Barbara, Volume 24: February 16, 2015

Hey, Hassaan and Christopher. How is that acrostic weather poem going?

Such a cool week! We continued our study of weather. We talked a lot about what weather is, what climate is, and discussed how they are related. So many new vocabulary words are flying around that students are using the books and dictionaries to find the meaning of them. Also, we took a look at specific elements of weather, like temperature and learned how to read a thermometer using both Celsius and Fahrenheit. Additionally, we have strategically placed thermometers all around campus. Each morning and afternoon, students are recording their heat/cold in the air (temperature). We have begun to build our own weather vanes to measure the direction of the wind on campus. Finally, we are listening the book "Clouds" and creating our own cloud book that represents what clouds are, how they change and are formed, and the different types of clouds. Yes; that is a lot of weather experimenting!

To help us with reading the thermometers and other Science topics, we are using "landmarks" or important numbers in our place value system (i.e. 2, 5, 10, 100, etc.) to help us manipulate the 100 chart and solve addition and subtraction equations. Students have played a Fantastic Frogurt Forever game, in which students practice this concept. To show their understanding of landmarks, they also have created a Two-Voice poem. This type of poem is created when two people speak independently and also simultaneously. The dialogue they create can go back and forth. It is really fun to hear. Ask your child about it! Students also have been working on factors and multiples of 100. They built some super cool "packages", or buildings that had to be made up of 100 pieces of "chocolate". This helped show their understanding of different multiples, factors, and equations to equal 100.

I have posted March's book sharing guidelines. Please read them carefully. I am a huge fan of films, so I look forward to the creative Marquee posters!

Owl of the Week
Barbara...

Homework for Monday, Tuesday:

Monday:  Temperature Reading practice

Tuesday:  Reading a Weather Map practice.

No homework over break.  See new things!  Go outside!  If the weather is challenging your outdoor activities, do an indoor project!

Google+ created this. I hope the link works:)

 "W" for weather acrostic  poems.

 Probability games that students created and played last Friday.

 Above and below, students work on rhyming couplets.

 Math rocks!

 Working on multiples and factors of 100.

 Adli during Math; and Hassaan and others work researching during library about different climates across the world.  

 Is that Ms. Sayyora, or Ms. Braelyn checking out books??

 Working with cold and hot elements to measure temperature!

 Placement is important when finding the perfect spot for your morning and afternoon temperatures.

 Barbara and Junke share their February mobile! Nice work!

 How can we use multiples, or factors, of 100 to help us?

Left: Visited the 5th grade Energy museum. Right: Ekaterina and Margaret perform a two-voice poem in math!