Wednesday already?!  Where does our time go?!

This morning we began thinking about the story we are going to write.  We brought out the character trait sheet that we had done on our main character, and then got out one of the story maps we have been working with this week.

We talked about how we could use the story map to help us ensure we are including all of the elements in our own story.

Next students started filling in the map with ideas for their story.  Tonight they should finish filling this out.

Who is going to be in their story?  Fill in the characters

Where/when is the story taking place?  Setting

What are the main events? plot

What is the problem/conflict the characters will face? conflict

What will be our message or what we want the reader to take from our story be? theme

Blank char sheet

StoryElements

 

We then talked a LOT more about producers and consumers.  Not everyone understood the very important point that last night’s reading was trying to make:  plants and animals (producers and consumers) depend upon each other for survival.  Plants produce food, and oxygen for us.  We produce carbon dioxide for them.

We watched a quick Bill Nye Video on plants.  Tonight students should fill out a little worksheet about the video:

BillNyePlants

 

We read a lot more of The Mysterious Benedict Society, and things are really getting interesting as the kids are about to become secret agents at a mysterious school, from which devious signals are originating.

One of the students even tried to sneak the book off my desk and take a look ahead!

 

Finally, we talked about solving word problems.  I ask that students begin solving word problems in a certain manner.  Eventually we’ll get some freedom in how we solve them, but for now I would like them to follow my simple formula.

Read the problem.  If you need to, underline important information, circle the question, etc.

Tell me HOW to solve the problem.  DO NOT tell me something like “34 + 15”.  There should be no numbers.  Instead say something like

“First add how many apples Jim had to how many apples Dan had.”

Next do the operations.  NOW we are actually doing  34 + 15.  Make sure you have labels.  

34 apples + 15 apples = 49 apples.

Next, tell me what that means.  

This tells us how many apples they had altogether

 

Tonight students have a sheet of word problems.  They only need to do the first 5 problems.  They should do these on a separate sheet of paper.  Included are the first 2 problems we did together, and the start of the third.  These should serve as examples as to how the problems should be laid out and solved.

WordProblemsAug12

 

 

 

so, tl;dr

Story map about the story you will be writing:

StoryElements

Bill Nye video sheet

BillNyePlants

Word problems, done as the examples:

WordProblemsAug12

 

and as always, read read read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

 

 

boooo rain!

 

So unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to go outside today to measure our plants, but hopefully we can start that tomorrow!

 

We spent our morning talking more about elements of stories, and we read Lilly’s Plastic Purse again.  We identified the character, plot, conflict, setting, and theme of the story.  We had some really good discussion about the theme, and people had different ideas.  Many of them were very good.  We agreed that themes can be open to interpretation, and may not necessarily be wrong as long as we can back them up with evidence from the text.

 

Tonight students should do their reading log, and then fill out a graphic organizer talking about story elements from what they have read.  I realize they may not read a part that has the conflict, or have read enough to recognize a theme.  They should do their best filling out what parts of the organizer that they can.  They should definitely be able to identify the characters, setting, and some important events.

StoryElements

 

We talked a LOT today about producers, consumers, and decomposers.  We thought about what would happen without any decomposers.  Eventually we would use up all of the food and nutrients, and we would all cease to exist.  Decomposers help recycle the nutrients that have been used by living things.  We also watched a short video on decomposition that the students agreed was positively disgusting.  Make sure you ask them about it.  I think it was FANTASTIC.

Tonight students have a quick reading and some questions to answer:

PlantsAsProducers

Finally, we talked a good bit about our homework from yesterday and what we are doing breaking down numbers.  We got out some manipulatives and talked about the steps of breaking down numbers.  Tonight students should do three simple subtraction problems and draw some pictures explaining what is going on.  Here are some examples we did.

Aug11Example

 

Tonight they should do these 3 problems in the same way:

Aug11Math

And yes, they MUST include the unhappy and happy faces!!

 

so, tl;dr

story elements of what you are reading tonight:

StoryElements

Plants are Producers:

PlantsAsProducers

3 problems with faces!

Aug11Math

examples: Aug11Example

 

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

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

Announcement: Picture day Aug 20, and a bunch of things to sign.  See bottom of post for more info!

 

Today we trans-planted our seedlings outside in our little planting buckets!

 

The students got to experience FIRST-HAND what FRESH soil smells like.

They were……surprised….

I think only one child vomited, so that’s a plus!

 

 

We spent the rest of our morning talking about the elements of a story, and last week we watched this.

Today we read the story of the boy who cried wolf together, and then filled out a graphic organizer together about the story:

BoyWhoCriedWolf

Tonight students have another fable to read, and they should fill out another graphic organizer about this story.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

StoryElements

 

In math, we are wrapping up our talk of how we can represent numbers in different ways.  We can change the form of numbers, but have them retain their original value.  This is something we will revisit, as it is a recurring theme in mathematics. (For example it is HUGE with fractions).  Tonight students have a set of 9 subtraction problems to do.  As they do each problem, they should focus on what form of a number they used to perform the subtraction.

For example in the first problem they are performing 46 – 28.  In the form of 4 tens and 6 ones, it can be difficult to subtract 28.  However if we were to change the form of 46 to something like 3 tens and 16 ones, it becomes much easier to subtract something like 28.  It is important that students are thinking this way, as they must understand that sometimes different forms of numbers make a problem much easier to perform.

SubtractionAug10

 

Students received a bunch of things in their Monday folders as well today.  Please take a look at it.  Of particular importance is the announcement that picture day is August 20.  Also, students received a consent for use of technology sheet.  Please sign this, granting your student the ability to access the computers and other technology that Lockhart has available.  If you have any questions about it please contact me.

 

 

so, tl;dr

Fill out a story elements graphic organizer about The Ant and the Grasshopper

The Ant and the Grasshopper

StoryElements

Answer these problems, noting what form of the number you used:

SubtractionAug10

Get a bunch of papers signed!

 

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

 

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Electronics day is tomorrow! (see bottom of post)

 

So we spent our morning sharing our Timmy stories, and guessing at each other’s chosen character traits.  Some of our stories had actions, thoughts, and feelings expressed that made our chosen character traits very obvious.  However some students found that what they thought was obvious was not quite so with their reader.

We thought about this, and then decided to help with writing our next story we could start with a character trait chart.

So students received a blank character trait sheet, and tonight they should pick a character and decide on ONE character trait they would like their character to have.  They should come up with some actions that character should perform that would definitely make a reader understand their chosen character trait.

Blank char sheet

Next we spent some time in the computer lab.  We watched some videos on food webs and food chains, and played a quiz game.

After that, we played with the writing tools on Big Universe.  Eventually we are going to take the next story we write, and make a book using these tools.  We had some free time to explore the options.  I was impressed with how well the students took to these tools, and by the end of our time many were already starting to make little mini-books.

 

Next we read some more of the Mysterious Benedict Society, and we finally met the Mysterious Mr. Benedict himself.  The students had all sorts of great ideas about what Mr. Benedict might need kids for, and why he would design a battery of tests like he did in the book.

Finally we talked some more about the base ten system, and describing numbers in different ways.  We took out the tens, ones, and hundreds blocks, and found different ways to create a number like 34:

We could have 3 tens and 4 ones

OR 2 tens and 14 ones

OR 1 ten and 24 ones

OR no tens and 34 ones

Depending upon what we want to do with our 34, any of these options might make it easier to work with.  For instance if I wanted to subtract 15 from 34, it might make it easier to work with in a form like 2 tens, and 14 ones.  Then I can easily take away a ten and five ones.

 

Tonight students have another worksheet dealing with describing numbers in different ways.

Base10Sheet2

 

 

so, tl;dr

Fill out a character traits chart that will help us to write our next story and describe our character

Blank char sheet

New base 10 worksheet

Base10Sheet2

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

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

 

 

 

P.S.

Tomorrow is electronics day, and students may bring in an electronic device to use/play with at the end of the day.  Students must be responsible for their own devices.

 

IF a student has not turned in all of their homework up to this point, they will instead be working on that homework during this time.  Any student that is still missing homework has been made aware of this fact, and been told what homework they are still missing.

 

 

busy busy busy!

(see bottom of post for announcement about electronics day)

Day 8, and we’re already scrabbling for time!

We spent a good amount of time this morning talking about character traits, and how we can incorporate thinking about character traits into our writing.  Authors should think about what kind of characters they are writing about.  Those personality traits should influence the character’s thoughts and actions.

 

To practice this, we started short stories about Timmy.  Timmy is going to buy a video game.  Our assignment is to think up a character trait for Timmy, and then write about his journey to buy a video game, and how a character with that character trait would act.  We don’t come straight out and say Timmy is shy, or boastful, or resourceful, or curious, or brave.  Instead we let Timmy’s thoughts and actions make that apparent to our reader.  I gave the students this as my example, and asked them to guess what character trait I was thinking about:

Timmy

Could you guess what character trait I had in mind for Timmy?

Students should finish their own TImmy story tonight in their writing journals.  They should really think about how someone like Timmy would act, and write about that.

 

We talked a good bit about plants today, and their adaptations.  Some plants don’t have stems, for example mosses, and therefore must live in very wet environments since they lack a strong transport system to keep themselves hydrated.  Other plants like the venus fly trap must supplement their diet with insects.

We then did some notes on chlorophyll, chloroplasts, xylem, phloem, and all that great stuff.  See if your student remembers what xylem and phloem are (the equivalent of veins in plants – they carry water and nutrients throughout the plant).

Next we read a bit more of the Mysterious Benedict Society.  We had a great discussion about how Sticky’s actions when the other children talk about parents reveals that he must have a secret about his own family.  It was really awesome to hear everyone’s theories and ideas about that.

Tonight students should finish their char trait sheets for either Kate or Sticky (whichever they didn’t do yesterday)

Sticky Char sheet

Kate Char sheet

 

At the end of the day we discussed multiplication facts, and how essentially the entire class needs to work on fluency with these.  Some of us know our facts, but the great majority do not.  Without very good recall and understanding of basic multiplication facts, many 5th grade math concepts will be very difficult for students to understand, let alone master.  Therefore we started making some math fact flash cards in class.  We will be doing these a few times per week so we can catch up on this.

We also talked more about breaking numbers down into easier to work with parts, and how breaking down some problems can make them much easier.  I used this to introduce the distributive property of multiplication over addition.  This is the property that says something like:

8 x 9

is equal to 8 x (5 + 4)

which is equal to (8 x 5) + (8 x 4)  <——- distributive property

So maybe a student doesn’t know what 8 x 9 is.  But they probably know what 8 x 5 is, and they can figure out what 8 x 4 is easily enough.

They can break something like 8 x 9 down into (8 x 5) + (8 x 4) and then solve it.  We will work a LOT with this property, as it is integral to many mathematical concepts, and to a lot of the standard algorithms that we will learn in math.

 

Tonight students have a simple digit rearranging worksheet.  This is again testing whether or not they really understand how our number system works.

RearrangingDigits

Also if students still had questions incorrect from their base 10 sheet, they should fix those tonight.

Base10Sheet1

 

 

 

so, tl;dr

Write/finish your Timmy story in your writing journal

Finish Sticky and Kate sheets (both are due to be turned in tomorrow)

Sticky Char sheet

Kate Char sheet

Do rearranging digits worksheet

RearrangingDigits

and finish base10 worksheet if you had any incorrect from yesterday

Base10Sheet1

 

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

 

 

P.S.

Electronics day!

We have our first celebration for receiving our bronze medal on Friday.  The students voted and decided upon electronics day.  The children are welcome to bring in a device of their choosing, and we will have some time at the end of the day where we may play on our devices.  Students must be responsible for their own devices.  We will have some computers here for students to use as well and I normally bring in a few games of my own for students to play with.  I’ll be sending home a short note about this tomorrow just to double check.  If you have any questions or concerns please contact me at my school e-mail.

 

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter

 

A bit less homework today, so it shouldn’t be too rough!

 

We talked a good deal this morning about our base 10 worksheet, and the base 10 system.  It is imperative that students understand that we can adjust how our number ‘looks’, but still retain its value.  For instance something like 5000 can be 5 thousands, or we could say that it is 50 hundreds, or it is 500 tens, or we could say 5000 ones.

This is important because sometimes one form of a number will be easier to work with than another.  For instance if I want to do something like 345 minus 255, it is easier to work with if I break down one of my hundreds into tens, and then break down one of my tens into ones.  So instead of saying I have 3 hundreds, 4 tens, and 5 ones, I have 2 hundreds, 13 tens, and 15 ones.  That is still equal to 345, but it’s in a form that is easier to subtract 255 from.

Today we checked last night’s base 10 homework.  Tonight students should fix any that they got incorrect.

Base10Sheet1

Next we took a look at our plants, and made some observations.  Our carrots are starting to come up!  We then all drew a picture of a plant in our science journals and labeled the parts.

In Language Arts we read some more of The Mysterious Benedict Society, and met two new characters, Sticky and Kate Weatherall.  Tonight students should think about these characters and their actions, and fill out a chart for ONE of them, equating their actions to character traits.  They should do one of these tonight, and the other will be homework tomorrow night.

Kate Char sheet

Sticky Char sheet

We also got into pairs and shared our ‘moment’ story from the other day.  In pairs we did T.A.G.

Tell something you liked

Ask a question

Give a suggestion

Tonight students should re-write their moment story, using the suggestions and question from their partner.  If their partner asked them what they were thinking, they should add that.  If their partner asked them what happened next, they should perhaps add that.  If their partner suggested they add some descriptive words, they should consider that.

 

We then spent some time in the computer lab working on Lexia.  Lexia is a program that helps students work on a variety of language arts skills.  Everything from phonics and spelling to reading comprehension.

All in all a good day.  We also had DOUBLE cupcakes at lunch today thanks to two birthdays.  We also had cupcakes YESTERDAY thanks to a birthday yesterday.  Thank you VERY much for the cupcakes – the kids were absolutely stuffed.

 

so, tl;dr

Re-do any problems you missed from yesterday: Base10Sheet1

Pick one of the characters and tell me about them:

Kate Char sheet

Sticky Char sheet

Re-write your moment story using the suggestions/question from your partner.

 

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

 

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

And BOY do we have homework tonight!

So we spent our morning talking some more about character traits, and how we can analyze a character’s actions to deduce things about their personality.

Students should fill out the following sheet about a character (Reynie) from the book we have been reading together, The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Reynie Char sheet

 

We also talked more about the base ten system, and how we can represent numbers in different ways.  For instance I could say a number like 3245 is….

3 thousands, 2 hundreds, 4 tens, and 5 ones

OR I could say it is 32 hundreds, 4 tens, and 5 ones

OR I could say it is 324 tens, and 5 ones

etc etc

Tonight students have a sheet where they should play around with how they represent numbers.

Base10Sheet1

 

We got a chance to see that our plants have REALLY started shooting up.  We took some observations, and talked about phototropism (the tendency plants have to grow towards light) and saw it with our own eyes as our plants are all reaching towards our window.

Students went on to discovery education, where they watched a short video on plants, and have some questions to answer regarding the video.

Science Plant Packet

This goes with the reading we did in class: Plant_Puzzle

 

Students have also been putting together a quick report/reward poster about an animal of their choosing.  They should have filled out a chart giving a total of 9 facts about the animal.

3 facts that begin with

<my animals> are…….

3 facts that begin with

<my animals> has …….

3 facts that begin with

<my animals> can…….

They then use these facts and their book/research to put together a reward poster for their animal.  They have  a script to follow

They should then put all of this together on the following sheet:

wanted-poster-template

 

Finally, we started a story last week about a ‘moment’ in their lives that they remember well.  The story is also due for homework.

 

This might seem like an absolute mountain of homework, but they have been given at minimum an hour each day since Thursday to work on these independently while we did 1 on 1 assessments.  If they have used their time wisely, they should have very little actually left to finish at home.

 

so, tl;dr

Reynie character sheet Reynie Char sheet

base 10 sheet Base10Sheet1

Plant packet from Discovery Education Science Plant Packet

OTHER plant reading packet: Plant_Puzzle

Reward poster of an animal of their choosing: wanted-poster-template

Finish ‘moment’ story

 

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

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter