Movie Critics

This past weekend the students did a nice job writing about their favorite movie or television show.  We talked about giving good effort on this writing assignment, so they can continue to improve as writers.  As a class we discussed how a reader can find out quite quickly whether the writer gave their best effort on their assignment or not  The students agreed that we should use the word reason less in our writing too.  Overall I'm quite pleased with their writing.  A copy of Allison's homework assignment is shown below.  If your child is able to use his or her Google Account at home, feel free to allow them to do this.  It makes it easier for me to put their writing on the blog.

I think Masterchef Jr. is the best tv show ever. The first great thing is kids cook in a competition. I think this is cool because it will make other kids want to cook. For example my sister and I like to make cookies and torts now. The next reason is the kids sometimes go to different places. One time they went to a farm and at a different time they went to an amusement park. I found this show to be funny when the kids got to throw a pie in the three judges’ faces. The next interesting thing is when they went to a birthday party they split up into two teams. The kids had to make a meal the guests would like. I liked that because they had to work together as a team. The fifth awesome thing is at the end of the cooking season the last episode is so intense. There are two kids who make their own meal to impress the judges. One of these kids will win $100,000.  The last reason I like Masterchef Jr.  is sometimes their parents come to cheer them on. I think that is cool because it motivates the kids to keep their heads in each challenge as they go on. Those are some reasons Masterchef Junior is the best show ever.

Fables and Proverbs

As a class we first learned about proverbs.  The students learned that proverbs have special meanings about life.  One proverb we talked about is: One today is worth two tomorrows.  After learning about proverbs we talked about fables.  The students partnered up and read four different fables.  They worked on different reading comprehension strategies with these stories.  If you have time please talk to your child about the following proverb.  If your child comes back to our class and tells me its meaning I will make sure to give him or her a small prize.  You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

PTO Loan

After school, Joel and Joey attended the PTO meeting.  They presented the PTO with $100.  This was the final payment we had to make to them.  We have now paid back the $150 they loaned us at the start of the school year.  Our store has become profitable and we continue to work hard at earning money to pay for our cave field trip at the end of the school year.  Joey and Joel did a nice job presenting this money to PTO.

Rock Sorting

The students were given 12 different rocks.  They were asked to sort them into three categories.  The categories were igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks.  As they sorted them they were asked to explain why they felt each type of rock belonged in the category they place them in.  Our science time flew by, so we are planning on using more time tomorrow to finish this activity.

Logan and Caulden's Presentation

Logan and Caulden presented the information they learned about the three different types of rocks to the class this afternoon.  They created a poster to display their information.  The two boys did a nice job.

Fraction Starter

The problems below were some review fraction problems for the students to solve.  The photographs are of Sophia explaining to the class how she solved her problems.

Write a multiplication sentence for the apples above.  Write a repeated addition problem for this box of apples too.  If ⅗ of the apples will be used for making applesauce, how many apples will be used to make applesauce?

Make a eight inch line.  Divide it into eight equal parts.  Put a 0 at the first tick and a 1 at the last tick.  Fill in the rest of the fractions for your number line.  Circle the fractions ⅜ and ⅝.  From the fractions that you circled, which one is bigger.  Explain how you know this.

Make two hexagons.  Color in ⅙ of one of these hexagons.  Shade in ⅓ of the other hexagon.  What fraction is smaller?  Explain how you know this.

Create your own fraction problem.

Khan Academy

The students began math by working on Khan Academy.  They focused on the fraction lessons.  Some students found it helpful to use fraction tiles to solve their problems.