Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics School is OPEN

Riverside STEM Academy is now accepting applications for the 2012-2013 school year


The Riverside STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) academy is now taking applications for incoming 5th grade students for the 2012-2013 school year. Parent information nights will be held at 6 PM on March 20 and March 26 at the Central Middle School multipurpose room.Click the headline above for more information.

Click here for the parent night flyer.

Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat

My Seussical experience was two-fold. Two different classrooms of fifth-graders were delighted with "The Fly on the Ceiling", a historical fiction book about Rene Descartes' invention, the Cartesian Coordinate system.  A room of third graders were amused by Seuss' "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?".  Sadly, I disappointed more than one first grader by not bringing a REAL Seuss book to read.  Instead, I brought, "You Read To Me, I'll Read To You" the fairy tale edition.  Next time, I'll do better.

What Are YOU Reading?

Tomorrow is Read Across America Day.  Let me know what you are reading.  I think I'm going to go with "The Fly on the Ceiling" about Rene Descartes and the start of the coordinate grid.  Check out Reading Rockets site http://www.readingrockets.org/calendar/readacross/ for many suggestions on reading activities that support the day. Enjoy!

Frontloading 5th Grade Math - The big standard

This standard NS 2.1 Add, subtract, multiply, and divide with decimals; add with negative integers; subtract positive integers from negative integers; and verify the reasonableness of the results has always challenged everyone. The all-purpose "Today's Number" activity can be used all year to reinforce this standard.

Today's Number.  Set a specific target number. Have students write expressions that are equal to that number. Often, teachers start by having the number of the day be the day's date. So today's number would be 13.  At first, allow students to write any expression that equals 13. Spend time exploring patterns.  Bit by bit, add constraints.  Directions change in this way, "Today's number is 13. Write expressions that equal 13. You much include two operations - add or subtract and multiply or divide." Another constraint might include use one decimal number, and so on.

New Elements?

Math posts will have to take a back seat for one day. The New York Times reported that three new elements - Darmstadtium, Roentgenium, and Copernicium, have been added to the periodic table.  There are more to come as well. See posts here. We introduce the periodic table in fifth grade in our McGraw-Hill Science series (click here, use casci05/redwood, and go to page 34 of 69). It might be a nice time to introduce Tom Lehrer's Element Song and its lyrics. Current classes might enjoy the Daniel Radcliff version.  Here is a periodic table where visual images are associated with each element: http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/pages/pertable_j.htm

There is also a cool video with a melting spoon that can spur all sorts of conversations about elements.\

Finally, the Khan Academy has in intro of atoms and several ensuing videos that delve into the periodic table.

Frontloading for 4th grade division

The second benchmark window brings a heavy duty standard for 4th graders: Number Sense 3.4 - Solve problems involving division of multidigit numbers by one-digit numbers.  Notice the by one-digit numbers. That makes it easy to think about. Look at this problem: 2345 divided by 7. 

Try Powers of Ten: Think multiples first. Would it be times 1 (quotient of 7)? Times 10 (quotient of 70)? Times 100 (quotient of 700)? Or times 1000 (quotient of 7000)? 

Try times 500 (or half the quotient of times 1000, meaning 3500). You know the quotient is less than 500.

Try Multiples of 7: Think of the dividend 2345.  Using our known multiplication facts 7 x 3 = 21 so 7 x 300 is 2100. The quotient is more than 300.  7 x 400 = 2800. The quotient is between 300 and 400, closer to 300.

Finding problems:  Card Turn Over Use a deck of playing cards.  Turn over 2, 3, or 4 cards for the dividend and 1 card for the divisor. Compete with friends for the quickest estimated answer or the quickest accurately calculated answer. Have fun.

Math Frontloading for 3rd grade multiplication and division

In addition to learning more multiplication facts, third graders embark on a little bit of algebraic thinking. Surprised? Don't be! One of the critical standards in the second math benchmark window is for third graders to use division to check multiplication and multiplication to check division.   In second grade, students learn about properties of 0 and 1 in multiplication.  In addition, they move from skip counting to more formal multiplication by the skip counting numbers - 2, 5 and 10.  Third graders learn to make skip counting more mathematical by writing skip counting as multiplication. In other words, the chant 2-4-6-8-10-12.... becomes 2 times 2 equals 4, and so on.  Ideally, teachers are using the intuitive counting knowledge to build the use of math language and symbols to show the skip counting. That way, students can formalize their 0s, 1s, 2s, 4s, and 10s and also use that knowledge to extend to the other facts. 

Using multiplication to check division is a natural extension of addition/subtraction "fact families" for young students. Here are some examples:

How can I find the answer to 12 divided by 4? One way to think of it is [what number] times 4 equals 12?

Here are some ways to frontload these third grade topics:
Name That Fact. Show a division fact card then name the inverse fact. For example: show the flash card 18 divided by 6. Students respond, "The inverse is 6 times 3 equals 18."

Multiplication and Division Fact Families. Give students two numbers. They could be two factors, a product and factor, a dividend and divisor, quotient and divisor, or quotient and dividend.  From those to numbers, students write the entire four fact family (three facts for squares, numbers multiplied by themselves). For example: Give the students 18, 6. students write 18 divided by 6 equals 3; 18 divided by 3 equals 6; 6 times 3 equals 18, and; 3 times 6 equals 18.

Two Card Turn Over.  Separate a deck of playing cards (or make a number card deck on index cards or card stock) into three piles.  One pile will be 10s and face cards, one pile will be all the even numbered cards, and the remaining cards are not used for the game.  The student turns over a 10 and an even number and writes the fact family that corresponds to the resulting number.

Math Frontloading for 2nd grade adding and subtracting.

Here are some suggestions to preview upcoming math topics for second graders.
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/subtractiontest.html


http://www.mrnussbaum.com/draggable.htm Draggable math is also an iPad/iPod app. For the computer version, look at the top of the page for “click here for the OLD draggable math”. Choose subtraction and your problem set up and GO! Also use this to generate random problems for students in your class who can work ahead, or to choose numbers for “Ballpark It”.

Play “Ballpark It”. First model it. Then whole class. Then tables. Then pairs. Then individuals. You can do this over several days/weeks. Write a minuend and subtrahend on the board. Ballpark the answer by using reasoning and number relatedness. Example 1: 782 – 49. Quickly ballpark to 732 because 49 is close to 50. Example 2: 473 – 84. Quickly ballpark to 390 because if 84 was 83, pretend 73 then to 400 and 10 more.

Use a think bubble. A retired 4th grade teacher used this expertly. She had her students learn strategies like Ballpark It then when they did actual lessons, as they wrote out their homework papers, they ballparked the answers in a think bubble by each homework problem before taking it home. It created a lot of persistence.

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_155_g_1_t_1.html?from=category_g_1_t_1.html
to model with base 10 blocks. Striving students will need narration from the teacher.

Play Race to Zero. Give each dyad a pair of dice.  Choose and post the starting number (minuend). Each student rolls the dice for their personal subtrahend. They keep playing until someone reaches zero and is declared the winner of that round. If you do not have dice, use playing cards or number cards that you run off on cardstock.

Coming Right Up!

It is time to look forward to the content in the second benchmark window. Some examples, of essential standards during this instruction time include:

Grade 2 – NS 2.2 Find the sum or difference of two whole numbers up to three digits long.
Grade 3 – NS 2.3 Use the inverse relationship of multiplication and division to compute and check results.
Grade 4 – NS 3.4 Solve problems involving division of multidigit numbers by one-digit numbers.
Grade 5 – NS 2.1 Add, subtract, multiply, and divide with decimals; add with negative integers; subtract positive integers from negative integers; and verify the reasonableness of the results.
Grade 6 – AF 1.1 Write and solve one-step linear equations in one variable.

In the upcoming days, I'll post fun and easy ways to work on these standards. You can, too!

Happy Birthday, Picasso!

Richard Diebenkorn,
Cityscape I,(Landscape No. 1),
 1963, Oil on canvas,
 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Today is my uncle's birthday, and for some reason, I always remember it's Picasso's birthday, too.  One (of the many) reasons that Riverside Unified differs from other districts is that we are committed to the arts. We retain an elementary music program. The itinerant teachers are all musicians and credentialed teachers. We have a districtwide Visual and Performing Arts plan and a specialist who is dedicated to K-12 arts education.

Every elementary school has a beautiful Picturing America portfolio of American Art. The portfolio includes an American artist who patterned some of his work after Picasso's.  Californian Richard Diebenkorn's oil on canvas, Cityscape 1, is featured in the Picturing America portfolio. Lessons for K-12 can be found here. Preschool lessons can be found here. Students can see a film clip of Diebenkorn here.

You may also view the Picturing America gallery online here.

Open Resources for Writing

The last post discussed expository (non-fiction) writing.
Take this challenge. 1) Wherever you are, stop and look around.  2) Choose an object, person, or place that you find interesting right now.  3) Prewrite - name the object and list as many things as you know, or want to know, about it. Organize those ideas into categories. 4) Draft a quick paragraph using your ideas. 5) Now read, view or listen to something about your subject. 6) Revise your writing (this means add, delete, rearrange information). You can also improve word choice, combine sentences, and clarify ideas. 7) Publish, if you like.

http://www.teachersdomain.org/ is an excellent resource to help complete Step 5.  Teachers Domain is a free, digital media service provided for teachers.  The content is from public broadcasting and its partners. Videos and other resources have been edited down to short clips. They can be searched by keyword or by standards. When teachers register on the site, they can bookmark resources, upload and rate materials.

Just for fun, search by keyword "pumpkin".

Shake It, Shake It, Baby!

Tomorrow, the Great California Shakeout takes place.  All RUSD facilities will participate in a drill for earthquake readiness.  Join us:

Take a look at the overall Shakeout website: http://www.shakeout.org/
Look at California's page: http://www.shakeout.org/counties/index.php/Riverside/
Play Beat The Quake: http://www.dropcoverholdon.org/beatthequake/game/
Record Your REAL Shakers at Did You Feel It?: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/
Search for Earthquake Resources (free) at Teachers' Domain: http://www.teachersdomain.org/