Did You Know…? The word ‘companion’ comes from the Latin for ‘a person with whom we share bread’.
Don’t forget that we have extra Math from 2:45 – 4:00 pm each Wednesday. Ms. McNeil, Mr. Rutledge, Ms. Kelly, and I are available to provide students with assistance and support in Math. We meet in our classroom and will be reviewing concepts covered in class. For example, today we reviewed 3-digit by 1-digit multiplication, and then worked on using base-ten blocks to help us to start dividing 3-digit numbers. Students are not required to attend, and they are not required to attend each week, but they should do their best to attend if they are struggling with our current daily lessons and practice questions, and would like further support. Please talk to your student tonight about whether or not they should be taking advantage of this extra support. Students are allowed to walk home, take the city bus, or even carpool with another student. Click on the link below for an extra copy of the permission form sent home in October and please provide me with a signed copy if you would like to have your student attend our Math help.
Extra Math Practice Permission
Students all also have a Mathletics account (www.mathletics.ca). The lessons and activities on this website are a wonderful way to practice the concepts covered in class, and are all related to our curriculum. Students can also use the LiveMath feature to get in some Math fact practice. I generally try and assign students work on Mathletics every two weeks. This work is treated like classroom work, and I am able to look at students results to help me to better understand which topics may require further support. These accounts can and should be used at home as often as possible. This is a great resource. For students and parents who are struggling with our Math curriculum, you can click on the question marks and get examples and tutorials on how to solve different problems, and don’t forget to check out the interactive glossary of Math terms that is available!
Missed Math Help today, but want some extra support? Check out the LiveMath links for Multiplication (http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me5l/html/math5.html?goLesson=8) and Division (http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me5l/html/math5.html?goLesson=9). These come with step-by-step lessons on the given topics, as well as additional worksheets that can be printed for extra practice and assessment. There are even worksheets available for parents who are looking for ways to further support their student at home, that provide ways to teach and discuss the concepts with your students. You may need to log in to LearnAlberta to access this resource. The link is on the right hand side. Hold your mouse over the link for username and password information.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
- Topic Sentences – due tomorrow!
- Biography Poems – due January 29th
Math:
- Practice multiplication (master 1′s, 5′s, 10′s, 9′s)
- Math Help – Wednesdays from 3:00-4:00 pm
Science:
- Bring logbooks Thursday to share research and questions (tomorrow!)
- Classroom Science Fair – March 3rd
- School Science Fair – March 6th
French/Health:
- FRIENDS – pg. 21 (Share a happy part of your day with your family)
Book Orders – due January 29th
Recorders – MUST HAVE FOR TOMORROW!
Grade 5/6 Dance – Friday from 7:00-9:00 pm ($5 admission)
Family Literacy Night – Tuesday, January 27th from 6:00-7:00 pm (Reading Around the World)
what questions like hypothesis do we have to do
Great question! For tomorrow, you should have selected your project and have done some initial research. You should also have thought about narrowing down your topic to a specific question or problem – the essential question. What is the essential question? In our logbook, it describes the question as:
“The question I am trying to answer is: (be specific)”
The essential question should require that instead of simply looking up an answer, you must conduct your own research in order to create an original answer. In our Science Fair projects, this research is usually you conducting your experiment and tracking your observations and results.
Asking how, what if, should, or why can be a good way to structure an essential question.
Here is an example:
You really find the subjects of plants interesting and decide to do research on botany. Through your research, you narrow down your topic to a smaller area of interest – seed germination (sprouting). Next, consider the relationship between sprouting and another variable. How about temperature? This will suggest a question that you can use to form an essential question: How does temperature affect the rate of seed germination?
Use this checklist to help test your essential question:
-Will you be measuring change in the variable studied (example – seed germination)?
-Will you change the other variable (example – temperature)?
-Can you find background information on the subject?
-Will you be able to collect enough data?
-Can you get all the materials quickly?
-Do you have time to do the experiment at least twice?
If you can answer yes to the above, you are on your way to creating a strong Science Fair project!
Check out this article on education.com (http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_How_Develop_Project/) for more ideas on narrowing your researching down into an essential question.
Cool picture.
http://www.country933.com/files/Fort_mcmurray_timberlea_public_school.jpg