Longer School Day, Less Vacations?

Alright - this conversation sparked some serious interest in class, with some passionate responses. As part of his overall plan, President Obama and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan want to make some radical changes to the school year.  In an effort to "turn the country's education" around, the plan is to add an additional 300 school hours per year to the school calendar.  Considering our school day is from 8:45 to 3:30, or 6 hours 45 minutes, that would mean an additional 10 or so weeks of school - or lengthen the school day.  See more here:



So, what do you think? Good plan, bad plan?

Order of Operations!

As we learned together in math class, figuring out what order to do certain operations in a numerical expression can be tough.  However, our old faithful rule of "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" should be memorized to help you with this. 

Remember :
Please (Parentheses)
Excuse (Exponents)
My (Multiplication)
Dear (Division)
Aunt (Addition)
Sally (Subtraction).

Remember, however, that Multiplication and Division are on the same line, so do them in order from left to right, regardless of which comes first.  Same with Addition and Subtraction.

And, because I'm a big geek at heart, here are two inspired people singing the "Order of Operations" song, as set to Rihanna's "Umbrella":



I swear I won't sing that in class...or will I???

Math Quiz Tomorrow!

I hope everyone remembered to study for the math quiz on Tuesday!  It will cover Chapters 1-1 to 1-4. This covers:

Lesson 1 - A Plan  for Problem Solving
Lesson 2 - Divisibility Patterns
Lesson 3 - Prime Factorization
Lesson 4 - Powers and Exponents

There is a lot to study here, so plan accordingly!  The divisibility rules are a piece of cake...if you prepare!

Why Can't I Skip My Reading Log Tonight???

Well, we all have our reading log...some of us love it, and it has become second nature.  Most of you are reading every night anyway, so it is not a big deal...but, for others, it seems like it is pulling teeth, wondering, "why is this important?"
Well, I found this little nugget on the internet, linked by the terrific Larry Ferlazzo:

Why Can't I Skip My
Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?
(shared on mailring by Emmy Ellis; source unknown)

Let's figure it out -- mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year. Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain
these same reading habits,  Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?

Which student would you expect to be more successful  in school....and in life?

Book Fair tomorrow

Just a quick reminder - we will be going to the school Book Fair tomorrow at 1:30 (right after recess).  So, if you have money to bring, please remember it when we go to lunch...and always keep it safe.  I dont want you to lose it!

Math - Divisibility Rules!

Today we learned about the rules of divisibility in math.  Fun stuff, right?  I know...not so much.  However, it is very important to learn the rules for seeing if a number can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 or 10.  It will greatly help when we start learning about equivalent fractions, factors, prime factorization, and all that fun stuff.  So, you all need to study your rules!

Remember....

A number is divisible by....

2	If the last digit is even, the number is divisible by 2.
3	If the sum of the digits is divisible by 3, the number is also.
4	If the last two digits form a number divisible by 4, the number is also.
5	If the last digit is a 5 or a 0, the number is divisible by 5.
6	If the number is divisible by both 3 and 2, it is also divisible by 6.
9	If the sum of the digits is divisible by 9, the number is also.
10	If the number ends in 0, it is divisible by 10.

I Love Back to School Night!

Once I get past the nerves, I always leave our annual "Back to School" night feeling energized.  Its such a blast to meet everyone's parents, and to be able to boast about all the great work going on in class. 
Everyone tonight got to hear about all the great things we are doing in class, from Writer's Workshop, to Reading, Math, Social Studies, and beyond. 
So, to everyone that came to school tonight, family and friends alike (and a few former students!), welcome aboard, and stop back often!

Remember...Math test this Tuesday!

Just a "friendly" reminder....we have our first Math test this Tuesday.  It will cover all of chapter 2 from our book.

We started with frequency tables (scale, intervals..), moved onto bar graphs, line graphs and circle graphs.  Then we used line graphs to make predictions, learned stem-and-leaf plots, and of course, mean, median and mode.  A lot to know...and I guarantee it will all be tested. 

If you need some help, you may email me, or check the website for the math book.  It has tons of great material! 

Beringia - the "Land Bridge"

As we learned the last two days in social studies, the area between Asia and Alaska was once exposed land, a "land bridge", as it is called now. It is referred to as a bridge for just that reason...people, animals, plants migrated from Asia to Alaska over this land...the people chased the animals here, looking for food.

Well, the quick video below shows the way the land changed. The land, in green, is slowly put underwater as the glaciers melt. Pretty neat stuff...but, it makes me wonder. Glaciers still exist...what happens when those melt? That is why people are so concerned with global warming!

Lascaux Cave Paintings

Wow---remember that picture of the French cave we saw in our Social Studies book?  Here is a neat video, showing more!  Take a look at all the symbols included here!

An Update on Rifqa Bary....

Class....in Current Events the last few days, we watched the story of Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who ran away from home because she claimed she was threatened by her father, all because she wanted to change her religion.
Well, as we learned today, it turns out that an investigation says that there is "no evidence" to support her claims of physical abuse.

HOWEVER, recently it came out that her father admitted lifting the girl's laptop over his head in a threatening manner, essentially lying to CNN.

So, who is to believe?  The runaway girl, or her parents?  Some conundrum. 

Our Reading Log

Reading Log

Happy Monday - Hope you are checking this!

Well, Monday is over....hope all of you are studying for your Math quiz.

Tell you what--leave me a comment, and get a Busted Being Good certificate!

We've Landed!

Welcome to the new home of our class, www.sheridanelmer.com!  This website will serve as the online home of our class...so check back often!