Our short week started with a new unit on fractions. A very clear way to illustrate fractions is with dividing paper into parts. We took a sheet of paper and divided it into half. Then took the half and divided it in half to get 1/4 of the whole. Then took half of that 1/4 and got 1/8. Then took 1/8 and divided it in half to make 1/16. Temescalians noticed that as you divide parts in half, the denominator doubled. A tricky part of fractions can be that as the denominator increases, the part is actually smaller. A tip to think about this is if I were to divide a brownie between me and my brother, I would get 1/2 and he would get 1/2. If I were to divide that brownie between my two brothers and I, we would each get 1/3 because there are 3 of us. If we were to divide a brownie between all of the Temescalians, not including the teachers, each Temescalians would get 1/16 of the brownie. To compare, would they rather have 1/2 of the brownie or 1/16? We also worked to solve multi-step word problems together.
Pi Day is coming up on Thursday, 3/14 and we often take time that day to celebrate by reading stories about pi, Temescalians can take the challenge to see how many digits of pi they can memorize, and we also share pie (the edible kind) together! If you would like to bring in a pie on Thursday, please do! (Please consider that there are allergies to all kinds of nuts, coconuts, pine nuts, mango, pineapple, and buckwheat.)
We continued with choosing and sharing poetry. This time, we tucked away more favored collections such as ones by Shel Silverstein and encouraged the Temescalians to look through poetry that they had never read before. Their selections were surprising and entertaining. We love that they are noticing what reactions words can evoke. We hope this can carry into their own writing.
We also read from She Persisted. This book is familiar to many and many still were excited because they had recently gone, or had siblings who had gone to see the production.
Continuing with understand how floods happen, we learned about the water table, and we also read up droughts and ways that people are trying to conserve water.
Our 3rd/4th/5th grade houses came together and worked to create house banners for each house: Earth, Wind, Water, Fire. Each house chose a mascot, will decorate the house banner, and create a house handshake/movement!
To prepare for parent teacher conferences, we asked the Temescalians to reflect on what they would like their grownups to see. They went through their portfolios and selected pieces of work that they wanted grownups to look at, were proud of/excited about, and were wondering about. This may lead to further conversation with your Temescalian. When we have our next Family Reading, please go through these post-its with your Temescalian and probe further!
We celebrated 2 birthdays this week! We love seeing our fellow Temescalians as younger people, and learning about favorites and firsts is always enjoyable!
A few other glimpses from our week:
Thank you, families for the lovely lunch and all of the delectable treats! They were just the thing to keep Jackie and I going as we chatted with you about your Temescalians!
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Upcoming Events:
10 – Daylight Savings (“Spring forward”)
14 – Pi Day (optional: bring in a pie to share)
22 – Field trip to Coyote Hills
