Happy October

There are so many exciting things happening in our classroom that I don’t even know where to start.  Our bubble unit is going to spill over into one more week, with the student’s having their first opportunity to experience an engineering activity.  We will take lots of pictures and post them here as well as on Facebook.  

We have also started using tasks in Math.  It’s fun to see the students trying to make the task into a traditional story problem and having to struggle a little bit to get the correct answer.  The task we did this week was concerning a bike shop that had 21 seats, and 54 wheels in the showroom.  These seats and wheels were on go carts and bikes.  How many bikes and go carts were in the shop?       If you are reading this before school on Monday, please DO NOT help your child with the answer.  They are in groups and need to learn a couple of things from this activity.  1)  We need to stay in the struggle!  No matter how hard something is, it is okay to struggle and try something again, and again.  2) We need to work with others.  Most of the jobs in the job market tend to have collaboration involved and teams working together.  I observed students having to learn to give and take, as well as corporate with each other as they tried to determine the best way to complete this task.  

If you have a Facebook and have not liked the Quest Academy Page, please take the opportunity to like us.  We post pictures, and videos there that show what we are learning in school.  The Dry Ice Bubbles were amazing and the video is very fun to watch.

Our witches are starting to get very old and wrinkly!  The students have taken dress patterns home with instructions.  If you have not seen these, please let me know and we will get another set home.  (I don’t have an electronic version yet, but I’m working on that,)  All dresses should be returned to school by this Wednesday.  I have a few parents who have volunteered to sew dresses for those who do not sew.   I do need a few volunteers who would be willing to make brooms and hair.  These need to be completed by the 14th.  

Homework

Math: Prodigygame.com    This is a great way to practice what we have been doing in class and needs to be used 3 times a week, for at least 15 minutes each time.  This is a great review of what we are doing in class as I assign the problems that your child works on.  We have also been playing PIG and if you would like to substitute any night of  Prodigy for Pig, please feel free to.  There are 30 points given each week for Prodigy and/or Pig.  The rules for Pig can be found here: PIG

Reading: 20 minutes at least 5 times a week.  It is imperative that your child is participating in reading practice at home.  Studies have shown that the more words a child read, the better their achievement is in all other areas.  We will be starting book talks where the students talk about what they read the night before.  Not only are they given homework points for reading, but they are also given presentation points for being able to stand up and talk about what they read the night before. Reading is worth 100 points each week.

Spelling:  Sorts are assigned on Monday, so this sort should be the regular sort, allowing you to see what the focus for the week is and should be written after sorting.  Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, you get to choose the sorts.  I have told the students that if they choose the speed sort, to save it for a “busy” night as it does not need to be written.   If you have questions, please don’t be afraid to e-mail me.  Sorts are worth 40 points every week.

When we test on Friday, I choose words with the pattern we have learned throughout the week.  I do not always choose words that were in the sort as we are looking for the use of pattern and their ability to use it in any word with that pattern.

BYU: Sort 4
Utah State: Sort 22
U of U: sort 33
Weber State: Sort 39