Day 25: Something New

Today, we started wrapping up our Something New projects. We had some amazing student entries, and we all learned so much about and from one another. Here are just a few of the things we learned...
- how to play a new song on the guitar
- some basic words in Greek
- how to make cakes, cookies, and cupcakes from scratch
- how to make and sew pillows
- how to play a drum beat
- how to play a song on the piano
- how to kick a football off a tee
- how to perform the cup song

Day 24: Donors Choose

Thanks to a generous gift from a variety of kind sponsors and Donors Choose, we have a new set of board games for our classroom. We spent time today opening, putting together, reading directions, practicing math and problem solving skills, and playing. We also wrote thank you notes to our kind donors! If you are interested in other projects we have posted, check out our page at http://www.donorschoose.org/kellyhines.

Day 23: Walking Through Division

Day 22: Van Denton Visits

Van Denton, meteorologist from Fox 8 news, came to talk with our students today about forecasting, weather reporting, fronts, and tropical weather systems. If you are interested in trying out for a spot as a special kid anchor on the weather report, check out information on his website on how to apply!

Day Twenty-One: El Nino

We are learning more about global weather patterns like El Nino, El Nina, Jet Streams, and more.

Can you explain the causes and effects of these systems? Check out THIS ARTICLE on learn more about La Nina and El Nino. And check out this BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY and learn some more about storms!

Day Twenty: Ways to Say Numbers

We have been working on ways to express what we know about numbers. We spent today reviewing...

Base Ten Form (or standard form)
46.79

Number Name (or word form)
forty-six and seventy-nine hundredths

Expanded Form 
40 + 6 + 0.7 + 0.09
(4 x 10) + (6 x 1) + (7 x 0.1) + (9 x 0.01)

Exponential Notation
4.679 x 10^1

Day Nineteen: Weather Poetry

We started reviewing poetry terms, including onomatopoeia, today. That's one of my favorite literary terms to teach, but not to spell! We also wrapped up our study of Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman today. So, what else would we do, but make summarizing comic strips of Night of the Twisters that used onomatopoeia?! Pictures to come on Monday! Ka-chow!

Day Eighteen: Mystery Skype International

Today's Mystery Skype session with Ms. Gratton's class turned into an international adventure. We were able to figure out that they were in Alberta, Canada! We used great questions, an awesome team on "map duty", and some deductive reasoning to guess where they were. We also found out that it was about 40 degrees there today, which was about 35 degrees cooler than us. And we thought it was chilly at our school...

Day Seventeen: Old Wives' Tales

Today we talked about old wives' tales about the weather and weather forecasting. We talked about lying cows and leaves that flip sides. We discussed cricket chirps and how they relate to temperature. We also debated the merits of Groundhog's Day.

Here are a few more examples.

What do you think? Have you found any of these to be dependable? What other old wives' tales do you know?

Day Sixteen: Weather Instruments

Day Fifteen: Long Division

We are starting our study of long division this week. I wanted to share a few things that you can practice at home to help out with this skill...

TIMES TABLES - You have to know your times tables fluently in order to best practice long division. Here are some places to practice. 
Math is Fun
Cool Math 4 Kids
Maths Games
Multiplication.com


LONG DIVISION - Check out these resources for understanding how to complete long division. Remember, this year we are focusing on being fluent in dividing 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers by 1 and 2 digit divisors. 
Thinking Blocks
AAA Math - Division
Cool Math 4 Kids - Long Division

Day Fourteen: Cloud Watching

What is a week of studying about clouds without going outside for some serious cloud watching? We were amazed to see what we were learning come to life before our eyes. Here are some of our favorite facts... 

1. Cumulus clouds has a lifespan of 5-40 minutes. We watched some disappear and others form right before our eyes.

2. Clouds look gray because of the shadow the sun casts on the water droplets in the cloud.

3. The "points" of a cloud tell which way the wind is blowing. 

4. Stratus clouds really do cover the sky like a blanket.

5. It is neat to see remnants of contrails and to see how they turn into other clouds.

Day Thirteen: Multiplication Paper Slide Videos

Check out the paper slide videos that we made on different ways to solve multiplication problems!

312 x 5

.





Yes, Mrs. Hines knows this one is upside down, and she will fix it tomorrow. She is just so proud of her students that she doesn't care for today! She was the one who filmed it upside down! :p


178 x 13

Day Twelve: Cloud Learning

We are working on using text to learn new concepts. Today we were working on learning about different types of clouds, as well as the Latin roots from which they are named.

Cirro - lock of hair, curl
Alto - high
Stratus - spread out, layer
Cumulus - pile, heap
Nimbus - cloud, rain, storm

Check out THIS LINK to see everyone's cloud pics!

Day Eleven: Science and Songs

Today, we started studying clouds as part of our weather and climate study. We checked out Mr. Parr's YouTube channel. He is an awesome 6th grade science teacher who helps his students learn concepts by putting them to modern songs that kids like! This is his "Thunderstorms Song" but he has so many to learn. We are going to try and make a music video of our own about weather!

Day Nine: Night of the Twisters

We are currently reading Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman as a read aloud in our class, since we started learning about weather this week. I wish you all could have been there today as we hit a critical, and very suspenseful moment in the book. The students' faces were priceless.

If you have time, check out some more information about the REAL night of the twisters in Grand Island at http://www.gitwisters.com/.

Day Eight: Mr Dull

We are working on multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals by powers of ten. Mr. Dull helped us out quite a bit!

Day Seven: Something New

Today, Alexandra shared our very first something new project! She decided to learn how to make a cake on her own. She shared photos of the cake making process, talked about the hard things about making a cake (not getting egg shells everywhere anot getting burnt while putting the pan in the oven), and the different skills she used (reading and math). She even brought in her finished product for us to enjoy together! It was delicious. The class unanimously voted that she deserves an A+!

Day Six: Discovery Education

Today, each of our students received their own login and password for http://discoveryeducation.com/. This log in information gives my students a vast wealth of information at their fingertips in the forms of media, reading passages, songs, images, and more. Students will be getting assignments in their DE accounts to complete at home and at school, as a way to start preparing them for a shift toward online learning. They are also always welcome to access the many resources they have! Use! Enjoy! Learn!