Chemists Visit Strawberry!

Homework

4th Grade Math: No Homework tonight.  Enjoy the storm.

5th Grade Math:  Pages 15 &16

Sentence Structure:  Commas worksheet

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)

Wednesday, Theme Day: The student council decided to hold a class theme day this Wednesday. Strawberry's theme is "balloons."  The students are in charge of planning and decorating for theme day. 

Time to Return the Binder/Portfolios from conferences.  
Thank you. 16 back, only 4 to go!

Today in Strawberry:  Chemists Anne Baranger and John Hartwig (Strawberry parents in disguise) came to Strawberry today to lead a study about chemical reactions and helping the students develop their understanding of what is happening molecularly in a reaction. 

Chemists Anne and John lead the opening discussion.

Connecting our study of the atom to molecules.

Demonstrating molecules going through a chemical reaction with students playing hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

Watching a strawberry in hydrogen peroxide.

Raw liver and hydrogen peroxide has a dramatically foamy reaction.

Observing the temperature change.

Observing a chemical reaction to liver.

Recording data.

Adding items to the test tube of hydrogen peroxide.

Observing oxygen bubbles from the liver reaction ignite sparks on a lit match.

A rainy day recess project.

Thank you Anne and John!

Final Day of Puberty Ed.

Homework

4th Grade Math:  Option 1, Option 2 - Students began these in class on Tuesday.  Both assignments focus on addition and subtraction of decimals, place value and comparing decimal numbers.  Please complete the packet by Friday for our next math class this week.

5th Grade Math:  Optional - labyrinth project

Puberty Ed.:  Bring your Puberty Ed. booklet home and discuss page 24 with an adult in your family some time in the next few days.  We will not be collecting the booklets, but want to make sure you connect with an adult at home about what you have been learning.

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)


Time to Return the Binder/Portfolios from conferences.  
Thank you. 12 back, 9 to go!

Today in Strawberry:  Our final day of Puberty Ed was a review of information, answering more questions and visiting the Growingupcomesfirst.org website to view informational videos that are age appropriate for our students.  Ms. Divine concluded the session with a jeopardy style game.  The students collaborated to come up with answers to puberty related questions about material from the week.

Puberty Ed. jeopardy. Students worked in teams to answer Ms. Divine's questions.

Showing answers.

Our final minutes of Puberty Ed. and discussing the terms the students remembered from the week.

Chemical Reactions

Homework

4th Grade Math:  Option 1, Option 2 - Students began these in class on Tuesday.  Both assignments focus on addition and subtraction of decimals, place value and comparing decimal numbers.  Please complete the packet by Friday for our next math class this week.

5th Grade Math:  Optional - labyrinth project

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)


Time to Return the Binder/Portfolios from conferences.  
Thank you.

Today in Strawberry:  
Discussion:  We began a conversation about inclusivity at our class meeting.  The student used the talking sticks made last week in small group conversations.  Being our first time using them the kids are adjusting to how best to make it work in their group.  Each group tried different techniques of sharing the stick.

Puberty Ed class, which has been terrific.  The students are highly engaged.  Yesterday was a chance to learn primarily about changes in boys during puberty, and today was a focus on girls.  The kids have terrific questions and are learning quite a bit.

Chemistry was our main event today following up from yesterday.  The students have been visiting stations to test 8 different white powders with vinegar, iodine, fire, water and ph test strips.  They write observations and observe the powders with a hand lens.  The goal is to learn how chemists use tests to identify substances.  The final test was a mystery powder.   We will review the results later to determine what was in the powder.

The ph test.

Recording results of the water test.

Heat!

Foil shaped bowl with substance inside.

The vinegar test.

Color changes on the ph strips.

Call for All Binder/Portfolios to Return

Homework

4th Grade Math:  Option 1, Option 2 - Students began these in class.  Both assignments focus on addition and subtraction of decimals, place value and comparing decimal numbers.  Please complete the packet by Friday for our next math class this week.

5th Grade Math:  Optional - labyrinth project

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)


Time to Return the Binder/Portfolios from conferences.  
Thank you.

Homework

4th Grade Math:  Gallon Man packet.  Please complete the first two pages and either the chart or last page (liquid measure quiz).  The chart can be tricky, so don't expect each column to change by the same pattern.  Also, key information is that 3 teaspoons = 1 Tablespoon, 1 cup = 8 oz.  See photos below of our liquid measurement activity today.

5th Grade Math:  Measuring the labyrinth questions.

Words Their Way:  Complete your new sort by writing it in your spiral notebook.  Students in the Lexemes group are to focus on the page in their work book (15-20 minutes).

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)

Today in Strawberry:  This was our first day of puberty education.  Ms. Divine led the students in discussions and activities about differences and similarities about changes in puberty between boys and girls.  She created class agreements for our discussions, including:  Respect each other, no "eww" (substitute with "interesting," "cool," "wow"), and to keep the personal stories in the classroom.  She encourages the students to have an adult to talk to about the information and their questions as well.  

Sorting puberty terms.

Center section:  changes both boys and girls experience in puberty.

Liquid measuring during 4th Grade Math.

How many cups are in a pint, quart and gallon?  

This was new information for most students.

Some groups poured cup by cup into a gallon sized bucket.

Others tried the shortcut of using quarts.

In follow up classwork the students began to solve problems in ounces as well.

Pi & Buddies

Today in Strawberry:
This morning during Cerrito-berry the students measured circular objects to see how close they could come to finding Pi (3.14159...).  After measuring the diameter and circumference or pie pans, tables, plates and bowls they divided the circumference by the diameter.  Some measurements were so accurate the students final number was only off by a few thousandths (3.146...).  Lots of fun.

In 4th Grade Math we finished playing our new game from yesterday using decimal numbers then ended class with a final pie party including students reciting as much pi as they could after eating pie.  Many thanks to the Strawberry and Cerrito students who brought pie today to share.

This afternoon we met with our buddies to beautify the campus.  One group worked outside the back gate to clean and weed the green strip along the sidewalk, while others revamped the garden boxes Laurel Creek uses.

Calculating Pi during Cerrito-berry

Wow, that is close!

Cleaning the campus with our Buddies.

Shoes anyone?

Hmm?  Removing vines from the trees.

Working on the garden boxes.

More Photos

Homework

4th Grade Math:  Optional memorize PI (for Friday).  No other assignments tonight.

5th Grade Math:  1 page in your skills packet 

Science:  Finish science journal responses.  Remember: complete sentences that stand alone.

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Puberty Ed. is next week.

Photos that did not load yesterday of Chemistry and Talking sticks:

Talking Sticks

Chemical Reactions

Homework

4th Grade Math:  Decimal page and multiplication begun in class today.   Optional memorize PI (for Friday).

5th Grade Math:  2 pages in your skills packet (20 minutes worth)

Handwriting or Typing Practice (15 minutes):  Handwriting in workbook or go to "http://strawberry.typingclub.com/strawberry/" and enter your first name and the password, "strawberry"

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Puberty Ed. is next week.

Today in Strawberry:  Chemistry lab!  Today we explored chemical reactions using liquids and solids starring: water, hydrogen peroxide & vinegar as our liquids, and yeast, salt, sugar & calcium chloride as our solids.  Foaming, fizzing, exothermic and endothermic reactions!

This afternoon we made talking sticks with Gina to use for discussions and team work (photos to come).

Chemical Reactions!

More photos to come.

China Town

We had a terrific outing today in San Francisco's China town thanks to Kevin Wisney as our tour guide.  Kevin planned a route that took us in and out of alleys and past historical buildings while telling stories of the evolution of China town and the people who made a difference.  Photos below.

Homework

4th Grade Math:  Homework problems (due Weds.) Please note that the problems are challenging and the expectation is that students try them, but not that they can solve all of them.  Optional memorize PI (for Friday).

5th Grade Math:  2 pages in your skills packet (20 minutes worth)

Reading 20 minutes  (don't forget to record your reading in the planner)

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Puberty Ed. is next week.

 Entering under the gate to China Town.

 Grant Street, China Town!

 Waverly Place:  Building in the background built with bricks from the 1906 destruction, including klinker bricks that were scorched in the fire following the quake.

 Alley to fortune cookie factory.

 Kevin provided a selection of Dim Sum from a local restaurant at lunch in Portsmouth Square.

 Cityscape.

 Playground at St. Mary's square.