Candy Division

A big thank you to Nick who filmed, edited, and produced the video. I hope this helps! Most of the kids are finding success with this method. Only a few of them are using long division.
The one mistake I often see is in the subtraction. Students will either skip the step of writing in how many total are coming out of the pile and then make a calculation error when doing the subtraction mentally. The other mistake is that they won't line the numbers up properly when writing in the total coming out of the pile and then make a calculation error from setting up the subtraction incorrectly.
Try a few at home!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Today we were able to look at the results of our Census at School questionnaire. We also reviewed the different types of graphs and what each of them are used for. In this conversation, we also talked about the difference between continuous data and discrete data.
Tomorrow, each student will use the data collected to create a bar graph and a pictograph of their choosing. We are still discussing wether any of the data we collected represents change over time which is what a line graph is best used for.

In Literacy, students were paired up for their in-class poster projects. Topics were also assigned. Today's step was to develop the questions which, when answered, will represent the content of our projects. We will be working on these projects one step at a time, together as a class.

Students had their first lesson with our CAT teacher whose name is Andrea. Normally she will be teaching them music but today, she did not want to deprive them of their gym time. Andrea is asking for each student to supply a recorder for the next time she is in (sometime in late October). She has suggested that the Dollar Store ones usually break easily and that one can be purchased from most music stores for approximately $10. Please contact me directly via email if you will have trouble acquiring one in time.

The Terry Fox run has been postponed! There is a note coming home and our new date will be next Wednesday.

Are the kids of Room 310 reading the blog? We spoke about it today and a lot of the students wrote down the address.

Here was today's CB: If Terry Fox was a superhero, what do you think his superpower would be and why?
I was really pleased to see that almost all of the students wrote an introduction sentence, followed by 2-3 sentences in the body, and included a conclusion sentence. Super powers ranged from super speed, super endurance, super immunity, and never ending hope.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Here was today's Daily Problem. See how you do:
There are a total of 18 animals in a field. Some are chickens, some are sheep, and some are cows. The total number of legs is 10 more than three times the total number of heads. How many chickens are in the field?

Today in math we also went to the computer lab and completed our census questionnaires. Tommorow we will be looking at the data and drawing some conclusions.

In Literacy, we talked about the steps to completing a research project.
1. Develop your question(s).
2. Look for research material that will have your answer(s).
3. Answer the questions in your own words.
4. Publish with pizzazz.

We will be using these steps to complete in-class poster projects in teams. I will use this opportunity to teach them the process of completing a project that they can feel proud of. Once we are done, I will assign them an at-home project.

I also introduced my first Desert Island Disc. I chose Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder. I spoke about how happy the piece made me feel. The kids actually used the musical definitions to talk about how he used pitch, dynamics, and tempo to create energy.
Next, I will create a calendar and assign them a date to present their Desert Island Disc. I will post the calendar and the expectations here on the blog when I am done.

Thank you for all of the kind offers. We now have enough donated duotangs and someone to record the Terry Fox documentary.

Have a GLEEFUL night!

Monday, September 27, 2010

I hope everyone had a lovely fall weekend. Here is what we did today:
Math-After our Daily Problem and Precision Math, we talked about the census. We are going to be participating in the Census at School. Here is a link if you would like to read more about it: http://www19.statcan.ca/10/10_000-eng.htm
Today, we focused on taking all of their measurements and talking about why a country might take a census. We also discussed why different countries have different questions on their questionnaires.
Literacy-For their communication books today, I asked them to summarize their weekends. I modelled that I wanted them to write an introduction sentence that stated the main theme of their weekend. I then asked for 2-3 sentences that went into more detail, and finally a concluding sentence to wrap it up on an interesting note. I also asked them to make sure that the body and concluding sentence reflected the theme outlined in their introduction. I was pleased to see all of the students follow the structure. I saw the word "friend" spelled correctly many times as well.
Afterwards, we used different resources to define the terms timbre, duration, dynamics, pitch, form, and texture as they relate to music. We will use these definitions in a year-long assignment I will call Desert Island Discs (an idea borrowed from Andrew). More about this to come later.
Next, Lynn joined our class. She began today by meeting with two small groups to do some guided reading. I met with a group to discuss summarizing. We read a touching article and then used a t-table to deciper the "Need to Know" information from the "Nice to Know" information. We then wrote summaries of the article from the "Need to Know" side of the t-table. Tomorrow, I will repeat this lesson with another group while Lynn meets with the two other guided reading groups. The other students worked on finishing their personal newspapers.
In gym, we began our unit on Ultimate by focusing on the throw and catch.
There are two notes coming home today. One is about the Family Breakfast and the other one is about the Tie-Dye workshop.
Please remember to hand in cheques only. It makes things so much easier. It would also be helpful to write your student's name and homeroom in the memo line.

All Terry Fox forms are due tomorrow. In order to account for all necessary volunteers, I need at least a day or two to process all of the forms. For this reason, I will not be accepting forms after tomorrow. Thank you for your understanding.

Have a wonderful night!

Condiment Election!

Today we participated in a great activity with all of the 5/6s. It was our condiment election!
We started by saying that we needed to divide all of the students up into groups. To do this, we asked them to choose what they would put on their hot dogs: ketchup, mustard, relish, a combination of the three, or plain. These then formed our "parties". Each group elected a leader and came up with a campaign slogan. Some groups, like the Ketchup Party, were bigger than others. We drew comparisons by saying that some parties, like the Liberals and Conservatives, are bigger while others, like the Green Party, are smaller.
We had a map that showed all of the homerooms or "ridings". Each group assigned one student to a riding. They tried to choose someone who used to be a part of that class to represent that you can only be a nominee in your own riding. Some parties only had 3 or 4 members so we explained that they could only be represented in 3 or 4 ridings just like the Green Party and how they may not be on the ballot in every riding.
The students then went out to the classrooms and collected votes. The results were tabulated and, just as they had predicted, the Ketchup Party won. Luckily, Jasper, the leader of the Ketchup Party, won in his riding and didn't have to kick one of his party members out. We fudged the results a little so that we could have an official opposition (Ketchup one in every riding except for two!). Malcolm, leader of the Ketchup-Mustard Party, was the Leader of the Official Opposition. We had so much fun that we ran right out of time. I will be having a concluding conversation with our class to wrap things up. Their homework tonight was to tell you about it. So, if you ask them what they did at school today, they aren't supposed to say "nothing", "I can't remember", or "ugghhhh".

In math, we all looked at different methods of solving word problems. We divided into groups and each group is creating a poster to outline a different method so that we can use them as tools in our room.

Please hand in your Terry Fox forms and remember to sign those agendas.

Wednesday, September 22

Math: The grade fives reinforced their skills in division. They began by discussing estimating quotients before calculating with Terra. Terra tells me many of them were confused by the lesson so we asked them to continue practicing with the candy division. I am trying to have a student film me doing the candy division so we can post it on the blog, but we've been having some technical difficulties. We hope to sort this out soon.
The grade sixes discussed factors and products with me. We talked about how multiplication is visually just a rectangle. Than we discussed the difference between numbers that only have one rectangle (prime numbers) versus numbers that can be represented by several rectangles (composite numbers). They reinforced these concepts with work from the text book.

Literacy: Today we discussed context clues and learning to find meaning for an unknown word or phrase from the context surrounding it. We then shifted gears to Social Studies. The grade sixes discussed what imports and exports are. They then worked with a map and a chart from Stats Can to identify our major trading partners.
The grade fives had an active lesson where we identified the major players in our federal government. They were assigned hats and roles to learn about the Queen, the Governor General, the Prime Minister, the Senate, the Members of Parliament, the Speaker, the Mace, the Judiciary branch, and the role of the people.

We finished the day with some fitness stations in gym and a review of some high-frequency commonly misspelled words. Ask them about the tricks we've learned to remember the correct spelling. This month's words are in their agendas.

We are also continuing to read our read-a-loud novel which is Surviving the Applewhites.

Please help make the agenda routine a regular habit.

Terry Fox permission forms were sent out today and I will be putting the Scholastic order in tomorrow.

Have a good evening!

Tuesday, September 21

At the end of the day, we wrapped up and reviewed what we had accomplished and learned today. Here is what the kids said:
I learned a new way to divide that works for me (a video blog to come shortly)
I learned how to summarize each paragraph as I read something. I can use the first and last sentences of a paragraph to help. I can also underline important words.
I learned about voing in Canada and why voting is important.
I learned how some words are spelled illogically and I also learned some tricks on remembering how to spell because, people, they, off, laugh, said, have, want, until, and friend.
I learned how to answer a "Would You Rather" question by starting with an introduction sentence, followed by two or three sentences explaining my choice, and finishing with an interesting concluding sentence.

All in all, a productive day. Please make sure the kids are reading at home and writing it down in their agendas.