Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on May 15, 2017
Happy Mother’s Day! I hope your weekend was full of all the good things you deserve!
Floral Goes Green is almost here! Our class has learned about where our water comes from; the precious resource that it is, and threats to it, including point and nonpoint source pollution. This week lessons will hit close to home as students look for ways that water can be wasted in our houses and apartments as well as ways we can all take steps, large and small, to conserve water. They will be analyzing texts, creating and analyzing bar graphs with the data they collected on water sources at home and in school, researching topics of interest, and playing games designed to heighten awareness. Here’s a great site with kid-appropriate info and a smart Pac-Man-like game to test their knowledge (requires enabling Flash if using Chrome)! I’m a little rusty at the controls as the kids will tell you, but I bet you can do better at home:
The next step in our learning is to create a presentation of our findings to a greater audience, e.g. the student body. Our class will engage visitors to our classroom with water awareness and conservation by creating a gameshow for them to play, after which they will share their top 10 tips for conserving water at home. Likewise, we’ll be visiting other rooms to benefit from their work on various environmental topics too!
Students have also been busy writing and posting opinion writing pieces on their blogs! The goal here is to engage in academic discourse by commenting and asking questions of classmates in order to further their thinking about a topic. Here are some book recommendation excerpts from 1) Martin (on Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans), 2) Arin (on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), 3) Srinitin (on Peanut Butter Rhino), and 4) Alana (on Night Cat): 1. To begin with, there are hilarious characters. Julius says some funny things like when he thought some hairy men were juggling monkeys! 2. Second, there is an interesting setting. There is an elevator which can go any type of way you can think of. 3. First, Rhino is a funny character. He say on his peanut butter sandwich and couldn’t find it. 4. Another reason is it has a scary setting. Strange animals come out of nowhere and there’s wind howling and there is darkness. Super!
Our next two math chapters for study involve geometry. This week, students will learn that figures are made up of lines and curves. They will identify the same, and create figures of their own. In addition, they will learn about surfaces of solid objects and identify them as curved or flat. Finally, they will learn properties of solid objects, in particular which objects can stack, slide, and roll. All of this is a precursor to the geometry of plane shapes and solids which we will take on in the 2 weeks following. If you’re accessing the student e-book at home, this is Book B, chapter 18 & 19. It’s a great resource, especially if your child has questions on homework!
If looking for websites/apps/games to play, the internet abounds with a geometry/shapes theme, from basic to advanced. Here’s a challenging one that develops rotational understanding while requiring students to use knowledge of basic shapes and figures:
