This week is project week!

This week we will have essentially the same homework each night.  Students *should* have enough time in class to finish these.  However if they would like to do some work at home, they are more than welcome to do so.

Three final projects:

Math project – Students will create a video showcasing a division word problem that they created themselves.  They will solve the problem using math manipulatives AND the standard algorithm for long division.  At each step they will explain the process and show how using the manipulatives and the standard algorithm line up.

All video recording will happen at school.  If students wish to work on their script and practice at home they may.

Math video example: Sorry for vertical filming!

Language Arts Project – Students will type out their Bad Road for Cats version 2.

If students have not yet finished their draft of their story, this should definitely be completed at home.

Science Project – Biome Brochure.  Students will have time in the computer lab to put together the brochure.  However if there is still research that needs to be done, at this point they should try to get some done at home.

so, tl;dr

Work on projects

Read!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

PS: Dr. Elrod dropped by today and paid us a visit.  He also brought us cookies.  mmmmmmmm    cookies.

Thanks Dr. E!

Ah yes, Thursday, the day when everything seems to come crashing down, and the children and I suddenly realize we only have 1 more day left this week to get things done.

We spent a great deal of time today working on math.  Together we looked at the way we have been performing division using manipulatives, and the standard algorithm for long division.  We looked at each step and talked about what is happening and how it equates to what we have been doing with our play money.  We took copious amounts of notes on this, that will hopefully help us when it comes time for us to explain it in our math videos.

longdivisionnotes

Tonight students have one division problem to work out.  They should do this using the standard algorithm (but are more than welcome to work with their manipulatives as they do it), and they should explain at each step what is going on by labeling each number, and what they are doing.  As always, there is an example:

mathhomeworksep21

In between bouts of math, we also read a ton of The Mysterious Benedict Society today.  Things are getting super interesting.  The kids are spying, cheating, lying, and all sorts of secret-agent type stuff.  Trenton Lee Stewart (the author) does a great job of leaving each chapter on a cliff hanger, and I make sure that I always stop reading at the end of a chapter!

Tonight students should continue writing their stories.  Tomorrow I would expect the stories to be near completion as far as a rough draft goes.  Tomorrow we will be doing some peer editing, and revision.

Please also remember that tomorrow is quiz day, and we’ll have some final review quizzes on everything we’ve done so far this quarter.  Some students are still having some issues with food webs and transfer of energy, so I would recommend reviewing notes on those as well as the chapter in our science book.

so, tl;dr

Do this one problem using the standard algorithm, labeling each step with what each number represents, and what you’re doing.

longdivisionnotes

longdivisionhomeworksep22

Keep working on your rough draft of A Bad Road for Cats version 2. This should be close to done.

Review your food webs/ecosystem notes

And read!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

I have a fairly important announcement to make.  Please see the bottom of the post for more information.

Today we were focused on our projects.  For the rest of this week and the beginning of next this will be the majority of our days.

In science we are continuing to research biomes.  I am constantly reminding students to use this time wisely to get as much information as possible read and written down in their own words.  The better their research is done, the easier the rest of the project will be.  We talked especially about how they will need to research specific animals to figure out who eats whom in their biome.  This will make it possible to create a food web.

We also finally got a chance to measure our plants today during a lull in the rain.  We had quite a bit of new growth and seeds that have sprouted.  Rain isn’t all bad!

In Writing we continued to work on our Bad Road for Cats version 2.  Today we shared our ideas with the class.  Many students have some REALLY neat ideas, and I’m looking forward to reading their stories.  Some students created characters that were non-human, and I like how they are adjusting their story to deal with that.

Tonight students should continue to do at least *some* writing.  I expect the rough draft to be multiple pages written.  Students should also write double spaced.  This is so we have space for a  good deal of revising.

Students should also finish their last two words of the vocab list tonight.

wordlistject

In math we continued to play the banker and boss game and talk about a standard way to divide something.  Tomorrow we will work together to come up with a standard algorithm for division.

Thank you so much to all of the parents that were able to do the math homework with the students last night.  Many students today were very happy to talk about doing their work with their parents.  I know it’s extra work to ask of you, but the kids really like sharing with you what they are learning in class.  Tonight I would like you to please attempt two more problems with your student.  I would also like for students to attempt to do the problem using long division, and think of parallels between the two.

mathhomeworksep21

so, tl;dr

Biome research at home if you would like.  You should have plenty of time to get this done at school, however

Get some writing started of your A Bad Road For Cats Version 2

Finish the vocab squares for this week’s list

wordlistject

Do some more banker boss and attempt the standard algorithm for long division.  Do you see what’s going on?

mathhomeworksep21

and read!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Announcement:  Unfortunately I will be transferring schools at the beginning of the second quarter.  I sent home a letter today addressing this.  Please read this letter, and if you have any questions or anything you would like to discuss, contact me.  I am attaching the letter here as well:

letterhome

Monday! I love Mondays!

Unfortunately, this Monday I have a meeting I have to go to, so this will be very quick.  My apologies!

In math we are working on the idea that when we are multiplying by fractions, we are actually doing quite a bit of dividing.  This is because fractions themselves are all about dividing.  Something like 1/3 x 9 asks us to take 1/3 of 9.  This means we have to DIVIDE 9 into 3 equal parts, and take one of them.

We are using this understanding to help us realize that multiplication and division are the inverse of each other, and we can really change any division problem into a multiplication problem, and any multiplication problem into a division problem.

Tonight students have 3 division….or was it multiplication? problems to do.  They should write out how each of these problems could be a division problem OR it could be a multiplication problem, and solve.  As always we have some examples!

divisionormultsep19

We also got a new vocabulary list with -ject words.

Tonight students should do vocab squares for the first 4 words:

wordlistject

This week we’ll take a really close look at A Bad Road for Cats.  We will start by addressing this prompt in our reader’s response journals:

The main character Magda in “A Bad Road for Cats” seems to change from the beginning of the story to the end.  Explain how she seems to have changed.  Use evidence from the text to support your explanation.

bad_road_for_cats_take_a_stand_14-15

So some division/multiplication problems, 4 vocab squares, a reader’s response, and a reading log.

That’s not too much I don’t think.

Sorry for the quick post today,

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Jeez how is it already Thursday?

We had an extremely involved conversation this morning about how to prove that 6/8 is equal to .75

One of our problems this morning gave us two answers depending upon how we did it.  One came up 6/8 and the other came up .75

So we took our our play money and found 6/8 of 1.  We already know that .75 of 1 would be .75 of course, so if 6/8 of 1 was equal to .75, it would indeed be equivalent.

6/8 of 1 means we take our one and break it into 8 equal groups, and then we take 6 of those.  When we broke our one down into 8 equal groups, we found each group to be equal to .125

We then added that up 6 times, and we figured out that 6/8 is indeed equal to .75

Tonight students have a few more multiplication with fractions problems to do.  They should have many pages of examples at this point in their journals.

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In Language Arts we read a really neat story called A Bad Road for Cats.  This story is a good example of how a character can change throughout a story.  We had some great conversations about character traits and how we can use evidence from the text to help explain our thinking.  We managed to make a good chart using evidence from the text to describe Magda, the main character.

charactermagda

Tonight students should re-read this story, and fill in a story map detailing the story elements:

bad_road_for_cats_take_a_stand_14-15

StoryElements

In science we talked briefly about biomes and an upcoming project we have where we will build a travel brochure inviting people to visit a specific biome.  Tonight students have some reading in their science textbook to do, and some questions to answer.  They should read pages B60 – B84 in their science textbook.  Then on a separate piece of paper, they should answer questions 1-6 on page B86, and questions 16-21 on page B87.

so, tl;dr

Use your math manipulatives to do some fraction multiplication problems:

multfracsep15

Read story and fill out story map

bad_road_for_cats_take_a_stand_14-15

StoryElements

Read B60-B84 in science textbook.  Answer questions 1-6 on page B86 and questions 16-21 on page B87.

And read! I told students the science reading can count as part of their reading log tonight.

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

We got so much done today!

This week has been absolutely fantastic.  The students have been working diligently, we have a vast majority of students getting their homework done, and we are following directions and exhibiting some good ROAR behavior.  We have gotten 3 paws in every special so far this week.

This morning we had a VERY long talk about what multiplying fractions actually means.  I am happy to report that many students are starting to get this, and I’m feeling quite encouraged.

Tonight students have 4 more problems to do.  As always the examples/notes we took today are attached, but students should have these in their math journals as well.

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In Language Arts we finally had a chance to talk a bit about the characters we had created.  We talked about how different characters would react to different situations.  In The Mysterious Benedict Society, Reynie would react differently to being teased than, say, Kate would.

Tonight students should take their character, and put them in one of the following situations. Write a short story about how they react to the situation.
They find $20 on the way home – what do they do with it?
They stub their toe – how do they react?
Their grandma gives them a really bad birthday present – what do they do/say?
Another person calls them a name – how do they react?
They get teased on the playground – what do they do?
They forget their homework – what do they tell the teacher?

Different characters would definitely react differently in these situations.  Try to put yourself in your character’s shoes, and think about what they would do or say.

In Social Studies we talked some about Christopher Columbus and Ponce De Leon.  What is Christopher Columbus famous for?  If you said discovering America, that would be incorrect!  It was actually Ponce De Leon who was first to land on America.  Tonight students have a short reading on Ponce De Leon and some questions to answer.

ponce-de-leon

In Science we talked a bit about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.  Sometimes vocabulary can be an issue with science, so we are going to make sure we get a good list of vocabulary in our science journal to help facilitate our understanding of animals and ecosystems and how they interact.

Finally we went outside and measured our plants.  I’m hoping we start seeing our new seedlings by next week.

so, tl;dr

Math problems involving multiplying fractions.  What is really going on in each problem?

multfracsep14

Write a short story using your character (put them in one of the situations listed above)

*Also finish your last two vocab squares*

Read about Ponce De Leon and answer some questions

ponce-de-leon

and as always, read!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday!

Ok…multiplying fractions.  This is proving to be quite challenging for students.  That’s ok.  We’re running into some issues because some students are still rocky on what fractions actually are.  A fraction like 1/2 describes ONE piece of something that has been split into TWO equal parts.   3/4 describes THREE pieces of something that has been divided into FOUR equal parts.

Again, we are very interested in CONCEPTS here.  What exactly does multiplying by a fraction MEAN?  Oftentimes the ‘x’ symbol means “of”.  For example, 2 x 3 can mean 2 group OF 3.  So something like 1/2 x 3 can means 1/2 OF 3.

Tonight students have some more fraction multiplication problems to do.  They may pick just one way to do each problem.  For example if they have something like 3 x 1/2, they may either do 3 OF 1/2  or they may do 1/2 OF 3.  They should be careful though…usually one way is much easier than the other.  Students who are still having some difficulty with this concept should definitely continue to try both ways.

After these problems they have a question (really 4 questions) to respond to.  I expect a well thought out response here.  Not one sentence, and probably something involving some pictures explaining their thinking.

multfracandresponsesep13

In Social studies today we read some more about explorers and talked about what life was like for sailors on the ships making those extremely long voyages.  The students learned that being a sailor during these times was not glamorous or adventurous so much as it was dirty and dangerous.  Ask the students if they remember what scurvy was, or what sailors often ate.

Tonight students have some reading to do.  They should use this reading to help them label the parts of a Spanish Galleon.

labelingspanishgalleon

We then read a whole bunch of the Mysterious Benedict Society.  This book is so great.  The kids are getting ready to travel to the mysterious Nomansan Island where they will spy on Ledroptha Curtain and figure out why he is sending these subliminal messages all across the globe.

Tonight students should do vocabulary squares for the next 4 words on their -dict list.

vocablistdict

In science we started talking about ecosystems and biomes and somehow ended up talking about our gut biomes and all the little things that live on our bodies.  I seriously have no idea how these things get this way sometimes.  Oh well.  After that we went outside and replanted some seeds of some of our plants that had unfortunately died.  Hopefully these plants fare better.

so, tl;dr

Answer some math problems and a math prompt:

multfracandresponsesep13

next 4 words of vocab list vocab squares:

vocablistdict

Label a Spanish Galleon

labelingspanishgalleon

and read!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter

Another Monday, another full week of opportunity!!

This morning we had a LOOOONNNNGG talk about multiplying fractions.  This entire concept is very important, and we are focusing on the actual meaning of multiplication and what multiplying fractions actually MEANS.  We are not interested in shortcuts, we are not interested in the fastest, quickest way to do a problem involving multiplying fractions.  We are interested in understanding what is actually going on with multiplication involving fractions.

so something like:

1/2 x 4

This can mean 1/2 OF 4, or it can mean 4 OF 1/2.  Sometimes we will find that one way of thinking about a problem can lead to an easier solution.  We used our math manipulatives (the play money) to help us work out a lot of these problems, and students should use those same manipulatives tonight when they are working on homework.

As usual we took some notes:

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Our homework tonight is to do 4 fraction multiplication problems.  They should be done EXACTLY as we did our examples.  This means a question like 1/10 x 3 should be done as 1/10 OF 3, AND as 3 OF 1/10.  These don’t look the same, but they give us an equivalent answer.  As always, there are examples that precede the homework:

multfracexamplesandhomeworksep12

In Language Arts we barely had time to talk about our new vocabulary words and our new root this week: dict.  Monday schedules are so screwy.  Tonight students should work on their vocabulary squares (rectangles really) for the first four words on their vocabulary list.  They should also know how to spell these!  The vocabulary test is the only test during the week where spelling matters.

vocablistdict

In science we went and measured and watered our plants.  Lots of our plants are actually growing quite well.  Some are measuring almost 20cm already.  However some of our plants didn’t fare too well in the last week, so we will be replanting some of our seeds tomorrow.  We got to talk about how spiders being around our plants is actually a good thing today.  Ask your student if they remember why spiders are good for our plants. (hint: they eat the bugs)

So, tl;dr

Some multiplying fractions problems, JUST as we did them in class (use your play money!)

multfracsep12

multfracexamplesandhomeworksep12

First four vocab word squares in vocabulary journal

vocablistdict

And read!

Have a good one,

-Mr. Potter