Matter & atoms

Homework:
Reading schema homework, due Friday

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
Purple group: Please finish your JUMP math packet from yesterday and Unit 3, pages 55-56.
Blue group: no homework tonight.
Fifth grade math:
They have two pages of homework this evening, which can be downloaded on Monday's blog.

Science
This week we have been continuing student independent research on their topic of interest related to oceans, but we have also launched a new chemistry unit on the elements. We started with a 3-2-1 thinking routine, where students wrote 3 ideas, 2 questions, and 1 metaphor or simile about the sentence "Matter is made of atoms." We talked about the 3 states of matter, solid, liquid, and gas, and watched a Bill Nye video about matter and atoms, which you can watch here: Video. We will continue thinking about these topics for the next few weeks, then repeat the 3-2-1 after the unit, so kids can see how much they've learned!

Fourth grade math
Purple group: Our question of the day: What happens to products when we double or halve factors? We started with quick image warm-ups, then discussed two related word problems. Students shared how they thought about putting 168 apples in bags if 28 or 14 apples fit in a bag. Then they worked on pairs of other problems that double of halve factors.

4th Grade Blue Group: The blue group learned how to break multiplication problems, like 17 x 31, into smaller parts to solve. No homework was assigned today.

Fifth grade math

Fifth graders played more Roll Around the Clock and did Show Me 1/2 work.

Good-bye Party

Homework:
30 minutes reading - reading log here
Fourth grade math homework

Purple group: Work for 30 minutes on your JUMP Math packet tonight

Plum: Option 1

Periwinkle: Option 2

Blue Group Homework: Multiples of 10 (started in class, pages 47-50)

Fifth grade math homework

All homework is available in one download: Homework this week

Good-bye party

Students each made a page for a special appreciations book for Calista today, and presented it to her at a party at the end of the day. Calista's mom brought two enormous hamburger cakes for us to wish Calista Bon Voyage. We all wished her best of luck on her adventure to Argentina.

Fourth grade math
Purple group: The purple group started with a mental math warm up. These activities are helpful to review different subjects, including time-telling and today, metric measurement. Mia shared that the way she remembers that there are 100 centimeters in a meter is to think of 100 cents in a dollar. Ronan pointed out that it can be hard to think of 100 as a 10, in the question: what is the nearest ten to 98? But 100 is a multiple of 10.

We also spent time breaking double digit numbers into a sum of a multiple of ten plus a unit, to make it easier to multiply. Students practiced this, then worked on their JUMP math packets. We also started talking about how to break numbers in ways that make it easier to double them.

4th Grade Blue Group: Today students practiced solving division problems with remainders mentally by skip counting. We reviewed multiplying with powers of ten working up to problems such as 20 x 13, and solving word problems with multiplication.

Writing partners & adjectives

Reminders:
Tomorrow is our student Calista's good-bye party at the end of the day. We wish her & her family all the best in Argentina.

Homework:
Be sure to turn in the Writing Plan and checklist sheet you used for your story if you did not turn it in today.

Word Study: Record your word sorts in your blue notebook. Be sure to write the heading of each set in the sort, just like in the book.
Green Group (Jeff's group): Sort 27 on page 107
Red Group (Stephen's group): Sort 3 on page 9
Orange Group (Stephen's group): Sort 24 on page 95

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
Purple group:
Practice multiplication facts for 10 minutes, using cards, Math Magician Multi, Pumpkin Multiples, Snowball Fight, or Patty's Paints
Option 1 (plum): Unit 3, page 49-51
Option 2 (periwinkle): Handout

Blue group: Knowing when to multiply or divide worksheet. From where you are, finish 2 pages (87 & 88 or 88 & 89).

Fifth grade math homework

All homework is available in one download: Homework this week

Writing partners & adjectives
Students met with a new writing partner today, and shared their story with them. Using helpful lists of adjectives, students underlined nouns and chose some adjectives they might consider adding to their writing, to describe things in more detail. We will be meeting weekly with our writing partners to continue the process of revising and refining our stories.

Cafe' Word: During word study we opened Cafe Word for business. As student await work in spelling groups there are menu items to choose from. Today's menu included Crunchy Crosswords and Thesaurus Soup.

Fourth grade math
Purple Group: The purple group had our weekly multiplication fact five-minute frenzy, where students try to improve their personal best by answering up to 100 multiplication facts correctly. Students looked over the past four weeks' work, and most were pleased to see that with practice they have improved their facility with these facts. Concentrating on one multiplication family at at time often helps; also thinking of a "trick," like building on other easier facts. Sofi was pleased to note that if you know 10x12 and 2x12, you can add the products to get the answer to 12x12. Students also completed a TERC assessment measuring their ability to answer 30 facts in 3 minutes, then answered the rest with unlimited time.

We counted around the class by 30s and 11s, then discussed the solving problem 15x13 using rectangular arrays. Amelia shared another way to think of this: 10x13 plus 5x13 (half of 10x13). Students worked on more multiplication problems involving multiples of tens, and why "adding zero" works: because we are multiplying groups of tens.

4th grade Blue Group: Today we reviewed the operations of addition, subtraction and multiplication to catch common mistakes being made with regrouping/carrying and process order. This was followed by a 5 minute multiplication facts test to keep track of progress with fact knowledge, then we resumed work determining when to divide or multiply.

Fifth grade math
5th grade mathematicians continued their work with clocks for combining fractions with unlike denominators. They worked diligently on Show Me 1/2.

Math games & self-assessment

Reminders:

Our fourth-grade student Calista will be leaving next week for an extended adventure with her grandparents, and she is transferring to a school in Argentina. Her good-bye party will be at the end of the day on Tuesday, Jan. 24. We will miss Calista and wish her all the best!

Homework:
Writing Homework: Due by Monday, 1/23

No math homework this weekend.

Self Assessment

This morning students reflected on their "Approach to Learning," using the same criteria teachers use for progress reports. We provided a rubric that spelled out what it "looks like" to stay on task, show pride in one's work, and many other criteria, at the Emerging, Competent, and Mastering levels, and students rated themselves. Figuring out one's strengths and challenges in how we learn is an important step for students to take ownership of their own learning and become lifelong learners.

Math games

The fourth grade met all together today to play games that strengthen students' computational skills, especially multiplication and division.

The Dice Game builds automaticity with multiplication facts.

MADS stands for Multiplication, Addition, Division, Subtraction, and builds fluency with all 4 operations.

The Leftovers game helps students divide and write expressions with remainders.

Oakland Museum Field Trip

Thanks to all of our chaperones today for an excellent trip: Monica, Don, Anne, Ashley, Larry, Keith, and Tara.

In the art gallery.


The John Muir exhibit.

And the docent led tour of the history gallery and Gold Rush exhibit.