Next week is the first Math Olympiad contest for 4th and 5th grade math students. Tuesday, November 17, the students will get five problems and 25 minutes to solve them. This is a national competition that we participate in each year. There are five competitions - one each month November through March. My goal with our participation is to work on our problem solving skills and perseverance since these problems are not easy. Our school district sponsors an end-of-year, team competition for students too. Fifth graders will be able to join me on May 4 to test their math smarts - and have some fun! Here is an example of the type of problems students must answer (stay tuned next week for the answer!) Juan uses the digits 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 to make two 3-digit numbers. Each digit is used once. The numbers are subtracted. What is the greatest possible difference? Fifth grade math students have begun a new unit on graphing, data collection, and measures of central tendency. The last couple of days they have been surveying classmates, collecting data, and creating dot plots. In the next couple of weeks we will move on from line graphs and bar graphs to analyzing and creating histograms, stem-and-leaf plots, pie graphs, and also looking at how graphs can be created that persuade people. Here are a couple of shots of the students both creating and analyzing our dot plots this week. Forgive me, but I just have to make this a week all about 5th grade because not only did we do interesting graphing work in math, but the kids in language arts/creativity were sharing their deserted places descriptive writing. The assignment was to expand a moment that might be in a story where you (as the author) would slow down and explain to the reader the setting of the story. They had to pick one of the deserted places from the YouTube video (I shared it last week but posted it again here.) It was so fun to combine some Halloween spookiness, a tad of creativity, and their awesome writing abilities. And to top it off, as each student shared their work, they gave each other "glows and grows" feedback. They were so insightful with their praise and suggestions, and the writers were so willing to listen to the feedback without embarrassment or taking offense. We talked about how good writers are able to take good editor's advice - and they all did just that. Read a couple examples below and watch the video. See if you can pick out the scene that these two students were writing about. It was an old, old castle that you almost couldn’t see, because the trees had wrapped around the building for decades. There was no paint on the house at all. It was made completely of wood and brick. I heard leaves crunching, and looked everywhere for the thing that was making the noise. I quickly realized that it was my own, terrified feet. I tried not to pay any attention to the sound of an owl hooting in the distance, but in these woods, I was aware of everything. All of a sudden the air became thick with the scent of wildflowers and fresh leaves. I stared, and stared at the windows, but the ancient wood’s color made them unusual. The sunlight let in by a few gaps in the trees was beating down on my back, and making me feel weak. I tried to look away from the mansion, but my eyes were glued like magnets. Suddenly I felt my legs moving. Before I knew it, I was right in front of the wooden door. My hands slid easily across the smooth wood, but there was something odd about it. I felt for the doorknob, but there wasn’t one. Instead there was a small piece of wood to slip out. I slipped it out. I tried to stop myself, but it was no use. I took a deep breath. opened the door, and walked inside.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
Sign-up for updates: |
Knowledge Peak | Blog |