Fingers crossed that we get a full week of school!

 

So this morning we got quite a bit of work done in math.  We talked a lot about breaking wholes down into fractional parts, and how that can be very helpful when subtracting.  We talked about how it is very much like ungrouping numbers when subtracting whole numbers.

Tonight students have 5 simple word problems dealing with fractions. It should be fairly straight forward, and review.

WordProblemsMar4

 

In Language Arts we introduced and talked about a list of vocabulary words.  We are going to be doing a list of words from latin and greek roots from this week forward.  We discussed how a knowledge of latin and greek prefixes, suffixes, and roots can help us decode unfamiliar words.  If we know that ped means foot, and centi means 100, the word centipede becomes much more understandable.

 

Tonight students should take each word and write a sentence using the word.  There are ten total words, so I expect ten total sentences.

We then did some rotations, with some people getting on the computers to do research, some working in small groups, and some working on a short science selection dealing with rain.  I also pulled quite a few students to do M-Class assessments.  In Science tonight students should finish their reading and questions having to do with rain.

RainMar4

 

Also, we are GOING TO THE BOOK FAIR TOMORROW AFTERNOON!  If you would like to give your child some money to purchase some books, we will be making a final trip there as a class tomorrow.

 

I will not be here tomorrow.  I will be attending NCTIES, a conference on technology in education. (Why they would do this during the middle of the week I have no idea)

This means next update will likely come Friday.

 

P.S.  some students and parents have asked me about class pictures.  As of yet they have not announced the new dates.  As soon as I know them, you will know them!

 

so, tl;dr

fraction word problems: WordProblemsMar4

10 sentences (one per word) from our vocab list: PedList

One science reading passage and questions: RainMar4

as always, read read read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

School on a Tuesday?!  NO WAY

 

So we are having some trouble with simple mistakes.  We know exactly what to do, we are more than capable of doing it, but when it comes time to do many of our math problems, we are making silly mistakes because we want to take short cuts or just get ‘done’.  To combat this, tonight students have a STRICTLY regimented math assignment.

Students were given a list of questions/steps to walk through with each problem.  We did two examples as well:

SubtractionExampleMar3

For the following six problems, they should use one side of a piece of paper, divided into sixths, and done exactly as the examples.  They don’t need to write each sentence, but they should be thinking them as they do each step.

SubtractStepByStepMar3

 

In Language Arts we talked some more about similes and metaphors, and I let the students ‘grade’ each others similes and metaphors.  Wow do we have some tough cookies in here.  It was a very interesting experiment, and some students realized how difficult it can be to grade something without a rubric or clear cut guidelines.  We also came to the agreement that some similes and metaphors are better than others.

 

Tonight students have another set of simile and metaphor practice to do:

SimileMetaphorPractice

 

In Science we had some more time in the computer lab researching our chosen weather phenomenon.  We talked a good deal about google, what a search engine is, and what constitutes a good search.  We figured out that typing in a huge long question is unlikely to give us a good answer, and that with research we have to actually find information on our topic, read it, and synthesize it ourselves.  Google is not the all-knowing source of knowledge, it just shows us webpages that have to do with what we searched for.

 

so, tl;dr

fraction subtraction problems: SubtractStepByStepMar3

done like this: SubtractionExampleMar3

metaphors and similes: SimileMetaphorPractice

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

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Well three posts in a row that are Mondays……

 

Let’s hope I get to post again on a Tuesday!

 

We are just ridiculously behind at this point.  We are three weeks from Case 21….which means we have lost around 20% of our instructional time this quarter.  Not sure what we’re going to do, but it’s going to be a busy three weeks!

Today we talked much more about fractions, subtraction with fractions, and equivalent fractions.  We also talked about the link between division and fractions.  If we had something like 2 cakes to split among 4 people, each person gets 2/4 of a cake.  We can visualize this by thinking we would cut the first cake into 4 pieces, and give each person a piece, and then do the same for the second cake.  So in total, they would get 2/4 of a cake.  We then talked about what if there were 3 cakes?  4 cakes?  5 cakes?  We noticed this pattern:

2 ÷ 4 = 2/4

3 ÷ 4 = 3/4

4 ÷ 4 = 4/4

5 ÷ 5 = 5/4

Neat, right?

 

Tonight students have some more subtraction problems to work on:

FractionSubtractionMar3

 

In Language Arts we began our discussion of figurative language.  We came up with this awesome definition together:

 

Figurative language is literally language that you don’t take literally.

 

I love it.

Tonight students have two sheets dealing with similes and metaphors to work on.  As we deal more and more with figurative language, we will work on incorporating more of it into our writing.

SimilesMetaphorsMar3

 

Next we went and previewed the book fair!  If you didn’t know (and how would you seeing how I would have announced it last week!), we are having a scholastic book fair at Lockhart this week.  Students wrote down a list of books they would like.  We will be going in to purchase as a class on Wednesday but if students bring in money on another day, that would be fine.

 

We spent some time today talking about references and bibliographies for our weather research paper.  Students also got a hand-out for them to keep track of the books/websites/articles they use when answering their questions:

Research List

 

Students also have another DAZE passage dealing with rain.  They should read through the passage, and circle the word that works in each sentence.

RainDazeMar3

 

We also finally got around to getting a new Children’s book awards book!  It’s what they should be reading tonight!

 

so, tl;dr

one page of subtraction problems: FractionSubtractionMar3

similes and metaphors: SimilesMetaphorsMar3

DAZE passage dealing with rain: RainDazeMar3

as always, read for 35 minutes!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter