The Super Duper Day - November 10, 2015

Hello families!

We had a busy day today. We did math, specials, and reading! We learned about place value and hundreds. We counted with benchmark numbers.

From,
Ivan

P.S. We had fun and a good day!

Hi Families,
Yesterday, we had a substitute. We had gym. We learned about long o words like globe. A globe is a ball that has continents and oceans on it. We read Don't Eat the Teacher, and it had sharks in it. My favorite was when it said, "Don't eat the teacher!!!"

From,
Garrett

Some pictures from last week (pumpkin pictures will be posted soon!!)

Our Morning Meeting

 Our first mystery reader! Sign up here to be one here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0b4aa4ad2da0fd0-mystery

Place Value Math in Small Groups

Module 3 Resources Now Avaliable!

Hi Families,

We have moved onto module 3 in math. I have updated the resources on the Parent and Family Resources page on this blog. This unit is all about place value. By the end of this unit, my hope is that students will have a thorough understanding of numbers, digits, and the value of each digit. They should be able to count with efficiency -- which means both quickly and accurately. This means that instead of counting by ones, we will teach students to count to benchmark numbers (also known as friendly numbers). Benchmark numbers are groups of tens or hundreds. Once at benchmark numbers, students will learn to skip count by tens or hundreds to get to their end goal. We will continue to practice skip counting -- counting at home is also encouraged! It is especially tricky to count across hundreds... for example 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130. Students often get stumped at 100, and say 101 when counting by tens. We will work with popsicle sticks and rubber bands to give students a concrete visual model when we are counting in class. Each time we get to ten ones, students will have to bundle together those ones with a rubber band to get to one ten. When we have ten groups of ten, we will bundle those together to equal one hundred. We will also learn many different ways to write the same number: standard form (also known as number form), expanded form, unit form, and word form.

Here is an example of each form with the number 352.

Standard form (or number form): 352
Unit form: 3 hundreds, 5 tens, 2 ones
Expanded form: 300 + 50 + 2 (looking at the value of each of the digits)
Word form: Three hundred fifty-two

I will continue to send home homework helper sheets daily. As always, please let me know if you have any questions as we move through this unit!

Also, I will be posting pictures from our Pumpkin Math Activity on Friday very soon -- stay tuned!!

Best,
Ms. Petzold

Wacky Wednesday - November 4, 2015

Hi Families,

Today we did math centers. We did lots of math. We are learning about place value. Today at recess we played basketball. We got books at library. For morning work we wrote phonics sentences for -ight and -ie long i words. It is Jeremiah's turn to be person of the day. We did a pinky greeting. We have been in school for 43 days. 43 has four tens and three ones. We are still reading The Absent Author and are almost done. Jeremiah - "I have already finished it and know what happens." We got to work with the teacher in small groups for math. We played race to one hundred which is a place value game. We were reading to self at the end of the day.

From,
Jeremiah and Joshua

Fabulous Friday - Friday, October 30, 2015

Hi Families,

Today we did a math test. It was hard. We worked on our bat packets. We read Stellaluna. We went on the chromebooks. We did Xtra Math and Front Row. I do Xtra Math at home everyday. We watched the kindergarten walk by with their Halloween costumes on. We wrote in our Friday journals. If parents have time, they can write back. We had Friday free time, we stayed inside. We will do pirate math on Monday so study this weekend! When you get five treasures (master five math facts) you get a prize from the treasure  box. We had a fantastic week.

Love,
Juliet

Pictures of our end of the day dance party over the intercom. Have a great and safe weekend! For all the families who celebrate Halloween I hope it is a great one! 

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Dear families,

Today was a great day! We went outside picking special leafs. We did a project and we put them on the bulletin board. We had to write adjectives about my leaves. If it is big or small or colorful. My leaf was red and orange. It is about four inches tall. I also did a good job with a lot of pluses. We also learned all about bats. It was so fun. Also we have a bat folder.

Love,
Keilyn

Funny Wednesday - October 28, 2015

Dear families,

We have a math test on Thursday. We went to music in the morning and we played instruments. It was fun. In music, there was a witch, goblin, and ghost. There was instruments that sounded like goblins marching, and an instruments that sounded like witches like "woooo" and the ghost sounded like "ooooooo". And the goblin was marching and Noah and Ezekiel did the drum. We went to the library and got books. I got the Absent Author which we are reading in class. For morning work we phonics sentences. We also had a bus evacuation drill this morning. We had to listen to the police officer. He told us safe things about the bus. Two eighth graders held our hands and swinged us down out the back door of the bus on a bat. We read a Scholastic news about bats. Bats are blind in sunlight. In math, we practiced word problems. They were ok.

You friend,
Kevin

Tape Diagrams!

Hi families,

Several parents have asked about the tape diagram strategy that has been on the homework the last few nights. This is a strategy we have been learning in class -- using the Read, Draw, Write strategy. First they should read the entire problem. Next they should go back and re-read and draw a picture to help them solve. Finally, they should write the answer as a statement. Please see the picture below for how to solve a tape diagram. Please also note how I re-write the answer at the end as a statement. It is essential that students understand what they are trying to solve for and to label their answers. Thank you so much to the families who reached out to me about this -- it is valuable feedback for me, and we will certainly continue practicing how to solve tape diagrams in class. Here is a link to a video about tape diagrams from the Eureka website: http://greatminds.net/maps/math/video-gallery/solving-word-problems-with-tape-diagrams Although it talks about third, fourth, and fifth grade tape diagrams, it is the same process we use. It will also give you a chance to see how they will be able to apply the strategy moving forward!

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help!

Example problem 1 - Finding the Whole: Bob has 27 legos. Javier has 30. How many do Bob and Javier have together? Draw a tape diagram to help you solve.

Example problem 2 - Comparing Two Quantities: Line M is 30 centimeters long. Line P is 42 centimeters long. Draw a tape diagram to show how much longer line P is than line M.

Smiles,
Ms. Petzold