Friday, 25 October 2013

After cursive "R" and studying our spelling, we went outside for a school picture.  It was more like taking a family picture...painful and funny!  The results turned out surprisingly good.  Check out the school website: archesacademy.com.

Spelling test and Language Arts test.  Reading was Chapter 4.  STUDENTS SHOULD COMPLETE CHAPTER FOUR.  Quiz them on the content.  There is a 5 question quiz every day, and they have the opportunity to earn a quarter for each 5/5 quiz.

MATH WAS EXERCISE 11.  This is a tricky strategy for some students.  Remember: 34 x 56 is the same as 30 x 56 plus 4 x 56.  It is vital that students understand this concept.  First, have them estimate: 30 x 60 = 1800, so the logical answer must be somewhere in that neighborhood.  30 x 56 is the same as 10 x 56 plus 10 x 56 plus 10 x 56, so 560 +560 + 560 = 1680.  4 x 56 is 224.  Add the two and you get 1904.  (Hope my mental math was right on that one.)  We learned how to do it mentally and how to do it "Harry Potter style".  (There is a long-winded, exciting story about Hogwarts and Voldemort, with "bleiben" spells and "comma" curses...your kids will be able to tell you.)  Harry Potter math is multiplying vertically:

      34
    x56
    204
+1700
  1904

For Cultural Roundtable, we learned all about Costa Rica from the Spanish students.  We played a musical ball game for review.  It was pretty creative!

During project time, tribes got together to create visual representations comparing Native American life before the Europeans to our life today.  We will post these outside the classroom.  They were well done.  Students learned that synergizing increases creativity and retention.  It also helps in following instructions.  STUDENTS SHOULD BE TYPING OUT NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS.

Minicourses were so much fun.  One student actually brought me a sample from the Chocolate course!  In my class we learned about the special roles airplanes play in stealth.  We experimented with jet-propulsion using balloons, straws, tape and yarn.  Students raced their balloons across the common area.  We also worked on folding paper airplanes in certain styles.  Finding the best aerodynamic style based on the laws of physics will be the focus of our next course.