Hello Families,
Our backyard project is moving along. We have installed a water collector and built garden beds. We are also in the process of building our school store, pond, and hanging our sail shade. The progress has been amazing.
This week we will move forward in our reading of the Number Devil and working our mathematical adventures that go along with the book. We are also moving along with our Water Project. The students have graphed the results of their water audit and are now in the stage of making their water reduction plans. All the students have found out valuable information about local water usage and resources. It has been eye opening!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Semester Wrap-Up
I can't believe this is the last week of the first semester. The year so far has been amazing, and I am humbled to be working with such a reflective group of students. This Friday, January 27, we will be sending report cards home, so please be expecting them from your student.
Also, this week in class we are reinforcing our knowledge of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing positive and negative integers. We played a rousing game of integer bingo, so ask your child about the game. We are also using math to calculate our average daily water usage for the first part of our new H2O project. The students are graphing their water audit results and making a plan to reduce their wasteful consumption of water. Hopefully it will also help in reducing your family's water bill!
For their plan to reduce, students can demonstrate their reduction in a variety of creative ways that range from making a song, creating a video, taking photographs, or writing an inspirational poem. The goal is for them to produce proof of their water reduction in a unique way.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week.
Also, this week in class we are reinforcing our knowledge of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing positive and negative integers. We played a rousing game of integer bingo, so ask your child about the game. We are also using math to calculate our average daily water usage for the first part of our new H2O project. The students are graphing their water audit results and making a plan to reduce their wasteful consumption of water. Hopefully it will also help in reducing your family's water bill!
For their plan to reduce, students can demonstrate their reduction in a variety of creative ways that range from making a song, creating a video, taking photographs, or writing an inspirational poem. The goal is for them to produce proof of their water reduction in a unique way.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Presentations of Learning
On Thursday January 17, 18, and 19, 2012 students will be giving presentations of learning, or as we call them POLs. Students will be individually presenting two projects or topics, one from humanities and one from math or science. They will be explaining what they have learned, show their work to prove their learning, and reflect on goals made at their student led conferences. Students are practicing their presentations, but please also help your student practice at home. Their presentation should be around 10 minutes total, so time them, and help them add to or edit it as needed.
Presenting work and being reflective is a hard skill for anyone at any age, so some questions you might ask your student to spark their thinking might include:
1. What are some of the meaningful concepts you learned in the project you are presenting?
2. What work do you have that shows you learned those concepts?
3. How did the work you did in this project help you in achieving your goals set at your student led conference?
Presentations of Learning are a wonderful way to showcase learning and reflect upon how to continue to improve and grow as a life long learner. Thank you for helping us share in this experience.
Presenting work and being reflective is a hard skill for anyone at any age, so some questions you might ask your student to spark their thinking might include:
1. What are some of the meaningful concepts you learned in the project you are presenting?
2. What work do you have that shows you learned those concepts?
3. How did the work you did in this project help you in achieving your goals set at your student led conference?
Presentations of Learning are a wonderful way to showcase learning and reflect upon how to continue to improve and grow as a life long learner. Thank you for helping us share in this experience.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Welcome Back
Hello IA Families,
I hope everyone had a relaxing time off with families and friends. Coming back to school we are diving right into Math and Science. Our first science project is all about our most precious resource, Water.
The project description is below:
In math we will now be moving into the exploration of integers. We have begun adding and subtracting with positive and negative numbers, and will soon be learning the rules of positive and negative integer multiplication. From there, we will move into our learning of fractions, decimals, and percents. This learning will take place in a variety of ways including skill building, open-ended problems, and real life exploration.
Have a great week!
I hope everyone had a relaxing time off with families and friends. Coming back to school we are diving right into Math and Science. Our first science project is all about our most precious resource, Water.
The project description is below:
| Essential Question: How can sixth graders become a part of solving the water crisis? Project Mission: To investigate water within our personal lives, our community, and our world. Learning Objectives: 1. Students will learn about the flow of water in the hydrologic cycle, water usage breakdown, and the distribution of water geographically. 2. Students will learn about water quality and various methods of testing and purifying water. 3. Students will research local, state, and global water issues and possible solutions to these crises. Project Vocabulary: Hydrologic Cycle (water cycle), Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Runoff, Aqueduct, Water Table, Reservoir, Watershed, Point-Source Pollution, Non-Point-Source Pollution, Dam, Irrigation, Agriculture, Desalination, Reverse Osmosis, Distillation, Filtration, Wastewater Products: * Personal Water Audit: Students will assess their own water usage and devise plans to lessen their impact on the water crisis. * Water Filtration Experiment: In class, students will work in pairs to create a water filtration device to demonstrate one method of water purification. * The Global Water Crisis: In class, students will complete individual research on a particular country. Research will include the water, health, and sanitation issues of their assigned country and then as a group students will make two to three recommendations for improving the water and sanitation conditions in their country. Resources: |
In math we will now be moving into the exploration of integers. We have begun adding and subtracting with positive and negative numbers, and will soon be learning the rules of positive and negative integer multiplication. From there, we will move into our learning of fractions, decimals, and percents. This learning will take place in a variety of ways including skill building, open-ended problems, and real life exploration.
Have a great week!
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