Math class updates for you this week. First off, third grade math class is learning to complete long multiplication and long division problems in our latest unit. The students have been working with multiplying and dividing money (dealing with decimals in the process which is extra tricky.). They have been doing a great job of persevering and learning to apply their understanding of these concepts in tricky problems and situations. Give them a 2-digit number times a 2-digit number and make them show off their new skills! Fifth grade math students is working on a variety of lessons. First off, we have the Stock Market Game going strong. All of the groups are invested in stocks right now and anxious to check their progress each Tuesday. Last Friday, we had a guest speaker, Randy Petrelli from Goodwin Financial. He talked with the kids about investment strategies and how to minimize the risks inherent on Wall Street. Here are a couple of shots from his visit: This week, fifth grade also began to explore ratio and rates. The students all had problems from the real world where they had to determine the unit rate of a situation (price per pound of bananas, heartbeats per minute of a blue whale, miles per gallon in a car, and many more scenarios.) Each small group was asked to create a rate chart and translate that data onto a graph, as well as create an algebra problem that related to their findings. Great application of learning to see how math is actually useful beyond Werner's doors! A couple more pictures are here and even more are on the photo page of the website. Last but not least, fourth grade math students are working with converting from fractions to decimals and to percent and looking at where in life do we really need to be able to perform these functions. We looked at a children's statistics picture book that shared data if the world were proportionally shrunk to 100 people what would be those 100 people's nationalities, languages, religions, and many more interesting data sets. We left off the week in the middle of our work showing that data in fractions, decimals and percent's. We'll finish that work and share our findings next week. Below are a few pictures of students working and the video we watched with some more fascinating information about the people in our world. I overheard one student, after we watched this video, say to his partner, "Watching a video like that makes you grateful!" I have to agree - check it out for yourself...
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Quick reminder that April is Parent/Teacher conference month. If you desire to have a conference with me about your child's work in my class, I am happy to set up a time to chat. I am available almost any morning before school except Tuesdays (due to staff meeting commitments.) I am so excited to see 5th grade's musical performances next week. I know they are busy with preparing for wax museum and gearing up for Eco Week. I have two more opportunities for students who are interested and have time to commit to one more thing. 1. I will be doing a session of Little Kids Rock on Fridays for ten interested fifth graders at lunch in April and May. Students will be provided a guitar and taught the basics of chord progression and contemporary music. The kids can bring their lunch to my room, eat, and then have some fun jamming! Sign up sheets are coming home in Friday folders. (FYI... this is open to all 5th grade students and there will be a lottery if there are more than 10 students interested due to instrument and space constraints.) 2. PSD is holding the second annual Mighty Math Minds Tournament at Bethke Elementary. I can take three teams of 5 students each. Your 5th grade math student should have brought home the sign-up sheet today. The only commitment is being available Wednesday, May 6, from 4-8. Dinner will be provided, and the event is free. I will be needing parent volunteers to drive though. Check your calendars to see if your student is available to join us for a night of fun competition. Click on the flyers below for more details: It has been great to have a whole week of teaching with no major testing going on. This has allowed me to get my third grade language arts/creativity group rolling. We have been discussing how we will conduct our literature circles this quarter and the jobs each child will have to help facilitate our novel discussions. The kids got their first book for the quarter, Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, and also got their first job assignment (either director, summarizer, word wizard, illustrator, or vacation.) Our first meeting is on Tuesday so make sure to check with your third grader to see if they need to read over the weekend to prepare. Since some of the kids are identified as creatively gifted, we try to take one day a week to talk about what it means to be creative and do lessons/projects that enhance their skills. Today we did a short but fun drawing. The students had a paper with what looks like a 2-year-old squiggle. They had to use their minds-eye to turn it into something that was more than just a scribble and make sure it was detailed and titled. I've included their pictures below since they were so fun! We had a beach scene with a squiggle wave, a skydiving scene with a squiggle rope, a whale king with a squiggle body, and more.... I hope you all had a fabulous break whether you traveled in state, out of state, or just enjoyed some extra time with your children last week. Here are a few updates and things we did in our first of the fourth (and final!) quarter of this school year: Spring Parent/Teacher Conferences are in April. I am available for conferences as needed before school any day but Tuesdays. Please let me know if you are interested in meeting with me or having me sit in on your conference with your child's homeroom teacher. In May, you will be receiving your child's final updated progress report and ALP (Advanced Learning Plan)related to their GT goals. When Colorado updated our state learning standards, they included standards in math related to financial literacy. Fifth graders in my math class will be learning about these standards through playing the Stock Market Game. The Stock Market Game is an online, free, educational program that allows students to actually trade real stock at the current value. Students in my class have a "business partner" that they work with to make buying and selling decisions with the pretend $100,000 they get through the game. Of course, the goal is to have more money than you began with. As the kids login to the program, they see how their stocks are progressing (or regressing!) and a ranking among students their age in our region of the U.S. for portfolio value. Here are a few more of the rules they must work with: *Work with your partner to make all decisions *$100,000 to spend on the stocks in the NYSE/NASDAQ (no bonds or mutual funds) *No margin trading (don't spend more than your $100,000!) *Must buy 10 shares at a time; can sell less *No "penny stock" (cost less than $3) *1% brokerage fee for buying AND selling *Purchases/transactions go through at 4:00pm eastern time *Trade ONLY on designated class trading days *No need to sell off at the end (May 8) And just for fun, we watched a silly video this week that (hopefully!) helped them begin to understand how the Stock Market works: Every quarter, I have the chance to meet with all of the GT kids at each grade level together to discuss their progress on their affective goals. Today was that opportunity. Here is a quick update: Fourth graders' goals this year relate to study skills and organization. Today we discussed strategies for effective studying and test taking. We also had some fun reading silly book about students taking standardized tests (a very timely topic considering what we have been up to at Werner lately!) Fifth graders' goals are centered on learning about healthy risk taking and dealing with making mistakes. We read true accounts of people who made mistakes that actually ended up with favorable outcomes (like the inventions of Velcro, chewing gum, sticky notes, and popsicles.) We also discussed professions where failure is a natural part of the job. Think about these situations: - Great quarterbacks only complete 60% of their passes on a good day. - Oil companies dig 10 wells to find 1 that will produce. - Actors auditioning for TV commercials hear no 29 times before landing a job. - Authors like John Grisham might be rejected 28 times before getting a novel published. Third graders' wrote goals this year related to peer relationships. Today the students worked with a partner to invent and complete a task. They had newspaper, tape, a cup, and paperclips to remove a special snack from the wall. They did a great job of working with one another and encouraging each other even when it was challenging. Here are a few shots of the cooperative fun (more on the photos page): I can't believe we have reached the end of the third quarter already! This year is flying past. Grades were due this week, and you will be receiving your child's latest report card after Spring Break from their homeroom teacher. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. One last quick reminder related to this is that ALP end-of-year progress reports will be coming in May. The timeline for this is: communicate ALP's in the fall, submit mid-year progress reports in the winter, and write up final ALP progress in late spring. Teaching math is different than when I was in school where the focus was on memorizing algorithms. Today in my math classroom, we certainly still spend time learning algorithms, but we also try to make sense of the concepts and apply them in the real-world. One of the ways that a student can begin to understand a concept (especially one that is tricky or confusing) is by creating mathematical models. In all three of my math classes, I encourage students to draw a picture or use a number line, or somehow make their thinking visual. One example of this from the past week was third grade's work learning to multiply fractions. What I love most about creating models/visuals with kids is that many times they will discover how the algorithm works before I even introduce it. Case in point: while folding and coloring rectangles to represent 1/2 times 1/3 and then 1/2 times 1/4, one of my students shouts out, "Wait - I think there is a shortcut. What if we multiply the numbers on top and then multiply the numbers on bottom? Don't we get the answer?" I didn't confirm or deny it yet. We tried a few more models and tried fractions other than unit fractions to test this mathematical hypothesis. Boy was that student excited when we were able to prove that he was, in fact, correct! See the pictures of student work below for one example from third grade for our model-making math lesson. It was a sad day in my classroom today as I said goodbye to my fourth grade language arts/creativity group. With the end of the third quarter comes my transition to teaching third grade next quarter. The great thing is I will see them all again next year, and I have to brag on the amazing job they did on their final projects for me. Each student has been reading a biography about a famous person from Colorado history. They wrote the ABC facts of their person's life and completed a project of their choice. Today they had the chance to share with a partner and with me. I am including a few of the facts I learned about their famous people and some shots of their sharing time (see the photos page for more of the shots from today.) Note: It was crazy hair day that day!! General William Palmer "V is for victorious because he built a good railroad." by Connor R. Well my Three for Thursday has turned into Friday this week. Busy at school and busy at home put me behind this week. PARCC testing for language arts is complete (except for one more session for 4th grade.) Next week 4th and 5th grades will be taking the math tests. Third grade will be taking their math tests after Spring Break. Thanks for supporting your children through this testing process. It has been a learning experience for all of us involved, and the kids have been very patient as we have dealt with technical issues as we transition this year to a computer-based test. Encourage your child to simply try their hardest and do their best. It was less than ideal timing on top of testing this week, but our last Math Olympiad competition was this week. The Math O folks in New Jersey pick the dates before the school year begins so even though it added one more thing to our busy week already, we persevered this week. The kids did great even though they were convinced one of the problems was impossible. See if you can solve it: Jimmy is filling up a pool using a large hose and a small hose. The large hose, working alone, could fill the pool in 3 hours. The small hose, working alone, could fill the pool in 5 hours. The small hose is turned on and allowed to run for an hour. Then the large hose is turned on, and both run until the pool is full. How many hours did it take to fill the pool?. Thursday, March 12, is my last day to have fourth grade language arts/creativity kids. They have their biography projects due that day. They have been warned that they have only two days in class next week (Tuesday and Wednesday) to work on their projects. Please check with your child and see if they need to spend a little time over the weekend getting ahead so they are ready for Thursday. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing facts they have learned about prominent people in Colorado history through their reading and research! Fourth and fifth grade math students will have their final Math Olympiad competition at Werner on Thursday, March 5. Remember that if students are absent, they are not allowed to make up the contest. However, it does not count as a grade so it just a missed opportunity for challenge and problem solving work. We will have a trophy at the end of the year for the student who got the most correct answers out of the 25 problems we have completed this year so this is the students' last chance to gain a few more points. Hard to believe but the end of the third quarter is already only two weeks away. Fourth and fifth students' grades are up-to-date currently. There will be limited time for math in the next two weeks as we enter our first phase of PARCC testing. If students have any fix-it work, they need to make sure it is turned back in before we leave for Spring Break. Quick update on where we are at in math classes... 5th grade - We have just completed an extended geometry unit on perimeter (including Pythagorean Theorem and circumference of a circle,) area (of rectangles, triangles, and circles,) and volume. We'll finish up the week with some work on surface area of shapes and begin to learn about the Stock Market so that when we return from Spring Break, we can begin trading using the Stock Market Game. 4th grade - These students are plugging away at fractions. We have worked on multiplication of fractions and whole numbers and have ventured into addition and subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators. We'll finish up next week with probability and have a test over this unit before Spring Break. 3rd grade - We are also finishing up a unit on fractions. Exploring mixed numbers and comparing fractions have been covered. We'll look at real-life situations with fractions and also look at addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators before we also have one more unit test before break. With the end of the quarter, unfortunately, comes the end of my time working with fourth grade language arts/creativity kids. We have two more weeks together. In our last days together, they are reading a Colorado biography. They have a two-fold project: 1. They must write the ABC's of facts from their person's life 2. Complete a project of their choice (either diary entries, cartoon, or 5 objects to represent their historical figure.) Fifth grade language arts students are jumping into nonfiction reading and research. Each student has chosen a topic and begun doing both online and book research. We are discussing finding relevant and credible sources on a web and also learning how to document sources. Students will be creating a project to showcase their learning. Check in with your child and see what their topic is and what they are thinking about for their presentation of learning. Projects will not be due until the end of March after we return from Spring Break. Fourth grade language arts/creativity students had a chance to show off their hard work this week. After finishing their novels about courage (Bud, Not Buddy or Hatchet,) they had a chance to synthesize their learning in book projects. Students created fictitious newspaper articles, character interviews, event timelines, compare/contrast Venn diagrams, new book covers, animal animations, and more. I took a minute to choose some of their work samples to share here. Our next project will be related to Colorado history biographies. Students just picked their books today. Interview your child about whom they chose and what we'll be doing in our last few weeks together before Spring Break. CMAS (also known as PARCC) testing will begin the first week of March here at Werner. Dates and times are being finalized now. I have mentioned before about the availability of the practice tests. I would like to strongly encourage you to follow the link here to check out the types of questions your child will be asked to answer for the math portion of the tests. PARCC has two separate testing cycles: Performance Based Assessment (PBA) and End-of-Year (EOY.) In March we will take the PBA tests. These are more explanation and problem-solving type questions. Ask your child about the practice tests we have all been taking in class and see how they are feeling about the test right now. They are challenging! Reassure your child that if they do their best and take their time, they'll be in good shape. To access the practice test for your child's grade level: http://parcc.pearson.com/practice-tests/math/ Scroll down and click on the grade level you are looking for You will see PBA on the left with options Click on "Computer-Based Practice Test" If you want to see the answer key: http://www.parcconline.org/practice-test-answers Scroll down and click on the Online PBA grade level of your choice And in light of CMAS (PARCC) testing coming up, I was reminded this week at a math training about how important our language we use when praise students. Carol Dweck, professor at Stanford University, has done extensive research on "growth-mindset" vs. "fixed mindset." These new state-wide tests are going to be challenging for all students. Therefore, students need to understand that it is through hard work and perseverance that they will be successful. And that applies not only to these tests but daily life in and out of school. This is especially relevant to gifted kids who have probably been told many times through their educational careers so far that they are very smart. They already feel the pressure to be perfect so that they continue to "look smart." We, as parents and educators, need to remind them that it is their work ethic and their attitude towards taking on challenge that will help them be successful. Take a moment to watch this video that shares examples from Dweck's research and reminds adults about how to praise students' effort... Fractions, fractions, fractions... that is what both third and fourth grade math students have been learning about lately in our class. While third graders are just beginning to understand equivalence with fractions, fourth grade is moving on to use equivalent fractions to create decimals and percents. Third graders master the concept representing fractions greater than one (otherwise known as mixed numbers) while fourth graders learn how to add and subtract mixed numbers (mastering those with the same denominator and beginning to understand what to do when they don't have the same denominator.) Regardless of which class you would peak in on, our focus is on truly understanding these concepts with visuals and manipulates, as well as creating number models and mathematical algorithms for our work. Fraction understanding is SOOO important in the elementary grades so both of these groups will be spending the next couple weeks making sure our learning is solid. Fifth grade is taking a test on our geometry unit on Tuesday. We have been measuring angles and looking at relationships of angles within polygons (new terms like supplementary, complementary, transversals, adjacent, and more have entered our daily conversations.) We'll continue with geometry for our next unit of study looking into concepts related to perimeter, area, and volume of different 2D and 3D shapes. I try to connect our classroom learning in math to real-world mathematics as much as possible. One of the ways that I work with fourth grade to do this is through Scholastic's DynaMath. Each month the students get a current-event magazine that has articles and math problems related to those articles. Students get their copy at the beginning of the month, and they have the whole month to complete it during class and some homework time. The last school day of each month, we take time to review the answers and discuss strategy. If you have a fourth grader, the kids get a paper copy each month. However, there is also a version online that includes videos and games. If you would like to check it out or your child would like to try some of the extra activities, you can login with the following steps: Go to http://dynamath.scholastic.com/ On the top right click on "Student Sign In" Our class password is - Werner1234 Have fun! Lastly this week, fourth and fifth grade participated in the the fourth of five Math Olympiad contest. There will be one more competition March. I had March 4th set aside for our school contest, however, because of CMAS (PARCC) scheduling and an already stressful day of testing, we'll complete our last Math Olympiad on Thursday, March 5. There will be a PSD Math Olympiad tournament Wednesday, May 6, at Bethke Elementary. Due to restrictions this year, I will only be able to take 10-5th graders. Please take a peak at your calendar to see if this date is available. I'll be asking for interested students to sign up after Spring Break. First for this week, a quick reminder that the 4th Math Olympiad contest in coming up on Wednesday, February 11 for all 4th and 5th grade math students. If students are absent, they will not be able to make up the contest (since this is a national contest, the rules are set by the Math Olympiad folks.) We do go over the results and answers in class so even if students are absent, they can still have an opportunity to learn through the problem solving and sharing we do. I just got the information about this year's PSD Elementary Math Olympiad tournament. Due to restrictions in number of teams allowed this year, we will only be able to take 10-5th grade students for 2 teams. The date is Wednesday, May 6. Please be looking over your spring calendar and talk to your 5th grader to decide if this is something they are interested in and have time to commit to. I'll be determining teams after Spring Break. There is one final Werner contest on March 11. On Monday, February 2, we celebrated the 100th day of school at Werner. For most of my groups it was a normal day. However, I decided this year 5th grade deserved a fun challenge. As a class, the kids worked alone and in partners to solve 100 problems. AND they completed their challenge (although we did need a little time on the 101st day to complete the last few.) I love that they were excited about math and every time they completed one problem, they promptly asked for another to help the group reach its goal. Here is a quick snapshot of the evidence of their hard work: This quarter I am working with 4th and 5th language arts/creativity groups. Both of those groups just completed literature circles and have this week enjoyed some culminating activities. 5th grade read When You Reach Me set in the 1970's. The girl in the book has a mom who earns a spot on "$20,000 Pyramid" so today the 5th graders and I used the game Outburst to create our own version of "$20,000 Pyramid." (We also found old YouTube videos of the original game with Dick Clark as the host.) We had fun with categories like popular kids Halloween costumes, things you find in a salad, words that begin with snow, and female fairy tale characters. Fourth graders have begun book projects on either Bud, Not Buddy or Hatchet. Neither book has chapter titles so for a creative project (and a chance to practice main idea) the kids had to give the chapters' titles as they read. They also have a menu to choose 2 projects to complete this week and next week. Our goal is creating quality projects based on our books with appropriate detail and visual appeal (this gets to many of the elements of creative we talk about.) Below are copies of the menus they have (click to enlarge.) Ask your child which projects they have chosen to spend their time on. We'll be sharing them in class at the end of next week. Now that we have arrived at the end of another month of school and the 100th day of school (officially for us on Monday!) here is an update on where each of the GT math classes have been and where we are headed. Third grade just completed our unit on geometry in both two dimensions and three. We also had our first experience measuring angles with circle protractors. Parents, you should be seeing your child’s test coming home in this week’s Friday Folder (although some of them took their test home for corrections earlier this week.) This week we have begun a chapter on multiplication concepts. This is an important standard for 3rd grade. We are working towards mastery of basic facts still but now completing lessons on application of multiplication in other areas of math and real life. Today the kids were challenged to consider how basketball and order of operations (especially parenthesis) with multiplication might collide. They had to determine all the different ways a player could score 10 points in a game with combinations of 3-pointers, 2-pointers, and free throws. The pictures below are a couple shots of the kids getting their problem solving rolling. Next week we’ll begin to get into multiplication extended beyond just one-digit times one-digit. Monday, February 2nd, 4th grade will take their 6th unit test of the year as we complete our chapter on long division, coordinate grids, and measuring angles. While long division was a challenge, coordinate grids has been easy, and measuring angles has been just right for requiring thinking skills. The biggest challenge with measuring angles is knowing which number to pay attention to on the protractor (identifying the angles first as acute, obtuse, reflex helps!) On Tuesday, we’ll kick off our unit on fractions which will consume the month of February while we learn about equivalence, adding, subtracting, and multiplying. Lastly, 5th grade just completed a test over our fractions unit. It was not an easy test, and I was very pleased with the students’ hard work and perseverance to do their best. Parents, you should see your child’s test in their Friday Folder this week. On Tuesday, we began our latest unit on geometry with first a review of polygons and quadrilaterals. We’ll continue with angle reasoning using supplementary and complementary angles. Today’s lesson required them to look for patterns in the interior angles of shapes like triangles and octagons. We have enjoyed some “spirited debate” the last few days as we remember the rules for quadrilaterals. The pictures below show a challenging activity we did today that required the kids to agree or disagree with statements like, “all squares are rectangles” or “a trapezoid is a parallelogram” or “a pentagon can have 2 right angles.” We are getting really good at visualizing our thinking with this unit. That was evident today as the kids drew pictures to prove or disprove their understanding. |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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