Ocean Research and The Gold Rush

Reminders:
Please sign and return the permission slip your student is bringing home for the field trip to the Oakland Museum of California on Thursday, January 19 from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Homework:

4th grade math homework, due tomorrow
4th Grade Purple group: Complete JUMP packet 3
Option 1 (plum); also practice multiplication facts using your multiplication cards
Option 2 (periwinkle)

4th Grade Blue Group: Blue group homework pages.

Science homework (due tomorrow): Ocean Zone vocabulary homework is due tomorrow. Use of a dictionary, ocean resource book, and/or the Internet will be necessary for this assignment. The following are sites with ocean zone diagrams that may be helpful. There are many more available online.

www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/ocean/sunlit/

www.mos.org/oceans/life/index.html

www.seasky.org/deep-sea/ocean-layers.html

www.eoearth.org/article/Epipelagic_zone

www.euromarineconsortium.eu/wiki/Deep_Sea

Ocean Research Project: Today the students began the initial step of beginning research projects about an ocean related topic. Many students chose ideas from the letter they wrote to us in December about topics. Students were introduced to the research notebook and folder in which they will keep track of information, store print outs and any other collected information as they pursue their topic(s). Some students may study more than one topic. Our main goal right now is collecting and recording information and sources. As we progress the students will write short essays about their research, draw maps or diagrams and culminate with a student designed project to teach others about their topic.

California Gold Rush: Today was also our kick off for a Gold Rush simulation activity. While we are studying the Gold Rush, we are also reading By the Great Horn Spoon, by Sid Fleischman following the journey of two characters from Boston to the gold fields of California in 1849.

Fourth grade math: In the blue group today, the students reviewed subtraction, addition, factors, multiples and multiplication with "carrying." Students are learning to apply the multiplication algorithm to solve word problems discussing sets of items, which will help us gear up for division.

The purple group today counted around the class by 7's as a warm up, then explored today's questions: How can we tell when to use division versus multiplication? What do we do if we can't share evenly? Students looked at a variety of word problems and situations, to determine what they knew and didn't know, writing multiplication and division equations to solve these. We also looked at situations where the objects can't be divided equally, and a remainder is left behind. Someone pointed out that if the remainder is equal to or more than the number of sets, then you've made a mistake.

Fifth Grade Math: We started off the hour with a fun warm up of a class favorite, "Pico, Ferme, Bagel." Then moved into the tricky class work of converting fractions into percents by creating a fraction ad percents equivalents chart. This should help them with their homework tonight and overall with the rest of the unit.

Quick writes, kelp forests & mix-it-up lunch

Reminders:
Please sign and return the permission slip your student is bringing home for the field trip to the Oakland Museum of California on Thursday, January 19 from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Homework:

Science homework (from Tuesday): Ocean Zone vocabulary science homework is due on Friday. Use of a dictionary, ocean resource book, and/or the Internet will be necessary for this assignment. The following are sites with ocean zone diagrams that may be helpful. There are many more available online.

www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/ocean/sunlit/

www.mos.org/oceans/life/index.html

www.seasky.org/deep-sea/ocean-layers.html

www.eoearth.org/article/Epipelagic_zone

www.euromarineconsortium.eu/wiki/Deep_Sea

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
4th Grade Purple group: Complete JUMP packet 2
Option 1 (plum); also practice multiplication facts using your multiplication cards
Option 2 (periwinkle)

Blue Group: Word problem page and practice multiplication cards (2 sided). Multiplication cards are in an envelope in the binder.

Quick writes
We began the day with students writing all they could think of on different subjects, like butter, bears, and pasta. This is a great way to get thinking flowing in the morning--students were eager to share.

Science
Students brainstormed in small groups all they knew about seaweed, then honed their observation skills by watching (without sound) a video about kelp forests, and discussing what they noticed. One student served as our example tree, and students figured out what parts a tree would need to survive on land, and what they would need to survive under water.  Small groups made posters on the differences between seaweed (actually a kind of algae) and plants on land.

Fourth grade math
In the purple group, students shared homework and completed a mental math warm-up activity. Then we discussed mathematical notation for division, and what each number represents in a division problem: the number of things shared equally, the number in each set (group) and the answer being the number of sets. Today's questions were: How can we use skip counting to divide? What is the relationship between division & multiplication? We learned how to write the four expressions that part of a multiplication/division fact family for a given situation.

Happy New Year!

Reminders:

We have a field trip to the Oakland Museum of California on Thursday, January 19 from 8:45-3:00 p.m., as part of our study of the Gold Rush. Please let us know if you are interested in accompanying us as a chaperone that day--it should be fun and very educational!

Homework:

Fourth grade math homework, due tomorrow
4th Grade Purple group: Complete JUMP packet 1
Option 1 (plum); also practice multiplication facts using your multiplication cards
Option 2 (periwinkle)

4^th Grade Blue Group homework: Multiplication worksheet.

Fifth grade math homework:

Work on Tuesday HW in the packet, a simple gathering of everyday uses of fractions, decimals, and percents.

Science homework:

Ocean Zone vocabulary science homework is due on Friday. Use of a dictionary, ocean resource book, and/or the Internet will be necessary for this assignment. The following are sites with ocean zone diagrams that may be helpful. There are many more available online.

www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/ocean/sunlit/

www.mos.org/oceans/life/index.html

www.seasky.org/deep-sea/ocean-layers.html

www.eoearth.org/article/Epipelagic_zone

www.euromarineconsortium.eu/wiki/Deep_Sea

We started the morning with a student search, where students looked for people who had done various things over the break, such as: read a book, traveled on a plane, stayed at home, visited with relatives. After snack, we also played the whole group game "When the Cold Wind Blows," finding things we shared in common. Re-establishing our community as we begin the New Year is important work that lays the groundwork for the exciting academic work students are embarking on this winter.

Fourth grade math

Today the blue group revisited our work in multiplication from before the break. We practiced partial products (multiplying by place value), and then learned the “traditional” multiplication method. The students practiced multiplying without carrying, and with carrying. Tonight’s homework is to continue practicing.

In the purple group, students started class solving as many multiplication problems from the times tables as they could in five minutes. Our goal is to build automaticity with these facts with repeated practice. Our question of the day was: How can we use sets (groups) to solve division problems? Using JUMP math, we practiced looking at situations to figure out what objects were being shared equally, what were the sets, or groups, and how many objects were in each group (set). Students in the periwinkle group had fewer division problems, and got some number sequence problems to work on instead.

Fifth grade math

We kicked the morning off with a little mental math, an important warm-up for the start of a new unit. Converting fractions to decimals and percents is what we will be working on in the next few weeks. I assured them that fractions are very useful in our everyday lives, and yes, not only for dividing pizza amongst a group.

Happy Holidays!

Thanks to all of your contributions for the holiday potluck today. It was a wonderful celebration and feast!

Students were busy making decorations and snowflakes this morning, and working in art. This afternoon we enjoyed a rousing game of Wells Fargo in the beautiful weather, and each person shared something they will do for another person over the holiday.

The students brought home copies of their Fort Ross historical fiction writing. The students who typed their revision have a Google document file (and is why some have odd formatting). The student files are located on a Gmail account (Strawberryfiles@gmail.com password: strawberry1310). See the "documents" section of the email account.

No homework over the break, but students should continue reading 30 minutes a day, and are encouraged to look for situations at home that require math.

May you all enjoy a peaceful and meaningful holiday with your families!

Art projects & Ranchos

Reminders:

Tomorrow 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:

4th Grade Math: No homework. Blue group students have been asked to show someone at home the multiplication we have been doing.

5th Grade Math: No homework, but see fifth grade math letter for unit that begins in January

Reading log due tomorrow.

4th grade Math: 

The blue group spent more time today breaking apart multiplication problems and utilizing their knowledge of powers of 10 to do mental multiplication of larger numbers. After the break we will explore other algorithms to perform multiplication before moving into division.

In the purple group, all the students took a short assessment of their ability to break big arrays into smaller ones and write these as equations to solve multiplication problems. Some students played Small Array/Big Array, while others finished up work on the Paper Pool project, coming up with rules for the pockets the ball falls into or the number of hits. 

Cultural Studies - This week we wrapped up our study of ranchos in California. After viewing short videos about the time period the students worked through a few chapters of information seeking definitions to relevant vocabulary, drawing trade maps, writing written reflections and finishing with creating a "diseño," or map. In the 1830's and 40's Mexico gave land grants to Mexican settlers in California. Part of the process was that the settler drew a map (diseño) of the territory they wished to be awarded showing the property and how it would be used. 

Art Project:  Students made collages, using found images to create faces.