Fourth and Fifth Grade PEAK
Mrs. Turner's March News
Showcase Date Set!
Our end of the year PEAK Showcase for students in grades 4 and 5 is scheduled for Wednesday, May 10th from 6:00-7:00PM. We know this is an especially busy time of year, so we hope you'll mark your calendars now!
Please send a large tri-fold with your child by March 27.
Trifolds are needed no later than Monday, March 27. It is 100% OK to send it to regular school with your son/daughter and have him/her bring it over on the PEAK bus. Thank you in advance!
CALENDAR
Thursday, March 16 - Early Release. The bus will pick students up at noon to go back to their home schools.
No PEAK:
- Wednesday, March 8 - Shoal Creek Field Trip
- March 17 - March 24 due to Spring Break
Friday Team Challenge
Tuesday Team Challenge
Wednesday Team Challenge
Curriculum Updates:
THEME:
Students are currently writing their own brain feature article. Each article will include components of feature magazine articles.
Components include:
- Feature Article Characteristics
- Leads
- Subtitles
- How to include depth into our writing
- Conclusions
Applying critical thinking to writing:
- Significance: including the most important information in our paper
- Relevance: make sure our information is relevant to our thesis/essential question
- Precision: select words that are precise and avoid overusing pronouns
MATH:
Students selected new Math topics. Depending on the day of the week, different choices were offered (based on number of students and teachers available to teach.)
Choices include:
- Hands on Fractions
- Hands on Algebra
- Competition - (link to learn more: http://www.noetic-learning.com/mathcontest/)
- Geometry
This year, PEAK teachers have worked hard to include more personalization and differentiation in math, specifically. We are really excited about the depth of math offered as well as the additional student choice.
If your child is in competition, he/she has access to weekly problem solving assignments online. There are 10 problems published each week. If your child is NEW to competition this semester, he/she has access to first semester word problems as well. In sum, each competition student can solve 40 assignments (5 problems each!). That is a lot of math!!!!
We are also handing out a problem of the week to each student. If your child does not bring it home, you can find it online at the noetic website (link above).
TOPIC STUDY:
- Students are wrapping up note taking and planning a two - five minute video about their topic, showing that they are an expert on their selected topic.
- Students are writing their own scoring guides for the project they select
- Students will select a project to reflect to show their knowledge on their independent research topic.
CRITICAL THINKING:
Students will continue working on defining and applying critical thinking vocabulary. As we finish vocabulary we will examine critical thinking concepts such as "Math and Science will tell you the truth," "Occam's Razor", "Mistakes and Frustrations are part of the learning process", "Statistics can lie", and "Bias is everywhere."
SCIENCE:
- Students are currently brainstorming ideas of social science experiments. Each student or pairs of students will write their own brain experiment to test out on classmates back at their home school.
- Supplies may be necessary for your child's experiment, please keep an eye out for requests.
PGD: We continue to focus on grit and perseverance as part of the learning process. Students will continue to conduct Personality Style Inventories (PSI) to learn more about themselves as people and learners. By the end of February, we have discussed the following personality traits and theories:
- Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation
- Introvert vs. Extrovert Personality Trait
- Right Brain vs. Left Brain (Strengths)
- Maslow's Theory of "Hierarchy of Needs" and how to set priorities
- Optimist vs Pessimist (Realist)
Serious Math Competitors!
Donations:
- We would love more colored model magic for upcoming projects!
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Dealing with Your Child's Asynchronous Development
This article has good tips if your child is having a tough time dealing with uneven development.
SENG - Supporting The Emotional Needs of the Gifted
Stay Connected to Mrs. Turner:
Email: kturner@liberty.k12.mo.us
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/student.lps53.org/peakturner/
Location: Alexander Doniphan Elementary School, Clay Drive, Liberty, MO, United States
Phone: 816-736-5400 2674
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PEAKADSITE/
Twitter: @TurnerKimberly5