Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up
This week students started a writing piece titled “ My Best Summer Memory.” Using the LEAF model (see Jupiter Grades for Handouts) students completed a graphic organizer that included a lead, 3 pieces of evidence and analysis, and a finisher. Students used this organizer to write a first draft. We followed this writing up with a lesson on revision, discussing things that effective writers do. Using Post Its, and a hand out on revision sentence starters, we had a musical chair, peer editing activity. We wrapped up our writing time this week by organizing our Google Drive folders, and starting a shared document that will be used to type the final draft of this piece next week.
During our project time, students have been working on their “Peace Quilt Squares”, that will become part of a larger Peace Quilt to celebrate a great peacemaker. This has been a cooperative group activity, requiring informational text reading, research, and team planning.
The quilts are beautiful and will be on display in the hallway next week.
Ms. O’s Math and Science Shout Out
Math 5: This week in math we focused on building rectangular arrays that allow us to deepen our understanding of multiplication and learn more about the numbers we were modeling. We made observations of pairs of numbers, ones like 15 and 17, observations like the factors of those numbers (we also called them the dimensions of the array), and whether we could build just one model or more than one. This was helpful in categorizing these numbers as composite and prime respectively. Students worked really hard on these tasks!
It’s busy in this class of 29, so we also focused on what it means to be a whole body listener, what Private Reasoning Time looks like and sounds like, and math talk with our dyad partner. Students have come with great skills in these areas, but there is always more to do! Touch base with your 5th grader around his/her own success in these areas.
Math 6: Students began several investigations this week to deepen their understanding of properties of numbers. We engaged in two explorations, one about ferris wheels and the other about cicada emergence. Both explorations involved finding common multiples and identifying the Least Common Multiple (LCM). We will tackle real life situations where finding the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) might be a useful understanding.
Students also had a chance to work on their Special Number Unit Project. I will be checking their book summaries this weekend and giving them the go ahead to write a children’s book about their number. Many have already begun. It is not due until the middle of October, but they are already tackling the short term scaffolding of the project.
Also, we will be having sessions on specific patterns in nature to follow up on the work students did this summer. Many students did not blog about patterns they recognized from photos they took, so I will reup the focus of this project on Monday, so all students know it is a required assignment.
We also spent half a class period looking at the math reflections and viewing benchmark examples of how to write like a mathematician. Students analyzed these responses according to the LEAF structure. The first true scored reflection will be some time next week. Students will receive a rubric for that assessed assignment so they know what is expected.
The quiz and test protocol is the following: Students will have a chance to correct their quiz or test in the classroom to earn up to 4 PRACTICE points (to be recorded in Jupiter Grades). Students did take a quiz this week, so you should ask and SEE how they did. You will find this assessment in his/her binder under the tab (quiz /test).
⅚ Science: From tossing the Earth around our class to digging into the soil, students are learning about the crust of this Earth. We engaged in a mapping task this week in order to enjoy this beautiful weather and observe patterns in what we see happening on the school campus. We had two enjoyable days outside, one was a 90 minute block in which we collected soil samples and look at an 18 inch deep soil profile. Students did a great job learning outside. I hope we can squeeze more of that in before the snow flies. There will be a quiz on Tuesday on the material we have covered thus far. Review sheet will go home on Monday.
Ms. Q’s Corner
CMP 7
This week we began the CMP (Connected Math Program) unit called Variables and Patterns. We started with an investigation on how many jumping jacks we could do over a two minute time period. We explored what happens to our rate as time goes on. We looked to see if there was a pattern in our tables and what story our graphs could tell about our performance. We have some very athletic students that were able to power through many jumping jacks. It was impressive! Students reviewed proper graph labeling and scale.
CMP 7
CMP8 We began the week experimenting with a the Connected Math 3 unit "Thinking with Mathematical Models. Students experimented with building paper bridges of various thicknesses and lengths and determined how each of these variables related to the amount of weight the bridge could hold. Students created tables and graphs and explored whether the relationships between the variables were linear or nonlinear. Students began considering rules that would allow them to extrapolate future values.
Science 7/8
Ms. Q received some "mysterious" powders. Table teams had to figure out what the substance was using their power of observation, and their understanding the physical property of density. The mystery was solved and students had a better understanding that knowing the density of substances can sometimes lead to its identification. We rounded out the week with investigating the physical properties of pennies and how the pre-1982 penny was vastly different from the post-1982 penny. We learned about different composition of those pennies and how their densities reflected that change. Incidentally, the pre-1982 penny is made up of 95% Copper and 5% Zinc, whereas the post-1982 penny is made up of 97.5% Zinc and 2.5% Copper. It has made me rethink my penny collection! We rounded out the week with our investigation of phase change. Using water as a control, students graphed the results of water's change from a solid, liquid to a gas. Next week we will compare phase change of other solids to water.
The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room:
7/8 Humanities: Over the past week, during our mornings, students completed some journal writing and handed in what will be their first graded writing piece of the year. Through their first table challenge of the year students discovered and learned the meaning of “Informative Writing” which will be our main focus for the trimester. To finish up our week students participated in the first simulation of the year! During simulations students and teachers take on roles in order to bring to life topics and units of study we are focusing on in class. This simulation focused on culture and the meaning of diversity. It was also meant to have students think about stereotyping, how culture can be developed, and how relationships between different cultures can be created and possibly broken. The simulation brought out high energy, great questions, thoughtful class discussions, and reflections. During our afternoon time together we caught up on Current Events through CNN Student News, and the help of Carl Azuz and his ever so “punny” news anchor skills. If you have never seen CNN Student News I suggest you watch it with your child sometime! It really is a great way to get caught up on what is going on in our world. As the week continued students completed their recipes for world peace, and began their work on the “Uniting Nations” project. The focus of this in-class project is to learn the basics of the workings of the United Nations and its connection to the Peace One Day project. Students are working in small groups answering questions such as: What is the General Assembly? What is the mission of the United Nations? Students will complete this project early next week, and we will begin preparing for our model UN!! Don’t forget Peace Day is on Saturday! What will you do to create peace on Saturday?
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