WMS: Yearbook Order Forms due this Friday (12/14/2012)

Dear Families,

Lask week order forms went home for the yearbook (kinda' early, but that's how it happens these days). I know things don't always get home and returned in a timely manner, so I wanted to send you a link to where you can download a copy, print it, and send it in.

The order forms are DUE THIS FRIDAY 12/14/2012.

This cost is $15.00.

Checks should be made to WMS-PTSA.

The form can be downloaded here: [LINK]

Welcome to the last week before Winter break! :) 

Sincerely,

Brian MacNevin

WMS: Art Project and Math Quiz sent home

Dear Families,

Art!

• The Whatcom Middle School student body is producing a collaborative piece of art and each class will be contributing to it.
• Tomorrow my students will have the chance to do their part! It sounds like the finished project will be something really amazing and I can't wait to see how it turns out! Be sure to ask your child about their part!
• 10:00- 11:30 My RED group kids will be contributing.
  12:30- 02:00 My BLUE group kids will be contributing.

Math Quiz

• On Tuesday my students took a math quiz and those have come home today. Students will write a reflection letter to help explain their performance and to plan for improvements, but the letter will not be due until next Tuesday.
• When my RED group took the quiz, I discovered I had included the wrong question for a level 4 question. Today red group students who wanted to try for the level 4 had that opportunity with an additional question.
• I had time to fix the error for my BLUE group kids before they took the quiz, so they didn't need that additional question today in class. Their quizzes are complete.

Thank!

Brian MacNevin

WMS: Math/Science Update

Dear Families,

This week we have been pretty busy. My students took a quiz on Tuesday and got another one back on the same day. On their multiplication of fractions quiz, they have a reflection letter due tomorrow and it should be signed by you. The long and the short of the letter is that they share with you what the learning target was and how well they did with the parts of that learning target and what they plan to do to get better and improve their scores.

Today students picked up Bits and Pieces 3 from the library! It's our last bits and pieces book and we will be using it to learn about using percentages. We will also be reviewing addition, subtraction, and multiplication of decimals using this book and we will also learn about dividing decimals. Most of these decimal calculation skills we will cover in our math reviews since the only one that is universally new is dividing decimals.

In science we have been wrapping up photosynthesis and students spent yesterday and today putting together an illustrated storyboard of photosynthesis. They will receive three different scores for their storyboard to gauge their understanding of photosynthesis: one on the process of photosynthesis and one involving illustrated details about how photosynthesis happens. The third grade is on the attention they paid to producing a quality product. While the storyboards were due today, I told students that if they wanted to take theirs home to work on it and do an especially careful job with it, they were welcome to do so, as long as it was turned in by 9:15 AM.

Thank you, and have a wonderful evening!

Brian MacNevin

WMS: Math Update and math quiz tomorrow

Dear Families,

It's December already! I want to update you about what we're working on right now.

Last week we worked on dividing fractions and tomorrow we have a quiz on that skill. The learning target is, "I can divide fractions and mixed numbers and use this to solve problems." 

Students should know how to make diagrams of simple division problems (like 1/2 divided by 2/5; I sent out a video showing what that was like last week). And they should know how to use an algorithm (in equation form) for solving more complex ones.

The equation solution involves inverting  the "divided by" number before multiplying two fractions together. Also, any mixed numbers should be turned into improper fractions first.

So 1 1/2 / 2/5 becomes 3/2 x 5/2.

This is exactly the same kind of division with fractions we all learned in school. The only thing different we ask them to be able to do as well us use a diagram for simpler problems. 

Today students took a practice quiz and tonight they have some practice problems that look exactly like the quiz will. I have placed a copy of it on dropbox and you can find that at this link: [link].

Previous emails, our homework calendar, and student help resources are all available on my website, http://www.mrmacnevin.com. If there are things you need help finding, please don't hesitate to ask.

Warm regards,

Brian MacNevin

WMS: Dividing fractions

Dear Families,

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break! I was a long and short weekend all at the same time. I really noticed today that some of my students were a little rusty with adding and subtracting fractions; but multiplying fractions didn't seem to cause anyone any trouble

Today we started looking at dividing fractions. We use a lot of food when we talk about fractions. I think it's because we are so used to dividing and sharing food.

We looked at an example involving dividing blocks of cheese to make pizzas. If you have 9 blocks of cheese and it takes 1/3 of a block to make a pizza, then how many pizzas can you make?

Using diagrams of cheese blocks, we figured out you could make 27 pizzas. We did the same thing with some different fractions of a block for each pizza. And then I had some students start offering a pattern they thought they saw: it turns out it's the same pattern involved in the "algorithm" of dividing fractions. But the kids had a different way of describing it. I have made a short video to show you the kind of thing we worked on today:

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/bp2-inv-4-lt-4-dividing-fractions-1/2914359/?s=hKxHzq&ref=appemail

Remember that I try really hard to have homework posted on my calendar online and that all of these messages are archived. You can reach the calendar and the email archive at http://www.mrmacnevin.com.

Thank you!

Brian MacNevin

WMS: Math and Science quizzes tomorrow:

Dear Families,

Just catching you up to with the new week!

Math

• Tomorrow we will have a quiz on the Math Learning Target "I can multiply fractions and mixed numbers and use this to solve problems." Tonight's homework is some practice problems. In case they have not made it home, I am have a copy with the answers posted here: [link].
• Next week we will start poking at dividing fractions using models before we settle into a calculation method.

Science

• Tomorrow we will have a quiz on these learning targets in science:

• I can show how organisms in an ecosystem are connected with a food web.
• I can show the flow of energy within a food web.
• I can identify an organisms trophic level using a food web.

• Students may be asked to draw a food web, to label parts of it, or be asked to identify labeled parts of a food web. Level four students will be trying to share with me how energy is introduced into the food web and will be able to tell the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers.
• We are talking more about Photosynthesis right now in class. We went outside in the cold wet weather today to collect some leaves and brought them into the classroom to examine up close. We tried to peel them apart (the leaves) to see how the top surfaces might be different from the bottom surfaces on the inside of the leaf, but it was very difficult to separate them that way and all we had were hand lenses to examine them.
• We'll be learning more tomorrow about a simplified diagram for carbon dioxide fixation in plants (photosynthesis). Next week we'll talk more about energy and we'll start wrapping up our unit on populations and ecosystems.

Have a warm and dry evening!

Brian MacNevin

WMS: Math/Science Update

Dear Families,

Math

• We have been working on multiplying fractions using area models (sometimes called arrays) to help us discover an efficient number relationship to use when multiplying fractions. The learning target is "I can multiply fractions and mixed numbers and can use this to solve problems." But there is a lot inside of that which we've been unpacking.
  

1. Using simple area models, we discovered that you can multiply fractions by multiplying the numerators together for the new numerator and by multiplying denominators together to get the new denominator.
2. We examined the usefulness of simplifying fractions before you multiply them to make the numbers easier to work with.
3. We have looked at multiplying fractions by whole numbers using area models and by seeing that we can treat a whole number like an improper fraction (6 wholes is the same as 6/1) and multiply using our fraction strategy.
4. We looked at multiplying whole numbers by mixed numbers (how many brownies are there in 5 pans that are each 1 3/4 full?). We found that the area models get more difficult to use because you have to draw so many of them, and we found that changing the mixed number into an improper fraction lets us calculate the same thing using our fraction multiplication strategy.
5. Today we looked at mixed numbers of mixed numbers. For example, if you had 2 1/2 boxes of brownies and each box held 1 1/2 pans of brownies, how many pans of brownies would you have? This was a bear. The diagrams quickly became unhelpful because there are several ways to potentially draw them and the answers may appear different depending on how students decided to draw the first part of it. So isntead, we looked at the problem using improper fractions, students told me they could just use their fraction multiplication strategy to solve it without a drawing. The key is, they had to turn the mixed numbers into improper fractions before multiplying. 

• That means we have now unpacked the types of multiplication problems and we have a working strategy that seems to work in all we've seen so far.
• Tomorrow we will have a leveled practice day, next Monday we will have a practice quiz, and next week on Tuesday we will have a quiz for multiplying fractions. 
  

Science

• The Wednesday Early release and holiday on Monday didn't leave me with a chance to do a practice quiz with my students yet on food webs and energy. 
• Tomorrow (Friday) we will have a practice quiz in class so that students can get some feedback on things they need to study or improve on. I usually dislike having quizzes on Mondays, so we will have the official quiz for food webs on Tuesday of next week. 

Archives

These emails are automatically saved on a blog in case you'd like to go back and find resources I've mentioned in them. You can find that blog as well as links to lots of student support materials at http://www.mrmacnevin.com. 

Thank you for all the help and support you provide your children daily!

Sincerely,

Brian MacNevin