WRITING! RESEARCH! WRITING! READING! MATH!
This week is going to be HECTIC. We have a research paper to finish, a 3rd book from the NC Children’s Book Awards to finish, a unit in Math to finish, tons more figurative language to talk about, and the list goes on.
In Math we went over our test from Monday and talked about the multitude of silly mistakes we are making. We also addressed the fact that many of us don’t think about whether our answer makes sense. If I have 4 melons, and I say that you have 1/2 as many melons as I do, would it make sense that you get an answer stating you have 8 melons? It’s these kinds of mistakes and oversights we simply can’t be making.
Tonight students have some word problems to do. They also have a list of equations, that they should write word problems for. For instance if they saw something like 1/2 + 3/4, they could say something along the lines of:
Mr. Potter had 1/2 of a candy bar. Mrs. Seawell had another 3/4 of a candy bar. Altogether, how many candy bars did they have?
In Language Arts we spent a LOT of time talking about and re-writing our research introduction paragraphs, and starting the body of our paper. We talked about how a good opening paragraph should grab the reader’s attention, and make them interested in the topic. We are writing a research paper, so we should avoid the use of “I”, and our paper is JUST the facts!
Tonight students should re-write their introduction paragraph, and also the first paragraph of the body of their paper.
We also started talking about idioms! I love idioms, but they can be very difficult, because for the most part it is simply a you know it or you don’t type proposition. We did this sheet together in groups, but if they are missing any of them, they should finish it tonight:
By the end of the day, we barely had time to talk about the Iditarod, and the weather in Alaska. There have been some interesting developments, and I am looking forward to discussing it with the students tomorrow!
Students also got a hand-out about chaperoning the field trip. We are very limited by space, and we can have 1, MAYBE 2 chaperones. As such if you would like to be a chaperone, please fill out the paper your student took home, and I will pick two names out of a hat on Wednesday.
so, tl;dr
Math word problems (and create your own!) FractionsWordProblemsMar16
Write introduction and first paragraph of research paper
Idioms! IdiomsMarch16
As always, read read read your NC Children’s Book Award book!
Have a good one,
-Mr. Potter