In Order to Divide Like a King or Queen...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on January 15, 2012 | No Comments

Sing along with a very catchy song explaining the concept of division as well as long division steps! It is sung to a Stray Cats tune and you can find the lyrics here.

January ’12: Topics-of-Study...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on January 3, 2012 | No Comments

Language Arts: Synonyms/Antonyms, Main Ideas, Commas/Quotation Marks/Apostrophes, Compare/Contrast + Review of Prefixes/Root Words/Suffixes and Step Up to Writing Paragraphs

Synonyms and Antonyms (movie), Synonyms, Squanky the Tooth Taker: Quiet Quest for Opposites, Squanky the Tooth Taker: Tooth Tally, Same Difference
Main Idea (movie), Main Ideas, Summarize As You Read, Reading Nonfiction (movie)
Power Proofreading, Comma Confusion
Compare/Contrast Guide (notes), Compare/Contrast Essay Helper
Wordworks, Root Words, Short Circuit, Prefixes Say Plenty, Spelling with Suffixes, Fish Tanks, Rooting Out Words (review practice)
Step Up to Writing, Step Up to Writing #2 (notes + examples)

Mathematics: Double-Digit Multiplication, Long Division, Fractions/Decimals, Prime Numbers, Line Types, Radius & Diameter, Area & Perimeter

Two-Digit Multiplication (notes), Two Digit by One Digit Multiplication Steps, Two Digit by Two Digit Multiplication Steps (review practice)
Long Division Lesson (sample problems), Snork’s Long Division (review practice), Math Baseball, Sum Sense (division fact games) [Divide (Dad), Multiply (Mom), Subtract (Sister), Bring Down (Brother), Remainder (Rover)]
Study Jams! (video), Basic Parts of a Whole (movie), What’s a Fraction?, Death to Decimals, Comparing Fractions and Decimals, Fresh Baked Fractions, The Decifractator, Saloon Snap, Tony Fraction’s Pizza Shop (challenging fractions)
Prime Numbers (notes), Prime Numbers, Prime Factorization (notes), Prime Factorization (notes/review practice)
Lines (review practice), Matho (review of all geometry terms), Area and Perimeter, Everyday Area, Find the Area, Measuring the Area and Perimeter (review practice), Shape Surveyor, Area: Fitting In (games)
Trimester Two Math Helper (front), Trimester Two Math Helper (back)

Social Studies: Chapters Two & Three – California’s Native Americans & Exploration and Early Settlements

Chapter Two Study Guideline Notes (also found in the front of your notebook)
First Californians/North Coast Region, S. Coast/Cent. Valley/Desert T ribes (vocabulary practice)
Chapter Three Study Guideline Notes
Explorers/Newcomers, Settlements/Missions (vocabulary practice)

Science: Chapters One & Six – Living Things Need Energy & Electricity

Chapter One Resources (vocabulary practice, videos, etc.)
Dirt Made My Lunch, Producers, Consumers, Decomposers (songs from class)
Parts of a Plant, Photosynthesis, Plant Life Cycle, Food Chain (videos)
Illuminating Photosynthesis, Root Factory, Life Cycle of Plants, Food Chains and Food Webs, Food Chains Science Desk, Fun With Food Webs, Eat or Be Eaten, Diversity of Life on Earth (review practice)
Chapter Six Resources (vocabulary practice, videos, etc.)
The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits, Conductors and Insulators, Series and Parallel Circuits, Building Circuits, Heat (movie), Light (movie), Electricity and Magnetism

Matching Game Vocabulary Practice

Holiday Multiplication Practice...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on November 28, 2011 | No Comments

Gooey gum drop buttons! Each time you get a multiplication fact correct, another piece of the holiday scene is revealed! When you complete the level, you get to build your own holiday picture! Now that we know our multiplication facts, this is easy as pie. Be sure to always click on 0-9!

Happy Holidays Multiplication Practice

One Week Left: Trimester One Testing ’11!...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on November 3, 2011 | No Comments

Trimester One Testing (the results of which you find on the back of our report cards) will take place between November 7th and 10th. PLEASE look over the following essential standards and review each with your child! If you have any questions about the content of the test, send a note!

English/Language Arts – First Trimester

I can show that I understand words that have several meanings. [Ex: trunk -- 1) an elephant's long nose, 2) the large stem of a tree, 3) the back area of a car used for storage]
I can tell the difference between cause and effect, and fact and opinion. [Ex: Cause -- The action that happens first in chronological order which creates a reaction; Effect -- The action that happens as the result of a cause; Fact -- Something that can be proved; Opinion -- Personal thoughts and feelings]
I can find information in my texts using its index, table of contents, glossary, maps and charts, etc. [Ex: The student understands the parts of a textbook and knows which to use in order to find the proper information. Some parts of other books include the preface, dedication/acknowledgments, and appendix.]
I can speak and write in simple and compound sentences. [Ex: See here for the difference between simple, compound, and complex sentences. The most important piece is the students' understanding of how to use correct conjunctions in order to combine pieces of a sentence.]
I can speak and write using all kinds of verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and the correct connecting words in my sentences. [See Grammar Gorillas for a practice of all necessary parts of speech.]
I can capitalize names of magazines, newspapers, works of art and music, organizations, and the first word inside a quotation. [Ex: Little House on the Prairie, San Francisco Chronicle, "I'm a Little Teapot"]

Mathematics – First Trimester

I can read and write numbers from 1 to 999,999,999. [Ex: three million, four hundred two thousand, fifty-one and thirty-three hundredths = 3,402,051.33]
I can order and compare whole numbers and decimals. [Ex: 39.1; 82; 0.145 ordered from least to greatest is 0.145; 39.1; 82. Line your numbers up vertically by decimals, then begin with the numbers on the left. This is similar to finding words in a dictionary.]
I can round numbers through the millions to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, or hundred thousand. [Ex: In order to round, identify the place you are rounding to (underline it). Draw an arrow to the right and determine whether the arrowed number is four or less, or five or greater. If it is four or less, your underlined number stays the same. If it is five or greater, your underlined number will increase by one. All numbers to the left of the underline stay the same while all numbers to the right of the underline turn into zeros. 4,516,098 rounded to the nearest ten thousand would be 4,520,000; 32.978 rounded to the nearest tenth would be 33.]
I can make a reasonable estimate and then add or subtract whole numbers and decimals. [Ex: Estimating is rounding before adding or subtracting. If the place to be rounded is not specified, you must round to the "greatest place of the smallest number". For example, 412 + 32 would require you to round to the tens place, since 32 is the smaller number and the tens place is the greatest place in that number. 412 + 32 would turn into 410 + 30, which equals 440.]
I can show when and how to add and subtract numbers with many digits. [Ex: 45,610 + 1,984 = 47,594. 56,009 - 3,899 = 52,110. Be sure your child knows how to borrow in subtraction as well as when to add versus subtract when reading a word problem.]
I can show that equals added to equals are equal. [Ex: If 9 + 3 + 5 = f + 5, then f = 12.]
I can show that equals multiplied by equals are equal. [Ex: If 4 x h x 2 = 2 x 12, then h = 3. If 6s=30, then s=5.]

Autumn Multiplication Practice...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on October 31, 2011 | No Comments

Alright guys, at this point, we should have our 0-7 facts 100% mastered! Now comes the fun part — look at how easy your multiplication games will be! We’ve briefly discussed the x9 hand trick, x10 and x11 are a breeze, … this means the only new fact to memorize is 8×8=64! Try your hand at some of the new fall games from Multiplication.com for review: Harvest Hootenanny and Pumpkin Patch!

Regrouping (Borrowing) in Subtraction...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on October 24, 2011 | No Comments

Quite a few students appear to need a refresher course in regrouping during subtraction. I found the following video to be helpful.

Skills to Know: Top 3...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on September 16, 2011 | No Comments

At the present time, there are three skills that students need to have mastered in order to continue our studies. You will find them below with links for practice. Please help your child if these skills are not yet mastered!

1) Multiplication Facts: 0-3 — Multiplication Chart, Fact Families, Mr. Nussbaum’s Multiplication Games, Multiplication.com

2) Names of All Mathematical Places — Place Value Made Easy, Place Value and Number Forms, Scooter Quest, Place Value Pirates, Everything in Its Place, Place Value Puzzler

3) Names/Locations of Seven Continents & Five Oceans — The Continents and Oceans, Name the Continents, World Continents Quizzes, Test Your Geography Knowledge

Early September ’11: Topics-of-Study...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on September 8, 2011 | No Comments

Thanks for staying up to date with Room 36! Please use the following videos, notes, and review exercises for regular at-home practice. By mid to late September, students should be able to understand and internalize the majority of the following information. If you can’t find the login information for BrainPopJr (the site with all the “video” tags below), please send me a quick e-mail or note, and I can give you the details. The videos are well worth watching!

Language Arts: Sentence Types, Complete Sentences, Expanding Sentences, Finding Information in Books

Types of Sentences (video), Four Types of Sentences (notes), Sentence Clubhouse (review practice)
Complete Sentences: Subjects and Predicates (notes), Complete, Subject, or Predicate? (review practice), Expanding Sentences (printable practice page)
Parts of a Book (notes), Reading Nonfiction (video), Parts of a Book, How to Locate Parts of a Book (review practice), Using a Dictionary (review practice and notes)

Mathematics: Place Value, Standard/Written/Expanded Forms of Numbers, Multiplication Facts

Place Value and Number Forms (notes), Scooter Quest, Place Value Pirates, Everything in Its Place, Matching Math (value), Place Value Puzzler (review practice)
What’s Your Name?, Decimals of the Caribbean, Mystery Picture, Really Big Numbers, Cookie Dough (review practice)
Multiplication Chart (notes), Fact Families, Multiplication.com (review practice)
Trimester One Math Helper (front), Trimester One Math Helper (back)

Social Studies: General Global Geography; Begin Chapter One — California’s Geography

The Continents and Oceans, Name the Continents, World Continents Quizzes, Test Your Geography Knowledge
Latitude and Longitude (video), Latitude and Longitude Game, Basic Geography: The Equator and the Prime Meridian
Water and Land (song we’ll practice in class), Reading Maps (video)
California Geography (notes), CA’s Location/Regions of CA (vocabulary practice)

14 Great Games to Play with Reference Materials!...

Posted by MsYork in Topics-of-Study on March 27, 2011 | No Comments

By Kathy Grubb

Are you feeling trapped in the house this winter? Looking for a solution for the mid winter blahs? Break up the boredom by opening up a few reference books and playing a few games.

Reference books can be as dry as toast made in the Sahara and as boring as watching paint dry on a rock, but with gentle competition, your family can practice using reference materials and still have fun!

Here are several games to play as individuals, teams, or a family using a dictionary, a set of encyclopedias (the old-fashioned kind, not the computer kind), an atlas, and a phone book (like the Yellow Pages). These games will not only break up the long winter day but also reinforce skills that might have been overlooked during the course of the year. Most of these games are suited for fourth graders and older, but younger readers can still benefit with assistance from a parent or older sibling.

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