Camp Can Do News
February 12, 2016
Choosing Words Wisely
Our story this week Dex The Heart of a Hero, helped us look at the words an author chooses to create a memorable story. Listening to the story together, we began to see that the author didn't choose average words but in the campers' words used 'words that sparkle, words that made us want to know more'! Instead of saying 'walking' the author used the words 'trotting' and 'clip clopped'. We got out our magnifying glasses and took a closer look at a few pages of our story and actually marked our pages to find the word choices that made the story pop! We took time to practice this with a partner, reading another story about a hero. We came back together to compare our highlighted words and share ideas about how they made the stories better! Great discussion and going back to the text for evidence! This is another way to get the deeper meaning of the story. Just like our stop and jot strategy last week, we can take a closer look at the word choices an author makes to deepen our understanding of a story and it's characters. When you are reading at home with your camper, stop and reread a phrase or two or bring attention to a word or words that helped you understand the character better, inferred what might happen next, or make the story more clear! Just a little close reading can really make a good story great and the understanding go from good to great!
Our reading clubs will begin a new mini chapter book this week. They are excited to get started on a new read! We got them passed out Friday and the campers begged to start them before our Valentine party! That's reading excitement!
All but a few campers have completed their expert projects! The big celebration will happen this week and these terrific books will be heading your way! Be prepared to learn a lot from your camper because they are truly experts!
Check out your camper's SeeSaw portfolio! We have new items added!
Scaredy Squirrel our Camp Mascot
PBL Project: Little Free Library
Runaway Ralph
All About Math
Geeeeeeeometry!
Great job on our Unit 5 assessment! Decimals are awesome and so are the campers the it comes to cracking their code! We will continue to work on these numbers in our number sense practice to keep our skills sharp!
Don't ask the campers to draw a line if you really want a line segment! In our beginning discovery lesson, the campers began working to build shapes, lines, angles, line segments, and rays. Some geometry constants we all learned:
*A straight edge is a must when being accurate.
*Lines and their partners have special names.
*When lines come together they form shapes and also create angles.
*Specialized tools help us create and measure lines, angles, and shapes.
*Look around you and you will see lots of geometry!
Next week we will work with a team to find geometry in our environment, create and label a picture collage of our finds, and lastly add text to explain our findings. We will also dig deeper into 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and discover how they are created and relate to our learning this week!
We introduced a new website called Math Playground this week. It has a variety of math practice including great games for problem solving and thinking differently! It is not working well with our iPads but is super on the desk tops! Check out Links for Learning on our class webpage!
We get back to our fate fluency fast math this week. See below for practice ideas!
Fact Fluency Reminder:
We have begun to move through the facts of multiplication at an individual pace. Some of the campers have a little work to do yet on subtraction as well. Each day we will spend 5 - 10 minutes with practice, fast math, and fact fluency interviews. The campers will work on their own to practice using their carabiner cards, take fast math exercises, and once a week check in with me on their facts. The goal of the combination of these activities is to have the campers understand the facts on their own and how they relate to other facts, become fluent with the basics of calculation, and have strategy to find the answers when calculating. You can find your campers' cards in the pouch in their binder! Great practice options are below!
Here is the link to Kakooma, Math Magician, and Math Fact Practice! Play Kids Games.
http://www.gregtangmath.com/games.html?game=kakooma# Kakooma
http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/cathymath.html Math Magician
http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/mathfact/mathFact.htm Math Fact Practice
Math Fact Practice us new to us. You can choose the operation, even mix them up, the level of difficulty, and the time.
Everyday Math website for great practice in fact fluency and math skills. Usernames and passwords are inside your camper's binder.
Lines, Line Segments, Rays. Points
Intersecting, Perpendicular, and Parallel Lines
Right Angles
✨Congratulations Corner
*Cougar Crew Member: Congratulations to Micah M. for his nomination this week!
*We completed the CogAt test this week! Four days of problems solving, perseverance, and deep thinking! Yeah campers!
đź“…For Your Calendar
President's Day: 2/15 No School in Session
Early Release Day: 2/17 2:55
Science Fair Setup: 2/19
Science Fair: 2/20 8 - 1 pm
Blood Drive: 2/20 8 - 1 pm