We continued practicing PEMDAS this week by increasing the complexity of the expressions. Not only have we added parentheses with our multiplication/division and addition/subtraction, we have begun working with exponents as well! The students are doing a terrific job thinking about each part of the expression step by step.
The first unit we do in Everyday Math is unit 2. Unit 2 teaches the students the traditional algorithm for multiplication after a quick review of place value and the way our base ten number system works. For many students a quick review of our base ten number system is all that is needed, but for more than a few, the pieces are just coming together. The addition of exponents to our vocabulary allows us to compare each place in our number system with its power of ten. For example 10 to the zero power is the ones place. 10 to the first power is the tens place. 10 to the second power is the hundreds place, etc. I love it when the "a-ha" moment happens for students.
We continue investigating magnets. This week we investigated whether or not two magnets are stronger than one. It's not quite as straight forward as you might think. While two of our magnets are generally stronger than one, and three magnets are generally stronger than two, it is not always the case that four or more magnets are stronger. It is always exciting to see students grapple with why this might be so. They often think they must have made some kind of experimental error. We will use technology to graph our data and insert the graph into our google docs so that we are able to draw conclusions.
Library - Mrs. Stuhr read The Stranger to us on the first day of fall. It's by Chris Van Allsburg, author of the very popular, Polar Express and Jumanji. Farmer Bailey thinks he's hit a deer while driving his truck, but in the middle of the road lies a man, an enigmatic stranger. He goes home with Farmer Bailey, his memory apparently gone. Weeks pass at the Bailey farm; the stranger seems happy to be around them, and helps with the harvest. Oddly, while trees to the north of the farm turn red and gold with the arrival of fall, Bailey's land seems to be in a state of perpetual summer. One day, the stranger sees geese flying south and knows that he, too, must leave..... The reader is left to guess who the stranger is. Many of us believe it is Jack Frost. :)
A Night Divided - This week's read aloud has ended on a very suspenseful note. This author is a master at cliff hangers. Gerta's father has been standing on the platform in West Germany at the specific times that Gerta passes on her way to and from school. Gerta realizes that the clue he has been giving her is to dig. But for what? Where? Gerta makes an X in the dirt to signal to her fahter that she undertands that he wants her to dig, but does not know where. Anna, Gerta's friend, receives a hand-drawn picture of a building that arrives in the mail labeled to Gerta that arrives inside one of the letters of condolence cards that Anna's family receives. It's a picture of a specific building that Gerta hasn't seen before. However, after school she takes a different way home and she discovers the building. It just happens to be a part of the border......
Writing - We are polishing our paragraph writing skills. -Our topic is that we are good at... Students are writing about sports, piano, violin, languages they speak, and painting. We will sneak in some
Friday Poem -Most every Friday in the fall language arts classes begin with a poem that ties into our figurative Language unit. This week's poem is The Front Yard Where The Maple Tree Stands by Allan Wolf. We were successful picking out the personification. Next, we had fun brainstorming all the various fall activities that we enjoy. We used our autumn word splash as subjects in our own poems.
Conversation starters:
The Stranger
ravenous
He's all tied up.
exponents
Number talk Tuesday
magnetic strength
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