Shorts, Capri Pants, and Sidewalk Chalk...Gotta Love Spring in the Winter!

Yay!!! A better day had by all (including Mrs. Grewell)! Thank you to all those kiddos that surprised me with a big hug this morning!!! (I had totally forgot that I said that on the blog so I actually was surprised!)

Homework tonight is spelling. They need to finish up their review on page 158, 41-60. Please limit help on this one, as I will take a grade and need a reflection of what THEY remember. Thanks.

Many kids are also coming home with some unfinished math work. Today, we practiced mean, median, mode, and range. Calculators are permitted and encouraged on this one. They know a little song sung to the tune of 3 Blind Mice to help them remember mean, median, and mode. Have them sing it to you. If they can...write MICE in the planner for $10 tomorrow.



Mean-Add up the numbers and then divide by the number of numbers. Round to the nearest whole number.
Median-Find the middle number after lining them up from least to greatest. If two numbers are in the middle add them up and divide by 2. Halves will happen sometimes.
Mode-The number that is repeated more than once and the most. There may be no mode, one mode, or more than one mode.
Range-Lagest number minus smallest number.

Example
Data: 2, 3, 1, 5, 7, 2
Least to Greatest: 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 7
Mean: 1+2+2+3+5+7=20...20 divided by 6 (because there are 6 numbers total in the data)=3.33333, rounded to the nearest whole number is 3. So the mean is 3.
Median: 2 and 3 are the middle numbers in the data. So 2 + 3=5, divided by 2=2.5. So the median is 2 and a half.
Mode: 2, because it is shown more than any other number.
Range: 7 - 1 = 6. So the range is 6.

Get it, got it, good. :0)

In Fly Time, we shared your discussions about homework time that you had last night. A few are doing it in cars or in a bus. I recommend doing what I do for my kiddos by making a small car kit/school box full of pencils, glue stick, scissors, and so forth. That way...they always have what they need in the travel situations. Thanks so much for your support on this topic. We had a great discussion today.

We have been doing poetry all week for morning work. Kids have had to read different poems and then analyze them by answering questions. Poems are tricky because the mood and theme is really a secret known only by the author. We have to look for little clues that help us infer what the author really means or is talking about. Tough stuff. These have not been graded, just tried by themselves and then discussed in length whole group.

We started our compare and contrast essay writing today. We did step one...brainstorming and organizing information into a venn diagram. Together, we mad one about the Terabithia movie vs. the book. We talked a lot about how a 4th grader does this. Both sides of the oven should match content topics but be opposite in details. (Contrast) The middle should be how both are the same. (Compare) Then, I had them do one on how the main character of Terabithia (Jess) compares and contrasts to the main character in our last read aloud book, Rescue Josh McGuire... (Josh). They needed at least 5 comparisons and 5 contrasts. Most finished it and are ready to move on tomorrow. Didn't finish???? Now it is homework.

In PLTW science we took a look at what happens when two cars collide. Kids joined forces with another group and did some trial scenarios. They filmed each one in slow motion. In their launch logs, they drew each scenario and wrote what happened to each car when the collision took place. We will continue this tomorrow. Fun!

At recess, I brought out the sidewalk chalk. Kids had fun drawing and being creative with it. Enjoy the pictures!




Have a wonderful night!!!
Mrs. Grewell