Family Literacy Night

Tomorrow is Family Literacy Night!! Chorus will open up with a performance, then a story teller, and then performances from the kindergarten, first, and second grade. Also, the book fair will be open before and after. The theme is Story Labratory!! It's awesome! Hope to see you tomorrow!

Save the Date!!

Our Spring Benchmark scores are back and you know what that means.....DATA DATE NIGHT!! Woo-hoo!! Mrs. Kirton's homeroom will be March 13th and Mrs. Thomas' homeroom will be March 14th. The time will be the same for both nights, 6pm-7pm. There will be yummy snacks and drinks provided, as well as a raffle where you could win a prize!! Extra credit will be offered again to those who come. I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE everyone to come since this is a great opportunity to see where we need extra support before FCAT. See you there!!!

Volume

We have been working on determining volume for the past couple of days and they have been doing great! Monday we started off exploring what volume is by using creating nets, building the prism, and then filling it with cubes. From that lesson, as a class we determined that volume is how many cubic units will fit inside a prism. They understood right away that volume is how many units it takes to fill a prism.

Jeffrey determining volume using cubes (and eating snack :))

Today we got more into the formula side of volume. There are 2 ways we will see it on the FCAT Reference sheet. The first way is b x w x h. The second way is Bh (where B represents the area of the base.) We are learning both ways to determine it since they will see the formula in 2 different ways (I want them to be comfortable with both since they will both on the reference sheet.)

Family Literacy Night

Family literacy night is this Thursday February 28. Chorus will be performing, as well as other grade levels and a story teller. There will be snacks and fun! Can't wait to see you there!

RTI- Creating 3D Solids

So, we took a quiz last week in my homeroom so I could see where my kids were at with 3D solids and identifying the faces, edges, and vertices. Well.......we have had better scores :) But, there is always room for growth! So this week in RTI, we have been focusing on identifying 3D solids and the number of faces, edges, and vertices. I was struggling with an idea on how to get them to really wrap their brains around this concept...until I remembered what I used to do when I was younger. I used to make buildings out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Before we began, I showed them a cube I had already made. I asked them what the marshmallows represented (the vertices) and what the toothpicks represented (the edges). They knew what it was!! And they were able to tell me how many faces, vertices, and edges. I was thinking in my head, WE GOT THIS!!!

So I gave them a list of 3D solids to create and their materials--toothpicks and marshmallows. They did AWESOME!! They were able to count the vertices and edges and even the faces (even though those were a little hard to identify today). After we did our exploration, we discussed everything and I felt like the light bulb went off today!!! Yay!!!

A student counting the vertices (marshmallows)

Micah recording the data down.

Pentagonal prism

Square pyramid made by Lucky :)

Rafael starting his hexagonal prism

Some of our finished 3D solids and a recording sheet

Strategy Chart

Here is another strategy chart we created together to help us more with surface area. I love charts and my students use them as a tool to help them!

Here is the formula they will be provided during FCAT....don't worry, they don't need to memorize it--it will be provided on a reference sheet. But...they will still have to know when to use it :)

Surface Area Day 2

Today we did surface area again! Today we discussed again why we do 2 equations twice: there are 3 sets of equal rectangles (front-back, right side-left side, top-bottom). We did some really neat journal entries.

I love working on our journals in math! The students really enjoy it and can use it as a tool during explore time.

I love creating sheets they can glue in...it saves on time with them copying everything down!

Here's a closer look!

Surface Area

Yesterday, we started to determine the surface area of prisms. The kids caught on so fast!! To determine surface area of a prism, we find the area of each face (side) of the prism and then add all of the areas together. The formula that we will see on our reference sheet is SA= 2bh + 2bw + 2hw. We have been working hard and here is the chart we created together:

Here shows why we multiply each formula (bh, bw, hw) by 2

 

Happy Valetine's Day!!

Made some yummy cookies for my friends! Hope everyone has a nice Valentine's Day!!

Word Walls

I have 2 bulletin boards in my room; I use one for calendar math and another one for a spotlight on science. So this year I had to get creative with my wordwalls. My math one is my favorite. I used tape to make boxes and used pretty letters to give it some color. My science wordwall is on my cabinets. I love this too!!

This is where we put all of the words we have learned that correlate with what we are learning.

Benchmark Tests

Next week, we will take our math and science benchmark tests. This is a very important assessment; I need them to be focused and on point. We have learned so much and I need them to show me now! I will look at this data and see the areas we need to hit extra hard before FCAT. After I get the data back and share it with the kids, I will plan another data night to share it with my wonderful parents!!

On another note, I am so excited for them to take it!! I can't wait to see their growth!!

Moving on!!

Today we wrapped up our force and motion unit. The kids did great!! They seemed to really enjoy all of the experiments and even when we charted about our explorations. We had some really good discussions. I can tell that they enjoyed it; it showed in their work. We took the final test today and they did awesome!! I am one proud teacher!!

What happens to the motion of a set of books when forces act on it?

Today we did an essential exploration where students were testing what happens to the motion of a set of books happens when forces act on it. They had 2 spring scales and a set of 6 leveled readers. They attached a spring scale to each end of the book. For the first 2 trials, they applied the same force. As I was walking around, we discussed what was going on with their exploration. I asked, "What happens when you both apply the same amount of force?" Most replied--the book didn't move because the forces are balanced. We learned yesterday that balanced forces are forces of equal strength that act on an object from opposite directions so that the object’s motion does not change. They remembered!!

But for the last 2 steps, one partner applied more force and they noticed that the books moved in the direction that the partner was applying more force. We discussed that unbalanced forces will cause a change in the motion of an object and can cause an object to move, start, and speed up or slow down. They are so smart!! They said they loved the experiments today too!!

RJ and his partner doing the exploration.

Hali and Natalie recording their data.

Student Made Strategy Charts

Every once in awhile I like to have my kids create strategy charts. I normally use this as an end of unit assignment. Yesterday they made charts for area of trapezoids. They turned out super cute!!