Did You Know…? Cockroaches predate dinosaurs by at least 100 million years.

Good evening,

Today students completed their weekly paragraph. This week students were challenged to write about their favourite subject or why Toque Tuesday is important. Next week we will be editing and publishing new paragraphs. That means we will be able to do some work with the paragraphs we published last week. Those paragraphs will come off the publishing board, peer edited, and then placed in students new writing folders. Keep an eye out for activities involving these paragraphs later in the year! Remember… we’ve only written 3 drafts of these paragraphs. We aren’t even close to the number of drafts that they made in the Austin’s Butterfly video!

In Math today, students worked on solving problems that involve multiplication and division. We have our Unit Test on Monday. Please make sure students are taking the time this weekend to review. Need an idea on where to find study ideas? Try mathletics. All students have had new activities added to their accounts. Students can also be using their textbooks to study. Try and solve some of the practice questions from each lesson. Finally, students will be getting the following study guide tomorrow. It has a sample of the kinds of questions students might see on the test. If you can answer these questions, you can be confident that you are prepared. Feel free to print out a copy tonight to get a head start!

Multiplication and Division Study Guide

In Science today, we started Electricity. Students were introduced to some of the safety considerations that we have to consider when using electricity. To help us, we watched these videos:

Then we conducted our first experiment. Students were each given 1.5 V batteries and a wire. Once students had connected the negative and positive terminals of their batteries, the wire started to heat up. Some of the wires actually became hot to the touch! That’s because their was no load. Without a load, the electrons move extremely quickly through the wire. This movement causes friction. Too much friction can cause wires to heat. This is a safety consideration and can lead to electrical fires. Our next experiment… to cause a small electrical fire. Students were asked to consider what would happen if we changed the materials from the first experiment. In our first experiment we used copper wires that were covered with an insulator. Even though the wires get hot, the insulator adds some protection around the wire. What if the material wasn’t able to withstand the amount of friction created by the movement of electrons? We conducted our second experiment using some steel wool. When the electrons try and pass from the negative terminal to the positive terminal through the steel wool, it catches on fire! Electrons move too quickly when passing through the steel wool, causing a lot of heat. The steel wool is not as durable as the copper wire, and catches fire from the heat. This was a fun experiment, but not one we should conduct at home without supervision! Next up… circuits!

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Math:

• Math Help – Wednesdays from 3:00 – 4:00 pm
• Practice multiplication (mastering 2x, 4x, and 8x tables)
• Unit Test (Monday)
• Pgs. 110-11 #1-3, 5, 6

Science:

•  Science Fair Check-in (Procedures, Materials, Variables) – tomorrow
• Classroom Science Fair – March 3rd

French:

• Clothing Assignment (Monday)

Friday – Pajama Day (final donations)

Parent-Teacher Interviews – February 11th and 12th (register at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)