Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Welcome to Mrs. Echols' blog.  It is now half way through the second week of school.
It's always rough getting back into the routine of things, but here we are.  :)
Tonight is Meet the Teacher Night, here is a Wordle that will tell you a little bit
about what we will be discussing tonight at our meetings.  Please let me know if you
have any other topics you'd like to discuss. 



So far this year in Science we've started out easy and at a slower place. 
We have discussed Scientists, what they do, who they are, misconceptions, stereotypes,
where they work, the tools they use etc.  The students had to create their image of
what a scientist is, and then the class made a graph comparing what we all had in common.
We have also began discussing the Scientific Method, and the seven steps that we will be
using this year.  This Friday we will begin discussing Food Chains and Ecosystems.  We
are gearing up for a fun experimental unit that will help us on that journey.  As a
reminder for that experiment, we do need clean 2-liter bottles and egg cartons, the more
the merrier :)

In Math, We are moving at a much more quick of a pace.  The first week of school we reviewed
concepts that should be familiar with our students, place value (up to the billions), writing
numbers in standard (1,234) form, expanded (1,000 + 200 + 30 + 4) form, and in written (one
thousand two hundred and thirty-four) form.  Our students need to make sure that they are able
to express numbers in all three of those forms from 0 up to 999,999,999,999.  We also worked
shortly on adding and subtracting four digit numbers with four digit numbers.  When practicing
this concept, it is crucial that our students are remembering to carry and borrow if it
is needed.  This week we have been working on Multiplication and Division.  Up until now, our
students should have been using Standard form for both of these, standard form would be
what we (parents, teachers) learned in school.  Monday, we discussed multiplication using
the distributive property, (32 X 5 can also be written as two problems... {30 X 5} +
{2 X 5}) and lattice, which breaks a big three digit by two digit problem down into six smaller
one digit by one digit multiplication problems (THIS IS REALLY COOL TO USE!!!).  Yesterday we
began discussing alternate division techniques and the students practiced what is called
"chunk it".  This is a method of division that breaks a larger, three digit by one or two digit,
division problem into three smaller one by one or two by one division problems.  (ALSO VERY COOL
TO USE)!!! 

As you probably noticed these are both very useful tools, but the success of our students in Math
this year will depend in how well they know their multiplication facts! Please work with your
child at home on getting these memorized, if they do not already know them.  In fifth grade
they should be working up to their 12 X 12's. 

I'm looking forward to a great year with you and your student!!!