Today students have a good bit of work to do at home…
IF they didn’t take advantage of their time wisely on Friday and today.
First, we talked at great length today about the Distributive Property of Multiplication over Addition. Understanding this property is so unbelievably important to understanding how the multiplication algorithm works, and eventually to understanding things in algebra. For these reasons, we will be harping on this for a while yet. If you’ve forgotten, it’s the property that states:
7 x (4 + 4) = (7 x 4) + (7 x 4)
So we did quite a few examples using this, and talking about how it will make multiplication of larger numbers much easier/understandable for us.
The students have a page of these problems to do. We did many examples in class today that they should have also brought home that should make their homework a snap.
In Language Arts, we read a short story about the Arctic Tundra, and also talked some about how our Science Unit this quarter will be on Animals and Ecosystems. Students answered some difficult comprehension questions in their groups, and practiced using evidence from the text to support their answers. I was very impressed with how well they worked together, going so far as to take turns presenting evidence and opinions in some groups.
In Language Arts, students have their short story summary that they started last Friday, as well as their Antonym Story to finish. They were given a good amount of time Friday to work on these, so I don’t expect it to be too big of an issue.
In science, students have a short passage about fungi to read and answer some questions.
We then went into the computer lab, and spent some time logged into the website, learning about the posting system and messageboard. We unfortunately did not have time to go over everything we needed to before we had to leave for specials, so we will be going again tomorrow if we can squeeze in the time, and I will be sending home more information tomorrow.
so, tl;dr
one math worksheet using the distributive property of multiplication over addition
one summary of a short book they picked out
antonym story sheet finished
fungi reading done, and questions answered
If they used their time wisely Friday and today, it shouldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes.
And as always, students should read and get a signature!
Have a good one,
-Mr. Potter