What a great day!
The students were absolutely WONDERFUL today. Our math centers went smoothly, we had almost 100% homework turned in, and our afternoon was just as perfect.
In Math we started talking about simplifying fractions, and that we can divide by 1 without changing the value of a fraction just like we could multiply by 1. We can find the greatest common factor of our numerator and denominator, and then divide by a form of one with that factor as our numerator and denominator.
For example if I had something like 6/12, I could find that the greatest common factor of 6 and 12 is 6. I can then divide 6/12 by 6/6. 6/6 is equal to 1, so I will not change the value of my original fraction.
Tonight students have a page of fractions to simplify. It is important that they realize they are simply finding an equivalent fraction: a fraction with the same value.
In Language Arts we talked a good bit about theme, and how it is the author’s message. This goes hand in hand with author’s purpose: Why did the author want to write this? What did they want you to understand or know? What did they want to tell you?
We talked about many Aesop’s fables, and identified the theme in a few of the more common ones like the Tortoise and the Hare and the Boy who cried wolf.
Next we looked back at our ‘If Passage‘, and together we wrote the second verse in our own words:
If you can dream, but don’t let your dreams control you
If you can think, but not just stop at thinking
if you can experience success and failure
and not treat them differently
If you can stand to hear people lie about what you’ve said
If you see something you devoted yourself to destroyed
And you bend down and start over
Tonight students should attempt their own version of the 3rd stanza just like yesterday with the first.
We also had Mrs. Carter come into our classroom and give us a great talk about bullying. This is especially relevant as the children mentally prepare to move on to middle school. We touched on cyber bullying, and how what you write online can get you in a good deal of trouble. North Carolina has quite the no-nonsense cyber bullying law, and in fact YESTERDAY a 16 year old in Raleigh was arrested for cyber bullying.
So tl;dr
simplifying fractions: Simplifying fractions Feb 11
Write the third stanza of ‘if’ in your own words: If Passage
as always, read for 35 minutes!
have a good one!
-Mr. Potter