Monday, December 13, 2010

Newsletter Info

In Math Workshop, the students are using multiplication combinations to solve division problems and are working to understand the inverse relationship between the two operations. For example, a chocolate chip cookie has 5 chocolate chips in it. If there are 6 chocolate chip cookies, how many chips are there? The corresponding division situation would be: There are 30 chocolate chips. The chips have been shared equally among 6 cookies. How many chocolate chips does each cookie have? We will continue working with multiplication and division combinations throughout the week. Our end of unit assessment is scheduled for Wednesday, December 15th. Old homework sheets are a fantastic resource to review in preparation for the test. The homework sheet for this week is Sheet #16 and will be checked on Wednesday and Friday.

Social Studies
There will be a quiz Friday. If you plan to leave early for the holidays, please make sure to let us know so we can make plans for your child to take the quiz before you leave/after the break. Our focus this week will be producers and consumers. We will learn more about the people who specialize in providing us the goods and services that we want. Students will also be introduced to the concept of supply and demand.


Science
We will continue studying the properties of solids this week. Students will do some research in the textbook on the three phases of matter, and they will complete a research sheet/quiz using the book for assistance. This is not something they can study for in advance. We will also have an explore lab where we will learn how to use a balance to put objects in order according to their mass. We will end the week with a Bill Nye video on Matter, which will review all three phases of matter on an atomic level. Look in your child's science notebook for their diagram of the atoms in each phase. We will shift our focus to the properties of liquids and how they can be measured after the break.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Newsletter Info

Social Studies
The focus of this week's discussion is making choices with our money. We will learn a little bit more about how businesses work to compete with one another, as well as how they generate their prices. Students will be introduced to the concepts of "opportunity cost" and "scarcity." We will also learn how businesses use ads to appeal to our emotions and generate sales. The quiz will be Friday.


Science
We begin our new unit on Matter this week. This unit will include an examinations of the following essential questions: How can we describe solids and liquids? and How can we measure solids and liquids? We will learn how to compare objects by properties such as size, shape, color, texture, and hardness. We will learn the difference between mass and volume, as we are introduced to new tools like the balance and the graduated cylinder. Please help us use correct terminology when you discuss mass and weight at home. Remember, that mass is the amount of matter in an object and weight is the measure of the pull of gravity on the amount of matter/mass in an object.

In Math Workshop, the students are understanding the inverse relationship between multiplication and division and using their knowledge to solve problems. For example, a robot has 4 hands. Each hand has 6 fingers. How many fingers does the robot have altogether? The students should recognize this is as a multiplication situation and use the equation 4x6 (4 groups of 6). They might then use skip-counting (6, 12, 18, and 24) to determine that the robots have 24 fingers. A similiar division story problem the students have worked with is as follows: Frogs usually have 4 legs. If there are 16 legs in the pond, how many frogs are there? The students should write the equation 16/4= and skip count by 4's to determine that there are 4 frogs in the pond. We will continue working with multiplication and division combinations throughout the week. Our unit will end next week and our end of unit assessment is scheduled for Wednesday, December 15th. Old homework sheets are a fantastic resource to review in preparation for the test. The homework sheet for this week is Sheet #15 and will be checked on Wednesday and Friday.