Thursday, October 31, 2013

Thursday, October 31st

Happy Halloween and last day of October!

We continued exploring equivalent fractions today by having a great fraction debate.  We worked with fourths today.  Students were given notecards and asked to divide it into fourths any way that they could.  Most students picked one of these three ways.

Myself and another student both folded our note cards like this:


Students were asked to decide if they thought that these two cards are still divided into fourths.  One group believed they were, one group believed that were not, and the other group believed that one was and the other was not.  Each group then worked to provide evidence to support their idea.  They used many measurement and math strategies to support their idea.  They did a great job and had fun presenting their theories.  In the end, the answer was revealed.  Ask your child to tell you more!






Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Study for Spelling test

Have a wonderful evening!  See you tomorrow!


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Wednesday, October 30

We had a good day today.  We dove a little further into fractions today.  Students created a fraction kit that allows them to compare fraction sizes.  Students are able to refer to this kit and compare fraction sizes to determine equivalence.




We went into more depth with phases of the moon.  Students then used their study guide to quiz a partner for their test tomorrow.  This is a great study strategy.  Students have their study guide with the answers with them at home.  Please take some time to quiz them over the questions tonight.

We continued our writing for the UOI Summative.  We will begin an introduction of our new UOI tomorrow.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Study for Science Test

See you in the morning!!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Tuesday, October 29th

We began our day completing our math stations and did a very basic introduction to fractions.  Students will be working with fractions throughout term 3, so it is important that the foundation is understood.

We talked about the moon's orbit today.  Students learned that we see the same side of the moon because it rotates at the same speed as it revolves around the Earth.  They completed an exploration on Discovery Education.  This helped them to understand how the movement of the moon determines what phase it is in and what we see.  They even got a chance to be the Earth and understand how it is our perspective from the Earth that changes the our view of light on the moon.


We completed our day by beginning  our  Summative Writing Assessment for Term 2.  Students utilized a resource about a new discovery.  The challenge what tying in what they researched to the central idea (exploration leads to discovery and develops new understandings).  We will complete this tomorrow.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, math practice, spelling contract

Monday, October 28, 2013

Monday, October 28th

We had a wonderful start to our week!  Students worked in their math stations today.  They worked with division, multiplication and number sense to manipulate a specific number.

After our media center trip, we took our summative assessment on the colonies.  I can tell that students studied over the weekend because they worked very hard on their assessment.

Students received their term 3 reading contracts today.  We reviewed each piece and discussed how to complete them.  Students are responsible for three books this term, as well as a primary document review (provided by the teacher).

We also began working on our Who Am I? poem for our Literary Night.  Students will spend this week creating a poem about themselves and publishing it.  We look forward to having our coach next week.  Our coach will be assisting us with our performing and speaking skills, so we will be very prepared for Literary Night.

Tomorrow and Wednesday we will be working to complete our writing summative for our Term 2 UOI.  We will be taking our Science Summative and doing some reflections on Thursday and on Friday we will introduce our new UOI for Term 3.

See you in them morning!

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Spelling Contract (test Friday)

Friday, October 25, 2013

Friday, October 25th

Happy Friday!!!  We had a great (and cold) field trip to Adair Park today!  Ask your child to tell more.  We also worked to create our "Dead Words Cemetery."  Enjoy the pictures and have a great weekend!

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Study for Colonies Summative (use your study guide)






























Thursday, October 24, 2013

Thursday, October 24th

After completing math stations today, students were assessed on number patterns and and input/output charts.  We began working to explore the moon and how and why it changes.  We also continued our discussion of economics and explored occupations from colonial times.  Students began to realize that many of those jobs are still around today.

We worked with synonyms today and decided which words in our class would be "dead words."  Students created a list of synonyms to replace these words with.  They then completed a revising activity in which they replaced "dead words" in a writing piece with more exciting synonyms.

Tomorrow is our walking field trip to Adair Park.  It will be in the low 40's when we are leaving the school and should not reach higher than 59 tomorrow.  Please wear warm clothes, a jacket, and comfortable walking shoes.

Homework:  Read for 30 minutes, Math practice, spelling

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Wednesday, October 23rd

Busy, busy, busy and having lots of fun!  We continued working with our input and output charts and recognizing patterns.  Some students were able to log on to Compass Learning.  The rest of our class will be logging on tomorrow.  Use Learnzillion.com LZ790 to help with homework.







Students demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of the seasons and why they change by creating posters.  We are moving toward phases of the moon.

We also added the rules for using conjunctions to our reading journals.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Spelling Contract (Due November 1st), Math Practice

See you in the morning!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Tuesday, October 22nd

We had super busy day today.  We are winding down this term.  Students began working with input and output tables to determine the function (or rule) being used (see picture below).  While working with a partner, they turned over two cards.  They then determined the function (or rule) between their input (x) and their output (y).  They were able to write an equation for the function and continue the pattern using self selected numbers.



We continued our study of Earth and its location around the sun.  We were able to explore this today and how it effects the seasons.  Students used their iPads to complete this activity.  We then went on to Social Studies and began learning about economics during colonial times and today.  Students were excitedly discussing profit, loss, and opportunity cost.  Ask your child tell you more.

We've been working on ordering adjectives for several days.  Students were given a short quiz to determine their knowledge and understanding of this concept.  We also began some work with commas used with conjunction.  We will continue working with this concept tomorrow.

Homework:  Read for 30 minutes, Writing activity (due tomorrow), Math practice.

Friday:  We will be leaving for our walking field trip on Friday around 8:15.  Chaperones will need to arrive before we leave.  It looks as though we will be returning around 11:15 or so.  We will eat lunch after we return to school.
It is supposed to be chilly on Friday, so bring a jacket.  Don't forget your comfortable walking shoes!!

Conferences:  If you have not yet signed up to come in for a conference, please click on the You Can Book Me link and pick a day and time that works with your schedule.

See you in the morning!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Monday, October 21st

Two words for today...LEMONY SNICKET!!!
What a wonderful experience to enjoy!  We laughed a lot as he guided us through his new book.  He even used one of our students and me in his presentation.  We had a wonderful time!  Oh, and we all got Lemony Snicket T-shirts!

Here we are excitedly waiting for Lemony Snicket.

He had us laughing before he even started talking!


Here's a short video clip of his introduction.


Olivia was one of four students selected to assist Lemony Snicket with his presentation!  She did an amazing job!!


 He read a loud from his book and had us all in stitches!  He even embarrassed me a little too. 


Here is a short video clip of his read aloud.


He was also kind enough to shake everyone's hand and "thank us for leaving!!!"  It was truly hysterical!





AND...We were the first class that every student had their recorder for Music!  Way to go Superstars!

 It was a wonderful day and I am looking forward to reading about it on Wednesday.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Writing activity (due Wednesday), Communication Folders

Please sign and return ALL field trip permission forms tomorrow.  Thank you!

See you in the morning!