Pick of the Week

MathMovesU is an interactive virtual world where middle school students can interact with algebra, geometry, decimals, fractions, and word problems through topics they are passionate about like sports, music, and fashion. As students navigate through MathMovesU they will encounter math problems delivered through games, polls, and fun facts. You do not have to register to play on the site, but you should register if you want to save points you have earned. Registration is free.

If you try MathMovesU, leave a comment and tell us what you thought of the site. What was your favorite game? Where is the game on the site?

Pick of the Week (click on the highlighted text for the link)

This week's Pick of the Week comes from my daughter, Carleigh. She has recently become very interested in Greek Mythology. I found a few books on the subject that she enjoyed, but then I found, Winged Sandals. She has really enjoyed this sight and has learned so much about Greek Mythology. If your child enjoys Greek Mythology, have them check out Winged Sandals.

Who's With Horace?

Today in my math classes, after a quick quiz, students were given the challenge problem, "Who's With Horace?" Working with a partner, students were given four clues to help them figure out who came with whom to a party. The clues only gave part of the information so students needed to use logical problem solving to figure out the order. If they got the "Horace" problem correct, they moved on to solve "Photo Line Up" in the same manner. For this problem they needed to figure out the order of the students in a class photo. Unfortunately, time ran out - we will continue next week so everyone will get a chance to solve these fun, challenging problems!

Can you think of a "Who's With Horace?" problem? Try to and put it in the comment section - we will try to solve it in class!

PICK OF THE WEEK

Weekly, I will try to post some of my favorite sites. I spend a lot of time looking for resources that I can use in my classroom and thatare appropriate for my students. I would like to share them with you to further your child's learning at home.

This week's site is a fantastic math site if you want to enrich your child's math learning. The site is called, NRICH. NRICH is a site from the University of Cambridge, England. Here you will find all sorts of wonderful, rich, mathematical problems to solve. British math programs run in stages, therefore, 5th graders should click on Stage 1&2 (See the chart below to match age with stage if you have older children who may benefit from the site as well).

:) Mrs. MacConnell

Click Here For the NRICH Website

Rocks and Minerals

Today we started our first unit in Science - Rocks and Minerals. The students were asked to look at sugar and salt and try to figure out their crystalline shape. After close inspection, most groups came up with hexagonal prism shape for sugar and cubic for salt.

Next the students were given a bag of "mystery rocks and minerals." They were asked to separate them into two categories - rock or mineral. All the groups did well with this and were able to explain to me, using their science vocabulary that they learned the night before, the difference between a rock and a mineral. WELL DONE!!

For the next week or so we will be learning more about rocks and minerals.

Do you have any rocks or minerals at home that you would like to share? Feel free to bring them in.

The Red Fish Thingy Lab!!

Today my Science classes conducted their first experiment to learn about the Scientific Method. They had fun trying to figureout how a red fortune telling fish works. Most groups thought it was heat, or water, or static electricity. Everyone did a fantastic job testing their hypothesis. In the end we learned that the fish reacts to moisture in our hand (and heat helps too). The fish are made of the same chemical used in disposable diapers - sodium polyacrylate. Sodium polyacrylate will grab onto water molecules that it touches, changing the shape of the molecules. When the molecules change shape, so does the shape of the fish! The purpose of the lab was to get the students to start thinking like scientists - mission accomplished!!

What did you think of the experiment?

We will be reviewing how to post proper school comments next week, but until then if you would like to post a comment you may. Follow the directions on the blog.

First Day Of School

After much anticipation and preparation, the first day of school had finally arrived! Everyone was a little nervous at first, but by the end of the day I can already see that lasting friendships have already been formed! To see a detailed account of today, click here. At the bottom of the page you can click on a link that will tell you all about your son/daughter's first day in 5th grade. It was a fantastic first day and I am looking forward to a wonderful year! :)