Tuesday, October 30th, 2018

Tremendous Tuesday

Inquiry into Language: 
Students began by beginning the actual experiment part of our Science Fair Project. We began to explore the effect salt would have on the density of the water that an egg is sitting in. The students recorded their observations in their charts. They were all responsible for a representation of the eggs position in the water based on how much salt we had.

French:
Take a look at Mme. Stella's blog: https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com

Inquiry into Language continued:
We continued with our Science Fair Project by completing a second trial to see if our results are reliable. This brought up a good discussion on reliability and what it means when we don't have reliable results. The students also learned the terms independent and dependent variable and identified which component of our experiment is each.

RECESS/ LUNCH

Inquiry into Math:
Students completed a basic multiplication facts quiz, then went on to reviewing how to round to the nearest ten. We also reviewed how to multiply numbers by a multiple of 10, 100 or 1000. The students are becoming better at being patient with one another as they come up to answer questions. In addition to this, there is a lot more problem-solving occurring where students recognize themselves when they've gotten an answer wrong and go back to solve it correctly on their own. I love witnessing these moments!
With this practice, we went on to practising estimating products in both multiplication facts and word problems. It's important that students show the number they rounded to to help them get their estimate.

Unit of Inquiry: 
We gathered with Ms. Chiappetta's class to learn about static electricity. We watched a video that explained what static electricity is and how it's created. Then we completed some fun experiments to see how we can create static electricity with everyday items. We got to see how this force does not need to come into contact with another object in order for a force to be present.

Students will have a UOI quiz on Monday. The quiz will involve definitions and matching. Students were given the review today to begin practising the definitions of words.

RECESS/ LUNCH

Gym: 
Take a look at Ms. Yustin's blog: http://sjaayustin.blogspot.com

AGENDA:

- Math: Estimating Products Worksheets 

- UOI Review-- Quiz Monday

- Spelling: Lesson 8 + sentences due Thursday

- Spelling Test Friday

- Read for 25 minutes

Monday, October 29th, 2018

Magnificent Monday

Music:https://flowermusicsja.blogspot.com

French:https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com

Inquiry into Language:
Students began to work on Lesson 8 of their spelling. Students then shared one thing they did this weekend.

 Level C Words (above)

Level D Words (above)

RECESS/ LUNCH

Inquiry into Math:
In math students learned 3 multiplication strategies: doubling, known facts and using facts of 2 & 5. 

• Students use doubling when multiplying a number by 4
• Students use known facts when multiplying a number  by 6
• Students use facts of 2 and 5 when multiplying a number by 7

Doubling: 

To use doubling, students need to multiply the factor that is NOT 4 by 2, then double their answer from Step 1 to get their product. We multiply by 2, then by 2 again since 2+2 is equal to 4.

Known Facts:

To use known facts, students need to multiply the factor that is NOT 6 by both 5 and 1, then add their answers from each of these multiplication sentences to get their final product.    

       Ex. 3 x 6 = 

              3 x 5 = 15         and 3 x 1 = 3      

              Add: 15 + 3 = 18

Using facts of 2 and 5:
We use facts of 2 and 5 when multiplying by 7 because 5 + 2 is equal to 7. To do this students need to multiply the factor that is NOT 7 by bother 5 and 2, then add the answers from each of these multiplication sentences to get their final product.

We also talked about the format of arrays:

  row x column = product

It's important that students can determine which direction represents 

rows and which direction represents columns.

Inquiry into Language continued:
Students began to work on our Science Fair Project writing component. We went over what our materials and procedure would be and recorded this information into our Science Fair Journals.

RECESS/ LUNCH

Unit of Inquiry:
We reviewed Buoyancy and the vocabulary that we learned through our reading. Students then went on to exploring muscular force. In partners, they created a workout circuit of 4 exercises. Students presented these to the class by explaining what it's called, how to do it and whether we are using or feeling a pushing/feeling force. This was a fun activity as we got to try some of the exercises students presented to the class. We also got to discuss the muscle groups we are working based on the exercises we are doing.

Friday, October 26th, 2018

Fantastic Friday!!!!

Inquiry into Language:

We began our day by writing our topic, purpose and hypothesis for our Science Fair project in our new science journal. We then began to write our post OWA for letter writing using all of the knowledge we have learned about rules, routines and letter format.

French: 

Take a look at Mme. Stella's blog: https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com

Inquiry into Language continued:

Students wrote their lesson 7 spelling test. Then students continued writing their OWA's.

RECESS/ LUNCH

Inquiry into Math:

In math today we completed a quiz on our 9x table. If they finish quickly students are to silent read. Once this was complete students explored two questions in groups of 2 or 3. If they successfully solved the first question then they were able to move onto the next one with their group members. If one of us understood what to do and the other didn't, we took this as a "peer teaching opportunity" to teach our partner what they need to know to be successful. This required cooperation, leadership and listening skills from all involved. I was so happy to see how well some of us did with this!

The two questions were: 

1. How can you multiply by 10, by 100 and by 1000 without 

using a calculator? Use pictures, numbers and words.

2. How can you multiply by multiples of 10, of 100 and of 1000 

without using a calculator? Use pictures, numbers and words.

We then did some examples together to ensure we understood the concept it was addressing: multiplying numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 and multiples of these numbers. We did very well at grasping what we have to do to solve such problems. This is why it's so important that we learn our basic number facts. 

• When multiplying by 10, 100 or 1000 it's like saying you have 5 tens = 50, or 5 hundreds = 500, etc. You are multiplying your second factor by 1, then adding however many zeros you see in 10, 100 or 1000. 
• When multiplying by multiples of 10, 100 and 1000 you have to multiply the other factor in your multiplication fact by the first digit of you multiple of these numbers (ex. 300 means you multiply the other factor by 3), then add however many zeros you see in the multiple of these numbers Ex. 200 x 8 = 2 x 8 = 16 then add the two zeros from 100 = 1600

Lastly, we worked on some word problems together to determine how we used the numbers in these questions with our multiplication operation. Students both had to share their answers and the steps they took to get there. 

Unit of Inquiry:

We gathered with Ms. Chiappetta's class to learn about Buoyancy today. We took up some examples of how to increase and decrease friction to ensure we all understand what this means. Then we individually predicted whether certain items will sink or float in a bucket of water in our chart. After having predicted, we watched a video that explained density and how this contributes to whether objects will sink or float in water. This helped explain the reasoning behind why some of the objects floated and some sank, along with which items are more dense/less dense than the water. 

RECESS/ LUNCH

Gym: 

Take a look at Ms. Yustin's blog: http://sjaayustin.blogspot.com 

AGENDA:

- Math: Multiplication package due Monday

- UOI: Read Buoyancy article & answer questions

- Read for 25 minutes

- Sign spelling tests & return to school!

Thursday, October 25th, 2018

Terrific Thursday!

Music:https://flowermusicsja.blogspot.com

French: 
Today we started to work on our Christmas performance song. The song we've selected is Mamasita Donde Esta Santa Claus. Once we practice a little more at school I will be sending the lyrics home for the students to practice. Here is the link of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YsIzUkiirI 

Inquiry into Language:

Today we got into our partners and peer-edited each others letters using our RED pens. Students were looking for punctuation, spelling, capitalization and grammar mistakes, along with whether or not they included the structural components of a letter. They worked very well with each other. We are all still working on how to provide others with "constructive feedback". 

RECESS/ LUNCH

Inquiry into Math:

Today we took up a couple questions from the homework, completed our 4 and 5x multiplication quiz, then began todays lesson. This lesson focused on rules/strategies we use when multiplying numbers by 0, 1, and 9. Everyone knew exactly what to do when we multiply a number by 0 or 1, regardless of how big it is. 

When it comes to multiplying numbers by 9, it gets a littler tricky because it's a larger number, however we learned how to use our fingers to help us solve these problems. In our duo tang it describes how to do this as well incase we forget. We will work on this strategy a little more so students get used to using it to help them with their 9x table. In addition to this, we talked about how the sum of the two digits in our product always add up to 9 with our 9x table.
Check out this video to see the trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu3JSnRaaV0

Unit of Inquiry:

We got together with Ms. Chiappetta's class today to learn about Friction. We predicted some reasons as to why certain things happen, watched a video about friction, then completed an experiment. Our activity revolved around determining which material would cause more friction and therefore slow the car down more than the other materials. Students then recorded what they discovered.

RECESS/ LUNCH

Work period & Silent Reading

Students continued to work on a friction worksheet and then moved on to silent reading for the rest of the class! 

Lesson 7 Spelling Words:

Lesson 7 Level C                         Lesson 7 Level D

AGENDA

- Math: 9x table worksheets

- UOI: Increasing and Decreasing Friction Worksheet

- Spelling test tomorrow

- Read for 25 minutes

Hot Lunch orders due tomorrow by 3:00. 

Wednesday, October 24th, 2018

Wonderful Wednesday!

It's Picture Day TOMORROW!!!!

Take a look at what we did today!

Unit of Inquiry: 

We gathered with Ms. Chiappetta's class today to learn about Gravity. We completed some hands-on experiments by predicting which item we thought would fall to the ground first. We then dropped the items and wrote down the results in our charts. After this we watched a video that talked about what gravity is and introduced us to terminology related to gravity. As a reflection of the video, students completed the fill-in-the-blank worksheet in partners. We then took it up as a class. 

Inquiry into Language: 

We began to write our letters to Ms. Foti using the information from our t-charts about the rules and routines that exist at home. Some of us finished these, and some of us are very close to being done. Tomorrow we will work on peer editing and providing our peers with descriptive feedback to help them develop their letters. 

RECESS/ LUNCH

Reading Buddies:

We had reading buddies with Mr. Foster's class today!

Inquiry into Math:

Today we completed our first multiplication math quiz revolving around the 2 and 3 times table. Students had 10 minute stop complete 21 questions. We will have some sort of short quiz at the beginning of every math class to get them more familiar with their multiplication facts. As we continue to do this they will be provided with less time to complete it as they should be becoming more familiar with the multiplication facts. We then went on to playing a math game. For this game everyone stood behind their chairs and we had to skip count by numbers 2-9. For 2s we skip counted to 20, 3s was 30, 4s was 40, 5s was 50, and so on. This was to allow them to repetitively hear the multiples of the numbers 2-9 which will help them when it comes to remembering their multiplication facts. Whoever reached the final number 20, 30, 40, etc. sat down and the counting began again from the first multiple of that number. If we got the answer wrong or it took us longer than the time allowed we also had to sit down. We really enjoyed this game. 

We then practiced writing the multiples of some numbers on the board so we understand what this means. In addition to this we discussed the math vocabulary we use to describe the terms in our multiplication facts. The two numbers we multiply together are called factors. The answer we get when we multiply these numbers together is called our product. It's important that students realize we do not use the terms sum or difference when addressing multiplication facts. 

So over the next while.... MULTIPLICATION FACTS, MULTIPLICATION FACTS, MULTIPLICATION FACTS yesssss!!!! A lot of practice for us!! 

RECESS/ LUNCH

Gym: http://sjaayustin.blogspot.com

AGENDA

- Math: Multiples & multiplication fact worksheets

- Spelling Lesson 7 & Sentences due tomorrow

- Spelling Test Friday