Monday, September 26, 2011

California History Focus

Reminders:
  • Strawberry Picture Day is this Wednesday!  Send in your photo orders please.
  • Please send in your Scholastic book orders.
  • Please return the permission slip below and sign up to drive if you can!
Homework & Handouts
A little background about our current focus on California History:
Today the Strawberry students were introduced to Native American populations that made up California prior to European expansion (about 48 distinct groups). Last week we began our look at the first people in North America with an overview of current archaeological thinking about a migration occurring over 20,000 years ago across the Bering Land Bridge bringing people from the continent of Asia to North America. Today we read a genesis story from the Modoc people in Northern California. Along with explaining the formation of Mt. Shasta the story tells the ancestral beginnings of humans as a creation story. Juxtaposing these two very different ways of explaining the First People in California is an effort to help students understand the cultural significance of a group of people from past to present. Typically, the past three hundred years of expansion accounts for the context of the story of California, and it is my goal to help the students see a bigger picture as we discuss the dramatic changes that occurred over a relatively short period of time that shaped where we live today.
As the students continue their focus on Native American communities of the past, we will utilize modern technology to discover these same communities in the present by visiting tribal websites and links to current information.

Fourth Grade Math Question of the Day: What is the Commutative Property?
Fourth grade mathematicians are working on fluency with multiplication math facts. We learned about twin facts and how the Commutative Property helps reduce the number of facts to memorize. After figuring out which facts they did know, students used skip counting and array games to practice, or worked on finding patterns in the multiplication table (for example with the corners of squares made in the table).

Fifth Grade Math: 5th graders learned their first strategy for multiplying two-digit numbers. By splitting numbers into their extended form (59 becomes 50+9 and 41 becomes 40+1, so 59 x 41 becomes (50+9) x (40+1)), one can create a series of easier multiplication problems. They used an array model to make sure they had multiplied all the parts of these numbers, taking notes in their math notebooks and practicing independently.
This week's problem of the week (we'll work on it in class, but in case you are interested)


Jeff reads a creation story from California Native Americans.
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