Update for 11/27

        Dear Parents,

       I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! This week we will have two visits from our Alliance Theater artist, Jessica, as she helps our students work on getting into the role of their chosen American hero (Paul Revere, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Thurgood Marshall, or Cesar Chavez). We will continue researching our heroes in books and on Pebble Go in the Biographies section.  In Social Studies, we will get a little more into the Economy by reading "One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference" which is the true story of a young entrepreneur whose business transformed his whole country.  Your student will also be exploring economic concepts in Pebble Go in the All About Money section (from What is Money? to Earning Money).

     In Science, we are beginning our unit on Rocks, Soils, and Minerals which we will start with our vocabulary terms and continue with hands on investigations in class and STEM lab, as well as delving further through Brain Pop, Pebble Go in the Earth and Space Sciences section, and other websites. In Math 3.1, we will continue our Unit 3 Patterns of Multiplication and Division mainly through focusing on word problems this week. In Math 3.2, we will continue our Unit 6 investigation of Time and Measurement by getting into exploring milligrams and grams and milliliters and liters.

        Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Thanks for all of your support!

       :)  Jenny M-G

Update for 11/14

       Dear Parents,

      What an exciting week this has been!  How interesting that our mock election on Monday predicted the actual presidential election results.  We had 6 votes for Clinton, 6 votes for Trump, and 2 for Johnson (we neglected to put the Green party candidate on our ballot).  I've been impressed by the way the students were civil in our previous class discussions and have respected each others' views this week by leaving the election results at the door and not discussing them in class.

      This week we also have done some interesting investigations.  We tested whether a flat, rolled, or rolled and waxy leaf would hold water the best and help a plant survive a drought.  We determined which seeds were most likely to be eaten by a bird flying over depending on the color of the soil.  We explored the best human adaptations - our brains and thumbs.  Finally, we explored which adaptations help animals survive in the arctic and will do a related investigation next Tuesday morning.

      On Wednesday, all the students got to try out our new Surface Pros!  We will get 5 of them for our class in addition to the computers and iPads we already have which will put us at one device for each student which is wonderful.  On Thursday and Friday, the students did a nice job on Write Score - reading the passages carefully, then typing their essays thoughtfully and referring back to the texts.

     Along with our figurative language exploration in reading, we have been reading some of Aesop's fables and other folktales.  Some of our students have become rock stars at recognizing figurative language and using context clues from the text to figure out a character's motives and point of view in the fables and folktales!  Please continue to read nightly with your child for at least 20 minutes.  Having them read a few pages, then you reading a few pages is a wonderful bedtime routine that gives you the chance to talk about your child's book and increase their fluency.

      Thanks for all of your support!!

       Jenny M-G 

Adaptations Review for test on Tuesday, 11/15

Chapter 6 Review answers

                (pages 258-259)

 

1.  Migrate

2.  Adaptation

3.  Trait

4.  Hibernation

5. Survive

6.  Reproduce

7.  D.  Webbed feet

8.  B.  Its heart beats slower.

9.  B.  A fly with stripes like a bee’s

10.  C.  Migrating

11.  A.  It blends in with its environment

12.  A.  to attract insects

13.  D.  To keep water inside

14.  C.  They spin like helicopter blades

15.  B  In a forest.

16.  B.  Venus flytrap

17.  You should repeat the experiment to make sure your results are accurate.  By redoing (re=again) the experiment, you can find out if your interesting data was caused by mistakes you made, the way you did the experiment, or small differences in the things you were investigating.

18.  Marco’s model is like a seal because seals have a layer of fat that insulates them, or keeps them warm, called blubber.  Seals swim in very cold water like Marco used in his experiment.  His model is different because seal’s blubber is much thicker than the layer of shortening (Crisco) that Marco used in his model.

19.  The plant will most likely not grow well near Gina’s house because the environment in the mountains is too different from the environment near the beach.  For example, the soil and temperatures in the mountain region are different than the environment near the beach.  The mountain plant does not have the adaptations for growing near the beach.

20.  Possible answer example:  Skunks spray a smelly liquid when they are scared.  This adaptation helps keep predators, or animals that want to eat the skunk, away since the predators do not want to get sprayed.

 

 

 

Update 11/9 (3.2 math)

Dear Family,

 

Our class is starting a new mathematics unit about measurement. In this unit, students will measure time to the minute using both analog and digital clocks, solve word problems involving elapsed time, and estimate and measure mass and volume using grams, kilograms, and liters. They will also solve one step word problems involving mass and volume.

 

Throughout the unit, students work toward the following goals:

 

Benchmark/Goals	Examples
Tell time to the nearest minute on analog and digital clocks	8:22                                   Digital Clock                 Analog Clock
Solves word problems about elapsed time using a number line	Tonya wakes up at 6:45 a.m. It takes her 5 minutes to shower, 15 minutes to get dressed, and 15 minutes to eat breakfast. What time will she be ready for school?
Estimate and measure mass using grams and kilograms	A paper clip is about 1 gram               A liter of water is about 1 kilogram                                                                                                           Students use these benchmarks to estimate mass of other objects.
Estimate and measure volume using liters	About how many liters does it take to fill a bathroom sink, about 4 liters, about 40 liters, or about 400 liters? (About 4 liters)   About how many liters does it take to fill a bathtub, about 2 liters, about 20 liters, or about 200 liters? (About 200 liters)
Measure with a ruler to halves and fourths	Measure the picture to the nearest fourth of an inch.

 

 

The activities below are related to the mathematics in the measurement unit.  You can use the activities to enrich your child’s mathematical learning experience.

 

Elapsed Time around the House

 

• Provide blank charts and have your child fill out what they do from the time they get home to the time they go to bed. These can include sports, dinner, homework, television watching, etc. Starting and finishing times cannot overlap. Practice determining the elapsed time for these activities.

• Explore newspaper movie listings with your child, ask, “How long will this movie last?”

 

 

Exploring Mass and Volume on Food and Liquid Containers

 

Look at packages of food and liquid in your house and in a grocery store. Have your child estimate the volume of liquid containers and the mass of the food packages, and then look at the package to determine if your estimate was reasonable.

 

In our math class, students spend time discussing problems in depth and are asked to share their reasoning and solutions.  It is most important that children accurately and efficiently solve math problems in ways that make sense to them.  At home, encourage your child to continue to practice their multiplication facts and explain his or her math reasoning to you.

 

Representing and Interpreting Data

 

Discuss “how many more” and “how many less.”

 

Measure lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch.

 

Thank you for supporting your child’s learning.

 

Update for 11/9 (3.1)

 

       Our 3.1 class is starting a new mathematics unit about area and perimeter.  During this unit, students solve problems about area (the measure of how much space a figure covers) and perimeter (the length of the boundary of a figure). Students will also solve two-step word problems, identify arithmetic patterns, and multiply by multiples of 10.

 

 

Throughout the unit, students work toward the following goals:

 

Benchmark/Goals	Examples
Identify and find the area of given figures by counting square units or multiplying length times width.	5   What is the area of this figure?
	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10   I counted 10 square units.	2   I multiplied 2x5 and got 10 square units.
Find the area of shapes made of all right angles.
Describe and extend a numeric and geometric pattern.	Numeric pattern: 3, 5, 7, 9 Rule = n + 2
Use a symbol to represent an unknown number and find the value of the unknown in a number sentence.	The symbol represents an unknown number. If ▲+ 2 = 5, then ▲= 3, because 3 + 2 = 5. If▲ +▲ = 4 Then ▲= 2

 

 

 

The activities below are related to the mathematics in this unit.  You can use the activities to enrich your child’s mathematical learning experience.

 

 

Measuring Area around the House

Look for opportunities at home to talk with your child about area: the two-dimensional measure of the size of a surface.

 

• If you have square tiles covering a floor or bathroom wall, ask, “How many squares are there?”

 

Ask your child to help you figure out the area of a tabletop or the floor of a room by using different common objects as the unit of measure. For example:

 

• How many sheets of notebook paper would it take to cover the kitchen floor?
• How many index cards would it take to cover a table?

 

Marble Jar Start with 4 objects in a jar (marbles, pennies, paper clips, or some other small objects). Each day add 6 more of the same object. Help your child record how many are in the jar each day. Ask your child how the number of objects in the jar will change over the next few days. Repeat the Marble Jar activity with other numbers; start with 5 marbles, add 9 each day; start with 100 marbles, subtract 6 each day; etc.

 

Making Patterns Making repeating patterns is a great way to learn about them. At home your child may use coins, bottle caps, or buttons to make a repeating pattern. For example, make the following pattern: penny, penny, dime, penny, penny, and dime. Ask your child, “If the pattern continues in the same way, what comes next?” Then have your child make a repeating pattern for you to continue.

 

In our math class, students spend time discussing problems in depth and are asked to share their reasoning and solutions.  It is most important that children accurately and efficiently solve math problems in ways that make sense to them.  At home, encourage your child to continue to practice their multiplication facts and explain his or her math reasoning to you.

 

 

Thank you for supporting your child’s learning.

Update for 11/4

MATH UNIT 3 OVERVIEW for 3.1
In this unit, students will:

● Understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and addition.
● Find the area of a rectangle with whole- number side lengths by tiling it.
● Multiply side lengths to find areas of rectangles with whole-number side lengths in context of solving real world and mathematical problems.
● Construct and analyze area models with the same product.
● Describe and extend numeric patterns.
● Determine addition and multiplication patterns.
● Understand the commutative property’s relationship to area.
● Create arrays and area models to find different ways to decompose a product.
● Use arrays and area models to develop understanding of the distributive property.
● Solve problems involving one and two steps and represent these problems using equations with letters such as "n" or "x" representing the unknown quantity.
● Create and interpret pictographs and bar graphs.

MATH UNIT 6 OVERVIEW for 3.2
In this unit students will:
● Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes.
● Solve elapsed time, including word problems, by using a number line diagram.
● Reason about the units of mass and liquid volume. ○ Understand that larger units can be subdivided into equivalent units (partition).
○ Understand that the same unit can be repeated to determine the measure (iteration).
○ Understand the relationship between the size of a unit and the number of units needed (compensatory principle).

*Graph data that is relevant to their lives. While exploring data concepts, students should Pose a question, Collect data, Analyze data, and Interpret data (PCAI).