Week of April 4th 2016

Hi Everyone,

     Can you believe that today is the end of the third quarter? We have just nine weeks of school left. Students will not have school this Friday for teachers planning day. For those of you that follow the grade portal closely you notice just a few more grades being added for math and science. Due to test prep we did not have as many graded items for this quarter. The few things that are left should not change your child's current grade too drastically. If you notice a huge difference in your child's grade please let me know. The final items will be added no later than noon on Friday.

     This week in math we will begin working on our end of year math project, Dream House. In this project students will work with a partner or group to completely design a home. Students will use many of the math skills that we have learned during this school year. 

addition/subtraction- keeping track of the amount of money spent, keeping                                       track of the total area used 
multiplication-determining the total cost of rooms, calculating the area of rooms
measurement-determining the area and perimeter of rooms.

     Also in math we will also work on a "Step Up to Fifth Grade Unit". In this unit we will learn some skills that will help students have a smoother transition to 5th grade math. This week we will learn about the order of operations. For this skill students will be learning:
PEMDAS (You may know it as Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally.)
Parenthesis
Exponents
Multiply/Divide
Addition/Subtraction 
Order of Operations tells us which order to solve mathematical expressions that contain more than one math operation. Take for example how would you solve 

2 + 3 × (8 + 5³ ÷ 1)

Step 1-Parenthesis In order to solve (8 + 5³ ÷ 1), we must first figure out 5³. 5³ is an exponent of 3 attached to a base of 5 and means 5 x 5 x 5 which equals 125. (8 + 125 ÷ 1) 125 ÷ 1 = 125 so 8 + 125 = 133
Step 2- 2 + 3 × 133 Now I multiply 3 x 133 =399
Step 3- 2 + 399 = 401
So 2 + 3 × (8 + 5³ ÷ 1) = 401
For more information you can watch a video at  http://mathantics.com/index.php/section/lesson/OrderOfOperations. You can also find a handy order of operations calculator at  https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/operations-order-calculator.html

     In science this week students will receive the directions for food chain raft. Please see the hand out for more information. These projects are due on Friday April 15th. We will finish up our work on plants and animals and take the test next week. 

Have a GREAT week,
Aesha