WMS: Summer Math Reminder: Remember Khan Academy

What!? We're in summer break and we're getting ANOTHER school email!? For reals!? 

Yup, for reals. :) 

I just wanted to send this out before I dismantle my mailing lists and remind families that Summer is a GREAT opportunity to practice. And your child can use the Khan Academy (it's FREE) to keep calculation skills and some concepts fresh in their minds!

Khan Academy is not very good about teaching conceptual underpinnings and it won't do much to help with topics that your child is having a hard time with understanding. But for concepts that your child already has understood and for continuing practice in calculations, it's a tremendous resources. It has mini lectures (videos) and it has MANY online practice sets to work on!

This Spring, Khan Academy made some changes that make it easier to use. Your child can still use their wildcatapps.org username firstname.lastinitial.14@wildcatapps.org; ex: sally.b.14@wildcatapps.org). But if your child doesn't remember that sign-in, they can now create a Khan Academy username WITHOUT needing wildcatapps.org, facebook, or gmail! And next year, when the school year starts up, they will be able to link the accounts.

Some 6th grade skills students may want to practice over the summer include:

• Arithmetic with fractions and mixed numbers (+,-,x, and ÷).
• Arithmetic with decimals (+,-,x, and ÷).
• Ratios.
• Percents.
• Circle calculations (pi, area, circumference).

Not to mention things from earlier grades! The Khan Academy will give your child a nice mix of things to practice. It usually does a good job and is pretty darn motivating with points and badges earned.

You can also sign up for an account and have your child ad you as a coach! Then you can see what topics your child is struggling with and how much time they are spending practicing. This is SO much better than worksheets or workbooks because the program tailors itself to your child's practice needs. 

I sincerely wish you all a WONDERFUL summer and a relaxing break before starting 7th grade next year! It a privilege teaching your children this year. I look forward to seeing them around WMS next year when they're even bigger kids! :) 

Yours truly,

Brian MacNevin

PS: If your child wants to have their wildcatapps username and password, please email me (they may want to start with all of their achievements in place rather than starting over). I can provide you the username, but the password I will have to reset to a generic one that they can use to log in. I will be leaving later this week out of town and my internet access will be spotty after Wednesday.

Sandstone... Ocean, Beach, or Dessert?

Okay, we have a mystery: the Supai Sandstone and the Coconino Sandstone both are made of sand. But we had three different suggestions about where the sand came from.

1. A Beach
2. A Dessert
3. A Strem or River on a mountain

So which is it? Where did the sand from the Supai Sandstone (the red sand stone) and the Coconino Sandston (the tan sandstone) come from?

Today you will examine different kinds of sand in a virtual sand lab to see if you can find a way to answer that question!

To do:

Prepare Science Notebook

• Start a new page. 
• Title it "Sand Types" and put today's date (6/15/2012)
• Add this to your table of contents

Go to the FossWeb website:

• FossWEB
• UID: mrmac
• PWD: room116

Go to the Geology Lab Room

• Select SAND TYPES
• Select COMPARE
• There are three "types" of sand: river (mountain), dune (dessert) and beach (ocean)
• Compare the different sand types.
• In your science notebook, record your comparisons using VENN DIAGRAMS.
• Once you have examined all of the samples and you are satisfied that your observations are complete and accurate, go on to the next part.

Patterns!

• Examine your comparisons. Look for patterns for each TYPE of sand that would help you identify it.
• For each type of sand (dune, mountain, beach): write about the pattern you notice that describes that kind of sand.

Self Check?

• Go back to the lab.
• Select TEST YOURSELF and see how well you do!
• Record how well you do in your science notebook.
• Quiz!
• When you finish that, try the quiz otu and record how you did!

WMS: Math Update: MAP testing and a call for calculators...

Dear Families,

MAP Tests Started Today

This week we have started our MAP testing for Math and Reading. This morning our Blue group had their math test and tomorrow morning it will be our green group's chance to show what they've got! The MAP test is a computerized math test that pings where students are at. In the process, it shows them more advanced things (things that they've never seen before from 11th grade math) and also some much earlier things. I always get interesting questions about "what does this symbol mean?" after the MAP test. It might be worth asking your child what things they saw that they might be curious about!

Call for Calculators

Also, as we work with percentages, it will be very beneficial to students to have a calculator handy. This afternoon I had about 12 students want to borrow my 5 calculators. Hmm. We shared, but it was a little frustrating. I know that students have calculators in the cell phones these days. But since I cannot allow them be used in the classroom, students should have a simple calculator with them these last few weeks of school. It needn't be anything complicated! All it needs to be able to do is +, -, x and ÷. 

Homework

I have a hard time assigning homework when kids have big-looking test/assessments. So yesterday and tonight, the kids' only homework is to get a good night's rest. I know I just mentioned in my last email that I was still assigning homework, and that will be true next week, too! I apologize if that caused confusion.

Thanks for all you do to support your child's education!

Brian MacNevin

WMS: Math/Science Update

Dear Families,

It's June already! Welcome to the time-warp known as Spring Semester! I wanted to let you know what we're working on in math and science this week. I am still assigning homework. You can see homework assignments on my blog [link]. Just click on the calendar tab. And I am still recording homework completion by stamping in your child's planner when the homework is due. Usually, if your student's planner isn't stamped, they haven't turned in their homework.

Math: Percents and MAP Math Testing

• Back in the Fall we worked with percents when we were dealing with decimal notation of fractions. This time we are coming at it again, but from the point of view of problem solving and equivalent fractions.
• This week we are still focusing on reviewing fraction/decimal/percent equivalencies and calculations. The thought process goes like this:
• I know that 1/4 is equivalent to 2/8. All I have to do is multiply the numerator and the denominator of 1/4 by 2 and I get 2/8.
• PERcent means "for one hundred."
• I can pretend that the group I'm looking at has 100 members instead of just 8. 1/4 can become 100ths if I multiply the numerator and the denominator each by 25. 1/4 x 25/25 = 25/100. 
• Example: In a class of 25 kids, 13 are boys and 12 are girls.
• What percent are boys? 15/25 are boys. If I multiply the 25 by 4, I can pretend there are 100 students. Then I just need to do the same to the 15 on top to get 60 boys. 60/100 is 60 for every 100... or 60%.
• MAP MATH testing Wednesday 6/6 for the BLUE group kids.
• MAP MATH testing Thursday 6/7 for the GREEN group kids.

Science: Layers of the Colorado Plateau

• This week we will finish looking at the layers of the Colorado Plateau. We will examine sand samples to see how their grain textures inform us of the history of sandstone layers and we will get some estimated dates of the rocks in these layers. 
• The big picture we're building here is that the layers of the grand canyon were laid down in specific environments that existed over the same physical location. These layers were compressed into sedimentary rock and then the whole thing was somehow lifted up about 8000 feet. We won't go deeply into earthquakes and plate tectonics because there is an entire unit on that in 7th grade which is really good.

Our students are also looking forward to their Greek Olympic Games in two weeks at Cornwall Park! It should be a blast!

Cheers,

Brian MacNevin