4R Experiences: Volume 17: 9 December 2016

One student sharing a question, or line of a possible line of inquiry, after exploring a migration story.

Landmarks in the Thousands, the title of our new math unit, reaches deeper into our place value system. The word, "landmark" in math is like a "friendly" number, like 10, that we can use to help us do mental math quickly, develop a deeper understanding of how multiples and factors are connected to multiplication and division, and help us solve addition and subtraction problems with digits into the thousands and beyond.

This week students defined multiples and factors, both in their own words and using mathematical vocabulary. We also looked at where and when using the ideas of multiples and factors would be useful in the real-world. Then, we used cubes and the 100 chart to help us create equations that represent multiples and factors and the patterns between the two ideas. This week, we are working with a fun activity called "Fantastic Frogurt to Frog Forever" which shows how to use the 100 chart and cubes to do mental addition and subtraction with "landmark" numbers, like 10, 25, or 100. We recorded our mental math using equations.

We left you last week with one central idea from each student. This week, we had three students lead a discussion to help narrow the central ideas to one: Human's migrate because of risks, opportunities, and challenges. Pretty good, huh? Each student made an argument about why people migrate, and the result were the three reasons listed in our central idea. Our three discussion leaders asked questions and included the community to be sure everyone had a voice, felt empowered, and responsible for creating the central idea.

We read the migration story Brothers in Hope by Mary Luana Williams and focused our central idea by looking at our lines of inquiry, or the specific ideas/questions we have that we want to explore as they relate to migration. Our lines of inquiry are Why people migrate? How people migrate? What are the consequences of migration? The last of the three have forced us to look at the choices people made in difficult situations, such as in our story mentioned above. Students then read other migration stories and began evaluating the many reasons humans migrate.

As an extension of our unit of inquiry in migration, we have also been looking at what our lives might look like in the future. Prompted with the idea, "Imagine your life 20 years from now..." students looked at the quality of the life they really want, rather than a list of negative things they don't want, and/or material goods. Some students said they wanted a Ph.D, a good job, a family, travel opportunities, to live in Space and rule the world (I am not sure the latter will really happen.) During our closing discussion, we shared our responses with each other and noticed some patterns as we analyzed a collective list of what we wrote. You guessed it! Needs vs. Wants. We also linked our lives with the migration stories we have been exploring. It turns out, we don't really need that much - we just want a lot.

Enjoy the Holiday break! Stay safe!

Homework

Along with preparing your book share, please read 20 minutes each night. Then...

Monday: Map Skills - Scales Activity (Please bring the school rule back Tuesday. Keep the ruler in your Homework folder.)

Tuesday: Spelling activity

Wednesday: What's your Blood Type? and How does Blood Travel Activity - on a separate piece of paper, write five new words and what they mean. You can define them in your own words, or use a dictionary. Also write the main idea, or gist, for each article.

Thursday: Compound Word Hunt: In your spelling notebook, walk around your house, backyard, neighborhood (with an adult please) and write things that you see. Using those words and other words you know, create compound words! For example, as your walking into your house you see... a "door". Record "door" and then think what words have "door" in them? Oh, "door+way=doorway". Record the compound word, "doorway" in you spelling notebook. We will compare and see who can find the most compound words Friday before our quiz. Have fun!

Friday: Read while jumping on a trampoline and turning the pages with one finger at a time. Be sure to not eat, or drink, while doing this as your epiglottis might forget to do its job.