Hello!

The district Spelling Bee was held on Dec 6th and it was an exciting event. Several of the EY students participated,  and all of the contestants made it through the written round into the oral competition. Dylan from Prairie Lane took 3rd place in the Elementary Division. Great job spellers!  For those who has a passion for spelling, or would like to get a start studying for next year, www.spellingcity.com and http://www.myspellit.com are fun resources to check out.

We have started the district elementary Geography bees. All students were given a quiz and the top students from each building will participate in the bee.  There are some great geography games @ http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/geographygames/

During our reading EY times, we have moved on from the strategy theme and are on to communication.  We have been discussing several literary devices, enriching what they are also learning  in the classroom.  This involves the creative side of their brains, which is fun to see.  We have some that really are able to think outside the box, for others it is a bit of a stretch.  But it is always good to step outside of your comfort zone now and then. We are continuing to do Wordly Wise each week, and it is fun to play with the words and the meanings.

We completed our first Math Olympiad competition in late November. This is a test we take in class each month from November to March.  I was impressed with the scores and enjoyed listening to the strategies for solving the problems.  We took the second one this week and will go over strategies to solve the problems next week.

The grade 5 and 6 mathclub students worked on handshake math problems recently.

Seven mathematicians met up one week.
The first mathematician shook hands with all the others.
The second one shook hands with all the others apart from the first one (since they had already shaken hands).
The third one shook hands with all the others apart from the first and the second mathematicians, and so on, until everyone had shaken hands with everyone else.

How many handshakes were there altogether?

http://nrich.maths.org/6708

We learned that we can make on organized list or make a table to find a pattern

We also talked about drawing a diagram or acting it out. We decided if there were a few people in the room, all of these would work great, but when the number of people increased, these strategies would take too long.  A a group, we worked on a formula to solve these types of problems and decided that we would use

As an extension, we worked out how to find the number of diagonals in a polygon using a similar formula

Here are some online math contest practice sites to try out!

http://mathtop10.com/5th_grade_math_challenge_free/5th_grade_math_competition%20P1.htm

http://www.brocku.ca/caribou/test/practice_test_login.php

Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.

Jenny

Hello!

Conference are next week!  I will split my time between Oakdale, Prairie Lane, and Swanson.  I will visit any conferences that I can when I am in the building.   I might not be at the building when you have conferences, but we can chat on the phone or you can visit me at one of my other schools.   Please email me if you would like to set up a time to talk.

Tuesday            Swanson  1:15-4:45 (in the media center)    

                             Prairie Lane 5:00-8:00 (in the special services office )

Wednesday    Oakdale  1:15-4:45

                            Prairie Lane  5:00-8:00   (in the special services office)
This week we were busy making our final project Keynotes. After creating the slides that outline the problem solving process, the children will record his/her voice explaining the steps.  We will finish up with these next week, and we will get them posted for parents to view. Due to Outdoor Ed, a few of grade 6 students needed a little more time, and will finish up after intercession.  It was fun to hear about the ODE adventures!

Our last problem solving  lesson of the quarter will be working with problems that involve consecutive integers.

Find two consecutive integers whose sum is 45.

Let x = the smaller of the two numbers.

x + 1 = the larger of the two numbers.

The sum of the two numbers equals 45.

Write out the equation: x + (x + 1) = 45

2x + 1 = 45

2x = 44

x = 22

                               The smaller of the two numbers is 22, so the other number is 23

The strategy for grade 4 students is “guess and check”, and the older students worked on combining like terms and solving for x. These are problems that are sometimes tricky, so it was fun to work few a few together.

Here is a video fro Khan that shows an extension of this topic by looking for the sum of odd consecutive integers.

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/solving-linear-equations-and-inequalities/More-equation-practice/v/integer-sums

The Grade 6 Drawing From the Inside Seminar  will be held on Tuesday October 15.  We had 36 spots and they were filled quickly.  Mrs. Spady and I will attend the seminar, as well.  Lunch and transportation will be provided. This is a early release day, so please look over the email sent by Mrs. Spady for details on bus drop off times. There will be similar opportunities offered to grades 4-6  this school year.

We have a couple of math competitions for 4th (Marrs Magnet Center) and 6th (McMillian Middle School) coming up in November. Unfortunately, we cannot take all of the students, so we will have mini contests to determine the participants.   We will send permission letters when we have the teams determined. I have set up a collection of problem solving practice on blackboard under the “strategies” button.

Thank you for all of your support!

Jenny