Hello,
You should have seen some dragons come home to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Making the dragons in Art Class should help them with their clay face vessels next week.
Since we have only had one library class in the month of January, our class joined Mr. Sullivan's class for a quick almanac refresher. We were informed that this will make their next library class easier on them.
We discussed and got to experience angular momentum today. It's a tough concept to explain, easier to demonstrate. I used the minute physics website and Mrs. Palopoli's spinning wheel to help the class understand the science of why solar systems and galaxies tend to be flat. Cool stuff, albeit a bit beyond us. We'll start constellation studies tomorrow.
The lesson on possessive nouns went well yesterday. Today it got completely bogged down by the 3rd grade terms that we still haven't learned. Plural and singular nouns confused many. Proper and common nouns confused many. Asking for a singular possessive proper noun proved impossible. There are a whole slew of words that kids still see and say, "Oh yeah, that's one of those words that I ask someone about so I know it until the end of the activity and then I forget it." Painful. We'll go back at it tomorrow.
In math, we got into improper fractions. They have the tools to understand this now. It is time to let go of the side of the pool and think or swim. I mean think or sink.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Short Day
Hello,
After the kids went home this afternoon, the teachers gathered and got our first glimpse of the format for the Smarter Balanced test. This is the test that students will be taking in lieu of the NECAP starting next year. Unlike the NECAP, the Smarter Balanced is taken in the spring and is aligned with the new Common Core standards. We have a six hour "practice" session scheduled for our students in March. Our kids will need to learn how to manipulate the online graphing tools, some special function buttons, and the odd calculator (where they can create fractions) before they will be able to properly input their answers. I don't really want to spend much class time on that, especially for a practice test.
Math class was cancelled today. I went with Plan B. We wrote paragraphs that contained a command, a question, and at least one compound word, homophone, possessive noun and contraction. I was happy to see the pre-writing thinking. I also gave them a lecture about the things in writing that I should no longer have to mention: punctuation, capitalization, margins, full sentences. If only that were true for everyone.
Which planet has a longer day than year? Your child should know.
I just chatted with a colleague for over an hour and now have lost my momentum. And it is almost 7:00. I'm leaving now.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
After the kids went home this afternoon, the teachers gathered and got our first glimpse of the format for the Smarter Balanced test. This is the test that students will be taking in lieu of the NECAP starting next year. Unlike the NECAP, the Smarter Balanced is taken in the spring and is aligned with the new Common Core standards. We have a six hour "practice" session scheduled for our students in March. Our kids will need to learn how to manipulate the online graphing tools, some special function buttons, and the odd calculator (where they can create fractions) before they will be able to properly input their answers. I don't really want to spend much class time on that, especially for a practice test.
Math class was cancelled today. I went with Plan B. We wrote paragraphs that contained a command, a question, and at least one compound word, homophone, possessive noun and contraction. I was happy to see the pre-writing thinking. I also gave them a lecture about the things in writing that I should no longer have to mention: punctuation, capitalization, margins, full sentences. If only that were true for everyone.
Which planet has a longer day than year? Your child should know.
I just chatted with a colleague for over an hour and now have lost my momentum. And it is almost 7:00. I'm leaving now.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Tuesday the 28th
Hello,
My nephew has been a manager of the Brunswick boy's basketball team for the past two years and Coach Hanson is letting him suit up tonight, so I'm going to make this short so I can run over to the high school.
We had our first Arts are Elementary session with Mrs. McCarthy. She taught us about the history of face vessels. They were made in the 19th century by African American slaves. Our children will get to recreate that art form in the next couple of weeks. Today the kids learned the history, saw a demonstration of how to make a vessel, and then made some sketches. We look forward to getting our hands dirty next time.
Ask your child about the Doppler Effect. If they run around the house screaming, you can blame me.
They should give you another science demo tonight on Newton's first and third laws. I'll find out what they did tomorrow.
Please be sure to read last night's blog. I heard from a few parents, but need a better sense of numbers to know how I should proceed.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
My nephew has been a manager of the Brunswick boy's basketball team for the past two years and Coach Hanson is letting him suit up tonight, so I'm going to make this short so I can run over to the high school.
We had our first Arts are Elementary session with Mrs. McCarthy. She taught us about the history of face vessels. They were made in the 19th century by African American slaves. Our children will get to recreate that art form in the next couple of weeks. Today the kids learned the history, saw a demonstration of how to make a vessel, and then made some sketches. We look forward to getting our hands dirty next time.
Ask your child about the Doppler Effect. If they run around the house screaming, you can blame me.
They should give you another science demo tonight on Newton's first and third laws. I'll find out what they did tomorrow.
Please be sure to read last night's blog. I heard from a few parents, but need a better sense of numbers to know how I should proceed.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Monday, January 27, 2014
Heads up
Hello,
Here's a heads up on a few things:
We have an early release on Wednesday at 1:00. The staff will be taking part of the Smarter Balanced test to see what type of computer skills are needed for our kids to be successful when they take the tests in March.
We are only three short weeks away from another vacation. Personal opinion: Two weeks off for Christmas, six weeks on, and then another week off, is not a recipe for learning.
A tentative date has been set for a stargazing night next Friday. I'll keep you updated on the location and the set day and time.
I'd like to get the class to Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. It used to be a fifth grade field trip at Jordan Acres. Our everybody or nobody policy makes that rather difficult. I'd like to see who might be interested in driving down with me on the first day of April Vacation (that Saturday). If we can get four or five interested drivers, I'm sure we could accommodate the whole class. It couldn't be affiliated with the school because of liability issues, but we could meet off campus and make a day of it. Here is the Plimoth website for anyone interested: http://www.plimoth.org/ Let me know if you'd be interested in allowing your child to go, or even better, driving some kids. For that matter, I'd love to see if anyone is interested in a spring day in Boston on the Freedom Trail. We could hit Lexington and/Concord as well. It seems a shame to pass up these hands on opportunities that are so close by.
And now the big one: Gettysburg. I filled out a bus quote website this weekend to see how much it might cost to charter a bus to Gettysburg near the end of June. The trip would also require 2-3 nights of camping. I think I could save us a bunch by cooking and being a tour guide. I wouldn't mind driving either, but I want to see bus costs. In a few short months we're going to be learning a lot about the Civil War, Gettysburg in particular. What a way to end their elementary years than a trip to the battlefield. I could work the camping skills into our homework clubs. Tempting? I'd love some feedback. It would also have to be unaffiliated with the school.
Those are a just a couple of things kicking around my head. Let me know if I'm nuts, or if you too would like to hit Plimoth in April, Boston, Lexington and Concord in May, and Gettysburg in June.
I hope I don't get in trouble for asking on this blog. I just look at our spring curriculum though, and I ask myself how this could best be learned outside a textbook, and site visits is my best answer.
Think about it.
Mr. Shea
Here's a heads up on a few things:
We have an early release on Wednesday at 1:00. The staff will be taking part of the Smarter Balanced test to see what type of computer skills are needed for our kids to be successful when they take the tests in March.
We are only three short weeks away from another vacation. Personal opinion: Two weeks off for Christmas, six weeks on, and then another week off, is not a recipe for learning.
A tentative date has been set for a stargazing night next Friday. I'll keep you updated on the location and the set day and time.
I'd like to get the class to Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. It used to be a fifth grade field trip at Jordan Acres. Our everybody or nobody policy makes that rather difficult. I'd like to see who might be interested in driving down with me on the first day of April Vacation (that Saturday). If we can get four or five interested drivers, I'm sure we could accommodate the whole class. It couldn't be affiliated with the school because of liability issues, but we could meet off campus and make a day of it. Here is the Plimoth website for anyone interested: http://www.plimoth.org/ Let me know if you'd be interested in allowing your child to go, or even better, driving some kids. For that matter, I'd love to see if anyone is interested in a spring day in Boston on the Freedom Trail. We could hit Lexington and/Concord as well. It seems a shame to pass up these hands on opportunities that are so close by.
And now the big one: Gettysburg. I filled out a bus quote website this weekend to see how much it might cost to charter a bus to Gettysburg near the end of June. The trip would also require 2-3 nights of camping. I think I could save us a bunch by cooking and being a tour guide. I wouldn't mind driving either, but I want to see bus costs. In a few short months we're going to be learning a lot about the Civil War, Gettysburg in particular. What a way to end their elementary years than a trip to the battlefield. I could work the camping skills into our homework clubs. Tempting? I'd love some feedback. It would also have to be unaffiliated with the school.
Those are a just a couple of things kicking around my head. Let me know if I'm nuts, or if you too would like to hit Plimoth in April, Boston, Lexington and Concord in May, and Gettysburg in June.
I hope I don't get in trouble for asking on this blog. I just look at our spring curriculum though, and I ask myself how this could best be learned outside a textbook, and site visits is my best answer.
Think about it.
Mr. Shea
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Band concert tonight
Hello,
The band concert for fifth graders starts at 6:30. If you're reading this on Thursday evening, you better get moving if you want to make it.
Homework club just finished. We had a variety of activities going on once the math and reading got done. Board games, basketball (knock out), hockey, bowling, and a Lego movie shoot were going on all at once. They have gained some pretty tight friendships in the class and it is nice to see.
In science today, the class got in the center of the lobby and played the role of the sun as individual students ran around us to represent the planets. Mercury went around in 4 seconds, Venus 11, and Earth 17. These were all approximations based on the actual times they take to go around the sun. Mars took 33 seconds, although we had to slow the God of War down a few times. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune never made it around, but would have if I had given them 6 min, 16 min, 46 min and 92 minutes respectively.
In math we finished up a little test for data purposes. You'll see them come home tomorrow.
We read the last half of the Illustrated Classic Comic Robinson Crusoe. Hard to believe that that book was written in 1719. Lots of great action and suspense. I hope this will spur some readers on to the full novel in the near future. For our purposes, it will now help with our current reading selections, since it is referenced time and again.
I hope to see you at the concert. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
The band concert for fifth graders starts at 6:30. If you're reading this on Thursday evening, you better get moving if you want to make it.
Homework club just finished. We had a variety of activities going on once the math and reading got done. Board games, basketball (knock out), hockey, bowling, and a Lego movie shoot were going on all at once. They have gained some pretty tight friendships in the class and it is nice to see.
In science today, the class got in the center of the lobby and played the role of the sun as individual students ran around us to represent the planets. Mercury went around in 4 seconds, Venus 11, and Earth 17. These were all approximations based on the actual times they take to go around the sun. Mars took 33 seconds, although we had to slow the God of War down a few times. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune never made it around, but would have if I had given them 6 min, 16 min, 46 min and 92 minutes respectively.
In math we finished up a little test for data purposes. You'll see them come home tomorrow.
We read the last half of the Illustrated Classic Comic Robinson Crusoe. Hard to believe that that book was written in 1719. Lots of great action and suspense. I hope this will spur some readers on to the full novel in the near future. For our purposes, it will now help with our current reading selections, since it is referenced time and again.
I hope to see you at the concert. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
My apologies
Hello,
Sorry about no blog yesterday. I had a meeting after Homework Club that went past 6:30 and then I had to run off to dinner.
We have started a mini unit on astronomy. Yesterday we tackled the Big Bang Theory. Today we talked about our solar system and the relative size of the planets. We hung our 3 foot sun on one end of the school and then walked 125 feet to where a 3 millimeter (diameter) Mercury would reside in our scale model. A 7.9 mm Venus (over another 100 ft away) and a 8.3 mm Earth (another 90 ft away) came next. (Please excuse my jumping from one type of measurement to another, and all of my parenthesis.) After placing a 4 mm Mars 170 feet further down the hall, we had to visualize where the outer planets would be orbiting. Jupiter would have been off school property. Neptune would have been 3km away. Pretty crazy stuff. I think the kids understood the point of the lesson: There is an awful lot of empty space in space.
The book Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. plays a major role in one of our class reads and was just mentioned in our class read aloud. I brought in my Illustrated Classic of the story (comic book version.) We got through half of it, projecting the illustrations on the white board. Now they should understand all of the references to the story that they are seeing in these other books. We'll finish tomorrow.
Band concert tomorrow. My policy is not to let kids call home if they forget homework or instruments. I'll probably allow the call on a concert night, but I hope they have learned to remember those things that are important to them.
No spelling test this week. I forgot to give the old tests back on Tuesday, so we'll get back at it next week.
It is late again. I need to go.
Thanks,
Steve
Sorry about no blog yesterday. I had a meeting after Homework Club that went past 6:30 and then I had to run off to dinner.
We have started a mini unit on astronomy. Yesterday we tackled the Big Bang Theory. Today we talked about our solar system and the relative size of the planets. We hung our 3 foot sun on one end of the school and then walked 125 feet to where a 3 millimeter (diameter) Mercury would reside in our scale model. A 7.9 mm Venus (over another 100 ft away) and a 8.3 mm Earth (another 90 ft away) came next. (Please excuse my jumping from one type of measurement to another, and all of my parenthesis.) After placing a 4 mm Mars 170 feet further down the hall, we had to visualize where the outer planets would be orbiting. Jupiter would have been off school property. Neptune would have been 3km away. Pretty crazy stuff. I think the kids understood the point of the lesson: There is an awful lot of empty space in space.
The book Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. plays a major role in one of our class reads and was just mentioned in our class read aloud. I brought in my Illustrated Classic of the story (comic book version.) We got through half of it, projecting the illustrations on the white board. Now they should understand all of the references to the story that they are seeing in these other books. We'll finish tomorrow.
Band concert tomorrow. My policy is not to let kids call home if they forget homework or instruments. I'll probably allow the call on a concert night, but I hope they have learned to remember those things that are important to them.
No spelling test this week. I forgot to give the old tests back on Tuesday, so we'll get back at it next week.
It is late again. I need to go.
Thanks,
Steve
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Some days are better than others
Hello,
Sorry about no blog yesterday. Yesterday was rough. My patience was really thin by the end of the day. It was quarter of seven by the time I sat down for the blog. I just didn't have it in me. I had already sent some emails that were probably a little too snippy. I just packed up and left.
I was upset with a number of things. In math I was upset that after two weeks of giving them strategies to understand fractions, their number one strategy upon hearing a fraction question continues to be to listen for someone to yell out the answer so they can immediately mimic that answer, regardless if it makes sense. I also had some behaviors that I had to deal with that they should know that I don't tolerate. I asked, "How long do I have to be your teacher before you realize..." a few times. Not my best moments. No one wants to be the "yelling teacher." It happened. I've moved on.
Today went better. We're using the National Geographic website to follow the explorations of Lewis and Clark. Our main character, Isabel, in our read aloud, Chains, has decided to spy on her Tory owner for the patriots. We went to lunch with our 3rd grade lunch buddies today. We worked with clay in art class. We learned a lot about how Hawaii came into existence as our 50th state.
I spent a little part of the day talking about the upcoming schedule. We will miss four class periods due to Arts Are Elementary. It is a fantastic program that brings arts to the classroom. We will be learning about and making our own ceramic face jugs made by southern slaves in the 1800's. Every Friday for most of the remaining year we will be having a local police officer come into our classrooms in conjunction with the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. Six hours of testing is on the horizon for the Smarter Balanced test prep test. More info on that to come.
Spelling test tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Sorry about no blog yesterday. Yesterday was rough. My patience was really thin by the end of the day. It was quarter of seven by the time I sat down for the blog. I just didn't have it in me. I had already sent some emails that were probably a little too snippy. I just packed up and left.
I was upset with a number of things. In math I was upset that after two weeks of giving them strategies to understand fractions, their number one strategy upon hearing a fraction question continues to be to listen for someone to yell out the answer so they can immediately mimic that answer, regardless if it makes sense. I also had some behaviors that I had to deal with that they should know that I don't tolerate. I asked, "How long do I have to be your teacher before you realize..." a few times. Not my best moments. No one wants to be the "yelling teacher." It happened. I've moved on.
Today went better. We're using the National Geographic website to follow the explorations of Lewis and Clark. Our main character, Isabel, in our read aloud, Chains, has decided to spy on her Tory owner for the patriots. We went to lunch with our 3rd grade lunch buddies today. We worked with clay in art class. We learned a lot about how Hawaii came into existence as our 50th state.
I spent a little part of the day talking about the upcoming schedule. We will miss four class periods due to Arts Are Elementary. It is a fantastic program that brings arts to the classroom. We will be learning about and making our own ceramic face jugs made by southern slaves in the 1800's. Every Friday for most of the remaining year we will be having a local police officer come into our classrooms in conjunction with the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. Six hours of testing is on the horizon for the Smarter Balanced test prep test. More info on that to come.
Spelling test tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
No time tonight
Hello,
Homework club just finished and I need to run to a 6:00 dinner. Lewis and Clark, Roanoke, Paul Bunyan, Stinky Cheese, fables, and unifix cubes were major contributors to our learning today. Ask away!
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Homework club just finished and I need to run to a 6:00 dinner. Lewis and Clark, Roanoke, Paul Bunyan, Stinky Cheese, fables, and unifix cubes were major contributors to our learning today. Ask away!
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Northern lights tonight
Hello,
I got an email this morning from a student's mom telling us about the aurora borealis is expected to make an appearance over Maine tonight. Get out there and take a look before bedtime. I don't know any other details, but I'm sure you could look it up.
We role played as map makers today. We paddled (walked) up and down the river (hallways) taking notes and measurements. We didn't explore any small offshoots (classrooms) of the main river because they were either small streams or not pointed west (so obviously not a water route to the Pacific Ocean). When we made it back to civilization (our classroom) we tried to use our notes to make an accurate map of the newly discovered river. We need more time before we submit our maps to President Jefferson, (Mr. Shea) but we are sure he will be impressed with our abilities.
We tried to divide up distances into fractions today in math class. We struggled there. When thirds and fourths and eighths collide, we had some trouble. Area and set models are coming much more naturally for them. We'll try again tomorrow.
In homework club, we didn't do any movie making. Members were either playing my old hockey game, which has become quite the rage, or building with K'nex. We have started constructing a five foot machine that will dwarf our Ferris wheel. Does ferris need to be capitalized? Yes, it does. I just looked it up. It is named after George Ferris, the inventor. You learn something every day, hopefully more than one thing.
After seven. Gotta run. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
I got an email this morning from a student's mom telling us about the aurora borealis is expected to make an appearance over Maine tonight. Get out there and take a look before bedtime. I don't know any other details, but I'm sure you could look it up.
We role played as map makers today. We paddled (walked) up and down the river (hallways) taking notes and measurements. We didn't explore any small offshoots (classrooms) of the main river because they were either small streams or not pointed west (so obviously not a water route to the Pacific Ocean). When we made it back to civilization (our classroom) we tried to use our notes to make an accurate map of the newly discovered river. We need more time before we submit our maps to President Jefferson, (Mr. Shea) but we are sure he will be impressed with our abilities.
We tried to divide up distances into fractions today in math class. We struggled there. When thirds and fourths and eighths collide, we had some trouble. Area and set models are coming much more naturally for them. We'll try again tomorrow.
In homework club, we didn't do any movie making. Members were either playing my old hockey game, which has become quite the rage, or building with K'nex. We have started constructing a five foot machine that will dwarf our Ferris wheel. Does ferris need to be capitalized? Yes, it does. I just looked it up. It is named after George Ferris, the inventor. You learn something every day, hopefully more than one thing.
After seven. Gotta run. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Hello Hello
Hello,
We worked on our explorer maps today. You should be seeing the poster sized map come home next week. It is due on Friday. We have been working on it from time to time throughout the year. Our homework was related to exploration. I'm asking everyone to be a map maker for the day. Make up a fictional place, use one from a book or series, or even map out your front yard. The possibilities are endless. We'll get into the challenges of being a map maker tomorrow, although I'm sure they will face some tonight.
In math we delved a little deeper into fractions of a distance. The difference between plotting a fraction on a number line and taking a fraction of a distance is definitely confusing some folks. I marked out some strips of masking tape on the floor, that we'll continue to use tomorrow to help us with our understanding. The homework is plotting fractions on a number line. I think they should be okay, but no worries if they have trouble. I didn't switch back and forth between methods, so they should be fine.
Book orders went home. I'll put the order in next Friday.
Our class is responsible for the morning announcements and pledge over the intercom. So far it has been a mixed bag. They are representing our class, so they need to go prepared. I know that the two going tomorrow have a plan and are prepared. I'm hoping to see more of that for the rest of the month.
I'm excited about our upcoming astronomy unit. Anyone with a telescope that we could use for a stargazing night? It would be nice to have at least a couple. I'm going to check with Curtis Memorial Library. I should have asked for one from Santa.
I'm off to hoop. Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
We worked on our explorer maps today. You should be seeing the poster sized map come home next week. It is due on Friday. We have been working on it from time to time throughout the year. Our homework was related to exploration. I'm asking everyone to be a map maker for the day. Make up a fictional place, use one from a book or series, or even map out your front yard. The possibilities are endless. We'll get into the challenges of being a map maker tomorrow, although I'm sure they will face some tonight.
In math we delved a little deeper into fractions of a distance. The difference between plotting a fraction on a number line and taking a fraction of a distance is definitely confusing some folks. I marked out some strips of masking tape on the floor, that we'll continue to use tomorrow to help us with our understanding. The homework is plotting fractions on a number line. I think they should be okay, but no worries if they have trouble. I didn't switch back and forth between methods, so they should be fine.
Book orders went home. I'll put the order in next Friday.
Our class is responsible for the morning announcements and pledge over the intercom. So far it has been a mixed bag. They are representing our class, so they need to go prepared. I know that the two going tomorrow have a plan and are prepared. I'm hoping to see more of that for the rest of the month.
I'm excited about our upcoming astronomy unit. Anyone with a telescope that we could use for a stargazing night? It would be nice to have at least a couple. I'm going to check with Curtis Memorial Library. I should have asked for one from Santa.
I'm off to hoop. Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Here we go
Hello,
Today was more like it. We're back in the swing of things. Our math class made some major strides in understanding fractions with numerators greater than one. The kids have been proficient at representing 1/4 or 1/8, but throw them a 3/5 or a 5/8 and we have had major problems. It hasn't been a worry because they just need more time mucking about with different set, area and distance models. Today that mucking around was paying dividends. We used Cuisenaire rods as a combination area/distance model and I could see the light bulbs coming on across the classroom.
For example, I would yell out, "Show me 4/7!"
"Of what?" they would reply, because they know that a fraction doesn't mean anything without knowing the whole.
"Of two orange rods and a brown rod!"
They then laid out the rods end to end and eventually would show me that four magenta rods are equal to four sevenths of the whole.
"Prove it!" I'd shout, only to get many replies like, "because one magenta is one seventh," or "seven magentas equal the whole."
Good stuff. We'll keep at it tomorrow. I've abandoned the book for a spell while we get these basic concepts down. No one should be multiplying or dividing fractions without a clear understanding of what a fraction is in the first place.
In literacy class, we read for information. We did a lot of skimming and then careful reading when we found our topics of choice. They are pretty good at this already. Much like paragraph writing, we just want to keep their skills sharp.
In our read aloud, we learned what an indentured servant was. Our main character, twelve year old Isabel, is being sold at auction along with her sister. Pretty sad so far. This book, Chains, will hit on a lot of the major topics that our country faced during the revolutionary and civil war time periods. The bonus is that it is extremely well written. I don't think that I'd attempt to read it to fourth-graders, but they are understanding it well and asking some good questions.
The final WWF election right before vacation was a major upset. The sloth took down the saola 10-9. I think we were all shocked. I think the sloth even got some sympathy votes from people so that it wouldn't be a blow out. Wow. I'm expecting to get our "adoption papers" any day now. Great job to most everyone. We did learn a lot. I now know what a saola is. I can't believe the Unicorn of the South East didn't pull it out. Slow and steady won the race.
Here is the link to the homework tonight:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/interactiveadventures/john-smith/
Look, learn, play.
Have a great night.
Mr. Shea
Today was more like it. We're back in the swing of things. Our math class made some major strides in understanding fractions with numerators greater than one. The kids have been proficient at representing 1/4 or 1/8, but throw them a 3/5 or a 5/8 and we have had major problems. It hasn't been a worry because they just need more time mucking about with different set, area and distance models. Today that mucking around was paying dividends. We used Cuisenaire rods as a combination area/distance model and I could see the light bulbs coming on across the classroom.
For example, I would yell out, "Show me 4/7!"
"Of what?" they would reply, because they know that a fraction doesn't mean anything without knowing the whole.
"Of two orange rods and a brown rod!"
They then laid out the rods end to end and eventually would show me that four magenta rods are equal to four sevenths of the whole.
"Prove it!" I'd shout, only to get many replies like, "because one magenta is one seventh," or "seven magentas equal the whole."
Good stuff. We'll keep at it tomorrow. I've abandoned the book for a spell while we get these basic concepts down. No one should be multiplying or dividing fractions without a clear understanding of what a fraction is in the first place.
In literacy class, we read for information. We did a lot of skimming and then careful reading when we found our topics of choice. They are pretty good at this already. Much like paragraph writing, we just want to keep their skills sharp.
In our read aloud, we learned what an indentured servant was. Our main character, twelve year old Isabel, is being sold at auction along with her sister. Pretty sad so far. This book, Chains, will hit on a lot of the major topics that our country faced during the revolutionary and civil war time periods. The bonus is that it is extremely well written. I don't think that I'd attempt to read it to fourth-graders, but they are understanding it well and asking some good questions.
The final WWF election right before vacation was a major upset. The sloth took down the saola 10-9. I think we were all shocked. I think the sloth even got some sympathy votes from people so that it wouldn't be a blow out. Wow. I'm expecting to get our "adoption papers" any day now. Great job to most everyone. We did learn a lot. I now know what a saola is. I can't believe the Unicorn of the South East didn't pull it out. Slow and steady won the race.
Here is the link to the homework tonight:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/interactiveadventures/john-smith/
Look, learn, play.
Have a great night.
Mr. Shea
Monday, January 6, 2014
Happy 2014
Hello,
I have a lot to say, despite a two hour delay and having both library and chorus in the afternoon. Unfortunately it is already 5:15 and I need to get on the road before it ices up too bad. I also need to do some chipping on my walk. This could be the last time we see above freezing and I need to clear out what I can.
Quick rundown: Our class is responsible for the morning announcements this month. Did your child volunteer? We started our Fairy Tale Jeopardy. How is your child's team doing? No math today. Our new read aloud, Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, started off with a real shocker. Ask about it.
Thanks for understanding. Homework club tomorrow.
Mr. Shea
I have a lot to say, despite a two hour delay and having both library and chorus in the afternoon. Unfortunately it is already 5:15 and I need to get on the road before it ices up too bad. I also need to do some chipping on my walk. This could be the last time we see above freezing and I need to clear out what I can.
Quick rundown: Our class is responsible for the morning announcements this month. Did your child volunteer? We started our Fairy Tale Jeopardy. How is your child's team doing? No math today. Our new read aloud, Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, started off with a real shocker. Ask about it.
Thanks for understanding. Homework club tomorrow.
Mr. Shea
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