Woohooo! Boosterthon!!
Today students received a boosterthon information pamphlet, as well as their interims. Please make sure you take a look at these, and please get the interims signed and back to me.
So this morning we talked quite a bit about reading closely for comprehension. We didn’t do as well as I would have hoped on our last reading test, and I’d like to make sure that students are using all of the tools at their disposal in order to understand a text.
We read a passage on our own and then with a partner. We identified an important detail in each paragraph and then looked at those to identify the main idea of the passage. Tonight students should write a paragraph summarizing the selection. They should make sure they include the details they have identified. We came up with some sentences together:
Scientists took Bald Eagles from Wisconsin to Manhattan. Peregrine Falcons were close to being extinct from the use of DDT, but the government banned DDT in 1972 and Congress passed the endangered species act.
They should add their other details tonight to create a good summary.
They also got a compare and contrast sheet, and they should fill that out tonight.
Next we talked some about biomes and ecosystems. Students are still a bit unsure about the differences between the two, so we took some notes on this. Essentially ecoSYSTEMS describe the SYSTEMS within a biome. An ecosystem is oftentimes smaller than a biome. A biome is a large geographical area with similar climate/organisms. We usually define 5 major biomes (desert, tundra, grassland, forest, aquatic), but these are further divided into more specific biomes.
Next we had our boosterthon pep rally. Our boosterthon is our fun run fundraiser for the school.
This year we will be putting our money raised towards new playground equipment. Essentially students will ask family and friends to make pledges for each lap they will run on our fun run day.
You can normally expect students to run anywhere from 30-35ish laps. So if you were to give a pledge of $1 per lap, expect to be donating approximately $30-$35 dollars. There is also an option to make a flat donation. This means you can also simply pledge a flat $10 or whatever you would like. Students got a pamphlet with more information today, so please take a look at it tonight.
If you get a chance, please head to www.funrun.com and register. When registering you will provide your details. Once you log in, you will register a participant (someone who makes a pledge). You can either enter our school code (614-431) or you can do a lookup for Lockhart Elementary. Then you fill in the information for what was pledged. Thank you to those of you who choose to participate.
Finally, we talked some more about breaking multiplication problems down into more manageable pieces. We started doing things like 7 x 13. We can break this down into:
7 x (10 + 3)
= (7 x 10) + (7 x 3)
= 70 + 21
= 91
You will notice this is how the standard multiplication algorithm works (except the standard algorithm has some shortcuts thrown in). Again, the entire purpose of this is to get students to understand how multiplication is distributed across addition, and to help them understand how to break down problems into easier problems. Please do *not* simply teach your child the standard algorithm to answer these questions.
Tonight students have 5 problems to do. Here is an example, and the problems:
so, tl;dr
Finish summary of the following passage, including details from each paragraph:
Do the following problems, exactly as the example:
And as always, read!
Have a good one,
-Mr. Potter