Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on February 3, 2020
Our first Early Release Day is this Tuesday! Students will be dismissed starting at 12:10 instead of 3:10. The kids usually eat at 11:30. I will plan a snack break at that time, which I hope is especially helpful for those with a long bus ride home. Of course, it’s up to you whether to send a snack or have them eat at home.
The February Fitness Challenge Begins! Floral’s playground fundraiser has kids in every class taking time to work on fitness goals, with parents sponsoring the fun. We’ll be Zumba-ing our way through the next two weeks using guided moves from GoNoodle. Check out the videos at home!
This week we return to Narrative Writing for a month-long study. To write a narrative, the writer has to choose a small moment in time (1/2 hour tops) and elaborate by stretching out the action with details. Consider this event about winning a basketball game: I threw the ball. It went in the net. We won the game. A better narrative stretches it out: I grabbed the hard, orange ball with both hands. I was sweating from head to toe. Please go in, I thought to myself. I slammed the ball down twice and bent my knees… See how the second version puts you in the picture? Students will be writing this week using real events (roller coaster POV vids) and fictional ones. Check out this ride below with your child. How can the action be stretched out, moment by moment?
The next chapter we will take on in Math In Focus is Chapter 10. If you are following along in the eBook, this is the first chapter in Book B. This chapter sees a return to mental math strategies. The goal here is to make students ever more fluent with numbers by using their understanding of numbers and patterns to compute in their heads. This is where our hard work with place value, number sense, and math facts pays off! Here is the addition strategies we will focus on this week:
1. Add multiples of 1s, 10s, or 100s when you can:
a. 354 + 3 Just add the ones; nothing else needs to change.
b. 354 + 30 Just count up by 10s…364, 374, 384 or Use math facts: 5 + 3 is 8, so 50 + 30 is 80–nothing else changes but the 10s place.
c. 354 + 300 Just count by 100 three times…454, 554, 654. or Use math facts: 3 + 3 = 6 so 300 + 300 = 600.
A great way to practice mental math is to use the Greg Tang Math game Break Apart. Select addition or subtraction, hard or easy to play. Highly recommended!
Reminders:
The 100th day of school is Tuesday, Feb. 11! Students are encouraged to create a project that shows understanding of numbers, operations, algebra–you name it! Some good examples can be found here!
We will exchange valentines in class on Friday, 2/14. There are 19 students in our class. If you need another copy of our class roster, just let me know!
Here’s some pics of us during science this week. Students evaluated a variety of shoes using their newly acquired knowledge of properties of solids. They predicted which would slide the furthest and tested their ideas–a fun way to combine math and science!
