This week in Cerrito, students got to try out some new things out! In both Cultural Studies and Science we started some new individual projects; 5th graders headed up to 6th grade for a morning to see what middle school is like and then shared out with the 4th graders; and Cerrito and Strawberry went to the Oakland Museum of California to tour their “¡El Movimiento Vivo! Chicano Roots of El Día de los Muertos” exhibit in connection with their work in Spanish and Art.

For Community Meeting, we did an activity on our communication styles, with students identifying as either a tiger, turtle, wolf or eagle. Once students had picked an animal they connected with, they gathered with their fellow animals and brainstormed on the qualities of that communication style. A highlight of the week was also getting to watch and hear Kian play his violin, which was a huge crowd pleaser!

5th graders in the Science lab with Loa.
Students checking out the history of the Chicano movement.
An alter made up for boxes dedicated to people who have passed.
The tiger communicators discuss their qualities.
Kian performs for the class.

Cultural Studies

In Cultural Studies, students began working on their individual map posters of California. As a class we looked at different types of California maps—such as topographic maps, highway maps, and maps showing the distribution of homeless students across the State. Using an outline, students filled in what different geographical features they want to include on their own map, and then started working! Cerrito kiddos are super eager to do this project and have asked to have extra Cultural Studies all week long.

Green table picks out different geographical locations to add to their maps.
Charlie traces an outline of California onto his poster.
Hailey and Jaeda work on their maps on the rug.

Writer’s Workshop

We had our first Author’s Chair this week in Writer’s Workshop! Students took turns reading their memoirs to the whole class and then taking questions and compliments at the end. We also got to share our stories with our buddies when we had Buddy Day on Friday. Next week, we will begin a new writing unit based on folk tales of Indigenous tribes.

Emme reads her memoir to the class.
Jackson reads his memoir for the class.
Carson reads his memoir to his buddy.

Reader’s Workshop

For Reader’s Workshop students got to divide up their attention between continuing to read Island of the Blue Dolphins, and getting in some much-desired SSR time. In conjunction with our work for Island, students focused on character development, by looking at different important events in Karana’s life. We explored the idea of cause and effect and had students write about at least one important event in Karana’s life and how that effected her character.

Students SSR-ing after our field trip.

5th Grade Math

This week in math, 5th graders started exploring the relationship between division and multiplication. We practiced building arrays for story problems that, and then later in the week worked in stations. In stations, we did Dreambox, made our own multiplication tables to keep as a resource, worked on a rectangular prism puzzle that required us to use our spatial reasoning, and then lastly explored a Bridges manipulative to support us in division. Next week we will move on to exploring division with remainders.

Noa and Charlie check their math homework together.
The Golden Gate group practices using the division manipulatives.
The Richmond group works with Sarah to build rectangular prisms out of cubes.

4th Grade Math

This week, fourth graders extended their multiplication skills to finding the area of rectangles. Using number tiles, students built area models to solve for 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication problems. Students built with physical tiles, drew them out on white boards, constructed them on the computer, and are well on their way to confidently multiplying 2-digit by 2-digit numbers.

An area model and equation to solve for 12×13.

Science

Following our introduction to atoms and subatomic particles, students were eager to choose an element to research and create a poster of.  We watched the catchy Periodic Table of Elements song again before researching a little bit about elements of interest and choosing our element. Next week, students will continue their research via online and text sources to create a poster they will present to the class.

Sam introduces the class to the periodic table.
The Yellow table researches different elements.

Additional Announcements

  • Thursday, October 31st – Halloween Parade! TBS will be having our annual Halloween parade of costumes at 8:45 AM. Please refer to the family handbook and Newsnotes about Halloween costume guidelines.
  • Thursday, November 7th – Math Night; 6pm-7:30pm Curious what and how your child is learning math this year? Come to Math Night, where you will be led through games and investigations by your young mathematician.
  • Scholastic Book Orders  If you are interested in purchasing books for your ever growing reader, check out this month’s offerings from Scholastic Book Clubs. Please use this link to access the website, and use class code W6RVJ when signing up your child to connect to Teacher Samantha Snook.  Submit your orders by by Tuesday, Oct. 29th.