March 17, 2010

Homework:

1. Vocabulary – Sentences
2. Math – Complete area of triangle worksheet
3. Reading -  read for 25 minutes and fill out clarification trip of the series.

Mr/Weis

March 16, 2009

Homework:

1. Vocabulary: Definitions and Sort  (Note – The definition for interpersonal was mistakenly put down instead of the definition for intrapersonal.  Intrapersonal with the prefix intra, meaning within, refers to something done within or by oneself.  For instance intrapersonal communication includes such things as daydreaming, reading aloud to oneself, and an internal monologue.  Interpersonal refers to something that occurs between people.
2. Math: Perimeter worksheet.
3. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and complete questioning section in reading log.  Write a short paragraph as your response to the question you create.

Mr. Weis

Monday March 15

This week in vocabulary we are focusing on the roots inter-, intra-, intro-, and circum-.  Today we did our word sort and the students made predictions about the meanings of each of the roots.  We discovered that the term intramural comes from the roots intra- meaning within, and mural meaning wall.  Literally the term translates to within the walls, which makes sense as a intramural sport league is composed entirely of members from within the same school building.  The students also looked for some other words that share the roots and probably my favorite of the group was circumambulate which means to walk around the perimeter of something.  I’ll have to find a way to incorporate that one into the day sometime this week.

In math we wrapped up coordinate grids and ordered pairs and are moving on to finding the area of 2 dimensional shapes.

The students did quite well on the last quiz, but here is a bit of background on ordered pairs.  Ordered pairs are sets of an X and Y coordinates that correspond to a specific point on a Coordinate Grid.  For some more information about how to use an ordered pair to name a point, follow this link.Also, here are a few games that involve graphing ordered pairs.

In What’s the Point, you can choose between different difficulty levels and pick ordered pairs from multiple choice lists.  The easier version involves only positive X and Y coordinates and the higher difficulty level involves all 4 quadrants and both positive and negative X and Y values.

In Graph It, there are three different difficulties to choose from.  A mole pops up at a point on the graph, and you have to identify the ordered pair to knock the mole out before it eats.

In Catch the Fly, you identify points that flies land on by typing in the ordered pairs.  Once you type in the correct pair, a frog will hop out and slurp it up.  As opposed to the other games that have the player pick from a multiple choice list, Catch the Fly requires the player to type in the coordinates.

Homework:

1. Vocabulary: Sort
2. Mathematics: Study Link 9-4 – Find the area
3. Language Arts: Finish Sign of the Beaver Chapter 15 page if not already finished in class.
4. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and complete predictions in reading log.

Mr. Weis

Tuesday March 9

Homework:

1. Math: Study Links 9-1 Plotting Points
2. Vocabulary: Definitions and CLOZE
3. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and fill out questioning section in reading log
4. Preparation for Field Trip: bring a bag lunch, wear long pants and close toed shoes.

Mr. Weis

Monday, March 8

Homework:

1. Vocabulary: Sort
2. Mathematics: Practice Set 48, Get Math Self Assessment signed and returned
3. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and fill out prediction section in reading log

Mr. Weis

Thursday, March 4

Homework:

1. Language Arts: Finish Sign of the Beaver Ch. 11 and 12 worksheet (if not completed in class)
2. Mathematics: Subtracting Negative numbers worksheet
3. Vocabulary: Sentences and study words for the week
4. Reading: Read for 25 minutes, complete the summary section in reading log, and have parent sign the log

Mr. Weis

Wednesday, March 3

Homework:

1. Language Arts:  Book report due tomorrow.   Make sure to follow the guidelines on the handout and complete all sections of the report
2. Mathematics: Addition with negative and positive numbers worksheet
3. Vocabulary: Crossword and Word Search
4. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and complete the clarification section in reading log
5. Other: Return LBNL field trip permission slip

Conflicting Conflicts Create Clarity

Vocabulary words this week focus on the roots ling/lang (language), psych (Greek – mind), mem (Latin – mind), and voc (voice).  The focus words of the week are advocate, commemorate, linguist, memento, provoke, psyche, psychology, and vocation.

In Reading we are continuing along with Sign of the Beaver.  The students had a pop-quiz last week Friday where they were given a variety of questions including explicit or in-the-text questions requiring specific information in the book as well as inferential or in-your-head questions that require higher order thinking skills with info drawn from the book.  Students were also asked about big picture questions about things like what they thought the major conflict of the story was.  A common theme in both our reading and writing this year has been a focus on conflicts.  The students were all able to pull conflicts from the book, but some wrote about relatively minor conflicts.

So, in response to the assessment, we did a little activity yesterday where students wrote 4 different conflicts from the book so far and then met in groups to do some work sorting and evaluating those conflicts.  Students were asked to sort conflicts by who actually owned the problem.  We discussed how conflicts may connect to minor or major characters and how sometimes the people involved in the actual action are not the ones who really suffer the consequences of the conflict.  The groups also sorted conflicts that were resolved or unresolved.  This lead to some good discussion on differences between between minor and major conflicts and how we can surmise the importance of some conflicts to the main plot arc by looking for conflicts that appear early and persist throughout much of the text.  Today the students spent some of the time reading, and we also had a brief discussion on how authors can explore time in a story with descriptions of the setting and in turn show the passing of time rather then tell the reader directly about it.

Homework:

1. Vocabulary: Definitions and CLOZE
2. Math: Study Link 7-8 pg 159 Adding negative and positive numbers
3. Language Arts:  Book report due on Thursday
4. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and fill out questioning section in reading log

Mr. Weis

Lewis Carroll is Climbing Up and Down Words

Today we started out the week with a word ladder that started with the word march.  Word ladders are a type of word puzzle in which each level requires the player to change the word to a different word by adding, subtracting or mixing around letters in the previous level.  The word ladders we do in class require students to think about the similar spelling patterns in each word as they are given hints on how to make little changes to arrive at a new word.

Word ladders actually have a history connected to the author Lewis Carroll who is coincidentally enjoying a bit of popularity in the classroom due to the new Alice in Wonderland movie coming out this weekend.  Lewis Carroll played a game involving moving from a word to its antonym by changing one letter at a time to make a new word in each step.  You can read a bit about them in this article from a collection of articles from a publication called Math Horizons.  Follow these links for some more word ladder puzzles, or better yet, try making one of your own.

Thinks.com Doublet Puzzles

Word Ladder Race

Logicville Doublets

Homework:

1. Vocabulary: Sort
2. Mathematics: Study Link 7-7, pg 157
3. Language Arts: Finish draft of Tiny Bear Response to Lit essay if not completed in class
4. Language Arts: Book Report due Thursday March 5
5. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and fill out predictions in reading log.

Mr. Weis

Wednesday, Feb. 24 Homework

1. Vocabulary: Crossword and Wordsearch
2. Language Arts: Book Report Due March 4
3. Reading: Read for 25 minutes and fill out clarification in Reading Log