5th Grade

10/28 MATH CHALLENGE UPDATE

We’d like to provide math-hungry students with another Math Challenge option! Creative Publications has a book of tough, intriguing problems that encourage creative and imaginative thinking. Whereas our other Math Challenge problems are scaffolded week by week, students can tackle these problems at whatever pace they’d like. If parents would like some assistance in solving these problems (there are some tough ones!), you can use the separate PDF for the answers. We encourage students to turn in their work to us! This way, we can see the hard work you’ve done as well as provide opportunities for math-hungry students to share strategies and solutions.

Creative Math Problems

Creative Math Answers

 

WEEKLY MATH CHALLENGE PROBLEMS

Check out the weekly math challenge problems here!

If you give this a shot at home and bring it in to me on Monday, you will get to put your name on the bingo chart and can check your answers with my answer key. For the week of October 17-21, we are working on page #6.

10/28

In a powerful response to Minnijean’s call to action, students of the 5th grade worked diligently during Ketchup Time to remind people in the Portola community to vote! While half the class posted giant letters spelling the word “VOTE” on our window facing Gaven Street, other members of the class worked creatively to make independent posters, flyers, and leaflets to be posted in community spaces, such as Palega Park. Keep an eye out for our sign during carpool over the next 11 days and remember to vote on November 8! 

10/14

The tape that surfaced with Trump’s comments did come up in class this week. We watched the first ten minutes of Michelle Obama’s response. The kids took notes and we debriefed afterwards.

10/6 - More updates!

Real world math

Kids and I looked at the median rent for each neighborhood in San Francisco and then calculated what someone making minimum wage makes in a month. They knew SF was expensive, but were quite surprised to find out that there’s only one neighborhood that someone making minimum wage would be able to afford they would only have about $100 leftover for ALL other expenses.


Typing test update!
I am making a new rule that they have to have correct hand positioning on the keyboard or they won’t pass even if they achieve the words per minute and accuracy. Some kids are miraculously able to hunt and peck their way to over 20 words per minute, but it’s actually not reinforcing

How many sit ups/burpees/push-ups/squats can you do in 30 seconds?
How do you train your muscles to get stronger? Same way you train your brain- use them! Work them! Challenge then! Make goals for them! Kids and I are doing this every day and graphing our results. Something so tangible about watching that line creep higher and higher. Every kid deserves that kind of satisfaction, and unlike math facts that just come easily to some and way harder for others, everyone will see their progress with exercise. Beating your record by two, balancing in your first handstand, getting to fifty on the jump rope.

Ableism
We have begun to talk about ISMs and are starting with Ableism. Here are two videos I shared with them- the first in its entirety and the second, the first five minutes (though many kids were interested in watching the whole thing)
Upstanders- A Warrior’s Workout
https://upstanders.starbucks.com/episodes/02-a-warriors-workout.html

The Opportunity of Adversity
https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_the_opportunity_of_adversity

In need of playing cards!!
If anyone has an extra (full :-) deck lying around, please send them in!!

9/22 How do I keep track of the books I’m reading at home for the 5th grade reading challenge??

Great question! Each student has made a copy of the reading challenge and renamed it with their name and their own reading challenge number. This should be in each student’s google drive and is where they should input the name of the book, the author, the number of pages in the book, the date they started and finished, and their rating on a scale of 1-10. 

(p.s., this is the infographic I showed them about the number of words read if you read 20 minutes a day vs. five or one…WHY READING MATTERS!)

9/22 BOOK CLUB ASSIGNMENTS

We are off and running with our next book club books! Here is the schedule of reading assignments: 

Date due	Temple Grandin	Turning 15 on Road to Freedom
Mon. 9/26	Chptrs 1, 2, 3	Chptrs 1, 2
Thurs 9/29	Chptrs 4, 5, 6	Chptrs 3, 4
Mon 10/3	Chptrs 7, 8, 9	Chptrs 5, 6
Thurs 10/6	Chptrs 10, 11, 12	Chptrs 7, 8
Thurs 10/13	Chptr 13	Chptr 9

Kids need to complete the reading as well as use the post-its we provided to mark what they are picturing, questions that come up as they read, what they are thinking, what they are feeling, what they find interesting, and connections to self, other books, and the world. They have a sticker on the inside of the book with a symbol key for all of the above. They are welcome to do more if they’d like, but to start, I’m requiring just three. 

9/21 SOCIAL CONFORMITY

I showed the kids this video about social conformity to start some conversations about when this is a good thing (raising your hand in class…ahem..) and when it can be dangerous (“Well, everyone else was being mean to that kid, so I did too”). We are trying to show some leadership with the rest of elementary at singing time by leading some breathing exercises at the beginning, so that as each class files in, it is peaceful, rather than chaotic…a good example of positive social conformity. 

9/21 GROWTH MINDSET 

We talked in our Wednesday upper elementary morning meeting about mistakes and how important they are to our learning and the kids made reference to the Olympics and the number of times gymnasts probably fell down before they learned to do the perfect routines that we saw. Today, we watched this video to get a better understanding of the thousands of failures that eventually lead to success.