by Charitha, Ingrid, & Evelyne
Mrs. Foley had a really fun way to learn the Distributive Property of Multiplication. We pretended to be doctors. We acted like we were doing surgery! Mrs. Foley organized the desks in arrays. She called our classroom "Operating Room X." Get it?! For our first activity, we used counters to make arrays. Then we slpit the arrays into two other arrays with popsicle sticks. We called them scalples! Then we recorded the two smaller arrays on a worksheet. Then we put it altogether. For our second activity, we used Q-tips and red paint on trays to make arrays on another worksheet. Next, we divided the arrays into two equations. For example, 6 X 2 = (3 X 2) + (3 X 2). Go operation X! Yah!
Rock Climbing
by Adrianne, Houston, & Jeremiah
In rock climbing, we had to climb sideways. We could not go too far up. We had to stay below the red line because if we went too far up we will fall. And we had to stay close to the mat so when we fall we cannot hurt ourselves. We had a lot of fun climbing the wall.
Informational Game Book Report
by Alexandria, Jerzi, & Emma
First, we bought the stuff. Next, we made the game. We made fact cards and shared some of the facts we learned form our book. Then we practiced at our house. Then we presented the game. While we were presenting, Mrs. Foley was grading us. Some kids got to play on Friday. Other kids' games will be next Friday.
Fossils
by Anthony & Ben
In science we learned about fossils. We learned why people think dinosaurs were reptiles. They think that because they found dino eggs and and they found skin. They also saw the skulls had extra holes. They thought they lived in jungles. Their climate changed so it is different from today. There are mold fossils and cast fossil. Petrified wood is made when a piece of wood gets buried in mud. Then minerals replace wood as time passes. Finally, rock surrounding the fossil is removed. Petrifed wood forms when trees fall into a river. Plant fossils tell us that the first plants did not have flowers or cones. As forms of life continued to change, so did the magnolia.
Fossils
by Dean & Corgan
We watched a science video about fossils. In Antarctica, they found a forest tree fossil. So it used to be a tropical forest. Illinois used to be an ocean a shark tooth was found. We did a worksheet on fossils. Fossils can be found in dinosaur eggs. Dinosaur really means terrifying lizard.
Multiplication Timed Tests
by Tatiana, Lydia, & Miles
In our timed tests, we are doing 2s, 5s, 10s, 0/1s, 9s, and so on. With a timed test, we have one minute to write our facts down. When we take a multiplication timed test, every time someone passes the test they get a star on the chart. When you pass a test, you move up one fact. If you fail a timed test, you have to start over with the same multiple until you get it right. You have to pass the tests fluently by th end of the year, but you can play multiplication games to help you.
Hour of Code
by Isaac, Abhinav, & Srujan
Last Tuesday, Brian Hiles from State Farm came to our classrom to teach us how to code using the website www.code.org/learn. We played Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and Ice Age. To finish each level there was a goal. For example, one of the challenges was the bird named Red had to defeat the green minion pig. To move the character you have to place movement blocks. We all had a lot of fun.
Pioneer Games
by Sam, Jake, & Kyle
We played pioneer games in Fun Friday. One of the games we played was buzz saws. You hold two pieces of wood tied to a circular piece of wood in the middle and spun it and pulled it back and forth to make it spin. Our class also played jacks. First, the player bounces the ball. While the ball is in the air, pick up as many jacks as you can and try to catch the ball. If you don't catch the ball, you don't get any of those jacks. We played tops, too. You hold the tip of the top and spin it on the bottom. We had competitions to see whose top spun the longest. It was interesting seeing how much toys have changed over the years. We are glad to have modern toys!! Everyone had lots of fun playing pioneer games!!!
Social Studies Brochure Project
by Vikhyath, Luke, & Krish
In social studies, we are working on a brochure project. We are making the brochure on Bloomington. Our class had to persuade people to come to Bloomington. The brochure has four parts: the physical geography, the natural resources, the climate, and the cover page. The physical geography is the lay of the land. Nautral resources are what we get from where we live and what we sell. The climate is the weather where you live. For the cover page, our class had to draw the state Illinois and mark Bloomington and come up with catchy saying.