February is a lovely month...

February...already? Time has flown by and it seems appropriate to discuss time since it is the very topic of study right now for all 5th and 6th grade scientists in our unit of "Measuring Time." The very question, "What is time?" has intrigued people for centuries. Does it only move forward? How does it pass? What are the ways to record time? The philosophical discussions lead us to the technological perspective of looking at inventions that have kept track of passages of time. In this unit, students will observe the apparent sun's changes and the recurring cycle of the moon's phases. Then, they will plan experiments with some of the principal timekeeping devices developed through the ages from water clocks to mechanical escapements. We are currently reading about the history of timekeeping and people's evolving understanding of how to measure time.

Question to ask your student: Why does this February include 29 days? How does the earth's rotation around the sun affect our calendar days?

MATH:

5th grade students are zooming through parts of Chapter 6, reviewing addition and subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators. The students have been meeting in small groups and making great connections to the real world with their knowledge of fraction algorithms.

Fun question to ask your student: If a minute of Superbowl commercial time costs $6 million, what would 2/3 of a minute cost?

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Students have finished their novels and we are now putting the finishing touches on the novels by creating personalized book bindings. Several students are experimenting with sticks, ribbon, lace and other materials to bind their pages of beautiful text together.

February brings about a new unit in Language Arts: World's Fair. We delve into the world of informational texts and read non-fiction, evaluate and make meaning from the new knowledge. We will be learning about choosing a topic, creating questions to form subtopics and then choose texts that are applicable and bountiful for our purpose. At the end of the month, students will present a project on their country of choice.

Beyond the research of different countries, we will be exploring texts that articulate world events in our news. This week, we are reading about daily life for a woman named, Aylito Binayo, who lives in her village of Foro, in the Konso district of Ethiopia. As we read about the affect that the lack of clean fresh water has on people and countries, I am encouraging the students to evaluate the text from differing perspectives.

This week's Spanish assignment: Use a "me gusta" (I like), "Yo quiero" (I want), or "Yo necesito" ( I need) phrase at home.


From Ms. Whittington's Room:

Social Studies: We are studying ancient Greece. We started with a look at the geography of Greece. Next we covered different forms of government from monarchy to democracy. Right now we are doing a comparison of Athens and Sparta. This will probably take until sometime next week.

6th Grade Math: We just completed the unit test on unit 4 which was a study of fractions, decimals and percents. We began this unit shortly after Thanksgiving and spent quite a lot of time on the concepts. Students had about 15 out of 42 items incorrect on average. We are struggling to maintain student attentiveness in class. It seems this has worsened since installing the smartboard and rearranging seats. We are trying a variety of strategies to get and KEEP student attention during class time.

Our new unit is on geometry and the measurement of angles and drawing geometric figures. As we start the unit with review items, students seem anxious for a new topic of study and so are we!

6th Grade Math Scores: Some students took the pre-algebra placement test earlier this month. This test is necessary for placement in pre-algebra next year at SEJHS. We will be sending home a sheet with our recommendation for your student's junior high math placement SOOOON!!! We are currently waiting for IA (formerly known as ITBS) scores. Generally, an IA math score of the 90th percentile or above combined with a score of 65% or higher on the placement test garners our firm recommendation. No matter what we recommend, you may request a different placement for your child. As soon as we have these scores, we will be sending you the placement recommendation which you will need to complete the teal blue SEJHS course selection sheet.

Conferences: These are coming up soon and sign up sheets will be up in the front hall as usual. The dates are February 23 and March 1 for after school to evening conferences and February 28 for conferences scheduled during the day. If you have a preference, feel free to contact me earlier.