Week of December 19 News!

Here we are at last at the end of the first semester of the 2014 - 2015 ISPP school year. It has been a long and busy four months and we will keep up the pace until Friday here in Room 37.

Please keep in mind these important events for this week which can also be viewed in the calendar to the right of this post:

Wednesday, December 17, 2014, 8:15 - 9:45
ISPP Elementary Sports Day at the ISPP field near Boeng Keng Kong Market.
Students in our class must wear RED.

Thursday, December 18, 7:45 - 8:30
Elementary Assembly

Thursday, December 18, 2014, 9:45 - 11:15
Grade 4/5 students are going to secondary to see the Grade 10 personal projects.

Friday, December 19, 2014, 10:35 - 12:00
Class Party (to be planned by our students) followed by early dismissal.

This week, students in room 37 will be learning:

Mathematics
Students begin the week by learning methods of multiplication of multidigit numbers by double digit numbers. We will use base ten blocks to first model an array of this longer multiplication. We will then use grid paper to create a drawn array of this problem. We then will learn written methods such as the grid method or the lattice method. Later in the week, students will take an end of the semester assessment.

Unit of Inquiry and Language Arts
This week these two subjects are heavily integrated. In learning about the attributes of leaders, how leaders make changes, and how leaders show responsibility, students have inquired into the lives of particular leaders based on their own interests. Last week, students began combining notes they had taken into a full biographical report of that leader. This week, students begin the week by finishing drafts of these reports, revising based on a rubric, editing, peer editing, and ultimately publishing their work.

During reading workshop, students will be continuing to record instances when they catch themselves monitoring for comprehension. Monitoring is a skill that good readers develop and make use of while reading. During a discussion, students came up with these ideas about what monitoring is and how good readers do it:

1) Go back and read the sentence or word again.
2) If you don’t understand a word you can break the word into syllables.
3) If you don’t understand a word you can go look it up in a dictionary.
4) If you don’t understand a word, go back and read the sentence around it, because maybe that will help you understand the word (use the context).
5) If you don’t understand a word, look for a word that you do understand INSIDE the word.
6) If you don’t understand what you are reading, your voice might change and get quieter.
7) If you don’t understand a word sometimes you can use the glossary.
8) If you find you are not understanding the text, you can slow down.

Added to this, students will be learning that if you don't understand a text, you could use some of these fix up strategies to help you:

Homework
As this is the last week of class this semester, I will not be assigning homework.

See you all at the events this week!

What is going on in Room 37 this week? (And call for ENERGY EXPERTS!!!)

As we come through the ISA test this week, we are settling back into some more normative class routines in Room 37!

In math, Grade 4s and 5s will be continuing their investigations into place value and base ten by comparing and ordering numbers this week. Grade 4s will be ordering numbers up into the millions and billions, while Grade 5s will be ordering decimal numbers going down into the thousandths!

Please keep in mind that although students have Mathletics homework this week related to these lessons, I will not assign this homework until we have a chance to go through a lesson on it. Up until I assign students Mathletics work based on these lessons, they can do Live Math on Mathletics, or work on Front Row, using our class code of 3t4jt5 to log in.

In terms of our Unit of Inquiry, we are unpacking our How Things Work unit on Energy.

The central idea for this unit is "Energy exists in different forms and is used in our everyday life."

The lines of inquiry for this unit are:

Different forms of energy (form)
The ways we use energy (function)
The impact of energy on our world (causation)
Environmental effects of energy choices (responsibility)

Yesterday, students rewrote our transdisciplinary theme of How the World Works in their own words as a group, while today students drew pictures illustrating their understanding of the central idea and the lines of inquiry with partners.

As we zoom into this unit, we are looking very much for experts in any field related to energy, or the affects of energy use on the environment. Please send me an email if you are at all interested in coming to speak to our Grade 4/5 inquirers. We would love to have you come in!

Week of September 19 in Mr. Jon's Class!

We are quickly catapulting towards the P'chum Ben holiday next week, but before that, students, parents, and teachers will be working full throttle in room 37!

Math

In math this week, students will be exploring two different concepts related to our place value and base ten number system.

First of all, they continue to explore the different forms of numbers: word form, base ten unit form, expanded notation, and standard form. We are staying on this topic due to a bit more emphasis on how digits change in value across the different place value columns last week. In grade 4, of course, this means looking at place values up to numbers in the millions. In grade 5, students work with decimals again.

Next, we will delve into comparing and ordering numbers in more depth. Grade 4s will be again working with whole numbers up to millions, while grade 5s concentrate on decimals down to the thousandths.

Inquiry through the lens of language

For reading this week, students continue to collaboratively research a belief system of their choice with partners, adding information to a shared Google document. Later in the week, they will be turning this information into some type of oral and visual language presentation. Students will choose what application or media they want to use to show this information. For example, they may use applications such as Haiku Deck, Keynote, or Google slides. They may also choose to use other applications such as Evernote, Show Me, or Educreations. Finally, many students will elect to make a good old poster!

In writing workshop, students still learn about the features of recounts and strategies of planning and writing them. Early this week, we plan and create a joint construction of a recount about our trip to the mosque together in groups on a shared Google Doc. Later in the week, students plan and draft their own recount about either: one of our other field trips for this unit, a trip they have taken to a sacred place outside school, or a celebration related to a belief system they have witnessed or taken part in.

Homework this week...

should be fairly straightforward. Students are being asked to reflect on their development of three learner profile attributes: caring, open-minded, and reflective. In order to do this reflection, students will be using a our Learner Profile Reflections for Report Cards Form. Students will be instructed to use their best grammar and spelling as they write three short paragraphs on how they showed these three attributes in this unit. They may want to go back and review homework assignments as part of reflecting on this.

In math, students will be doing paper homework for a change. This homework sheet will deal with word, standard, expanded, and place value unit forms of numbers. This homework sheet reflects the work students are doing in class exactly. However, as students cannot do this homework until they have been taught the lesson, I have stated on the homework sheet when students should start trying to work on the homework. Grade 4s should be able to start on Tuesday night, while grade 5s can start on Wednesday night. In the meantime, if your child would like to do more math, she/he can play the Live Math game on Mathletics.

Last but not least, students will be doing some small research into the Khmer holiday of P'chum Ben. Parents, guardians, and Khmer relations/family friends...the students want to interview you about this holiday (as well as possibly due some light internet research perhaps using the "research tool" from their homework Google Doc).

After obtaining some of the facts about P'chum Ben, students will create a small presentation about the holiday on either a poster, or one of the digital applications of their choice.

Reading is the same homework as always...read every night and make two entries on our Class Reading Log Form.

Notes about computers and homework

I know that some students and parents have had difficulty with how homework is mostly done on line, especially if students use an iPad rather than a computer.

Please be patient. The quality of digital student homework, and the ease with which they are completing it, gets better and better each week and I am very happy with progress students are making. It is natural at the beginning of the year for students to experience a slight amount of stress when learning new technology on top of trying to complete their homework tasks. However, I guarantee, stress over the technology is quickly disappearing (probably at a faster rate for children than for us adults).

Now, I do realise that sometimes internet does not work, or parents/siblings are busy with home computers. I have asked students to factor this during the week and not to use it as an excuse. Students are always allowed to use classroom computers at breaks, before, or after school if they arrange it with me. Students also can always use the computer lab computers at lunch time break, or before and after school. Part of time management for homework also involves resource management, right?

I also am usually online until about 7:30 PM. Students have been instructed to please email/chat with me if they ever have issues with online homework until that time. Many students have already contacted me with questions and have had their questions answered during these times.

However, I do ask that you ask your child to contact me, rather than you contact me yourself. This is not because I don't want to hear from you of course. Rather, I want your child to get practice in sending clear, polite, and responsible emails/chats in which they have a real world reason to be very precise in expressing their needs, misunderstandings, and questions.

Special Notes

This week we have parent teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Students will therefore be dismissed at 12:00 on both days. See you all there at your allotted times.

Please remember, as well, that next week schools and offices will be closed for the P'chum Ben holiday.

Classes will resume as normal on Monday, September 29.

Base Ten Number System and Place Value Unit Photo Expose!

Grade 4 and 5 students have been inquiring into the base ten number system and place value in the past few weeks. Furthermore they have been reviewing basic facts, math games, use of IXL, Mathletics, and Front Row applications, and have been familiarising themselves with math centers activities that will serve as independent practice all year. Follow along with these photos!

Students recorded multi digit numbers...

from facts about home countries...

Students then worked together
to order these numbers...

from least to greatest. 

Students then experimented with base ten
blocks...

...before using these blocks to
demonstrate base ten concepts...

...and connecting their models...

to place value charts. 

What is going on September 8 - September 12 in Mr. Jon's Class?

Greetings from the rain soaked Russian Market!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful long weekend and that the students of Room 37 are refreshed and ready for tomorrow!

This week, we will continue to explore new horizons in Room 37 with more exciting events related to our current unit under the theme of Who We Are  - Belief Systems. Students have been inquiring into the major belief systems of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism. This week, they will be looking into Islamic beliefs and will take a field trip to a local mosque, Al Jamee Al Islami, on Thursday from 10:35 until 12:15. Please help your child to dress respectfully for this trip. Shoulders should be covered and students should wear at least knee length trousers or dresses.

Students are also beginning a small group or individual research project on a belief system of their choice this week; students will present their information next week using a medium of their choice: Keynote presentation, Haiku Deck Presentation, Google Drawing/Poster, hand drawn poster, oral report, poem, etc.

Students will loosely research based on the lines of inquiry of this unit and any other questions they have about the belief system they are looking into. They will gather and organise information on a collaborative Google Doc, record sources of information, make note of key words, and record further questions as the week goes by. Ask your child to show you this research document this week!

In math this week, Grade 5s will be using their knowledge of our base ten place value system and decimals to describe numbers in standard, word, place value, and expanded notation forms down to thousandths. Grade 4s will be doing the same, but with numbers up to hundred millions. You can help your child with these concepts this week by asking him or her to write down numbers that you say in these forms. Here is an example:

Standard form: 3.456
Word form: three and four hundred fifty six thousandths
Place value form: three ones, four tenths, five hundredths, and six thousandths.
Expanded notation form: 3 + 0.4 + 0.05 + 0.006 = 3.456

In writing this week, students are beginning a two week unit on recount writing. We begin this week by recalling and making educated guesses about the features of recounts, sorting texts into recounts/non recounts, analysing recounts to find examples of these features, and jointly planning and writing a recount about our trip to Phnom Chisor. By Thursday, students will be planning and drafting their own recounts.

Have a great week everyone!

Mr. Jon's 2014 - 2015 Class Photos are Posted!

Please keep checking this ongoing slideshow of the learning in Mr. Jon's classroom this year as new photos are constantly added!

Extra Large Slideshow

Mathematics in Grade 4/5

The mathematical process in Grade 4/5 includes developing skills of problem solving, expanding logic and reasoning powers, and communicating mathematical ideas. These sills are learned and assessed within 5 strands.

Through development of skills and knowledge in the following strands students will be able to...

Number

Encode and decode numbers to millions and beyond; identify place value to a minimum of 6 digit numbers and extend the use of our number system to the tenths place and beyond; understand the relationship between the four operations, for positive and negative integers, fractions and decimals; consolidate and recall basic facts to create and solve problems using more than one operation;

Measurement

Measure accurately using standard metric units of volume, mass, length and time; be able to measure area, perimeter and angles;

Shape and Space

Describe, classify and model 2D and 3D shapes and understand words to describe parts of the shapes; use vocabulary of angle types and special triangles and quadrilaterals;

Data Handling

Design a survey, process data and interpret results using mathematical language; use bar, circle and line graphs; understand and use median, mean and mode; express probability on a scale from 0% to 100%;

Pattern and Function

Identify and describe features of patterns as generalised rules and functions; and apply multiplication and division as inverse operations.