Thursday, but really a Wednesday.

 

Please remember that we have Saturday school this week.  This is an entire day of school, normal schedule. Breakfast and lunch will be served.  The only difference is that there is no before or after care.

We started our day with more mini-assessments in math.  Students have been rating themselves on their own knowledge of certain mathematical concepts, taking mini-assessments, and then re-rating their understanding.  Next week we will focus individually on those concepts that are still giving us trouble.

Word problems continue to be at the top of that list for many of us.  As a strategy, I am asking students to come up with a SENTENCE that will explain what they would have to do to solve a problem.  Essentially, state the equation in sentence form.  We did this with last night’s homework, and tonight students should do the same thing with a new list of problems.  They should state the operation they should be performing to solve the word problem, and then write out what they would do as a sentence.

Here is yesterday’s homework which we did as an example:

WPSentencesExample

 

And tonight’s homework which they should do the same way:

OperationIdentification2

 

We then had some really neat discussion about the field trip and whether next year’s students should go.  Last night students came up with arguments to refute their classmate’s arguments.  Many students obviously put some real thought into this, and I was impressed with their ideas.  We talked about logical fallacies, and flaws in thinking, and tried to point out any in the arguments we had so far.  We then whittled down what each side had said into 3-4 main points.  Tonight students should look at these main points, and write a simple counter-point to each, for both sides of the argument.

Point&Counterpoint

 

Next we talked about the difference between main idea and theme.  When going over the things we should know before we leave 5th grade, this was one that many were not quite sure of.

The main idea of a text is essentially what the selection is about.  What is going on in the story/article/whatever

The theme of a text is the author’s message.  It is what the reader should take away from the text.

 

For example, the Tortoise and the Hare:

The main idea is a Tortoise and  a Hare have a race and the Tortoise wins by plodding along while the hare takes it easy

The theme is ‘slow and steady wins the race’

Tonight students have a short selection to read.  They should write the main idea and the theme of the selection, and then answer a few questions about it.

Twins’ Luck Passage

Twins’ Luck Questions

 

Finally, we had just enough time to look at our review packet for science.  Students should answer the next ten questions in their ecosystems review packet tonight.

 

so, tl;dr

identify what operation should be performed to solve each of these word problems.  Write what you would do AS A SENTENCE

example: WPSentencesExample

hwk: OperationIdentification2

 

Fill in this chart with counterpoints to your classmates’ arguments for or against the field trip happening again next year:

Point&Counterpoint

Read this: Twins’ Luck Passage and identify the main idea and theme

Then answer these questions: Twins’ Luck Questions

Answer the next ten questions in your ecosystems review packet

 

And read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Today is going to be a bit brisk, as I have an appointment I need to run and make.  Sorry!

 

In math, students should fix any mistakes they made on last night’s homework.  This should be done on a SEPARATE piece of paper, with all work shown.

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

They also have a sheet of word problems.  They should NOT solve these problems.  Above the problem, on each line, they should indicate what operation can be performed to solve the word problem.  Please write out addition, subtraction, division, or multiplication.  Below, under each problem, they should write the equation they would use to solve it.  They should NOT actually solve them.

OperationIdentification

 

In Language Arts, students should write a rebuttal to their classmates’ argument.  They should pick one of the following points their classmates made today, and refute it in a paragraph.  Focus on being logical, and avoid ‘nuh-uh!’ type arguments please!

FieldTripPoints

 

They should also write a story using all ten of their new vocab words.

 

As always, read!

 

Have a good one! (sorry for the shortness today!)

 

-Mr. Potter

That field trip was AWESOME!

I hope that you all had a fantastic 3-day weekend, and got a chance to relax.  I hate to be a party pooper, but please remember that this week is still a five day week: we have Saturday school for a full day.  Buses will run as a normal day.  There will be breakfast and lunch at school, but there will be no before or after-care.

 

So today we talked about all of the math things that we should have learned before we leave 5th grade.  We rated these things ourselves on a scale of 1-10.

1: I don’t know how to do this

5: I kinda know how to do this

10: I do this correctly every time

 

We are taking a bunch of mini-assessments this week to see if our ideas about our own abilities match up to what we are actually doing.  If you are curious the math sheet looks like this:

Math

Tonight students should do the last two pages in their math review packet:

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

 

Tomorrow we’ll be talking about Language Arts just like this, and doing similar mini-assessments throughout the week.

 

In Language Arts we talked about the history of immigration in the United States, because tonight we have a short reading selection about Ellis Island.  Students should read pages 81-82 in their Motivation Reading books, and answer the questions on pages 83-86.

 

We also began work on an opinion piece.  Students should write about whether they believe next year’s 5th graders should go on the same trip they went on last Friday.  If they did not go on the trip, they should use what they know about the trip to form an opinion.

The assignment as given to them:

Write an opinion piece about whether next year’s 5th graders should go on the field trip.  Should they go? Should they do something else?  Why or why not?  Support your opinion with facts from the field trip.

Minimum 4 paragraphs: opening paragraph states your opinion and why.  Two supporting paragraphs explain your reasons.  Final paragraph draws your conclusion.

I don’t expect this to be perfect, but I would like to see some solid reasoning and thought put into this.

 

Finally, we looked over our ecosystems review packet, and checked the first half of the answers.

 

so, tl;dr

Final two pages of Math review packet:

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

Opinion piece on the field trip

pages 83-86 in motivation reading

As always, read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Tomorrow is an EARLY and LONG day!  Make sure you get a very good night’s rest please.

 

Here is tomorrow’s itinerary:

4:45/4:50 AM report to Lockhart.  Please come to the parking lot near the Gym.  You may park there and see your child off.

5:00 depart Lockhart.  Buses must leave at 5am.  We will be unable to wait, so please arrive early.

9:00  Arrive at Carolina Ocean Studies (after a bathroom stop) and board the boat to the island

9:00 – 11:00ish activities on Masonboro Island

12:00 Lunch: subway sandwich, chips, a cookie and bottled water

1:00 NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher

3:00 board buses and head back home

6:00 arrive at Lockhart

 

Students took home a colorful bag and sunglasses today.  They may put the items they wish to bring with them in the bag.  They also brought two gallon sized storage bags.  They need these tomorrow to keep wet items/shells they collect in.  Please don’t forget them.

Suggested items to bring:

SUNSCREEN

A rain jacket if the weather looks dicey

comfortable t-shirt/shorts

A change of clothes/shoes

Some kind of shoes that are ok to get wet.  We will be running through the surf onto the island, and again when we board the boat to leave the island.  After the boat trip we will have an opportunity to change, so students may change out of wet shoes/clothes and into normal shoes at that time.  I highly suggest some sort of aquatic shoes or crocs, but no open toed sandals please.

Perhaps a beach towel to use as a blanket on the bus.

 

We will have some snacks on the bus ride there and back, but PLEASE make sure you eat a good breakfast tomorrow.

 

Get a good night’s sleep.  Tomorrow is going to be fun!

 

-Mr. Potter

This morning we had a…..problem.

 

Too many students are coming in with homework that is just obviously thrown together at the last minute, with no effort put forth whatsoever.  This is unacceptable.  Homework is for practice, and should allow a student to figure out what they need to work on.  If a student does not understand something, they should refer to notes/parents/the website and do their best to figure it out.  Saying “I didn’t get it” and handing in something that shows no effort at all does not send a good message.

As such, tonight students need to fix their math homework from last night.  I expect them to come in with the problems done absolutely perfectly.  If they do not understand a problem, I expect to see a real struggle on a page to understand it, with them working it multiple ways.

So, tonight they should fix this (not everyone needs to do this obviously, and they know who they are):

WordProblemsWithUnknowns

They should also finish the first six pages of the math review packet:

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

 

In Language Arts we talked about the Harlem Renaissance, and the effects it had on the poets and artists of the day.  We had read some Langston Hughes poems before, but today read some poems from other artists of this time period.  We talked about how sometimes knowing the historical and topical context in which a poem or literary work was written can help us to understand the author’s true message.

We read some about the

Harlem Renaissance

And watched a neat little video about it too.

Tonight students have another poem to analyze that came from this era.  They should use their knowledge of what was going on when this author wrote the poem to infer the author’s true message.  Is he really just talking about a sunrise, or is it something more?  Is the entire poem a metaphor for something?  If so, what?  I expect at least a half-page answer to number 6!

TheDawnsAwake

Students should also add on to their story from yesterday, using the next 5 vocabulary words.  This were pretty well done yesterday, and I hope tomorrow’s are just as good.

In science, we got a review packet and looked at the LONG list of vocabulary associated with our ecosystems unit (from first quarter).  Students should have a manila folder that they are keeping all of these review sheets in.   They should be slowly reviewing and studying these as we close the gap to EOGs.

Tonight students should answer the first 10 questions from this packet, and give me reasoning, or at the very least, the page they got their answer from.  Unfortunately I do not have this packet in digital form.  I’ll see if I can get a hold of it and upload it here sometime this week.

 

So, tl;dr

fix yesterday’s algebra problems

WordProblemsWithUnknowns

Finish through page 6 in the review packet:

CC-5th-grade-word-problems

Analyze this poem, answer questions, paying particular attention to number 6:

TheDawnsAwake

Add to your story from yesterday, and expand it to include our next 5 vocabulary words

Do the first 10 questions in the ecosystems review packet

 

And read!

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

 

Also a reminder that the field trip is this Friday!  Please make sure you arrive around 4:40AM (yes, AM).  The buses are leaving promptly at 5AM.  We should be back around 6PM.

I am a liar.  We have no homework!

We had a TON of quizzes this afternoon, and overall, we did not do well on them.  This meant we went over them as a class and did a lot of review.  As such, we didn’t get to the things that would have produced homework for us.  Don’t worry, it will go home Monday!

 

Please remember that we have school tomorrow.  It is a half day, buses run as normal in the mornings, but there is no breakfast.

 

Our field trip is next Friday!  I will be sending home another reminder with the schedule and such on Monday.

 

Read over the weekend!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Tonight is a fairly easy night.  This is because there *will* be homework tomorrow night.  It will be due Saturday (or the next time I see the students!)

We started today with a bit of algebra, and how we would go about creating an equation with unknown values.  See if you can come up with the equations and answers that we did:

Unknowns

We had a really great round of centers today.  The work I am seeing coming out of these has been steadily increasing in quality.  I feel we will be finishing up with fractions and doing a review of the year’s material soon.  After that we’ll be focusing on more advanced topics like the above problem.

Tonight students have *no* math homework.  We took a pop quiz today that was basically just like the homework this week, where students work backwards from an answer and make an equation and a word problem, so I feel like they have been worked enough for the day.

 

In Language Arts we looked at a poem about trust, and identified the figurative language in it.  We talked about how we can use figurative language in our own poetry, and what that might look like.  We came up with a number of figurative statements about wolves:

“mouth full of daggers” “silent, stalking murderer”, “Rare as unicorns”

And we also talked about extended metaphors, and how we can incorporate those into our writing as well.

Tonight students need to write their own poem, using figurative language.  I would like to see an example each of simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole in their poem.  It should be of a decent length, on a topic of their choosing.  They will be turning this in tomorrow for a writing grade, so I expect them to put some thought into it.

Students should also finish their last two ‘graph’ sentences.

In Science we talked more about forces, and Newton’s second law.   This is the famous F=Ma law.   The basic point is that as force increases, so does acceleration.  If mass increases and force stays the same, acceleration decreases.

We saw this with our little lego car and guy.  We sent him down a ramp (constant force of gravity) and he went about half-way across the table (where he was stopped due to friction).   We added mass to his car (a bunch of pop cubes) and then thought about whether he should go farther if we sent him down the ramp this time.  Well, according to Newton’s second law if mass increases, then acceleration decreases when force stays the same.  As predicted, the more mass we added, the shorter distance our lego car would travel across the table.  It seemed we are finally all starting to ‘get’ this.

 

so, tl;dr

not much today!

Write a poem using 4 types of figurative language on a topic of your choice.  Minimum half a page, this will be turned in for a grade.

Finish your last two ‘graph’ vocab word sentences.

READ!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

Again: School on Saturday.  Half day.  Buses run in the morning as normal.

It’s Wednesday, but really it’s only Tuesday.

 

That’s  a reminder that we have school on Saturday!  Buses will run as normal during the morning, and class will start at 8:30am as they usually would.  This Saturday is only a half day, so there is no breakfast or lunch served.

This morning in Math we got off on a tangent (pun intended!) and spent the entire morning talking about graphing equations, and positive and negative integers.  This was in NO WAY what I planned to do this morning, but the students were interested in it, and I feel we actually learned a lot.  As such, our day was a bit wonky, and we didn’t quite get to a lot of things, but that’s not exactly so far from how things normally work out!

Tonight students have a new set of 4 ANSWERS, and they must give me 4 equations, and then 4 word problems, that would go with these answers.  The set that we turned in today was alright, but students weren’t doing too well with creating their own division problems.  As such, we did some examples in class, and they are attached below with their 4 answers.

WorkBackwardsMay13

 

In Language Arts we talked more about points of view, and how they influence things.  We discussed how reading lots of fiction lets us experience things from other people’s points of view, and how there has been research done that shows people who read more, actually exhibit more empathy and understanding as a result of this.  Yet another reason to read everybody!!

While some students had experienced things that let them really connect to the “I still have everything you gave me” poem, some students had never experienced a loss that allowed them to make a connection.  We talked about this, and about how our experiences and our personality often influence how we interpret what we read.

Tonight students are to do an exercise in stepping outside of their own shoes and writing from another’s point of view.  They should pick someone from their own family, and write a short poem as if they were that person.  This can be a simple poem from their chosen person’s point of view.

If they are feeling adventurous, they should write a poem about themselves, from the other person’s point of view.

This should be minimum two stanzas, and this time let’s make it rhyme!

Here was mine:

Daddy Daddy

pick me up!

I want coke

please fill my cup

Why are you angry?

I just bit Sai

I think he likes it

Now I cry

A literary masterpiece, if I do say so myself.

In addition to this, students received a short passage about the US trip to the moon that focuses on examining figurative language.  They should read and answer the questions associated with this passage tonight (and yep, I want reasoning!)

To The Moon And Back Passage

ToTheMoonQuestions

Also, students should write a sentence for the next 4 ‘graph’ words on their vocab list.

Finally, we spent some more time playing with the neat simulations over here.

It was very hard for some students to understand that applying a net unbalanced force to an object will continue to increase the object’s speed.  On a flat surface this might seem un-intuitive, but if you think about something being dropped from a plane, the only force being applied to the object is the force of gravity, which is a constant force.  However the object continues to accelerate as it falls. (this ignores terminal velocity, but in a perfect system without air resistance that wouldn’t exist so……let’s just go with it)

It will take a lot of time to really shake some of these misconceptions, and LOTS of proof to the contrary.  Unfortunately we are pretty stubborn creatures when it comes to changing our habits/beliefs.

 

so, tl;dr

Here are some answers.  Write me an equation and a word problem to go with them!

WorkBackwardsMay13

write a minimum two stanza poem from one of your family member’s point of view.  Make it rhyme!

Read this passage.  Answer these questions.  Remember Figurative Language!

To The Moon And Back Passage

ToTheMoonQuestions

Write a sentence for your next four ‘graph’ words

And as always, read!

What a great day.  We got tons of stuff done, and we were focused for most of the day.  I love this class.

 

We started off talking about fractions and our equations from last night.  Having to work backwards to an equation from an answer was somewhat of a challenge for many students.  This really shows how strong of a handle they have on the math involved.  We corrected quite a few mistakes and misunderstandings.  Some of our students figured out that if the answer is 5/9, that 5 divided by 9 would give us an answer of 5/9.  That is a fantastic connection to make.

Tonight students should take ANOTHER step back in regards to these answers.  They should look at the equation they came up with, and write a word problem that describes that equation.  We did one or two as an example, and I am hopeful that they can do this successfully.

Here are the problems again in case you need them:

OneMoreStep

In Language Arts we looked at a LOT of poems.  We focused today on point of view, and how the author’s point of view greatly influences a poem.  It can alter everything from subject matter to tone.  Tonight students have a poem to write, and a poem to analyze.

First, students should write a poem from the point of view of a normal everyday object.  It can be anything really, and these oftentimes end up like little riddles.  Here is mine:

open, shut
open, shut
I’m tired of this
I’m in a rut

put your hand out before I close
oops too late
I bonked your nose!

Secondly, students should read “I still have everything you gave me”, and answer these questions:

Who wrote this?

Why do you think they wrote this?

Who are they talking to?

Make a connection to this poem

POV poems

 

We also received a new vocab list containing ‘graph’ words.  Students should write a sentence for each of the first four tonight.  They are all nouns.  I expect them to be used correctly!

Finally, we talked about forces, acceleration, speed, mass, and all that good stuff.  Here is a question for you, that nobody in our class got the first time:

If I apply a constant, unbalanced force to an object, what will happen to the speed of the object?

Will it increase, then plateau? (speed up, and then keep moving at a constant speed?)

Will it increase without stopping? (continue to move faster and faster?)

Will it increase and then decrease? (speeds up, then slows down?)

We played with this neat tool to figure out the answer:

Forces Simulation

 

See if you know the answer. If not, try to figure it out with the simulation!

 

so, tl;dr

Write 6 word problems to go with the equations you wrote yesterday

OneMoreStep

Write a poem from the p.o.v. of an everyday object

Answer these questions about “I still have everything you gave me”: (and yes I know the last one isn’t a question)

Who wrote this?

Why do you think they wrote this?

Who are they talking to?

Make a connection to this poem

 

We also got a new list of vocab words! Come in with a sentence for the first four tomorrow.

 

As always, read and get your reading log signed.

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter