The weeks leading up to camp are always a little la vida loca as we often have to complete district mandated assessments before year-end, complete some important math before the long break, inspire some future coding kids and deal with all of the logistics entailed with getting 95’ish students to camp.
We all seemed to survive the storm today. We hope that it will be safe going forward.
Regarding camp next week? I like to use this website:
They are in the business of predicting weather and they do just as haphazard of a guess as the next guy. Bill Martin loves to point out when on KNBR that anything beyond 48 hours is really just an educated guess. The only reason television news even offers 4 or 5 day forecast is to appease audience demands. Weathertrends360.com predicts light rain on Monday and Tuesday while we are at camp. I can guarantee the kids will have a great team regardless.
What have we been working on?
Pen Pals -- I have a good friend, that goes back to when we played together all four years on the tennis team in high school, who is also an elementary school teacher. He has moved to New Jersey and this year is teaching 3rd grade. We decided to start PenPals with our class. I promised him we would mail off our letters before heading off to camp so his students can have them prior to the holiday break. So today they were given time to read their initial welcome letter and create a welcome letter back to their person.
The Battle of Trenton or the Crossing of the Delaware….
We are reading George Washington’s Socks therefore we are also learning about the status of our colonies in the Winter of 1776. We have done some reading on the subject, watched two great Liberty Kids about this time period and today watched a dramatic acting out of these events.
Ask your son or daughter about this important historical event that took place on Christmas day and evening.
Math
We have now completed two assessments regarding geometry concepts. Many students lost points on minor sloppiness issues regarding labeling the X and Y axis when making a graph. They also left out some characteristics of specific parallelograms.
Math and IXL --
Some of the IXL skills take longer than other ones to earn a 100 point total. Unfortunately IXL does not offer data such as “average time spent” therefore some are more laborious than others. Therefore the goal should be no more than 30 minutes on one IXL topic in one sitting. Some kids have come back saying they have spent hours in one evening trying to earn 100 on a skill or skills. I can say with full assurances that I have asked kids never to exceed one hour and they can feel confident that they tried their best if they stop after 30 minutes. Please feel free to literally or figuratively just pull the IXL plug on them if they won’t quit. Their sticktoitiveness is impressive but cognitively not in their best interest.
Science --Tuesdays and Thursdays they join Mrs. Cargo’s class to work on topics associated with the water cycle.
Coding:
Due to weather conditions today, we were unable to bring over a group of chromebooks since Mrs. Rodriguez’s class had to complete their district assessments. We have a tarp to cover the devices however it will not offer enough protection in heavy wind and rain. So kids are encouraged to code to their hearts content tonight.
Kind regards,
Mr. Hubbard
"I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it."
- Harry S. Truman (1945 - 1953)
Homework:
Be prepared for Camp on Monday by reading through this packet again and being packed.
Math:
Page 219-220 1-13 all chapter 9-8
Students are to write out the boxes for the problems.
X or division by 10, 100, or 1000 handout
Test on Chapter 9, 10, and 11 w/ lessons through 8 (review homework from these chapters)
Pen Pal letters
Ideally students will complete their rough draft by typing it up following the format they were given 20 minutes in class today.
Free - Write due on Friday
“Modernize” Santa Claus --bring his operations into the year 2014; Ipad? Naughty/Good App? Text you when your bad? Email him your wish list? Take selfies with him at the mall instead of standard photo? Give out Bitcoin?
Read for 30 minutes.
