CAP CHAT
Mrs. Tuttle's CAP Class ~ Shields Elementary
November 17, 2016
Mission Statement
We, the Wizards of the CAP House, will participate in advanced level learning, have a growth mindset, and work towards BIG dreams, by following our school rules, and having fun!
CAP NORMS
- Be prepared
- Be respectful
- Be Kind
- Persevere
What's Happening??
11/22 - PBS/Spirit Day
11/22 - Report Cards Come Home
11/23 - 11/25 Thanksgiving Break
11/28 - 12/2 PTO Holiday Shop
11/29 PTO Meeting at 6:30
THURSDAY NOTE
Welcome to the 2nd marking period! Report cards will come home next week.
In December, we will be doing a fun project with our book Pax and will need paper towel or toilet paper cardboard rolls. If you have visitors coming for Thanksgiving please save the empty rolls and send them to school.
I just want to take a minute to say "thank you" for sharing your child with me this year! I have enjoyed getting to know each and every one of them. I truly love my job and have enjoyed watching your children grow and having fun learning with them. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving next week and enjoy some time to relax with your family.
Happy Thursday,
Mrs. Melissa Tuttle
Reading
We kicked off our first round of book clubs this week, which is part of the CAP reading curriculum. The books all have a common "time" theme. After reading the books' synopsis, students' completed a Google survey where they rated the books based on their interest. For this first round, all students are reading books that were their first or second choice. Students will meet weekly with the classmates who are reading the same book and participate in a small group Socratic Seminar. The members of the small group will decide how much to read and what activities to include each week. The books will be read at home and be part of the homework choice board.
Students will be bringing home their books to begin reading over the break in preparation for their first small group Socratic Seminar on Thursday, December 1st.
Writing
Of course, writing is embedded in much of what we do in reading and math. This week the students were given choice of two prompts and had to write to one based on The Phantom Tollbooth. This type of writing requires the writer to mix text evidence with their experiences and what they know. A Literature Journal Rubric is used to grade these pieces. They are finishing what will be their first graded literature response so this will come home after the break.
Math
An overarching message we have been talking A LOT about in class is the idea that we must think before we do . Instead of always relying on one strategy to solve all problems it is important to first think about what the question is asking (make sense of the problem) and then think of an efficient strategy to solve the problem (use appropriate tools strategically).
4th grade
Ms. Gray came for a visit and completed a multiplication number talk, which everybody enjoyed. It was fun to see all the different strategies being used to solve multiplication. Multiplication standards for 4th grade include being able to fluently multiply up to four digits by one digit and two two-digit numbers using place value strategies and properties of multiplication. Students are not expected to master the multiplication algorithm until 5th grade.
In our Factors, Multiples, and Leftovers Unit this week we continued to describe numbers using properties such as even/odd, prime/composite, square/not square, and identifying all the factors of the numbers. To help discover factors we also talked about some common divisibility rules that we can use to help determine factors of a number. Next week we will compare factors and multiples and sort numbers based upon their multiples.
Home-School Connection: Give your child a multiplication problem (following the standards above) and have them show you how many ways they can think to solve the problem.
5th grade
It has been wonderful to see all the students more comfortable with using the standard algorithm for multiplication. This skill will be ongoing throughout the year with continuous practice problems. We are still working on applying a variety of division strategies and talking about what to do with remainders. When a quotient has a remainder in real life, we don't often state "remainder n", but rather determine what the remainder means. We often round up, ignore, or divide into a fraction. This is what we have been talking about in a couple number talks.
Volume is our new unit of study. This week students discussed finding volume using cubic units by actually counting cubes and then moved into rectangular prisms that did not have the cubes to count. The students drew the conclusion that Volume = length X width X height and then we went further to talk about how we could also say Volume = base X height, if we determine the area of the base and then multiply the base by the number of layers. Students explored volume by building in minecraft, which seemed to be a big hit!
Home-School Connection: Talk with your child about Volume. Ask how they would determine the volume of different rectangular prisms.
Where in the World is Mr. Hagen?
All Pictures are provided by Media Muggles and Picture Professors
We have new jobs for November and December so the pictures below were photgraphed by...
Macie, Travers, Jaxon, Aidan W, and Austin4th Grade Number Talk with Mrs. Gray
Clay Figures of Pax
What the 5th Graders know about Volume
Connect with Us!
Email: melissa.tuttle@cape.k12.de.us
Website: www.mrstuttlesclass.com
Location: 910 Shields Avenue, Lewes, DE, United States
Phone: 302-645-7748
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrstuttlesclass
Twitter: @TuttlesTechies