Tuesday, January 26, 2016

The Week of 1/25/2016

Hi Everyone,

     This is Literacy Week. We will have several fun activities for the students to show  how important literacy is in our everyday lives. 
Literacy Changes Our World
Monday, 1/25/16: Door Decoration!
Tuesday, 1/26/16: Guest Readers around Our School Community!
Wednesday, 1/27/16 (Early Release): Light up Our World with Reading!
Thursday, 1/28/16: Wacky Word Walk!
* All students and teachers will be asked to dress as a vocabulary word. Each grade level will be responsible for coming up with a list of vocabulary words for students to choose from. Students will need to wear their chosen vocabulary word on either a sentence strip or index card that is visible to the audience. The entire school will participate in a parade around the outside track while parents and school staff cheer them on from 9:00-10:00 a.m. Only resource classes scheduled during this time will be canceled.
Friday, 1/29/16: Door Decoration Awards!

     As part of our study of plants and animals we will be going on our field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo on this Friday.  Students are asked to wear their class shirts. If your child does not have an official JBE class shirt please have your child wear a light blue shirt. Please also have your child bring a jacket or sweat shirt. The weather right now is projected to be sunny with a high of 64 and low of 41. Students may also bring a camera and sunglasses. We will not be riding the train, carousel, or visiting the gift shop, so students will not need to bring any money. 

     In math this week students will learn about equivalent fractions Students will learn how to use models, multiplication and division to find equivalent fractions. We will discuss writing fractions in simplest form (you may know as reducing fractions), renaming mixed numbers as improper fractions and changing improper fractions as mixed numbers. Students will also learn how to add and subtract mixed numbers with like denominators. Students will have a quiz on these concepts this Thursday.

     In science this week we will continue to learn about the parts of flowers. So far we have learned the names for the male and female parts of the flowers and the processes involved in plant reproduction (pollination, fertilization, seed dispersal, germination). We will hopefully have time this week to begin planting some seeds. Students will have quiz on lesson 1 this Thursday.

Have a great week!!
Aesha

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Week of January 11, 2016



Hi Everyone,

     Needless to say I am floating on a cloud this week. The University of Alabama Crimson Tide is once again National Champions!! The Clemson Tigers put up a good fight but Alabama was able to come up with a win.

     This week in math we will have our end of module assessment.  Students will have a two part test. Part of the test will be on the computer and part of the test will be paper pencil. The students will begin the computer portion of the test on Tuesday. They will take the paper pencil portion of the test on Thursday. The test will cover everything in module 3-- factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers, multiplication, division, and multi step/multi operation word problems. The written portion of the test will also have some previously taught items (rounding numbers, comparing numbers, recognizing numbers in different forms, and converting units of measure). After testing is complete we will be moving on to fractions and decimals.

     This week in science we will take a test on force and motion, chapter 6. The test will be on Wednesday. Since we have only spent one week on this unit the students will be allowed to use their books to complete the test. Next week we will begin learning about plants and animals.  

Have a great week!!!

Monday, January 4, 2016

Week of January 4th 2016

Welcome Back to Back to School Everyone,

     I hope that everyone had a wonderful winter break!! I know that I enjoyed getting to spend extra time with my family and friends with no alarm clock going off every morning.

     This week looks to be very calm according to calendar, but there is lots of things coming up in the next few weeks. Please take a look at the calendar for important dates.

     We will spend the beginning of the week reviewing the strategies that the students have learned for division (multiplying up, array model, area model, and partial quotients). The majority of the students like partial quotients the best followed by the area model. Students will be free to choose the strategy that they like the best to solve problems. On Wednesday we will begin working problems that are multi-step and require multiple operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) to solve. 
For example: Jack wants to buy the same number of hats for 3 of his friends. He has $57 dollars, and each hat costs $5. What is the largest number of hats that Jack buys for each friend? How much money does Jack have left?
These types of problems require students to really think through the steps of problem solving. 
1. Understand the problem
2. Devise a plan to solve the problem
3. Carry out the plan 
4. Look back at the question. Does my answer make sense?

     Students will need to complete their math rotations projects this week. All projects are due on this Friday 1/8.

     This week in science we will begin a new chapter. In chapter 6 we will learn about force and motion. Since chapter six is so short (two lessons) we will only spend about 1 week on the material.