First off this week, I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy some quality time relaxing and enjoying family and friends over our break next week. My crazy family and I are venturing to New York City to enjoy the holiday, see the parade, and celebrate my birthday (a little early!) So excited!! This week 4th and 5th grade math students completed their first of five problem solving challenges with the November Math Olympiad contest. And I must say, they did AMAZING!! For the first time in my history at Werner, SIX students got all five problems correct (five 5th graders and one fourth grader.) We are off to an awesome start! The next contest will be December 17. Here are a few math updates for the month: 5th grade - We are in the middle of a unit on algebra and studying the uses of algebra in real-life. (I know you are asking, "Are there any?!") Of course there are! We have been applying geometry formulas to solve area/perimeter problems, as well as rate charts and graphs. When we return from Thanksgiving break, we will conclude this unit and move on to studying fractions (specifically multiplying and dividing them) in the month of December. 4th grade - Tomorrow 4th grade will take their unit test covering decimals, measurement, and converting measurements. Converting measurements is a tricky concept for 10 year olds (especially when converting from a small unit to a large one... for example 40mm = .04m) but with practice they are getting it. After break, we will be moving on to a unit on multiplication and then long division. 3rd grade - These students are in the middle of a unit on place value in very large numbers and decimals. This unit will continue after break before we begin a week on number systems from other cultures and then a geometry unit. Throughout each week we are also still focusing work on learning basic multiplication facts and also working on problem solving strategies (so they too can be successful with Math Olympiad next year.) And now for a language arts update: 5th grade - We have begun a study of poetry that will last through the month of December. While the students are reading novels in homeroom, in my class we are looking at different types of poetry, as well as different poets. Our time will be spent reading AND writing poetry and learning to love the uses of language and the creativity that poetry allows. Already just today I was amazed at the description and the imagery that was being created in their first attempts. 3rd grade - Third graders have been reading a book called The Green Book. The story takes place on a new planet "Shine" that is being colonized by humans who were forced to leave Earth (a little sci-fi genre for us.) The book explores many great issues for us to discuss (questions like how important are books, how do humans deal with change, how might life be different in the future.) We have been webbing ideas, images, key words, and feelings that appear within the story as we read as well as learning new vocab words (biorhythms and fodder for example.) Since some of these students have a creativity ID, we have also been doing projects related to creativity with the book. Those include creating a time capsule of important things from our lives on Earth that we would want to remember from 2014, writing a persuasive argument for what luxury item you would want to bring on a trip to "Shine," and in the coming weeks, we complete a book project of their choice to complete our work on this book and our work for this quarter.
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Have you walked by our classroom windows by the gym? You may have seen some posters warning you about the scary geometry monsters that were seen roaming the halls around Halloween! The fourth grade math students caught a glimpse of some of these crazy creatures and have created wanted posters so that the monsters can be stopped. You'll note there is a reward for their capture. Make sure to take a peek through some of the examples below and stop by our classroom to see even more. You could help us find and apprehend these beasts! Advanced Learning Plans (ALP) have all been emailed within the last 2 weeks. If you have not seen your child's ALP, check your email or let me know. I will be happy to email a copy again. I will remind you that one of the most important elements of the ALP is the box on the goals page that tells the services we will be providing at Werner this year. Feel free to email me questions, comments or concerns as you look these over. Included as the last page, you will notice a copy of the rubrics that we will be using to determine if your child has reached their goal. Below I have attached the academic goal rubrics for reading, math and creativity that we will use this year. Success criteria is listed in the box on the bottom of each form. If you have questions about affective goals and the rubrics associated with that, see my previous post (see Week 8 http://traceybean.weebly.com/blog/three-for-thursday-week-8) This week will be the first of the 2014-2015 Math Olympiad competitions for 4th and 5th grade. Students will have 25 minutes to solve 5 problems on their own. We will be participating in these competitions once every month November - March. Unfortunately, if students are absent for any reason, they are not allowed to make up that month's contest (the national competition rules state this.) At the end of the year, a trophy will be awarded to the student from Werner who gets the most problems correct throughout the year. Fifth grade will also have the opportunity to participate in a school-district sponsored team competition in May. We spend time in class practicing and working on problem solving skills to prepare for these. Here is the example problem we worked on this week (you'll have to email me your answer if you want to know if you are correct - or ask your 4th or 5th grade student!): Tracy's Trophies charges by the letter for engraving. There is one fee for each vowel and a different fee for each consonant. CAROL costs $31 to engrave. GABRIEL costs $43 to engrave. How many dollars does BRIDGET cost to engrave? Fifth grade language arts students finished their character analysis after reading The Westing Game this week. We had fun creating "trading cards" for seven of the main characters (out of the 16 total characters in the book!) The students had to draw a picture on the front and write descriptions, quotes, insights, and interactions. We also had fun, since the book is a murder mystery, dreaming up the alibis that the character might present when accused of the murder of Mr. Westing. Take a peak at their work: Fourth grade math began our exploration of decimals this week. My goal this year is to allow students to gain more experience with math in hands-on, problem-oriented ways. To that end, I am taking a class on teaching math through a math workshop model (in other words fewer worksheets with lots of problems more big problems with multiple steps and integrated math concepts.) Third grade's exploration using this model of teaching had them exploring ways to create decimals using base-ten blocks to represent and then converting that decimal to the fraction equivalent too. They had to work in teams and find a way to organize their thinking and then be able to present to the class their findings. Here are some pictures as evidence of our work: Finally this week, after a week of lots of political talk, let me spend just a little of your time sharing some info about a topic that seems to tie politics and education together - the Common Core Standards. These new standards are the first time that the education world has tried to establish national standards for education. Like all changes, this initiative has its plusses and minuses. Colorado has adopted these Common Core standards by embedding the common core into our own state standards to create the Colorado Academic Standards. Common Core standards get a bad rap, I think, because they have become part of politics. And they require education to change and adapt which can be a challenge. Plus closely tied to the standards are all of the testing measures we now require. All of this has given the standards a bad rap. But really our new standards in Colorado just begin to put a focus on problem solving and critical thinking (what we call 21st Century skills.) The new standards establish for teachers what must be mastered in each grade level before students move on to the next grade level where their new teacher will continue to build upon previous knowledge. In that respect, the Common Core standards are merely a guide for how and what to teach students. Take 3 minutes and watch this video to better understand the Common Core. This video comes from the website CoreStandards.org
http://www.corestandards.org/what-parents-should-know/ If you want to know what the math standards are for your child's grade level, PSD has put helpful links on their website at: https://www.psdschools.org/math/parent-toolkit/standards |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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