Good evening!
Today we started off with some writing in our Writer’s Notebooks. Students free-write every morning as they come in, however, today we had some Olympic inspiration for students. They were asked:
Imagine you are speaking to one of the Canadian Olympians and they are feeling a bit nervous. What would you tell them to help them perform at their best?
Students do not need to respond to the suggested topic, they are more than welcome to continue with a free-writing topic that they have been working on or that they chose from the idea pages of their Writer’s Notebooks, it is just something to help those of us who are running low on ideas or are maybe a little sleepy this morning! Stay tuned for our Olympics question tomorrow!
In Math today we started our review of multiplication and division. The last lesson in our book is all about problem solving – multi-step problem solving! These are problems that require students to complete more than one calculation before they are able to solve. This takes a lot of thinking and really challenges students understanding of all the Math operations we have learned this year (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Try out this example below:
Susan is saving up to buy a new bicycle. In order to earn some money, Susan babysits for her neighbour. She also delivers newspapers. Susan earns $5 every day she delivers newspapers, and she delivered newspapers the entire month of January. If Susan has earned $236 towards her new bicycle, how much money has she earned babysitting?
Well…
We know that… Susan’s babysitting $ + Susan’s newspaper $ = $236
So… $236 – Susan’s newspaper $ = Susan’s babysitting $
Susan delivered newspapers every day in January. January has 31 days.
She earns $5 / day
So Susan earned $5 x 31 days…
5 x 31 = 155
That means Susan earned $155 delivering newspapers.
Then… $236 – $155 = Susan’s babysitting $
236 – 155 = 81
That means… Susan has made $81 babysitting.
As you can see, multi-step problems encourage students to really think deeply about a problem. They also have to perform more than one operation in order to solve them. Knowledge of basic facts will really help to increase student speed and accuracy, so keep practicing multiplication at home as often as possible!
We will be having a classroom celebration for Valentine’s Day this upcoming Friday. Students are encouraged to bring in some creative, healthy treats to share with the class. We will also be watching Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Students selected this movie because we have just recently finished reading the book aloud during our snack. If you would prefer that you student did not participate in this activity, please send me an email or a note in the agenda as soon as possible.
Don’t forget about PTIs! I’m looking forward to seeing lots of you on Wednesday or Thursday. Visit the following link to schedule your appointment: http://timberlea.schoolappointments.com/admin/
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Reading Journal – Not this week (Ms. B does the homework!)
Wednesday – Snack Shack ($1-$5)
Math: Unit Test (Thursday)
Parent-Teacher Interviews – Wednesday and Thursday (see above)
Electronics Day – Thursday (bring donation for Center of Hope)
Valentine’s Party – Friday
Book Buddies: Bring newspapers for tomorrow!
Glow Gram – $1/gram (order on Wednesday)
Health: FRIENDS pg.88 #8A