Math: Ms. Alex Spencer
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During the month of November students will be working on operations with fractions and decimals. Specifically we will be focusing on multiplication and division. So far, we have worked on drawing diagrams to represent story problems for fractions with division! Can you think of a story problem that could be represented by ⅘ divided by ½? Ask your child! You will be impressed with their ability to model division using diagrams and also connect it to real-world situations. We will also be doing a STEM challenge at the start of the month to practice our teamwork skills and see which group can make the strongest bridge of popsicle sticks! Ask your student what worked well with their team. Expect your child to bring home their second math quiz to be signed during the first week or two of November. Perhaps you can take some time to review the assessment together!
Social Studies: Ms. Gisel Saillant
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This week we introduced the Geography unit virtual brochure project. This project will be completed during our social studies class and it is 45% of their grade. Students are pretending to be a Trip Advisor at the Cambridge Office of Tourism, as they research a country and create a Google Map virtual brochure and convince travelers to visit. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the Five Themes of Geography (location, physical characteristics, human characteristics, movement, and human-environment interaction), as they persuade their audience to visit this country. Ask your students, “What places are you recommending your visitors to see?”
STUDENT MODEL Link:
http://bit.ly/mapsample2015
ELA: Dan Tobin, aka Mr. Tobin
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We are knee-deep in Rick Riordan’s
The Lightning Thief! We’re engaged in what’s called close reading, repeatedly rereading sections with new questions in mind, discovering what the text is telling us beyond what’s on the page. We’ve been looking at character and figuring out how to find the gist. This week we’ll look at the “Hero’s Journey” archetype, and determine how Percy Jackson fits into this tradition. By the end of the month, we’ll be looking more closely at the mythology that’s woven throughout the book. On Reading Fridays, everyone is immersed in an independent reading book geared toward their personal interest and reading level, although plenty of people are mostly focused on Percy!
Science: Mr. Phil Nerboso
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Students dove deep into the fascinating and mysterious world of light and how we see. Our investigations have already led us to further our understandings about how we see. Ask your student to describe for you how they know that light travels in straight lines and how that fact explains how shadows are formed. Light travels in straight lines until it reaches an object that scatter or absorbs it. A shadow is formed behind an object that blocks the path of light. Ultimately, less light reaches our eyes from a shadow than from the area surrounding it. You might spark conversation by asking your child to describe this effect while using a flashlight to create a shadow with their hand like we did in class. Lastly, we will have our first test coming up in the next week. This will be a good measurement of the progress students have made in science since the start of our Physical Science unit. Please check in with your student to see how they are feeling about their understanding of the science content so far this year. Help them review the study guide they will receive this week and encourage them to arrange to see me before or after school for extra review.