We are working with the math committee again today, trying to get ready for the PARCC assessment that is coming in March. We think we finally have a good sequence of lessons and activities that will hopefully prepare our students for this assessment.
Before we talk about some of our activities we did this week, we want to tell you about two math resources you may be interested in checking out. Many of you may be familiar with the math site TenMarks, but our first time using it was this summer with our tutoring students. Students can go to the site and practice various math concepts. The problems/lessons are challenging, but the students love them. This site is a fabulous supplement to what you are already teaching. We are planning on incorporating it into our daily math block.
Another resource that we just looked at today is called Georgia Common Core Standards. It seems very user friendly, hands-on and engaging. We are supplementing some of our math curriculum with these lessons. We are really excited to implement them.
Two weeks ago we talked about the strategy of synthesizing. This week we took that concept a bit further through science and writing. As an extension to our study of polymers, the students created and tested a new question about the statement Polymers absorb liquid. Some of the questions included: What would happen if the polymer was put in Coke? What would happen if the polymer was put in chlorinated water? What would happen if the polymer was put in colored water? From this we drew the conclusion that polymers absorb liquids that contain water. The more water the liquid contains the bigger the polymer grew.
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| Polymer nose in chlorine. |
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| Polymer hand in colored water. |
We then wanted them to take this knowledge and apply it to answer the question: How can polymers make our lives better? Again they did a great job of coming up with more ways polymers could be used in the real world than we could ever have imagined.
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| Synthesis |
Our reading has focused on poetry and devices poets use when writing poems. The students are having a great time finding these devices in the poems they read. To help solidify some of these devices we made flip books. Each page included a device word and an example of that device. During Daily 5 the students read a variety of poems and then wrote a poem review. They used their flip books to complete the review sheet. These lessons are leading us into reading and analyzing narrative poems.
Our writing went along with our mini poem study. The students wrote autobiography poems. After editing them, they published them in Pages and used Photo Booth to import a funny picture of themselves. As they hang in the hallway, many people have stopped by to enjoy.
Have a wonder weekend. We are off to the reading conference next week. Hopefully we will have some fun ideas to share.
Kim and Anne
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