Dear Parents,
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Just a note regarding math…
Posted onThe children provide more written responses and are required to explain their thinking. This can be challenging for some because they are use to “knowing it.” Every day they respond to a written math prompt and after every lesson we check for understanding with written responses. Below are some examples of prompts:
- If 10 apples weigh about the same as 2 textbooks, how many textbooks weigh about the same as 25 apples? Explain your thinking.
- Jill used water from a 1-liter bottle to estimate the liquid volume of a container. She filled her container and had water left in the bottle. She said the liquid volume of her container was greater than a liter. Was Jill correct? Explain.
Social Studies Quiz Review
Posted onHere is the Michigan Regions Study Guide just in case your child forgot it at school. These are things that they have been reviewing in class. The quiz will be tomorrow during class.
Michigan Regions
- Upper Peninsula: Mountains, Forests
- Lower Peninsula: Flat farmland
- Northern Lower Peninsula: Hills
- Southern Lower Peninsula: Farming
- Thumb: It’s shaped like a thumb
- Fruit Belt: They grow a lot of kinds of fruit (West side of Michigan)
- Straits of Mackinac: Where Lake Michigan & Lake Huron meet
- Metropolitan Detroit: They have a lot of manufacturing companies & most of the people in Michigan live there.
Michigan is Part of a Larger Region
- Midwest: Mostly flat farmland
- Great Lakes Region: All of the states touch at least one Great Lake.
Our Math Focus
Posted onIn this unit, students explore ways to measure things using customary and metric systems of measurement. The units of measure we will be working with include:
Students will solve problems that involve liquid volumes or masses given in the same unit by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing and by using a drawing to represent the problem.
We made a measurement man to help us with the volume of cups, pints, quarts and gallons.
Students will also generate measurement data with halves and fourths of an inch such as hand spans and lengths of standing broad jumps and graph their data in a line plot.
You can help your child become familiar with these units of measure by working with measurements together. For example, you might estimate and measure the length of something in inches. You might use a measuring cup to explore how the cup can be used to fill pints, quarts, or gallons of liquid.
Social Studies Quiz Tomorrow
Posted onHuman Environmental Interaction Quiz
Humas have changed the environment by:
- Cutting down trees for farmland and homes
- Polluted Great Lakes and rivers
- Used acres of Farmland to build cities
- Building on the shoreline made some dunes erode
- People filled in wetlands
Humans have adapted to the environment by:
- Build houses with peaked roof because of the snow and rain.
- Change clothes to match the weather
- Have furnaces and air conditioners for the changing seasons
- Use screens to keep bugs out
- We grow apples instead of oranges
Geometry
Posted onYour child is learning about geometry. Our focus is on quadrilaterals. Today we discussed parallelograms and rectangles. The children enjoyed moving with these videos.
We Are Back Into Our Routine
Posted onThe children have adjusted to being back at school quickly. Please remember to have them wear boots because the playground is very muddy and I believe that there is rain on the way. Also, morning snacks are wonderful for their hungry tummies. The children were excited to share all of the details about their Christmas vacation.