Homework

By -
When we have snow days and four day weeks, we struggle to complete our homework well. Last Friday, we were reminded of this truth with about 1/3 of us not finishing our assignments.

This week we have been talking strategy and reminding each other of what we know.
Here are some things that the students are saying:

  • Do more than you think you should earlier in the week.
  • You can get a lot done during morning work.
  • If you want, you can maximize your school time to do work like using lunch and morning work time.
We continue to emphasize having a well organized planner. We also continue to emphasize student independence. It is up to them to plan and finish their assignments. This is their work. They get to take pride or at least relief when they sign their planner each night signaling that they finished their work. 

We are working towards a much higher success rate this Friday. And we are reminding ourselves to do what we know even when it's a four-day week. 


Popular posts from this blog

Recently...

By Anonymous -
Image
Students studied the rules for possessive nouns.  The placement of that little apostrophe changes everything! Students created cartoons that demonstrate the difference between singular and plural possessives. Here are a couple things we noticed about their work: The students' drawings are creative. Each student's idea is unique. Students have been completing projects in math. Fourth grade students are ordering fractions on a number line.   The fifth graders are working hard, too. Fifth graders are learning good note taking skills and are using that skill to inform their understand of reciprocals and the inverse property. All of this is part of their study of fraction multiplication and division. Students went to free cone day!
Read more

More than One Way to Solve a Problem

By -
Image
Have you ever used the Egyptian method for large digit multiplication? How about the Mayan? Did you know there were different algorithms and methods for solving these types of problems? Fifth grade math students did some research and created displays on algorithms from around the world. Students have been refining and improving their accuracy and efficiency with the United States standard algorithm   During our course of study, the Investigations curriculum asks the students to use at least two ways to solve multi digit multiplication problems. Many have relied on the box method. Because of this study of world algorithms, we have seen the students pick up more strategies to bring to their mathematical problem solving.
Read more

Summary by Justus

By -
Nicholas Benedict is an orphan. When he finds out about a treasure, he starts hunting. But Mr. Collum, the orphanage director, is searching too. Who will find it first? Or will they find it at all? Find out in The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict .
Read more