busy busy busy!
We had a very long morning due to the PLT schedule. We started off with a short review of perimeter and area, and students took some quick notes:
We then spent some time talking about how to determine perimeter, area, and the length of sides given certain attributes of a rectangle.
We did this using little square unit tiles, and the students took those home tonight to help them with their homework. Their homework tonight is fairly straightforward. They are to find all of the possible rectangles they can make with the given attributes, and then answer some questions about them. It is very important that they double check their work using the tiles, and that they read the worksheet very carefully to ensure they are answering all of the questions asked.
In Science we talked a little bit about muscles and bones, and the musculoskeletal system. We made some movements and felt our muscles in an attempt to discern how they were really working. Finally we watched some videos to confirm what we had thought was going on. We determined that muscles only pull, not push, and that what we thought was a push was really just the muscles relaxing. So for our body parts to move in a direction, they must be pulled by skeletal muscles in that direction.
We then took a look at our Goldilocks stories, and did some typing in the computer lab. Students are now free to begin brainstorming how they will end their story. What happens after they go to sleep in the bed is completely up to them.
To end the day, we talked about using annotations to help us understand a passage. We discussed how our goal when reading is to best comprehend what we read, and the best way to do that is to actively think about what we are reading. We then came up with four different annotations we can make to ensure active reading:
We can underline or circle words we don’t know, and make inferences as to their meaning
We can write short summaries of what we have read in a section or paragraph
We can make personal or academic connections to what we read
We can ask questions about what we read
Tonight, students have an article to read about the original 13 colonies, and annotate as they read. They have been told they should have at least one annotation per section, chosen from the above four. They should be doing their best to think about what they read, and not just plow along until they hit the last period on the page.
so, tl;dr
one math worksheet dealing with area, perimeter, and side measurements of rectangles
read and annotate the following article
Students also received a good amount of correspondence in their Monday folders. Please take a look. Also included is a Conference Letter. I have a sign-up page set up here. If those times don’t work or you have other concerns please send me a note, an e-mail, or a call.
Have a good one!
-Mr. Potter