This week we said goodbye to Torin who has moved to Maine. Students were very sad to see their good friend go.
In Math students practiced multiplying by 2-digit numbers using both the standard approach, partial products method, and distributive property. Students showed the dimensions for an area model to gain a concrete understanding of what the distributive property can look like. Students related division to multiplication as a counter example to 4 X 18 = 72 to be expressed as 72 / 4 = 18. Students also practiced expressing exponents in exponential form, expanded form, and standard form. Finally, students discovered patterns like 9 (8) + 9 (2)= to equal 9 (10) = 90. Quiz 1.6 - 1.8 was given yesterday with much success and the September Tic Tac Challenge is due today. The work we have done this month has been challenging, but with consistent effort and perseverance the clouds above will clear into a beautiful sunlight.
In Science students experimented with the mixture of unsociable liquids: Colored corn syrup, colored water, and vegetable oil. Students then placed into the cup a broken pencil, plastic coin, and paper clip to see them all suspended at different levels, and that's amazing! Students reviewed the 3 states of matter and transformations of each including condensation which seemed like a new vocabulary word for many students. Students created a Foldable displaying a drawn picture of each state and a written description of each along with an example. Students watched a quick clip of Mythbusters to see the creation of Oobleck, a non-newtonian liquid, where people could walk across it, but still sink into it while being still. Oobleck is a mixture of water and corn starch and is very messy so I will not be creating it in school! Finally, following some predictions I placed ice cubes on a plastic foam plate and an aluminum plate so students could see immediate melting on the 'cold' plate and a slow melting on the 'warm' plate. We then had a discussion on what is going on, and why do we think it has happened at different rates.
September is in the books and as Bill Belichick would say, "we are onto October!"
Regards,
Chris
