Another day that just feels wayyy too short.
We went right into rotations today. Students got a good amount of time to type their stories in Big Universe while we also did some small groups and MClass assessments. Students also broke into pairs today and quizzed each other on the spelling and the meaning of their vocab words. There just *might* be a spelling AND meaning test on this tomorrow……
Students also read about spiders today. We talked about what a myth is, and some of the myths associated with spiders. Tonight students should create a main idea organizer for this reading passage. It should include the main idea, supported by three important details.
We then started talking about the water cycle and had to have a long discussion about how air is all around us, and there is water in the air.
This somehow led us on a tangent where we talked about how air resistance let’s us know that air is really there. This ended with us watching a video to get a better idea about air resistance and the affect it has on things on the Earth. Usually we watch this video during our physics unit, but hey, it’s interesting!
Finally we spent some time talking about our forms of one and finding equivalent fractions again.
Tonight students have some simple fraction addition problems. They should do these just as the examples have been done.
First: Draw a physical representation of each fraction in the problem (the boxes below them)
Next: Draw those exact same representations to the right. We do this to stress that we are NOT changing the values of the fractions in our problem. We are simply changing their form to make them easier to work with.
Next: Look at your first two fractions/representations. Our problem is these are not all cut into the same size pieces.
Next: Look at the two fractions/representations and find which has the biggest pieces. Compare that to the other fraction. Can we see how many of the smaller fractions pieces would fit into one of the bigger pieces? If so, that is the form of one we should use. If two of the smaller fraction’s pieces would fit into the larger fraction’s pieces, then we should multiply the fraction with the larger pieces by 2/2, etc etc.
Ensure you write the form of one that you multiplied by!
Finally, cut the larger fraction into smaller pieces so that they are the same size as the other fraction. If we multiplied by 2/2 we are cutting each piece into 2. If we multiplied by 3/3 we are cutting each piece into 3. Now our fractions are cut into the same size pieces, and we can add them easily.
so, tl;dr
Read about spiders, find the main idea and three important details:
Answer these problems by finding equivalent fractions, and be sure to show the form of one you multiplied by. Do just as the examples have been done!
And as always, read!
Have a good one,
-Mr. Potter
PS: Students today chose to have a pajama/pillow/blanket/stuffed animal day next Wednesday as a reward for getting our crown. Maybe we’ll make some pillow forts!
Also just in case you had forgotten, next Wednesday is the last day of the quarter, and track-out starts on Thursday!