Experiments, Reading Groups and More!

Sixth Grade Buddy Time

We had the chance to enjoy some time with our sixth grade buddies on Thursday. They designed creative and challenging games for us, such as scavenger hunts, word games, crosswords, and trivia.

Ask your child what game they played and see if they would like to make a game to play at home!

Community Building

In honor of Jorge’s last day before he takes a leave for his upcoming surgery and re-cooperation, the second graders made cards for Jorge wishing him a speedy recovery, making sure to tell him that we appreciate all that he does, and some of us even created games for him to play while he is recovering. We talked about Jorge’s role in our school, and ways we can show Jorge we will miss him and know how hard he works to keep the school a safe and clean place. We will all miss Jorge!

Science

This week in science we investigated gas. They enjoyed the two experiments we did with alka seltzer tablets. The first involved predicting and then observing what happened when they put half a tablet in a glass of water. They drew and wrote about what they saw. Next, they put water in a plastic bag, slipped in as fast as possible a whole tablet, and resealed the bag. They took turns shaking the bag and excitedly watched as the bags expanded and puffed up!  They drew another picture of this reaction and wrote about what happened. We read the story about putting the bubbles in soda pop at a factory, and talked about carbon dioxide. One group also wondered if the water and alka seltzer solution would evaporate and maybe form crystals, so we put some of the solution into a petri dish.  

Reading

This week we began reading groups, enjoy new friends and new books. We are practicing skills like text to self connections, character motives, predictions, identifying the main idea, and many others! We read the backs of our books, studied the covers, read the first chapter, and answered questions about the story. We are excited to keep reading and learn more about the plot of our stories!

Ask your child which book they are reading.

Math

In math this week we practiced our 2, 5, and 10 times tables. There are so many tricks to help us remember these math facts and solve them quickly. For example, all numbers multiplied by 5 will end in a 5 or 0. All numbers multiplied by 10 will end in a zero. We made the connection between multiplying by 5 and multiplying by ten. Since 5 doubled makes 10, when numbers are multiplied by 5 the answer can be doubled to figure out what that same number would be multiplied by 10. For example: 5 x 5= 25, 25+25= 50, and 10 x 5=50. We have been using our fingers to count by 5s and 10s, the more we practice the more we will know these facts instantly!

Over the weekend, do some math problems multiplying by 5 and 10!

Chumash: Fifth Day of Creation

Students’ texts skills have been soaring as we learned the fifth day in the creation story. They have become experts at identifying and highlighting the Torah text, as well as in predicting and explaining reasoning for what will happen next in the story. Did you know that the first three days of creation can be connected to the last three days? Ask your child about the connection between the second and fifth days of creation.