Cerrito Creek

Though photos of the Smart Board never come out great, I used this rubric to help fifth graders choose math partners for this week. The activity gives students an element of choice within boundaries. They had to find these four partners in the time it took for me to play "Come Together" by the Beatles over the sound system. Think of it as a social mixer.

Fifth graders mingle.

Math class looks like my dad's workshop much of the time: it's messy, full of tools and curiosity, and projects are afoot. 

This impromptu y-chart helped structure our formation of rules for the new Cerrito library. 

Homework:
Reading for 30 minutes
Spelling: find your eight words, make sure they're spelled correctly, and study them
Math:
4th
Today's question:  Are all the factors of a number always factors of a multiple of that number?
Students counted around the room with multiples of 100s today, and we reviewed factors and multiples.  Then we investigated the number 16 and its multiple 48, to see if all of the factors of 16 were also factors of 48, and whether this was true for any number and its multiples.  Students found factors using arrays with grid paper, color tiles, or connecting cubes, and tried to write and draw clear explanations.

4th grade math homework due tomorrow
Option 1:  Unit 1 Pages 41-42
Option 2:  Factors & Even/Odd

5th
It was the day they've all been waiting for: the day they learned the algorithm for long division. They've built multiple towers, multiplied to divide, and invented their own ways to divide, but until today I had not taught the method that most of us have used since our own days as fifth graders. They took notes on it, practiced it, but will need much more practice before they have mastered it. Homework for this week can all be downloaded in this packet.