Viewing: Learning Resources
January 9, 2014
December 17, 2013
Fly Away Home
Happy snow day, everyone! I hope you’ve gotten to go out and play! Here are a few activities you can do while you warm up, hopefully with a cup of hot cocoa!
In class, we’ve been reading stories by Eve Bunting. We’ve found some similar themes, character traits, problems, and styles among the three books. Today, I have a fourth book for you. It’s about a boy and his father who don’t have a nice, warm home to stay in as you and I do. They live in a place that you might not expect people to LIVE in. It’s a bit of a sad book, but it fits well with our Kindness Week. Watch the video, below, and then scroll down for the next steps.
After you watch the video, I have a NEW wall set up on Padlet. There are two discussion questions. Feel free to post your ideas by clicking HERE. The password is the same as yesterday!
Also, remember that you brought home the Lesson 21 math worksheet. If you feel so inclined, complete the circled items. Be sure to use the graph paper I gave you, and pay careful attention to how you ROUND the numbers.
Posted in Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
November 21, 2013
Northeast Research Links
State Tourism Websites
- Connecticut http://www.ctvisit.com/
- Delaware http://www.visitdelaware.com/
- Maine http://www.visitmaine.com/
- Maryland http://www.visitmaryland.org/
- Massachusetts http://www.massvacation.com/
- New Hampshire http://www.visitnh.gov/
- New Jersey http://www.visitnj.org/
- New York http://www.iloveny.com/
- Pennsylvania http://www.visitpa.com/
- Rhode Island http://www.visitrhodeisland.com/
- Vermont http://www.vermontvacation.com/
General Resources
- Northeast Family Vacations (about.com)
- MommyPoppins (mommypoppins.com) – NY, NJ, CT, MA only
- Travel With Kids (about.com) – Not all northeast states included.
- 5 Fun Northeast Travel Ideas (TLC.com)
- 25 Northeast Getaways (nytimes.com)
Posted in Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
October 30, 2013
Homework: Practicing Long Division
Tonight’s homework is to practice long-division skills that we began to work on in class today. I have posted a video (just below this paragraph) that has three division problems. Use graph paper to solve the division problems with me. Depending on your confidence, you could complete the problems in three different ways:
- REALLY confident! – As soon as you see the division problem, pause the video, complete the problem (with your estimate!) and then watch the video to check your work.
- Somewhat confident – Watch the video, and pause it before each step. Then, after you do that step, press play to see if you did it correctly.
- Not very confident yet! – That’s ok! Long division is still new to you! You should just watch the video and complete the problem along with me.
If you are struggling with long division, you can watch the review video (BELOW the homework video) to practice your skills. (In the review video, I even made a mistake! Can you catch it before you see me fix it in the video!)
HOMEWORK Video
REVIEW Video
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
October 22, 2013
Estimating Quotients
Here’s a video to review today’s math lesson to help prepare kids for their homework tonight. I have asked all students to review it tonight BEFORE completing their homework. Below it are four videos to explain the first four questions on tonight’s homework page, just in case kids get stuck.
Homework #1
Homework #2
Homework #3
Homework #4
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
October 9, 2013
Partial Products with Bow Tie Multiplication
Need some support on tonight’s homework? Here you go! (We recorded a video as a class today, but there was a glitch and the video with the kids’ involvement was lost. 🙁 So here’s my “solo” version. 🙂 ) I have two versions for you. The first is a full explanation of the strategy and why it is helpful. The second version is a “rapid review” for kids (or families!) who want a quick review of the steps, without the lengthy explanation. I hope this helps! (Please let me know if these videos are helpful so that I know how often I should continue to make them.)
FULL EXPLANATION
RAPID REVIEW (Pardon the spelling glitch! I just checked, and it’s spelled CORRECTLY on my iPad’s recording and on the Educreations site – see photo – but it’s “multiplicatik” on this video! HOW STRANGE! Is it spelled correctly on your screen?)
Posted in Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 24, 2013
Estimating Products
Today, we worked on learning how to estimate products. This was the outcome of two big skills we’ve been focusing on: estimating numbers and multiplying extended facts. The kids did a wonderful job in class. Below, you will see the video we made together. What I forgot to mention in the video was:
When you round the numbers, IN THIS ACTIVITY, always round to the largest possible place value. For example, round 6,386 to 6,000 (nearest thousand) – not to 6,400 (nearest hundred) or 6,390 (nearest ten). Why? Well, suppose we were given the problem 6,386 x 5. I can use my extended multiplication skills to multiply 6,000 x 5. But we haven’t yet learned how to multiply 6,400 x 5. (We will!)
Did you stop by our website this afternoon/evening as I suggested? If so, reward yourself! Skip any three items, other than numbers 13 or 14 on pg. 48 or number 5 on pg. 24.
Here’s the video:
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 17, 2013
Reading Numbers as Words (and Vice Versa)
Need help with tonight’s homework? Here are two instructional videos that we watched in class.
Reading and Writing Numbers in Numeric Form
Reading and Writing Numbers in Word Form
Posted in Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 16, 2013
Take Two: Naming Numbers
One of the most important responsibilities a teacher has is to informally assess, DURING a lesson, how well students are learning material. It is our job to adjust our instruction during a lesson to meet the needs of all learners, so that we can make sure that, like Goldilocks, we aren’t going too fast or too slowly – we want to teach “just right”. Last Thursday, it was very clear to me that our math lesson was NOT going well and that the majority of students were struggling with the material. I assigned only certain problems for homework (skills with which students seemed more comfortable), and today, we took “take two” with the lesson. We went nice and slowly (which, in this case, was “just right”) and I could see that students felt MUCH more comfortable.
Throughout the school year, you will find that I like to post tutorials on the class website that explain different skills we are working on in class. These are helpful for students as they complete their homework, but also helpful for parents who want to help their students (by teaching the same strategies we use in class). I often record these videos after school or during my prep periods, but sometimes I build them into lessons and record them with the students’ help. That’s what we did today. The video you will find below this paragraph is lengthy, but it explains TWO different strategies that students can use to name numbers when you’re given the value of certain places, such as “386 hundreds”. The first few minutes review place value, but starting at 5:45 into the video, I explain the two different strategies. After we used them a bit, I thought most students would REALLY prefer the second strategy. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that several students favored the first strategy. That’s why I often teach two ways: As you’ll hear me say in the video, different people’s minds think about math differently, and what is a winning strategy for one person could be a complete DUD for another person. I hope this video is helpful to you and your children as they work through tonight’s homework. Finally, here is a downloadable worksheet with place value charts included if your fourth grader finds it helpful to use them. (MOST STUDENTS SHOULD USE THIS!) Enjoy the movie:
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 12, 2013
Practicing Renaming Numbers
Today’s math lesson was TRICKY! That’s why you are only doing CERTAIN problems on your worksheet. As part of your homework, please rewatch the video we saw today in class BEFORE completing tonight’s math problems.
http://learnzillion.com/lessons/515-model-numbers-using-base-ten-blocks
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss