was talking about o read through again, and answer some questions.  As always, the answers should be accompanied by reasoning!

Weather_Intro

so, tl;dr

adding fraction worksheet: EquivFractionAddingHomeworkFeb10

Write the first stanza of ‘If’ in your own words: If Passage

Answer Weather Questions with reasoning:  Weather_Intro

And read for 35 minutes

Students also got their class picture forms today.  Class picture day is February 26th.

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter

Today was a very good Monday.

We got a ton of stuff done.  This morning we did a lot of work with adding fractions and finding equivalent fractions.  We discussed that in order to find equivalent fractions, we can multiply any fraction by a form of one.  Multiplying by one will not change the value of our fraction, but it will change what our fraction looks like.  For instance if we multiply a fraction like 1/2 by 2/2 (which is equal to 1), we end up with 2/4.  This may look different because we have cut our fraction into 4 pieces, but it is still equivalent to 1/2.  This make sense, as multiplying anything by one will not change its value (multiplicative identity property).

Tonight students have some fraction addition problems to solve.  Each fraction comes with a square that they should use to draw the fraction.  They should also show me what form of one they use to multiply their fractions by in order to find common denominators.

Here are some examples:

AddingFractionsExample

And the homework:

EquivFractionAddingHomeworkFeb9

In Language Arts we had quite a few new books added to our classroom library.  We put these away and everyone got a chance to pick out one or two they would like to read.  We also took a look at what books everyone is interested in reading for the North Carolina Children’s Book awards.  Each student will be tasked with reading 3 of the books on the list on their own, and we will read two books together in class.  This means they will have read the requisite 5 books so that they can vote in March.  The book list and more information can be found here.

Tonight students have a ‘maze’ passage. (this is sometimes called a ‘daze’ passage).  Essentially it is a passage where specific words in the passage are removed, and replaced with three possible choices.  The students circle the words that make sense in the passage.  We will be having one of these each week to preview our science reading for the following day.

IntroToWeatherMaze

In Science we made our own little clouds inside a jar.  We filled the jar with warm water, and talked about how just water vapor does not a cloud make.  The water vapor would need to come together and condense, so we added ice to the top of the jar to cool the water vapor.  Still no clouds.

This is when we found out that clouds are formed when water vapor condenses, but it has to condense onto SOMETHING, which in the atmosphere are called cloud condensation nuclei.  These are tiny little particles in the atmosphere upon which water condenses, coming together to form clouds.

We added some cloud condensation nuclei to our jars in the form of some burnt matches.  This put small smoke particles in our jars upon which our water could condense, and form tiny clouds.

Tonight students have a simple sheet asking about the experiment we performed:

Making our own Clouds

Tomorrow we’ll make some different clouds!

so, tl;dr

One set of adding fractions problems:

EquivFractionAddingHomeworkFeb9

examples if you need them: AddingFractionsExample

Maze passage previewing tomorrow’s science passage:

IntroToWeatherMaze

One sheet reviewing our cloud experiement:

Making our own Clouds

As always, read for 35 minutes!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Fractions and Notes and Fractions and Notes and Fractions and Notes

That was essentially our day.  We took a ridiculous amount of notes dealing with fractions, and talked a good deal about adding fractions and finding equivalent fractions.  In case they need them, most of the notes are here:

FractionNotes

Tonight students have a sheet of simple fraction addition, with like denominators.  They then have 6 problems where they are asked to find equivalent fractions.  I expect them to show me what form of one they multiplied by in order to find the equivalent fraction.

SimpleAddingFeb5

EquivalentFractionsFeb5

In Language Arts we caught up some on The Mysterious Benedict Society, and did some rotations on Lexia, worked on word work, and worked on a short reading selection on weather.  Tonight students have a word ladder and weather reading to finish.

Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced my digital copies of these items.  When I find them, I’ll put them here!

In Science we talked about the different types of clouds:

cumulus are fluffy and puffy, and usually are found below 6000 ft.

stratus are layered clouds and are also normally found below 6000 ft.

cirrus clouds are the thin and wispy clouds found very high up, oftentimes above 20,000 ft.

We then took out some cotton balls and made our own clouds, and put them on a chart.  If you see some clouds outside today, ask your student what type they are!

so, tl;dr

one simple fraction addition sheet, plus 6 equivalent fraction problems

SimpleAddingFeb5

EquivalentFractionsFeb5

One reading selection on weather

One word ladder

As always, read for 35 minutes!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

What a beautiful day for fine dining!

Our kids have done so well in the cafeteria that today they won a ‘fine dining’ experience with our principal, Mr. Zoller.  He was very impressed with how well behaved they were.

In math we started talking a good deal about equivalent fractions.  The students created their own set of fraction bars, and then we did a few exercises in finding equivalent fractions by lining our fraction bars up.

Fraction bars:

fractionBars

Tonight students should use these to find a few equivalent fractions.  They should also write down their definition of equivalent. (hint: it’s not ‘the same’).

SimpleEquivalentFractions

In Language Arts we continued our discussions of dialogue and conversations in text, and read a silly story that consisted strictly of dialogue.

DialogueOnlyStory

Tonight students should write their own dialogue only story, remembering the conventions for indention (for each new paragraph), new paragraphs (for each new speaker), and quotation marks (around the dialogue!)  we have established.  The story should be a minimum of eight lines.  If they want to add in their own little silliness or ‘twist’, they are welcome to do so.

In Science we took some notes on weather, and talked about the rotation of the Earth, and how the heating and cooling at the equator and poles create the wind.

We didn’t have time to get into our discussion of clouds (there’s NEVER enough time for anything really), so they don’t have any science homework tonight.

so, tl;dr

simple equivalent fractions worksheet.  Make sure you use your fraction bars to check!

SimpleEquivalentFractions

fractionBars

Write a dialogue only story of minimum eight lines

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

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Zebulon Middle School came and talked to our students today.  It was a bit late, but they gave them some information about Zebulon Magnet as an option.  I talked about Magnet schools a good bit before track out, but if you needed that information again, it is here:

Magnet application information

Today we had to revisit some of our expectations for dealing with our fellow classmates.  I expect children to treat each other with respect and kindness at all times, and I take deviations from this very seriously.  We had some unfortunate incidents with students saying unkind things to each other, and we can not have students thinking that this is acceptable in any way.

In math we built ourselves fraction bars, and a fraction bar game.  We had a lot of fun with this, and tonight the students’ homework is to PLAY THIS GAME WITH THEIR PARENTS (or at least a sibling or friend).  It is their responsibility to explain the game and to do at minimum two rounds.  It’s actually good fun, so I hope you get a chance to share it with your child.

In Language Arts we continued our discussion on dialogue, and we experimented with some comics.  Students took a Calvin and Hobbes strip, and filled it with their own dialogue.  Tonight students should take this short strip, and write it as text only.  This means they need to add explanations of the action, and other details such as the characters’ expressions and tone.

CHComicToText

Finally we talked a bit about tornadoes in Science.  Students read a short selection on tornado alley, and tonight they should answer some comprehension questions on the passage.

Tornados

so, tl;dr

play the fraction bar game at least two times!

Write out a comic strip as text only

CHComicToText

Tornado alley!

Tornados

(as always, each question should have reasoning of some kind!)

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter