Wondering what you can do to keep your child's math skills going through the summer? The internet holds the key! If you do nothing else over the summer, PLEASE keep their multiplication basic facts fresh in their heads - through flashcards, games, verbal quizzes - whatever it takes! This will help them tremendously when we return so they are ready to add more math to their little brains.
Let me point you in a few directions that your student can use to practice their skills AND have some fun doing it. http://tenmarks.com/ All of the kids in my math classes have an account on TenMarks website where they can log in and learn as well as play games as they earn them. This is a great starting point! It is free if you are signed up under your teacher. https://www.xtramath.org/ All of the kids in my math class also have access to our XTraMath account. This site works on basic facts. Students must pass addition then subtraction before moving on to multiplication and division. No games here - just simple, quick practice. http://www.khanacademy.org/ Fourth graders all have account already up and running on the Khan Academy website. Anyone can sign up with an email address though. The website is free and provides videos and practice on EVERY math topic you can imagine. Again no games here, but a great place to practice skills. http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/cathymath.html Need some more basic facts practice? Choose +, -, X or /. Students can try to complete 20 facts with 100% in one minute. http://www.funbrain.com/brain/MathBrain/MathBrain.html This site has a math arcade for hours of fun. You will need to sign your child up and remember their password to return. http://aplusmath.com/games/ This website has a MathO game that is bingo for +, -, X or /practice. http://www.aaamath.com/ Across the top of this website is a list of the grade levels, pick the appropriate one. Then a list of concepts necessary for mastery of this grade level will come up. Scroll to the bottom to find the practice work. This is not the most user friendly website, but it does allow for focused practice on topics your child might be struggling with. http://www.mathcats.com/explore/mathcatsgames.html Silly game and logic and problem solving all with a cat theme! http://www.multiplication.com/ A GREAT website with a huge VARIETY of games to master basic facts (mostly multiplication but there is also a little of everything else.) http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html Just a great variety of games for learning. http://321know.com/sudoku.htm I know how many of your students love the logic and number puzzles I keep out for them. Here is a website to complete Sudoku online. Again I would emphasize, BASIC FACTS. Keep their multiplication facts ripe and we'll be ready to hit the ground running in the fall again with new concepts! Have a great summer!
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When my daughter was in 2nd grade, I got together 6 of my girlfriends and our daughters, and we formed a mom/daughter book club. We only meet every other month. We meet on a Friday night for an hour and have milk and cookies and discuss the latest book. The rule in our house is, if the book is for book club, we read it together out loud. My daughter is 12, and yet we still make the time to read a book together aloud each night. So if you are wondering what to do to entertain your children over the summer - NO matter how old they are! - consider picking up a good book and read it together. Here are some of the latest and greatest in children's books that I think adults will enjoy too: Patricia MacLachlan wrote the familiar book "Sarah, Plain and Tall" which is a book set in the good ol' days of farming on the prairie. "Kindred Souls" is her latest book in the same setting. It is not very long, but is an amazing well-written, easy read about a boy and his grandfather. Spoiler alert... grab the Kleenex box and keep it handy! I adore a book about a strong, female character who isn't afraid to be herself. Sheila Turnage's book "Three Times Lucky" has just that. Plus it is funny!! Mo LeBeaux is growing up in the south and waiting for the next big hurricane to strike while she tries to solve her family mystery. The book was one of the 2013 Newberry Honor books (the runner-up award for the best children's chapter books of the year.) And this book was the winner of the Newberry Award for 2013! And rightfully so!! Ivan, the gorilla, tells this story from his point of view from a roadside animal attraction. His perspective is simplistic and yet heart warming. Again get the Kleenex box ready! Sticking with the Newberry theme for a minute more, "The Graveyard Book" is also a previous winner. Neil Gaiman (wrote the book that the movie "Coraline" was based on in case your kids took you to see that movie) crafted this book about a real boy raised by ghosts in the graveyard after a tragic life event. Don't let the title scare you off... although it is a "darker" book, at the heart is a fantastic mystery (assuming your child doesn't have too wild of an imagination!) Take four young girls very different at heart and throw in the disappearance of their piano teacher and you get "The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls." Also throw in numerous "Wizard of Oz" references and some talking potatoes, and you have got one crazy, mixed up story that entertains. I could go on. I do LOVE to read, but that should keep you busy until the end at June at least! Go to the library and enjoy your summer!
I have had the pleasure of working with 4th and 5th graders identified in language arts this year. However, sadly our time together came to a close last week for 4th grade and this week for 5th grade. I look forward to seeing 4th grade again next year, but I am sad to see this talented, hard-working group of 5th graders head off to middle school. Here is how we wrapped up our time together: For the last couple of weeks, the fifth graders have been working in small groups to adapt a favorite children's book into a play fit for kindergarteners to watch. We had a lot of fun sharing them with three of the kindergarten classes on Tuesday. The kindergarteners got to laugh at "Tacky the Penguin," giggle at "The Lorax," and chuckle at "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig." The students did all the work themselves from adapting the script to directing to costuming and backdrop creation (the joys of technology meant creating a Power Point. The kids put a lot of work into their plays so it was a great way to end our time together enjoying one last fun example of how amazing they are. If you want to see the full collection of pictures, check out the slide show on the photos tab on the left. How are we spending our last full week together in math? Let me give you a final wrap-up for the year... The picture to the left is from the experiment 5th grade did yesterday. We have been exploring the ways that math and science converge in physics. Each day this week, we have taken one of Newton's Laws and performed experiments that show how each of the three laws integrate observations of our world, scientific findings, and algebra concepts to explain relationships between force, motion, and acceleration (plus inertia and friction and much more!) Fourth grade has not been left out of having fun. They have, however, been living a new life! In order to explore concepts related to financial literacy, each student has been assigned a job, a family, and a home. They have had to live a few days in their role and keep a ledger of expenses as they incur them. These have included paying rent, determining pay after taxes, grocery shopping, filling the car up with gas, providing family entertainment, and many more of the things that adults in real life experience in their lives as it relates to money. Their final grade will be determined not by the amount of money they have in the end but how accurate they were able to keep their family's books! Third grade has been completing our last unit of study - but it is a fun one too! We have been completing experiments related to probability We have designed spinners, discussed heads/tails, predicted outcomes of random drawings. Our conversations have focused on the ideas of predicted outcome and actual outcome (and the discrepancy that usually exists between those two.) Maybe 12 years from now when they go to Vegas, they will remember the lessons from third grade before they plunk down $100 on a risky game! This morning I was finally able to annouce the Werner winner for the Math Olympiad contest. Both fourth and fifth graders participated in 5 monthly contests with 5 challenging problems. Our Werner winner was... Calbert G., 5th Grade Calvin got 19 of the 25 problems correct! Calvin also received a pin for being in the top 10% of all students in the nation competing!
All students were given a certificate of appreciation today in class. There were also patches handed out to all students who scored in the top 50% during the course of the year. Students receiving that honor were: 5th grade: Jacob A, Ryan B, Maya B, Korben C, Joshua M, Ryan M, Jack P, Noah T, Charlie T,Thomas W 4th grade: Luke E, Evan G, Grace M, Gwen W Congratuations to all of the fourth and fifth graders for taking the risk to try a very challenging task and learn to become a better problem solver all year! |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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