First up this week, a quick update on what we are up to in math: 5th grade - I am certain if your child is in my 5th grade math group, they are feeling the challenge this week. We are covering scientific notation, negative exponents, and dividing decimals. All of these concepts are new to them and all of them are especially challenging concepts. They are being troopers as we try to build conceptual understanding (the "why") and procedural knowledge (the "how.") Our test over decimal concepts will be the end of next week. 4th grade - We just finished a unit on number concepts (order of operations, inequalities, basic algebra, and logic problems.) We are now diving into a unit on decimals which will include comparing decimals to the thousandth, adding & subtracting decimals. This unit also includes conversions within the metric system which relates to decimals when converting small measurements to large (example: 240 cm is 2.4 meters.) All of this will keep us busy for a few weeks. 3rd grade - Third grade took their test on our measurement unit today. After we have some Halloween fun with math tomorrow, we'll do a brief multiplication and division concepts unit. Then third grade will take its turn learning decimals which will be enough material to get us to Thanksgiving break (I can't believe I just typed that because it means the busy holiday season has begun!) For the second update this week, here is what my language arts groups are up to: 5th grade - In honor of the Halloween spirit, we have been reading a mystery novel (one of my childhood favorites that is a fantastic classic!) The fifth graders each have a character from The Westing Game that they are examining. They read the book over the last two weeks and are now creating a "trading card" complete with picture and info. These projects are due on Monday, November 3, when we will present their work. 3rd grade - We read the Eve Bunting book The Memory String and examined how the theme of "change" plays a part in literature. We'll continue coming back to this idea of change as we read more materials this year. We also began reading our novel for this quarter which is called The Green Book. Ask your child to give you a summary of what they know so far (lots of inferring skills needed in the first chapter as information about people and setting is limited at this point.) Lastly this week, I would like to provide you with a link you and your child might find useful as you work on math homework this year. Our district math curriculum is called EveryDay Mathematics. This publisher's website is very useful. It has copies of the study links in case your child forgets their copy. PSD has an older version of the curriculum but the study links are similar (but maybe not exactly the same.) I'll be happy to accept them though. There are also links to the Family Letters. Don't forget that the answer key is included in the Family Letter so you can help check our child's homework (from the link below look on the left side for the "Family Link" tab.) Click on the links here to access the appropriate grade level study links - but do keep in mind sometimes the homework isn't from our curriculum: http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/3rd-grade/em-at-home/ http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/4th-grade/em-at-home/ http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/6th-grade/em-at-home/ Not sure what the homework was? Use this link (also on the math page of the GT website:) https://planbook.com/planbook.html?t=974564&k=20142015
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Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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