Collins & Co. Room 204
Week 15 update: December 7th - 11th
Welcome!
Can you believe it was your student's last Winter Sing? They worked hard for weeks and had a wonderful show! Mr. Bartunek and Mr. Blair worked just as hard as the kids to put this all together. Many thanks to them for all their hard work, too! Wasn't it great to see the 5th grade perform "Snow Pants" one last time?
This week we met with our Buddy class (Mrs. Levey's second graders) to make snowflakes for the residents at Covenant Village. We taught our buddies how to make them and enjoyed our time together. We will be taking these snowflakes with us on our field trip next week to donate to the facility for the holidays. (See pictures below)
Have a wonderful weekend,
Ms. Collins and Mrs. Cucco
Math
This week in Math, the students moved on to Chapter 4: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions. They learned how to multiply proper fractions and solve real world problems. The students were shown how to use bar models to help them solve the problems. We even focused a whole day on only using pictures to solve problems. Many students asked if they could just "do the math" to solve, and found that in some cases it was much more difficult!
We had a class discussion about keeping an open mind towards learning something new, and learning multiple ways to do things. Even though they might think they grasped a new concept, by keeping an open mind, they mind find an even better approach. We also discussed that you can use the multiple methods learned to go back and check your work to see if you get the same answer another way. (We equated this to not always driving the same way home, but yet you always end up there.)
The methods we practiced to solve and check our work were:
•Method 1: Multiply across
•Method 2: "Butterfly" method (simplify first)
•Method 3: Bar Modeling
Reader's Workshop and Social Studies
Students used the "Jigsaw" method to learn about the four major issues during the Constitutional Convention. Students became experts in one issue at the convention and had a mock debate in front of the class. They explained each proposal and how each issue was compromised! Way to go, class! Students listened to all the debates in order to learn about where the new capital should be, if slaves count as part of the population, how many houses in the legislative branch, and whether the Constitution should have a Bill of Rights.
Students also learned about the different branches of the U.S. Government. They read closely to determine who was in each branch and what the jobs of each branch were. The students built trees to show each branch. They also talked about checks and balances, and how each branch is more powerful than the other.
Finally, we learned about the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Students watched a video from the National Constitution Center to learn about each of the bills. We also learned a trick with our fingers to help remember the bills.
Second Step
This will be done for the next 12 weeks across the whole 5th grade.
We also had a class discussion on exclusion. One of our students shared a movie he helped create on the topic. It was a great opportunity to have the discussion about excluding our peers and how it can be considered bullying. We also identified that sometimes its okay to be excluded or to exclude ourselves from certain situations.
Ask your Student about:
• The Winter Sing
•"Little strokes fell great oaks." -Benjamin Franklin
• Bart Reynolds - Go Noodle
• Spanish Battleship and Kahoot it
• Who the first President of the U.S. was
• The background of the Philadelphia NHL team
• Making snowflakes with our buddies!
Things to come:
- Tuesday, December 15th
- School Board Meeting- 7pm
- Wednesday, December 16th
- Field Trip to Covenant Village (12:40-1:45pm)
- Friday, December 18th
- Holiday Party- 2:45pm
- Winter Break Begins
- Monday, January 4th
- School Resumes
- Monday, January 18th
- No School MLK Day
- Tuesday, January 19th
- Field Trip to The Grove (Sanchez & Collins)
Collins & Co.
Greenbriar Elementary School
Email: ecollins@northbrook28.net
Website: http://fs.greenbriar28.net/~elisabethcollins/Ms._Collins_Class_Webpage/Welcome_to_Collins_%26_Co..html
Location: 1225 Greenbriar Lane, Northbrook, IL, United States
Phone: 847-504-3711