A Week in our Shoes

 Literacy: Poetry, Figurative Language, and Showing What we Know!

We reviewed more figurative language and worked through some of the MCA Item Samplers together with partners and as a class. I am truly proud of these students for giving their best efforts. It's one day and one test, but they were able to show their true colors and that is what we hope for. :)
Way to go!
In the coming week we will continue to expand on expository nonfiction resources and begin reading about inventors to prepare for our Engineering Unit!

Math: Practicing Multiplication and Learning Something "Our Parents Actually Recognize!"

Not only have we learned the area model to multiply bigger numbers, but we were introduced to the traditional algorithm, which has us adding products as we go! Students were thrilled to hear their parents would know this type of math!😉 We will continue to practice it into thie week, and then will be taking our Math MCA Tests on Wednesday! One thing I have noticed with any "online" math work, is that kids (and adults) immediately do more of the work in their head instead of working it out. Often the multiple steps math can require creates more of a test on memory if we try to keep everything straight in our heads! Encouraging your mathematician to use their paper and pencil to work out the math in order to TRULY show their capabilities would be helpful!

Thank you for your feedback through the optional homework survey and the communication survey! As we have been given some flexibility with how we assign, or if we assign homework, I have been able to make some changes. I discussed my purposes with the students on Friday (I let them know there were a lot of adults debating homework views as well 😀). I also talked to them a bit about the research in regards to the traditional view of homework. My "homework" over the last couple weeks has been to show the work we did in math to a parent/family member and explain their understanding of it.

I have made challenge math packets available and I let students know this is a tool some families have asked for and they can use it in whatever way their family decides. Some may complete it by a date, or do a problem a night, or what have you. Again, thank you for your feedback and feel free to continue to provide it!

A Peek into This Week:

• Math MCA Test on Wednesday the 24th!
• Multiplying larger numbers!
• Investigating expository mentor texts in order to write our own!
• Showing and appreciating Integrity!
• There are NO MORE LATE STARTS this year.