I think it’s about time to create a post for the current status of our class.  We’ve covered quite a bit in the last few weeks of school.  September seems like yesterday.  Well, let’s take a look back to review some of the learning.

In the beginning of our school year we took quite a bit of time learning about our classroom.  This involves learning school policies, classroom processes, classmate names, etc…  Families really got swamped with information.  Hopefully, this was as stress free as it could have been.  Here are some of the key components of our community:

1. The Classroom Purpose
2. The Code of Cooperation
3. Classroom Jobs

The Classroom Purpose is really essential to all we do.  We visit it weekly.  The kids came together in the month of September and determined what we wanted for our purpose.  It all started with “Why did you come to school today?”  That simple question lead to the purpose you may have seen in newsletters, at the top of our blog site and above our classroom door.  See if your child can recite it for you.

The Code of Cooperation is another artifact that kids came up with to help build our classroom community.  They made suggestions for it and were responsible for documenting.  Again, we visit this often.  Your child may have already discussed it with you.  If not, ask them how it helps them to learn.

Sometimes the classroom operates a little bit chaotically if we don’t have people in charge of things like organizing the classroom library.  It just gets forgotten.  So, we’ve developed a team of people that have added responsiblities for helping out in the portable.  Again, this was student driven in terms of what the final picture looks like for our jobs team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more traditional learning that we’re all familiar with is ongoing in our little portable space.  So far, students have spent quite a bit of time reviewing old concepts from previous school years.  For instance, in math we’ve examined place value, adding and subtraction of multi-digit whole numbers and adding and subtracting of decimal numbers.  So, what might be new?  We’ve looked at converting numbers from decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals.  Kids have learned to write decimal numbers in word form.  Also, we’ve stretched numbers out to be in expanded form versus standard form.

In science, it’s all been new.  The focus was on environments, but more specifically on controlled experiments.  For instance, we discovered what caused acid in our fresh water aquariums.  Our class also learned about a special salt water environment, Mono Lake, and ran an experiment with sea monkeys, or brine shrimp.  See if your child can describe the typical controlled experiment.  The video below may help remind them.  Also, extend this learning by asking them to review the brine shrimp experiment with you.

Wow, that was a lot of information.  I could review more, but I think it would be good to cover what’s current.  Maybe your thinking, “What can we do at home to support learning in the classroom?”

• Math-Have your child practice multi-digit multiplication with whole numbers.
• Reading-Ask your child to read independently 20-30 minutes each night and follow up with them by having them write down a prediction for the upcoming chapters.  Ask them to share the story information that makes them think this prediction will come true.
• Science-Our next science unit will cover variables. Kids in our class need to be able to identify controlled variables, manipulated variables and responding variables.

In the future, most of our classroom posts will be shorter.  I’ll try to make them occur more regualarly throughout the school year.  I hope this will help you to understand what’s going on in Room 35.  Also, I hope it keeps you coming back for more information and begin to help create a relevant dialogue between you and your child related to learning.

 

It’s been a while since we’ve had a review of our classroom activities. Here’s an update of what we’ve been working on in Portable 35.

In reading, students are now finishing up their work with Nature’s Fury. Thursday we took the test for Theme 1. We’ve learned about comparing and contrasting, predicting, making inferences and sequencing events. For instance, kids watched a short video called “The Black Hole” to learn more about predicting and inferring.

After watching 56 seconds of the film stop it and make a prediction. What’s the man going to do with the Black Hole?

In math we’ve finished Unit 2, estimating sums and differences. This unit was also a review of adding and subtracting decimals. The results of our test should be coming home soon. Make sure to watch for your child’s Take Home Folder. A great way to review the skills in this unit is to watch the personal tutor online at Math Connects online. If you want to improve your math score and retest, look for the tutors that cover problems you missed.

For science, students in Portable 35 are learning more about environments. After trying to understand the Range of Tolerance of brine shrimp in salt water for Dr. Bryon, kids are now working on a project for Farmer John having to do with Range of Tolerance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farmer John needs to irrigate, or water, his crops. However, the state expects a drought next year and has asked him to use less water from the local river so that salmon will be able to run to their spawning grounds. Farmer john lives on land near the Puget Sound. He wants to know if he could use freshwater mixed with salt water. What’s your prediction? We set up 4 irrigation sources and kept everything else the same. We’re running another controlled experiment. Can you tell me what the manipulated variable is? Here’s a hint. The manipulated variable in an experiment is the one we changed. This is your challenge for the week. Good luck.

Last week in the classroom I began DRA testing students to get a better idea of where we’re at as readers. The DRA will allow us to understand 3 areas in reading. These include how much we like, or don’t like to read, our reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results should help us to think about some things we can do to improve our reading. Meanwhile we continued to read selections for the theme Nature’s Fury. We started reading a story titled “Volcanoes.” This was our first informative story, or nonfiction text. Can you remember the 4 different types of Volcanoes mentioned in the selection?

In math we have just finished up Unit 1 for Place Value. We will continue to take time to review the concepts for this unit throughout the school year. Don’t forget the idea I had you consider for place value. Remember that the patterns for place value all start at the ones place. So, there is symmetry around the ones. I explained that you might think of it as a solar system with the ones place being the sun. Check out an old post titled “The Center of the Place Value Universe”. I hope this helps to paint a clearer picture in your head.

Our class continues to explore aquatic environments. Kids finished adding notes and data to their fish logs. Also, we added new organisms to the tanks. Do you remember what they were? We removed some organisms from the tanks too. Unfortunately, some of our guppies didn’t make it. After learning that the acid in the water is caused by the fish we decided that it would be a good idea to change the water often. I guess we didn’t change the water soon enough. By the end of the week we put the fish back in our large classroom tank to be enjoyed and studied for the remainder of the school year. Make sure to have a little fun and hop on the FOSS Science website to play a little game with aquatic environments called the Virtual Aquarium. This game will help you practice what you learned.

Last we started to look at elements of art. Explain the art activity captured in the picture below to a friend or family member.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things to come in the coming week include:

Reading-Finish DRA

Writing-Finish “Letter to My Teacher”

Math-Begin Unit 2 Adding and Subtracting with Whole Numbers and Decimals

Science-A Special Science Project for Dr. Salina Bryan

Art-Tool Art

The challenge for this week…..

What type of Volcanoe is Mt. St. Helens? If you compare it to the Shield Volcanoes on the Hawaiian Islands, with Extraterrestrial Volcanoes on Mars what differences and similarities do you notice? Look at the USGS site for help.

 

 

 

 

Another week is complete. Our class is already off to an amazing pace. Last week our class finished the story “Earthquake Terror” by Peg Kehret. We focused on the literary elements in the story, sequence of events and making predictions as learning targets. Can you name all of the literary elements? Remember these elements really help to describe a fictional story. Also, if you can explain literary elements you have Knowledge for this skill on your matrix for Theme 1. Make sure you mark it off. Check out the video to jog your memory.

In math we’re getting a better idea of how well we’ve mastered our basic math skills. These are facts like 8 x 4. These facts are really helpful when we start to work on more challenging problems for math later in the school year. Also, our class studied place value. It’s important to see the patterns in place value. These patterns help us to decode numbers. Do you remember how many numbers equal a period? Yes, three. Every three numbers and the pattern starts over again. We separate these sets with a comma. Check out the video to refresh your mind.

Finally, we made it to science this week. Kids began to study environments. I was super impressed to see so many kids excited for our first investigation. We looked at all of the factors of an aquatic environment. Kids defined if these factors were living or non-living. Can you recall all of these factors for our aquariums? Kids setup these environmental systems on their desks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our challenge question this week, what’s the difference between fact and opinion? This will be important for both reading and science this school year. Play Binky’s Facts and Opinons to review this concept.

In review, during the last few days we worked very hard on building the supports that will help us to be successful with our learning. We watched a video about how 2 monkeys worked together to solve a problem. If monkeys can cooperate we should be able to as well. Together we developed a Code of Cooperation. These are the guidelines that will give us the “know-how” to act with one another. Jarell was the author for this document and helped to lead the activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to create more meaning behind why we’re at school we challenged ourselves to think of other reasons why attending school is important. The Portable People came up with some great answers.

“To learn about math, reading, writing…..”

“To go to college.”

“To get a good job after college.”

“To have a better life.”

This reflection helped us to form a better purpose for being in room 35 each school day.

Recently, our class had a discussion about why it’s important to read. We used an exercise called “The 5 Why’s” to help develop more meaning once again. I was pleased to see the responses our class came up with. The photo below illustrates our thinking.

In the next few weeks we will be focused on a Theme for reading, Nature’s Fury. Nature is the world around us. It’s the living organisms, the geology, the weather, etc… This theme focuses on how powerful, unpredictable and devastating the world we live in can be on a daily basis. Based on the way I explained nature, what images come to mind when I say Nature’s Fury?  Think about the state we live in. Tell your folks about the first story we read, “Earthquake Terror.”  Maybe they remember the earthquake in 1989 that shook the stadium during the World Series.

Also, we just started to investigate our math curriculum. Place value will be the big idea. You’ll be excited to know that there are quite a few online resources free to students at the Math Connects site.  Students can use these activities to supplement their learning. Sometimes there are tutors.  So, if you don’t understand something you might find a math tutor video for a lesson that will help you to make more sense for you learning.

Get ready to learn more about environments and the scientific process. 5th Grade science is just about to begin.  For a challenge question, “What comes to mind after looking at the picture below?”