More Patterning Practice!

Today we spent some more time reviewing patterning concepts for our test on Monday. I posted some questions on the Smartboard and students answered them in their notebooks. We took them up together and (hopefully) corrected any misconceptions. Here are the questions we used. Please feel free to use these to review concepts with your child.

Patterning review part 2

Next week we will also be completing a few problems from EQAO and a unit problem to wrap up our assessment of our patterning unit. The next unit we will be working on will be number sense - specifically whole numbers. 

In language next week we will begin learning about procedural writing and identifying what characteristics good procedural writing has. We will look at a number of examples, and give them a level, which we will use to create our Bump It Up wall. Afterwards we will be looking at an example of procedural writing and beginning to explain some procedures on our own. 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Integers, More Literature circles and Music!

We were introduced to Integers today! We started with a quick definition of what an integer is and related integers (and negative number especially) to a thermometer because it is very common. Then we did an inquiry problem in which students had to use a pattern to find the temperature at the top of a mountain, knowing the starting point and the fact that for every 150m rise in altitude, the temperature would get 1 degree lower. This was a challenge for many students because the increments that started the pattern went up by 300m, not 150m. Afterward, we looked at a presentation that explained a little more about integers. Here is the presentation I showed the class. It explains everything they need to know about integers this year and has some practice problems at the end. It can be an excellent study guide if working with your child to study for a test.

Integers

We will be having a test on Monday for our patterning unit. This week we will be reviewing the material we have studied this unit to ensure we are ready!

In the morning class we also tried to plan out our literature circle work again. I demonstrated to students how to organize themselves to make it easy to assign jobs. All students should have a copy of their jobs for the next 4 weeks in their agendas. It might be a good idea to  post this somewhere visible in the house to remind them! Literature circle books are to be read at home independently, and then students must complete their jobs using Edmodo. See our class website (literature circles link) for more information about how to complete the various jobs. Feel free to download any of the sheets for use at home. They can be used as a template and then copied and pasted into Edmodo if you wish. The first job for Literature circles is due next Monday. If you find that the book your child has chosen is too difficult, please let me know and we can make alternative arrangements. 

In Music, we are learning about the families of instruments in an orchestra. Students are using Chromebooks to learn about the four families and then making a presentation about it to show the class. They are using a website called SFS Kids. Here is the link: sfskids.org.

Solving Equations

Today we learned about what an equation is, and how we solve them. Solving equations can be a challenge for students because this is the first time that unknowns (or variables) are introduced. Sometimes we see them as letters, and sometimes as empty boxes. I try to emphasize to students that it doesn't matter what the variable looks like. It is important to just realize that we don't yet know what that number is, so we use the numbers that we do have. Our job is to figure out the variable so that we can make the equation balance.

Here is a link to a presentation that we looked at today to assist us in figuring out how to solve equations:

Solving Equations

Thick and Thin questions, more patterning practice and The Six Kingdoms

Today I began reading a book as a read-aloud called "The Tree of Life" which is from our Literacy Place program and goes along with the skill of self-monitoring, or making sure we understand. The tree of life talks about biodiversity and the classification system, so it ties in well with our science unit. However, the book discusses only five kingdoms, while our science program talks about six kingdoms! Next time we have science, we are going to investigate why this might be.

As we are reading "The Tree of Life" we will be using our skills of self-monitoring. Today we learned to ask ourselves questions as we read, some which we could call "thick" questions (those that are deeper and require some thinking and explaining) and "thin" questions (those that can be taken directly from the text or might be one-word answers). As we continue to read I will be encouraging students to ask themselves thick questions to help better understand the story.

The shared reading portion of our lesson today began with a magazine article called Ad Busters, which talk about two girls from New Zealand who decided to fight against false advertising after they learned some facts about the amount of vitamin C in a popular drink. As we read this text in pairs, students will be encouraged to demonstrate understanding by writing down some thick questions and sharing them with the class for discussion.

In math we have finished up our lesson on number patterns and tomorrow will be beginning to learn about solving equations, such as _ + 4 = 3 +8. Students sometimes can have difficulty soling these types of equations. They need to remember to solve for all the constants first. In this case, find 3+8 = 11, and then ask themselves, WHAT +4 = 11? Hopefully, they will discover that subtracting 11-4 will give them this answer. We will likely be working on this for Thursday and Friday. Here is a video that we will be watching in class.

Our science lesson today dealt with identifying the 6 kingdoms and the major characteristics of each. We are learning that they are often distinguished by how they get food and if they can move or not. We will be finishing this later in the week.

On Wednesdays, we will be doing health as well during our short french time. In health, we have been learning about healthy communication skills. We learned that good communication involves looking at the speaker, using appropriate body language and practicing active listening skills. We will be practicing some of these over the next lesson or so.

New reading strategy, Number Patterns and Identifying Living Things

In language we are beginning to learn about a new reading strategy called "Self-Monitoring" This simply means asking ourselves if we are understanding as we read, and if not, using strategies to correct ourselves so that we can understand. Here is a chart we developed in class to assist us in understanding what self-monitoring means:

Self Monitoring

In Math, we are continuing to learn about how to find number patterns. Here is a link to the lesson we did today:

Number Patterns

Finding number patterns can be quite challenging for students in grade 6 because they now involve patterns in which there are two operations. For example, the pattern might work by multiplying by 3 then adding 4 more to each term. This can be difficult to discover. The trick to finding the pattern starts by looking at the differences between the terms, and seeing if there is a pattern to them. See the link for a more in-depth explanation.

In science, we are learning about how scientists can tell if something is living. Today we used the chromebooks to research how scientists can tell if something is alive or not, and we discovered that in order to be considered alive, the organism must pass five tests. The answer must be yes to all the tests, or the organism is not considered a living thing. The five questions are;

1. Can it reproduce?
2. Can it grow and develop?
3. Can it react to its environment?
4. Can it use food?
5. Can it make or find food?

We will be continuing to learn more about biodiversity in science, focusing on  classification systems. 

Input/Output Machines

Today we learned about how Input/Output Machines work. In grade 6, we learn about patterns with 2 steps. Click the video below to see what we did in class today briefly.

We also learned that we can work backwards to figure out what the operations are in the machine by looking at the pattern of the output. In the video above, if we look at the output numbers, we can see that they go up by 3 each time. This gives us a hint that the first operation is to multiply by 3. So we try it out! 1 x 3 = 3 .....not 4! So this tells us that we have to add one more. Let's try that throughout the table:

1 x 3 = 3, 3 +1 = 4 check
2 x 3 = 6, 6 + 1 = 7 check
3 x 3 = 9, 9 + 1 = 10 check.

So we can say that the first operation is to multiply by three, then add 1. Here is a link to an interactive website that will let you practice:

Function Machine