Holiday family lunch potluck Friday

Reminders:

• Tonight at 6:00 p.m. your student is performing in the TBS Holiday concert at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda in Berkeley. We look forward to seeing all of you!
• Friday from 11:45-1:00 p.m. you are invited to join us for the class family potluck in the Strawberry Creek classroom. Please sign up emailing room parent Clare Woakes to let her know what you're bringing, so we have everything covered. Also, hot lunch people will get their hot lunch as part of the buffet. Please bring, by last name: A - G Main Dish, H - M Drinks, N - Z Dessert. Thanks!

Homework:
No homework tonight except 30 minutes of reading.
Fourth graders in the purple group should give parents their letter.

Fourth grade math:
Most students in the blue and purple groups have been working on breaking multiplication arrays into smaller arrays, to make it easier to find the answer to multiplication problems with bigger numbers. In the purple periwinkle group, students working on the Paper pool project used google spreadsheets to look at their data to find patterns and formulate rules.

Holiday concert tomorrow night, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Reminders:

• Tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 6:00 p.m. your student is performing in the TBS Holiday concert at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda in Berkeley. We look forward to seeing all of you!
• Friday from 11:45-1:00 p.m. you are invited to join us for the class family potluck in the Strawberry Creek classroom. Please sign up emailing room parent Clare Woakes to let her know what you're bringing, so we have everything covered. Also, hot lunch people will get their hot lunch as part of the buffet. Please bring, by last name: A - G Main Dish, H - M Drinks, N - Z Dessert. Thanks!

Homework:
Fifth grade math homework, due tomorrow
In the packet, downloadable on yesterday's blog (sorry that last night's homework was absent).

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
Blue group:
1. Finish cutting out the multiplication fact cards (pages 1-2, pages 3-6).
2. Label the back of each card with the answer.
3. Practice the cards (use the instructions) to separate them into two piles (fast and slow or don't know).
4. Write a hint on the front of the card for ones you need to practice.
5. Keep the cards in your envelope and place inside your RED folder.

Purple group:
Option 1 (plum): Continue making & practicing multiplication cards from Monday (see instructions from the blue group above); complete Tickets for the Play, Unit 3, page 6
Option 2 (periwinkle): Round & estimate with 100s and 10s

Hopes for the New Year Homework (assigned yesterday) is due tomorrow.

Fifth grade math

Fifth graders played a game of staircase to begin the day, a game in which the teacher rolls a ten-sided die ten times. Students place each digit that is rolled on the staircase in order to get the biggest possible number, smallest possible number, or closest to a number the teacher names. They practice reading their large numbers in front of the class. Then they practiced mental subtraction of large numbers and some division word problems.

Fourth grade math
In both groups, we did a warm up with Quick Images of dots in different arrays. Students shared math equations and how they saw the dots grouped.
Purple group: One part of the purple group continued work on breaking arrays into smaller parts to solve multiplication word problems. The other used a computer applet of the Paper Pool game to test systematically different dimensions to figure out rules for which pocket the ball goes in, and how many hits occur, looking for patterns and number relationships.
Blue Group: Our main focus today was to practice the multiplication facts from 1-9. In class the students tried a sheet of 50 problems in 5 minutes (sent home with the homework tonight). Our goal will be to increase the number of facts students can do in the 5 minutes by daily practice at school, and at home! The fact cards will be kept in the student binders for use nightly. The cards are also linked in the homework posting if you want to make a set to keep at home. Knowing the basic facts makes our work with multiplication and division more approachable.

Californios and Ranchos: Before the Gold Rush, California was part of Mexico. We recently learned about Mexico gaining independence from Spain, and the transition from a focus on Missions to ranching. During this brief period (1821-1846) Fort Ross was up an running, and Mexican citizens were acquiring large plots of land in California to develop ranching. John Sutter (of Sutter's Fort and Sutter's Mill fame) was from Switzerland, became a citizen of Mexico and acquired quite a bit of land in California. It is an interesting moment in time to consider especially given that evidence of Mexico is all around us in the many Spanish names for streets, cities, bodies of water . . .

Concert Rehearsal

This morning Cerrito and Strawberry came together to rehearse for the Holiday Winter Concert on Wednesday night (see below).

Reminders:

• Your students will be performing at the Winter Holiday Concert this Wednesday December 14, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church. We expect all children to attend, so please let us know ASAP if your child cannot attend. Parents are encouraged to bring cookies for the celebration if you can, and students are asked to dress in “festive holiday attire”--something colorful, slightly or fully formal, and fun.
• Please join us for our Holiday Family Potluck at lunch on Friday, Dec 16. Please bring a dish to share at 11:45 a.m. to the classroom; we will eat together from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. in Strawberry Creek.

Strawberry Creek Homework:

Fifth Grade Math homework
This week's homework is in two parts:

Part 2

Part 1

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
All students--Give your parents their letter (download here).
Blue Group Math homework
Purple group
Option 1 (plum): Multiplication cards, instructions & Unit 3, page 4
Option 2 (periwinkle): Estimating products

Hopes assignment: Due Wednesday, 12/14

At the beginning of the year, we wrote our hopes for the school year. Similarly, the holidays celebrated by many families during the winter, and the turning of the calendar to a new year, are often used as opportunities to think about what lay ahead. Take a moment this evening to contemplate (think about) your hopes. Write at least one sentence about each category below describing your hope. For example, write one sentence for your hope about Friendship, one sentence for Family etc.

Write at least one hope each for:

1. Your Family

2. Your Friendships

3. Yourself in school

4. Yourself out of school

5. Other – (world, people, nature, animals . . .)

Take your time to write neatly and clearly.

Proof Read for Capitals, Punctuation and Spelling. Have someone help you check.

Math

Fifth grade math: 5th graders are finishing up their short unit on subtracting large numbers and place value this week. They played a much more difficult variation of the game Close to 100 called Close to 7500. I tell the students that it is mostly a matter of finding seven-thousand four hundred ninety ten. In other words, it requires that you use a more advanced understanding of place value to add large numbers instead of an algorithm.

Fourth grade math:

Some students switched groups again today based on their performance on the pre-assessment, to begin our new unit called Multiplication Towers and Division Stories.

The blue group (reconfigured slightly from last week based on the recent multiplication pre-assessment) revisited multiplication today. We practiced skip counting to find facts and breaking multiplication problems into chunks to solve mentally.

In the purple group, students answered as many multiplication problems as they could in 5 minutes as a warm up, since we will be working on mastering automaticity with multiplication facts through 12. Then the students in the periwinkle subgroup, who have already mastered double-digit multiplication, worked on the Paper Pool project, in which they looked for patterns in the bouncing of a pool ball on different dimension grids. Students in the plum subgroup highlighted multiplication facts they are still memorizing on their 5 minute warm up, which they will use for homework tonight. Then we looked at breaking apart numbers in double-digit multiplication problems to make arrays, and students worked on solving a 12 x 14 word problem using this approach.

One Grain of Rice:
At the end of the day today we read the mathematical picture book, "One Grain of Rice," by Demi. If your child asks you for an allowance of one penny, doubled the next, and doubled again the next week and so on for 30 weeks, then you may want to read this book before you agree.

Musical Instruments & Upcoming Holiday Concert

Reminders:

• Your students will be performing at the Winter Holiday Concert this Wednesday December 14, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church. We expect all children to attend, so please let us know ASAP if your child cannot attend. Parents are encouraged to bring cookies for the celebration if you can, and students are asked to dress in “festive holiday attire”--something colorful, slightly or fully formal, and fun.
• Please join us for our Holiday Family Potluck at lunch on Friday, Dec 16. Please bring a dish to share at 11:45 a.m. to the classroom; we will eat together from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. in Strawberry Creek.
• Our buddies in the K/1 Laurel Creek class are collecting pennies for the Friends of Oakley charity. The Sweet Briar Creek class is collecting toiletries and gently used books for the Women and Children's Daytime Drop-In Center shelter. And the Temescal Creek class is collecting non-perishable, nutritious foods for the Alameda County Food Bank. Please talk to your child and consider bringing donations to one of these good causes by Thursday, Dec. 15!

No homework this weekend.





Musical instruments
The Cerrito and Strawberry Creek fourth and fifth grade classrooms enjoyed a presentation about musical instruments, as an introduction to a program they will be participating in for nine weeks from January 10 through March 14. Paul Dresher and his colleagues shared different kinds of hand-made instruments with the students this morning, like the mbira (thumb piano), drums, and other percussion instruments; wind instruments; and stringed instruments.

We also learned some science about how instruments work: ask your student to tell you more.


Fourth grade math
All the fourth graders played games together today, revisiting games we've played earlier this year, and building skills in computation and understanding of place value and probability.


Buddies
We read the book Weslanders with our K/1 buddies, about a boy who invents his own world. Then students worked together to invent earth-friendly vehicles.

Class potluck & giving opportunities

Reminders:

• Your students will be performing at the Winter Holiday Concert this Wednesday December 14, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church. We expect all childred to attend, so please let us know ASAP if your child cannot attend. Parents are encouraged to bring cookies for the celebration if you can, and students are asked to dress in “festive holiday attire”--something colorful, slightly or fully formal, and fun.
• Please join us for our Holiday Family Potluck at lunch on Friday, Dec 16. Please bring a dish to share at 11:45 a.m. to the classroom; we will eat together from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. in Strawberry Creek.
• Our buddies in the K/1 Laurel Creek class are collecting pennies for the Friends of Oakley charity. The Sweet Briar Creek class is collecting toiletries and gently used books for the Women and Children's Daytime Drop-In Center shelter. And the Temescal Creek class is collecting non-perishable, nutritious foods for the Alameda County Food Bank. Please talk to your child and consider donating to one of these good causes!
  

Homework:

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
Purple group
Option 1: complete your JUMP math packet PDM4.16-18 from class
Option 2: work for 15 minutes on the more challenging JUMP math packet PDM4 19-21
Blue group: No homework tonight.

Fifth grade math homework due tomorrow: see packet from Tuesday's blog.

Read 30 minutes and record it in the Reading Log from Tuesday.

Fourth grade math:
Today the blue group completed their data analysis unit assessments. The purple group continued their work with probability by analyzing the number of outcomes in different situations, and when the chances were even (1 out of 2) that a particular outcome would occur.