Week of February 4-8

Upcoming Events:
No School Friday Feb 15  and Monday Feb 18:  Presidents Weekend

Sacramento Trip Update:  Trip dates have been finalized.  Thur May 16 - Fri May 24.  First payments of $75 is due February 28.

Our first fieldtrip on a bus!

 Mira Mar Landfill Field Trip:
We were lucky to tag along with the 5th graders on a bus tour through Miramar Landfill to learn more about our personal trash and recycling habits.  Since our school is working toward sustainability and minimizing our consumption, this field trip got us thinking about what we could do in our school as well as home to work toward zero waste.
Back at school we had a recycling relay to test our knowledge of the difference between trash and recyclables.









In Math this week, PreAlgebra has been reviewing fraction addition and subtraction skills.  We practiced GCFs, LCMs and LCDs. We won't spent too much longer on this as it is a review of past years skills.  I found that many students in the class have not mastered operations with fractions so it is more important to me that this skill is practiced before moving on to other concepts that build on prior knowledge. (practice problems are on www.tenmarks.com  )
Language of math words and phrases students should know  for quiz on Tuesday are: factor, prime factorization, greatest common factor, least common multiple, least common denominator, equivalent fraction.

In Algebra, students learned about polynomials.  They found that expressions have first and last names such as x +1 is a linear binomial and x2 + 3x + 4 is a quadratic trinomial .  We learned how to add, subtract and multiply polynomials.  I introduced the FOIL method for multiplying two linear binomials together:
Ask your student how to multiply these two expressions together:  (x+5)(x+2)
Language of math words and phrases students should know for quiz on Tuesday are:  polynomial, term, degree, FOIL method.  

                           


Meanwhile, in science, we needed to prepare "blood" spatters to help us with our Murder Mystery. Science terms: adhesion, cohesion, surface tension and viscosity helped us to understand how fluids act on different surfaces and at different angles.  Our prepared blood spatters will be used next week along with a small lesson in geometry to find the angle of impact and possible position of our victim when foul play occurred  at the crime scene.

Jan 22-Feb 1 Prep, POLs and Riley's Farm

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday after  lunch:  POL makeups and re-dos

Thursday 9:00-1:15:  Field trip to Miramar Landfill. We will leave AT 9:00. Pack a lunch.  This trip is free and transportation is provided for the students!

The last couple of weeks were devoted to POL preparation and presentations.

Students worked hard in their preparation and it paid off! We watched students present artifacts of their learning and discuss how habits of mind such as persistence, preparation, relevance, imagination, conjecture, planning, empathy and precision influenced their work.  Their Presentations of Learning were given before their peers, parents and teachers.  Tony was able to videotape everyone in case you were not able to attend your child's POL.  Please come in and see them. 

 In between POLs, we took a trip back in time to Riley's farm to learn a little bit about colonial times.  The students visited hands-on stations where they learned about the Stamp Act, The Quartering Act, How to be a well regulated militia, The Admiralty Court, the blacksmith, weaving, and 18th century games.  They ate a soldier's ration for lunch and participated in a mock battle.  The Revolutionary War came to life!

               

The colonists were required by the Quartering Act to provide food and housing to British soldiers during war as well as in times of peace.  Students got to grind grain for bread, knead dough, churn butter and even sign a petition against the Quartering Act using a feather quill.

Students participated in a mock battle:

Soldiers approaching

Ready for attack

These British troops didn't make it