Holiday Fun focusing on crafts

Holiday Fun!

See-Through Boot

PJ Day-Happy Holidays!

The Earring that Count Your Steps and the Earrings that Tell How You Feel

Welcome Clay's Grandmother from Texas!

The Wrist-Bin

Happy Holidays and Questions for the Week of December 16-20, 2014

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break!  Enjoy the time off with your family and friends!  I look forward to seeing everyone back in 2014!  Please remember that we have a late start (10:00 AM) on Monday, January 13, 2014.  Safe and happy travels to all!

Questions to ask your child from the week of December 16-20, 2013:

In Reading:

-        What books do you want to read on the holiday break?

-        What can you find out about a character by what they do, say, or think?  What happened in the short story Stray?

-        What is happening in Earthquake Terror? (Read Aloud book)

In Writing:

-        Did you persuade other students to “buy” your invention from the Invention Convention?

-        What are you realistic fiction story ideas?

In Math:

-               How can you think of division as sharing?

-               How can you think of division as repeated subtraction?

-               What multiplication facts are you having difficulty remembering quickly?

In Social Studies:

-               How did you like the Invention Convention?

-               What did you learn from building your invention?  How did you get the idea?

-               What other inventions did you see in the other classes?

-               What might you do differently the next time you created an invention?

Ben's Catapult

The Bedbench

The Wrist-Bin

The Deluxe Dog Carrier and Breakfast Top!

Another Catapult

Explaining our inventions

The Catapult!

An awesome robot

The iBot Veyron

Presenting at the Invention Convention!

Questions for the Week of December 9-13, 2013

One more week until the holiday break!  The Comets have been flying high and fast with their inventions and enthusiasm for learning...

Here are the questions to ask your child from the week of December 9-13, 2013:

In Reading:

-        What did you write about the characters in your book on your post-its this week?

-        What is the difference between character traits and a character’s feelings?

-        How do you support your thinking with “evidence from the text”?

In Writing:

-        Do you have story ideas for a new realistic fiction piece?

-        Have you written your advertisement for your invention?

In Word Study:

-               What is a homophone?

-               What homophone pairs can you think of?

-               Why do some words sound the same but are spelled differently? (They differ in meaning)

In Math:

-               How can you break apart arrays to solve multiplication problems using easier facts?

-               What multiplication facts do you still need to learn?

In Social Studies:

-               How is building the prototype of your invention coming along?

-               What recyclable materials are you using to build it?

-               Are you working with someone on your invention?  Why/why not?

Showing "break apart" and The Distributive Property

Showing The Distributive Property!

Proud of the final product

Nokia Timeline

News and Questions for the Week of December 2-6, 2013

Invention Convention news!  Parents, if you could, would you send in recyclable materials for our class that students can use to build invention prototypes?  Our young innovators and I will be especially grateful!  We will assemble our projects in class towards the end of next week.  Many thanks!

Questions to ask your child from the week of December 2-6, 2013:

In Reading:

-        What book are you reading in your Book Club?

-        What makes a good Book Talk?  What books would you like to read that have been recommended by your classmates?

-        What are you reading right now during independent reading?

In Writing:

-        What are you going to write to advertise your invention?  How do you think you could be extra persuasive?

-        What do you like better: googledocs or google presentations?  Why?

 In Word Study:

-               What do the question words have in common?

-               Why does the word <they> have an <e> and not an <a>?

In Math:

-               What is important to do when solving two-step word problems?

-               How can you break apart arrays to solve multiplication problems using easier facts?

In Social Studies:

-               What problem do you hope to solve with your invention for the Invention Convention? 

-               What did you learn through your technology timeline or the timelines of your classmates?

Happy birthday, Shruti!

Questions for the Week of November 18-22, 2013

Questions to ask your child from the week of November 18-22, 2013:

In Reading:

-        What book are you reading in your Book Club?

-        What makes a good Book Club?

-        What makes a good Book Club discussion?  Why?

In Writing:

-        How far are you in your nonfiction expert book?

-        Can I see your expert book in googledocs?

-        What other types of expert books/presentations are the other kids in your class making?

-        What do you think you’ll write for a realistic fiction book?

In Grammar/Cursive:

-   Give the past and present tense of a verb.

-   What do you like best about cursive writing?

In Math:

-               What properties have you learned about involving multiplication this week?

-               What patterns have you learned about for multiplication?

In Social Studies:

-               What invention are you following across time to see how it has changed? 

-               Who is working in your invention timeline group?