Math--Negative Numbers

Your child will be bringing home their first math journal from this year.  There are some empty pages or parts of pages that would be GREAT practice now or even over the summer.  We continue our work in unit 7 with the two big ideas being order of operations and negative numbers.  We discussed that negative numbers aren't just for use in math class.  Here are a few places we find negative numbers in the real world. . .
*below sea level
*banking
*stock market
*temperatures (especially this time of year!)
*sports--golf or even a loss of yards in football

Here are a couple of games to help strengthen our understanding of negative numbers:

Number Line Work
http://www.funbrain.com/linejump/

Ordering Positive and Negative Numbers
http://www.mathplayground.com/numberballs.html

Adding/Subtracting Positive and Negative Numbers
http://www.mathplayground.com/ASB_SpiderMatchIntegers.html

And here are a couple of games to review Order or Operations which we spent a couple of days learning about this week:

Order of Operations Millionaire
http://www.math-play.com/Order-of-Operations-Millionaire/order-of-operations-millionaire.html

Several Links to Order of Operations Games
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/math-order.html

Science--matter

We continue our investigations with matter--we had AMAZING discussions about the characteristics of solids this week in science.  They were given a tub of items (crayon, wooden block, plastic, paper, tin foil, marshmallow, etc) and had to decide if all the items were solids and they had to decide what a solid is.  At first most students said solids are hard, but then began the discussion about the marshmallow--that one item caused us to think very critically. . .after hearing lots of good and different points we decided that solid keeps its shape unless an outside force or energy acts on it.  Negotiation is not only sharing what you think, but also listening to the ideas of others; this sometimes causes us to change our own ideas.  We first negotiated with ourselves by writing down our own ideas, then discussed with a small group before negotiation in a more "public" (class) setting.  We decided that, yes, we can squish the marshmallow, but it requires our energy, just like we could saw a board in half.  Later next week we will being to set up our own investigations and tests in matter.

Unit 7: Exponents and Negative Numbers

On Thursday we started Unit 7.  The two big ideas for this unit are exponents and using positive and negative numbers.  This week we focused on exponents--exponential notation and powers of 10 were introduced.  We also played a game called Exponent Ball--I am sending home a hard copy of the game sheet so that your child can play at home; it's especially a hit with the boys as the rules are similar to those of football.  Next week we will be focusing on order of operations.

Spanish Vocabulary

In Spanish this week, Mrs. Ham has been working with the students on food vocabulary.  They were to create a healthy meal and drew and labeled (in Spanish, of course!) the foods on their plate.  They also played a basketball game on the Smartboard when they finished to review their food vocabulary.

Claim and Evidence

We wrapped up our Mysterious Powder unit this week.  After conducting many tests, the students presented their claim and evidence to class and then had to answer to the "firing squad" (the rest of the students!).  MANY excellent questions were asked that had to do with a group's validity of tests, test results, clarifying questions, what they would do if they were given more time to investigate, etc.  I was impressed with their questions and the appropriate and respectful manner in which they questioned others!

Unit 6: Using Data; Addition and Subtraction of Fractions

We have 4 learning targets in Unit 6:

1.  Convert between fractions, decimals, and percents
2.  Add fractions with like denominators
3.  Subtract fractions with like denominators
4.  Identify and use data landmarks

We have done some review of measuring accurately with both standard and metric units.  We used this data to learn about and review how to organize our data and find data landmarks (maximum, minimum, range, mean, mode, median).  We have also learned how to make and interpret Stem-and-Leaf plots which was a new skill for ALL students.

Don't forget about accessing Math Facts in a Flash from home--it's great practice!  Each student has an opportunity to access the program from school 2 mornings a week so additional practice at home would be another opportunity for practice.

http://www.goo.gl/w4tjz

Indicators

Our investigation of the mysterious powder is winding down.  This week, we have spent a lot of time with indicators and our 6 colored powders.  We used iodine to indicate a starch, phenolphthalein to indicate a base, and phenol red to indicate an acid.  This helped us to identify the green powder as a starch, the red powder as a base, and the blue powder as an acid.  We are anxious to try these tests again with the mysterious powder to see if it contains a starch, acid, or base.