Update

We have been working hard in the classroom!  

We had our first night of conferences last night!  Thank you to all of the parents that came out; it is always so wonderful to meet all of you and talk about each of your children!  We will have conference on Tuesday morning and again next Thursday evening.  We are excited to speak with you about your child!

In math, we just completed our unit on Order of Operations.  The students really enjoy this unit, but still need to remember the order in which they should approach EVERY problem is using our rule of P (parenthesis) E (exponents) M (multiplication) D (division) A (addition) S (subtraction)!  A common mistake for many students has been remembering that when they get to multiplication/division or addition/subtraction, it is which ever operation comes first in the problem when you read it from left to right! Next week we are going to work on plotting points on a coordinate plane and also starting geometry!

In Science, we have been working on our light unit. We have discussed, in depth, how we see light/color, by discussing the parts of the human eye.  I shared a story with the students about having laser eye surgery to correct my vision-they seemed to really enjoy this. We finished our week by completing centers on light (we did several activities working with reflection and mirrors).  We will be finishing up our unit on light next week, with a test at the end of the week.  I also would like to dissect the cow eyeball right before break or right when we return from break, depending on how many students are leaving early for the holiday! Please look for a permission slip to come home early next week about this.  

Have a great weekend!  We hope to see many of you next week!

Reminders...

This Thursday, we will be having picture re-take day.  If your child needs to have their picture redone, please just send back the picture package that came home earlier this week.  This will be your child's "ticket" to get their picture redone.  There is no need to sign up, etc.

Tomorrow is our NA spirit Day!  The High School band, cheerleaders, etc. will be touring our buildings and playing our New Albany fight songs, etc.  Please wear NA colors tomorrow :)

Friday is our Day of Pink.  Students should wear as much pink as they can, to show their support against breast cancer.  

Fall conferences will not be held until mid-November.  We have had a lot questions about conferences, since middle school is currently holding conferences.  Please remember that the middle school is on quarters and we are on trimesters...so, we have a little more time during this grading trimester!

Math

Math

We have started our next unit on Place Value.  Students have been working to identify place value through the ten thousandths place.  We have worked on writing/saying numbers in standard form, expanded form.  Students have also been working on ordering decimals from least-greatest/greatest -least.  We will finish out this week by working on exponents.  Next week we will begin working with powers of 10's.  Please make sure that your child continues to practice their basic multiplication/division facts and record these on their math logs, which are due on Monday's!

The Wetlands

The Wetlands and More...

We had a great trip out to the Wetlands, last week!  Thank you to all of our parent volunteers that made our trip possible!  While we were out at the wetlands, the students were asked to find a decomposing log.  We wanted the log to be pretty far along in it's decomposing process.  They were then asked to observe the characteristics about the log (length, stage of decomposing, organisms that live in , on, or underneath the log).  The students really enjoyed being out in the woods...I have a lot of students that really enjoyed exploring the logs, finding organisms, etc.  

week #4

Week #4

We had a great week!  We have been working really hard in both subjects, even though we had a short week!  

This week we moved in to division.  We worked on 1- digit divisors for the majority of the week, including story problems where we needed to figure out what to do with our remainders.  Today, we grouped ourselves by self assessing...we grouped by 1 digit divisors and 2 digit divisors (which is a new concept).  As students caught on with 1 digit divisors, they transitioned to our two digit divisor group.  We ended our class on Friday by doing a quick check on a post-it to see how everyone was doing.  Based on the results, we will create three small groups for our work on Monday. 

This week in science, we worked on the scientific method.  We complete a couple of experiments and then learned how we would put this in to a presentation (like science fair).  The students completed a Skittles experiment today, which they will then use their information to create a mini-board on Monday.  We will then progress in to Life Science.

Week #3

Week #3

Well, we made it to week 3!!!!  I hope that everyone enjoyed their 3 day weekend!  The kids will get an additional 3-day weekend this weekend!  

Picture Day is Tuesday when we return, September 15th.  Please make sure that you send your child with their picture money on Tuesday!

This week in class we have been working hard on the beginning of Division.  We have gone over division vocabulary and also various ways to help us with a division problem.  Today, we also worked on our endurance of working on a challenging problem.  This was a very interesting task for many...it was hard for them to not ask questions, sit in their seat, etc. for 10 mins!  We worked on strategies on how to handle a large problem, with multiple steps...and then reworked our problem!!!  Next week, we are going to start working with long division!

In Science, we worked on the scientific method.  We discussed the steps that we need to take EVERY time we complete a science experiment.  We also completed 2 small experiments.  The students are really focusing on how to write a well-written procedure. They were challenged to make sure that it was a procedure without assumptions, or missing pieces.  This possess a challenge to many!!! We will continue to work on this idea!  Next week we will start our Life Science Unit.  

First Two Weeks!

First Two Weeks

Phew!!!!  These last two weeks have flown by!  We have really been working hard in math and science class.

In Math, we took a pretest last Friday on Multiplication and Division.  On Monday, I place students into small groups, based on where they tested/their knowledge of the content.  I explained that we would be working on multiplication (one x one, two x one, two x two, three x two, three x three, and decimals) for the next week or so.  Students have a menu of activities to complete for each level and take an exit slip at the end of class each day, in hopes to advance to the next level for the next day.  I have also been working with small groups to provide them with direct instruction on their particular area.  We will continue this next week and then advance in to division.  Please make sure that your child is studying their basic facts!!!  

Our Math Logs are due EVERY Monday!

In Science class, we worked in small groups to create a design challenge.  Students were to design a car that was built only out of edible items (THANK YOU to all of the wonderful families that donated supplies! We had extras items, and we will keep these for a reward for the students at the end of the trimester.)  The students realized with my rules, this challenge was not as easy as they thought it was going to be!  They could only place a total of 3 supply orders, and any supplies they took, MUST be placed on their car (this was the most challenging part!).  Students did a great a job working together during this challenge and never gave up!  On Wednesday, we "raced" our cars down a ramp outside of our classroom.  Many students were surprised that in the end, the car actually was able to make it down the ramp....some not all in one piece!  I was so proud of all of the students.  We finished out the week by learning about the various tools that we will be using in science class this year and now they are creating a tool poster to provide what the particular tool is and safety features for the tool.  

I am looking forward to another great week! 

Here are some pics of our completed cars!!!