4th Grade Math: No math homework due to Cerrito field trip.
5th Grade Math: No math homework due to Cerrito field trip

Other homework:
Work on Wordly Wise
End of year Appreciation Cards - Today the students are coming home with an envelope of appreciation cards.  Each student will write an appreciation for each classmate.  There is a list of names in the envelope.  It is a lot to do, but worth the effort to take time and think about classmates and how everyone contributes to our class community.  The cards are "due" by next Tuesday (a soft deadline that can be extended), allowing students to work on a handful each day. 

Update:
Holiday Party, Friday, December 21:  Please check the Wiki for our classroom Holiday Party signups! The students will be preparing lunch and decorating cookies along with other crafts and games on Friday, 12/21.  Each student is asked to contribute and item to the meal or cookie baking.
Sign ups for different items will be on the class wiki with the amounts that are needed. If there are any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

Strawberry Creek was full of emotions as new taxes were imposed on the students throughout the day. First thing in the morning, students were told they needed to pay a "door tax" of $50. Then they were forced to pay a "chair tax" of $50, a "table tax" of $50, and the already imposed "material tax" of $150. Emotions have ranged from anger, frustration, confusion, and suspicion. Many have talked about how the colonist must have felt and why they were so angry. Could they be catching on to something....?

In math today we continued our work in long division. We practiced the different steps and talked about remainders. We'll focus on long division until are mathematicians are professional dividers!

During our half class period students worked to show their knowledge of circuits, electromagnetism, coils, and electricity. They built their own circuits with the goal of spinning a compass needled and answered some questions about electricity and magnetism.

Some of our book clubs met and discussed their historical fiction books, while other continued reading and working on their book club jobs.

We played our handcrafted board games with our buddies today and the end of the day brought a special visitor! Chelsea, Lila Rose's mom, brought in their new addition to their family, Autumn Melody. Chelsea was fantastic enough to answer the kids' questions about babies, birth, and caring for a new human! We're looking forward to seeing Autumn grow and getting a first hand glimpse of a growing person.

4th Grade Math: Division and multiplication sheet
5th Grade Math: Math Packet

Other homework:
Finish Book Club jobs.

Update:
Holiday Party, Friday, December 21:  Please check the Wiki for our classroom Holiday Party signups! The students will be preparing lunch and decorating cookies along with other crafts and games on Friday, 12/21.  Each student is asked to contribute and item to the meal or cookie baking.
Going home with your child today is a letter about our holiday party next week, Friday 12/21. It lists the different ingredients we will be needing for our pasta and salad bar. Sign ups for different items will be on the class wiki with the amounts that are needed. If there are any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

In math club students mostly concentrated on a problem based on the popular carol, "The 12 Days of Christmas."  You can download the problem here--it reflects U.S. costs for 2012 for the various gifts in the song.  We were surprised by the cost and the number of total gifts!  A few people worked on puzzles, and students learned a couple of interesting math magic tricks involving the magic numbers 143 and 429. We ended by watching the first half of Vi Hart's "The Gauss Christmath Special."

4th Grade Math:  In math class we focused on adding more tools to our math toolbox by teaching the long division algorithm.  As a whole class, we went step by step through a problem and identified the right time to do each operation. Step 1= divide, Step 2= multiply, Step 3= subtract, Step 4= check, Step 5= bring down. We'll continue to work on multiple strategies to solve division.

Word study began with a test on the current sort for each group and catching up in Wordly Wise. Our goal is to be finished with Lesson 8 by winter break.


Science was full of inventing and discovering! After reading about Samuel Morse and the telegraph invention, students worked together to build their own telegraph and send coded messages to one another.

As part of the classroom currency simulation, we imposed our "Materials Tax" for Strawberry Creek. Over the past few days the students have had the chance to earn money for completing different tasks throughout the day-- going to math class, working during word study, finishing jobs, lining up, etc.

4th Grade Math: For homework tonight students are completing a page from their in class work about division, or have taken home Option 1 or Option 2 assignments. 
5th Grade Math - see Cerrito's blog
Word Study homework:  Create a word search with 10-15 words from your sort.  Do not solve the sort - you will exchange it in class with another student tomorrow.

Classroom Currency Simulation:  Your child may come home today talking about earning fake money in school, and that they are earning this money toward recess time.  And, it is so that in Strawberry Creek today we began a classroom currency activity.  This is a "simulation" designed to fit with our Cultural Studies curriculum.  You will probably hear more about it from your child tomorrow, and especially on Wednesday when the simulation has reached the intended goal.  Please note that this activity is not a behavioral or conditional reward system.  If you have any questions please let us know. 

Happy Friday!

Science Homework:  Electricity in Our Lives activity sheet to complete at home.  The sheet is due no later than MONDAY.


In CerritoBerry this morning we learned a new word game, similar to the board game Balderdash. Groups worked together to come up with a definition of a completely unknown word (words like flyspeck and cudbear). The other groups vote for the definition that they think is the closest to the real definition. The group with the most votes win. It was very interesting to see the definitions that came up to such unfamiliar words.


Math focused on multiplication (through the widely popular game, SKUNK) and division. After working for a little bit, we had a chance to play some math-related games!


Word study focused on our Words Their Way sort of the week through a BINGO game with small groups. We spent some time writing paragraphs based on our topics brainstorm earlier in the week.


Academic Flex started with a class meeting about activities that we can do during out last day of school before break. Many ideas were shared, some including making decorations, no "work', movies, Secret Santa, extra math (!), and a holiday show and tell. We'll put together all these ideas and come up with an awesome agenda for our holiday party!

Exploratorium Field Trip Success!

Homework:
4th Grade Math: Factor Packet is DUE tomorrow

Science Homework:  Electricity in Our Lives activity sheet to complete at home.  The sheet is due no later than MONDAY.

Our field trip to The Exploratorium today was awesome! Everyone dove into the electricity and magnetism exhibits right away! We were able to build our own series and parallel circuits, generate power with our feet, and explore magnetism in ways that are not possible in the classroom.

After completing the science tasks that were given, everyone had a chance to explore some other exhibits for a bit. We ate lunch outside and played some games before re-entering the museum. We explored sound, a cow's eyeball, optical illusions, and exhibits that challenged our minds and way of thinking. Overall it was a wonderful day! Thank you so much to our parent chaperones/drivers!

If this is unsettling, read the sign below!

A cow's eyeball!

Exposing the eyeball!