News Week of 11/30

A great article on "Using Creativity to Boost Young Children’s Mathematical Thinking" http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/11/25/using-creativity-to-boost-young-childrens-mathematical-thinking/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2055



MATH
Students will be reviewing multiplying this week 2 by 1 and 3 by 1.
Some practice sites for home
http://www.mathplayground.com/multiplication03.html 
http://www.mathplayground.com/multiplication04.html

They will do well in this skill but need to continue to practice their multiplication EVERY DAY!!! Besides practicing facts on Xtramath and Sumdogs, here is another site to practice multiplying and kids can pick which factors they http://www.multiplication.com/games/play/car-wash.

Wednesday the students will be taking a 6 week assessment on Rounding, Comparing, Adding and Subtracting with decimals and Multiplying 3 by 1 and 2 by 1 with decimals.  We will do intervention after the test to help students who are not mastering these skills.


Students will need to study vocabulary words for test on Wednesday.  They will work on study cards Monday and there will also be a Quizlet  The link to the Quizlet is https://quizlet.com/_1s6ff7.  The students know you have this link so please share! This is an online flashcard site that students can use to study, it also plays games with them.  In the meantime the students will continue to review water cycle and the spheres of the earth. They will finish reviewing these Wednesday and begin the Performance Task Thursday.


Language arts
We are continuing to work on identifying the main idea and key details of an informational text, and using this information to write summaries.  The kids will have the chance to show what they know on this skill with a couple of different exit tickets this week as well.
The kids also received their new Words Their Way sort for the week (a copy for home & school) and should be doing at least one practice sort each night.  Homework sheets should be signed and returned for Friday.






Social Studies
The kids are continuing to work on their Unit 1 performance tasks.  Each child selected to take the point of view of either Christopher Columbus, a crew member, or a Taino (Native American) and write a journal about their encounter with each other.  Included in their entries, they must discuss their perspective on what happened as well as the new ideas AND technologies they were introduced to when meeting the opposite group.