Pets, caravels, choir and banks cards

Dragons

Monkey

Wednesday morning began with M.E. (morning exercise). The students had to write about what pet they would choose if they could have any pet.  The choices ranged from mythical creatures like dragons, to hippos and wolves.  We worked as a group to brainstorm ideas and themes they should think about as they wrote their essay.  Topics included, feeding, bathing, exercising, going to the bathroom, where the pet would sleep etc.  I look forward to reading them. 

Wolf

Tasmanian Dev

After M.E. we talked about tricks in math.  Tricks are really strategies.  I put 7+8+3 on the board.  I then asked them to think about how they would go about adding it.  All those students good at math have learned strategies to make things simple for them.  Instead of adding 7 and 8 like the lower students the good students look for patterns first.  So the better math students are able to look for the easy way to do the work, so they add the 7 and 3 to make 10 then add the 8.  I am trying to teach them that math is easy, it can get complicated and need breaking down into steps, but it is easy. Not sure if they bought it, but when I demonstrated how I can multiply large numbers like 88642686 by 5, faster in my head than they can with the calculator,  they were willing to listen. I will teach them strategies first. 

Caravels

After recess we did a one page report on the type of ships used by the first European explorers to come to the New World, the Caravels.  These are the same ships that we started building models of on Friday.

 

20 dollars gets you a green report cover and your pict on the blog

After lunch we began the day with choir.  All of the class except for 5 students joined choir.  This is amazing as music is one of the great gifts we can give to ourselves.  Those students not in choir had musical appreciation.  They listened to and did a one page report on Mozart.

The bank now has accounts

After Choir we worked on our mini-books based on the book 'Don't Give a Mouse a Cookie' Great day everyone. See you tomorrow.