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:

Hello!

We started a story map and brainstorming session for a writing contest. The students will work on this story during EY time next week. I will have them turn in rough drafts the week of Nov 11th.  The final drafts will need to be typed, so if your child would like to type the rough draft that would be great! This is a fun topic and it has been fun to hear about the heroes and the superpowers.

Click link below for writing contest guidelines

http://www.metroreadingcouncil.org/uploads/2/2/4/9/22493948/mrc_writing_contest_2013-2014.pdf

Math contest prep activities at Khan:

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/geometry/basic-geometry/perimeter_area_tutorial/v/interesting-perimeter-and-area-problems

Have a great weekend.

Jenny