Week of March 12-16

Hello all,

Well, I'm hopeful Mother Nature is done messing with us and will send spring our way, and SOON!

I couldn't believe the amount of snow we got this week, adding onto last week.  Students are working hard in all facets of our day.  This is the point of year where we all know each other so well and truly have pure enjoyment in all we do!

Math:

• Students learned all about multiplying fractions
• Some have grasped the concept of cross reducing to simplify the problem
• Students visually showed fractions by fractions
• We have multiplied mixed numbers, proper fraction as well as whole numbers

Literacy:

• Students are completely immersed in book clubs
• Clubs met Monday and Thursday to talk about topics surrounding characters, problems, predictions etc
• Many clubs brought in snacks and drinks just like adult book clubs
• We organized our reasons/evidence for our argument onto a graphic organizer
• Students flash drafted their reasons/evidence for their argument
• 5D and 5L demonstrated many ways to begin your Ted Talk and then students drafted strong leads
• Arguments will turn into Ted Talks in April for parents to come in and watch

Science:

• We completed our Earth's Systems unit
• Students worked in teams of two to create a water filter to filter gray water
• Ask students all about what gray water is and what they used in their filter system
• Students are really thinking like informed, caring citizens
• Water shortage is truly a world crisis!  Kids' eyes are open!

Mantras

Christine Hertz, co author of The Mindset for Learning recently visited SMS and worked with my team all about student self talk and the importance of learning from failure.  In her talk, she shared that students who are not allowed to struggle and fail were not able to cope when they went away to college.  They had no idea how to learn from failure and improve.  It's SO HARD to watch your child fail, but as parents, we MUST!

We learned about a protocol about self talk.  Mrs. Loh and I utilized this protocol with the students right away.  Ask your child about the matras we created!

Enjoy pics from our Water Filter Performance Task!