Talking Points

1/27/23

Announcements

Gum-Free Zone

Please help your Unidian remember that our team is a gum free zone. We are seeing gum chewing and bubble blowing more frequently lately, but this is still a no-go for our team.

Ice Skating

Keep sending in those permission slips.
Here is a link to a digital copy if you need another one.

Also, please fill out the Helmet Survey included here in the Talking Points.

New U1, U2, U3 Groups for Semester 2

We have had to revise our U1, U2, and U3 groups that travel together for PE/World Language/Music for semester 2 now that we've switched from French to Spanish in World Language. The revised groupings will allow our Spanish Immersion students to extend their World Language experience given their background in the language, while also allowing our strings players access to Ms. Frank on her days at BRMS for lessons during music class.

Strings players should be sure to bring their instruments on their semester 2 Music class day. The groups will be posted on the whiteboard outside our classrooms on Monday morning. Strings players should check their email for a message indicating which day their music class (and therefore lessons) will be taking place, so they know when to bring their instruments.

Mathematics

In math this week we continued with fractions, exploring how fractions are related to division, how the numerator and denominator can be represented in a graphical way, and how to see fractions all around us. Students have looked at a variety of images identifying fractions as a part of a whole. In the following image, for example, peppers are 4/24 of the

produce display. Leafy greens are 8/14 of the boxes that are green, cauliflower is 1/6 of the bottom row, and the eggplant and red sails lettuce make up a purple 2/24 of the whole.

By seeing the denominator as the total pieces that make up a whole, and the numerator as the pieces we are specifically looking at, students can visualize fraction relationships all around them.

ELA

Great recipes are meant to be handed down. This week, readers got their own copy of a tried-and-true recipe for writing a summary of a nonfiction text. We worked in pairs, trios, or small groups collecting ingredients from an article and whipped them up into smashing summaries! This practice work led readers to take the reigns and work solo on a second practice summary. This practice is helping us get stronger at writing main ideas (instead of just naming topics) and finding relevant key details to support those ideas. It is also helping us practice finding relationships between ideas - how they are connected. We'll need to be able to do all of this for the post assessment which we're working up to soon.

Ask your reader:

  • Summarize the article, "Lessons From the Deep." What do readers learn about the octopus in this text?

  • Which patterns are missing from these relationships:

    • A cause leads to one or more _____________

    • all the characteristics or ___________________ of something describe it (like in the octopus article)

    • ____________________ have solutions

    • In a chronology, there are a sequence of _________________

    • Comparing and contrasting helps readers find ________________________ and differences

Science

In science we looked at solubility. This is a fun interactive site that you can check out with your scientist to discuss what happens when a solution becomes saturated, and how different molecules behave at different concentrations.

We also looked at products and reactants when matter interacts resulting in a chemical change. This Legends of Learning activity uses a familiar activity (making sandwiches) to show kids how different reactions can result in the creation of new substances.

Social Studies

Our focus as historians has been on what life was like in the Indus Valley thousands of years ago. We studied Indus homes, what growing up was like, daily life, trade, and jobs.

Another milestone of this week is that everyone finally got a chance to travel to Egypt using Virtual Reality headsets. Thanks to Mr. Weber for coming in and being our "travel agent" to help us explore Egypt up close and personal.

Ask your historian:

  • What do bathrooms have to do with the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization?

  • What are seals? How were they used as part of the system of trade?

  • Did everyone growing up in the ancient Indus Valley go to school? What did they do during their days if they did not? What did they learn if they did?

  • What lasting achievement is now a popular 6-sided device, often used in games, that we owe the Ancient Indus Valley for?

  • What was the VR trip to Egypt like?

spanish immersion

Bend 2- Properties of Matter

On Tuesday, 1/31, scientists will have the opportunity to use their knowledge of properties of matter to identify "mystery" substances in science class. The Bend 2 investigation will be fun, engaging, and as hands-on as a science investigation can get.

Please be aware that a solution of iodine and rubbing alcohol will be used in the lab. Iodine can stain clothes and leave a harmless but stubborn stain on skin. Scientists should be ready to contribute to a calm and focused classroom.

Extra science investigation

I encourage immersion scientists to rummage through their home for pre-1982 pennies. Made of at least 95% copper, these coins allow students to investigate chemical properties.

*Try to find especially tarnished (dark brown) pre-1982 pennies.

* Prepare a solution of vinegar and salt and a solution of water and dish soap. Sr. Butler used glass containers, but plastic is also appropriate.

*Submerge the most opaque pennies you can find in the solutions.

*Which solution removed the tarnish? Did the opaque tarnish "disappear," or can it be found in the bottom of the containers?

*For a complete review of the investigation, students can use the Quizziz link in immersion science Google classroom.