Hello! Here are some updates from EY!

Wrap up Q 3 Science Olympiad-Many of your children attended the Science Olympaid last week at the CCC. The event was a great success, and I am happy that so many of our students choose to participate. There were science challenges for all levels of students, and the hands on activities kept the students engaged throughout the day. The sessions were run by guest scientists, WHS science club members, and ESU # 3 staff. The team events were Pasta Bridge, Catapults, Estamania, Sink or Float, Metric, Mystery Boxes,  and Write It Do It.

Click here for pictures and videos from the event.

Q 4 Topic and Theme-The umbrella concept for Q4 is CONNECTIONS. We will study connections within social studies/history. The grade 5 an 6 students will study a historical event and then create Peabody and Sherman skit to alter history in some way. The students will format the scripts using Mensa for Kids as a guide.  Our grade 4 students will choose a historical event to research and create “Was it Possible” keynotes to share with the grade 4 classes.

Wordly Wise-We will continue Wordly Wise each week. I have been encouraging the students to use complete sentences when doing the response questions. These questions are sometime quite difficult, and I appreciate the extra time and effort from the students. If your child is having difficulty with the passage, please ask him/her to take the time to reread. This second reading will often make a huge difference.

Math Olympiad-Our 5th Math Olympiad contest is wrapping up. The contest is timed and the students only have 30 min to complete the problems.  After the contest, we spend quite a bit of time going over solutions and strategies for each problem. Some groups worked on solving the problems last week and some will do that this week. This time is valuable. After I provide a few hits, or strategies, they are able to work through problems that they perceive as “IMPOSSIBLE” and the kids are often quite proud.

Often the contest will start with a problem that most of the children can do by drawing a picture or making a table:

SAMPLE PROBLEM: How many combinations of pennies, nickels and/or dimes are there with a total value of 25 cents? 

The problems progress in difficulty.

SAMPLE PROBLEM: A four-digit perfect square integer is created by placing two positive two-digit perfect square integers next to each other. What is the four-digit square integer?

Try the above problems with your child at home! I’ll put the answers at the end of the post.

Math Contest-Grade 5 and 6-Brownell Talbot hosts a math contest for grade 5 and 6 math students each spring. We can only take 3 teams of 5 students. The combined scores on the Math Olympiad Contests will be used determine the 15 participants. The Brownell Contest will take place on Thursday, May 1 after school. I will send home permission slips before spring break.

Grade 4 Math-Grade 4 students will continue working on Khan through the end of April. Please remind your son/daughter to spend time at home working through the lessons, videos, and practice problems. I have taught all of the grade 5 skills, with the exception of decimal division. We will spend the next few weeks doing mini lessons over this.

Answers to math problems are below so stop scrolling if you want to try them!

SAMPLE PROBLEM: How many combinations of pennies, nickels and/or dimes are there with a total value of 25 cents? (answer: 12 combinations)

SAMPLE PROBLEM: A four-digit perfect square integer is created by placing two positive two-digit perfect square integers next to each other. What is the four-digit square integer? (answer: 1681)

Update Grade 4

The end of the quarter is here, and we are wrapping up our 3rd quarter science theme “innovation”. Grade 4 students have been exploring innovations and inventions. They are also working very hard on grade 5 math concepts using Khan and mini lessons taught by me during our EY time. Each week the kids set a personal goal on Khan. Our final goal is to have all 100 % of the grade 5 concepts mastered by the end of April.  When you get a chance, ask your child about his/her Grade 5 Khan %.   We finished up all of our fraction lessons last week, and will spend the month of March working on decimals.  We will do the 5th Math Olympiad Contest next week. Wordly Wise units will continue during the 4th quarter. Please remind your child to complete the “Fields of Science” assignment on the EY blog if he/she is interested in attending the science event at the CCC on March 25th.

Update Grade 5/6

The grade 5/6 students have been learning about science using the innovations presented in Nova’s “Making Stuff” series . The grade 5/6 students will share keynotes outlining new learnings. The grade 5 and 6 students have also been working on lessons in Wordly Wise. I like correcting the units with the children since we spend time on the problems that might not have one right answer. This time gives the children a chance to support his/her answer and do a bit of debating. We will do the 5th Math Olympiad Contest next week. Please remind your child to complete the “Fields of Science” assignment on the EY blog if he/she is interested in attending the science event at the CCC on March 25th.

Conferences

I will split my conference time between Prairie Lane and Swanson. I plan on being at Swanson on Tuesday from 1-4:30 and PL from 5-8:00. On Wednesday, I will be at Swanson from 1:00-4:00 and will be at PL in the evening. I will try to make as many of the classroom conferences as I can. These times may not work for your family, so please send me an email if you would like to set up a time to meet, or we could also do a phone conference if you would like! jhenningsen@westside66.org

Contest Opportunity

Google is offering a doodling contest for students that connects with our theme “Innovation”

     This year we’re asking K-12 students to create their doodles based on the theme “If I  Could Invent One Thing to Make the World a Better Place…” To enter the competition simply download the application form, print it, doodle your version of the Google logo based off this year’s theme and submit online or by mail.The due date for submission is March 20th.

This would be something fun to check out over the weekend.

http://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html

Thank you for all of your support!

Jenny

******Science and Math Opportunities*******

Opportunity # 1

EVENT: EY Science Olympiad at CCC

Date: 4/25/14

Fee: To attend students must complete the assignment

“Fields of Science” found @

https://ey.westside66.org/tag/innovationq3/

Due date: March 3rd, 2014

I plan on going over the “Field of Science” assignment with the kids this upcoming week. Attending the Science Olympiad is not mandatory, but if your child wants to attend on the 25th of March, the assignment above is the “ticket in the door”.

Opportunity # 2

Young Scientist Challenge

Who knows…we may have a young scientist out there ready to change the world! Check this out if your child has an interest in this area.

It looks like the contest is due April 22 and there are several resources on the site including previous winners, insider tips, science lesson plans, and experiments.

http://www.youngscientistchallenge.com/?utm_source=DE1MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CallforEntries2014 ]http://www.youngscientistchallenge.com/?utm_source=DE1MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CallforEntries2014

Opportunity # 3

PhET

   EY Math Opportunity

We took the 4th Math Olympiad this week.   We will work through strategies to solve the contest problems next week, and I will offer follow up problems that will allow the children to practice!

Sample problem from the contest: