Dear Parents,
Congratulations to all of your students! I was pleased and
proud to see how well they conducted themselves on stage and to hear the
enthusiasm with which they sang. Learning how to behave in public and perform
properly is one of the many benefits of Great Hearts’ classical education, and
your students are learning this lesson well. I especially appreciated the
enthusiasm with which your scholars sang “The Chipmunk Song.”
Thank you to all of you parents for the time and dedication
you put into this concert. We know that you put a lot of energy into preparing you
students for the concert, finding appropriate attire, and bringing you families
to see your students perform. We are sorry for the haphazard communication that
made this concert more difficult. As this was our school’s first concert week,
we also had much work to do to organize the concerts, and there were many bumps
along the road. In the future we will be prepared to communicate more
efficiently with you regarding concerts.
This week before break is exciting and busy. On Monday we
have our Shakespeare festival. Students will spend much of their time during
school that day preparing for the festival. On Thursday we have our Bard
Competition. Students who have entered a poem in the competition would do well
to practice this weekend.
In addition to exciting events, we also have tests. They will
have five tests in three days. On Wednesday they will have a science test and a
sentence diagramming test. On Thursday they have a Latin quiz. On Friday, they
have a math test and a history test. These are not final tests in the sense of cumulative
tests. They are only tests on information covered between now and the previous
test in that subject. In science, for instance, they will not need to study
electricity and magnetism; they only need to know the circulatory and
respiratory systems.
The intention of this week of tests is to prepare the
students for middle school finals by giving them a chance to practice studying
for and taking a large number of tests in a short period of time.
Wednesday-Friday are half-days to give your students more time to study. Please
encourage them to use this time wisely.
As usual, I have created study guides for the math and
science tests. I have posted them on
this blog post below my signature. With the science study guide I have also
posted helpful videos on the circulatory and respiratory systems. Please note
that the Mayo Clinic video on the circulatory system is long, and students do
not need to know all the information it contains. The important information is
between 0:00 and 1:40 minutes.
Students do also have math and science quizzes on Monday.
This will help me further asses any particular needs of students so that we can
review those topics.
These are all the notes I have for you this week. As always
, please email me at rwycklendt@archwaytriviumeast.org
with any questions, comments, or concerns.
Sincerely,
Miss Wycklendt
Math Study Guide
1.
Division: Students should be familiar with
division as the inverse of multiplication. 12 x 3 = 36, 36 divided by 3 equals
12, and 36 divided by 12 equals 3.
2.
Students should know and be able to articulate
the difference between dividing into x groups and dividing into groups of x.
For example, 24 divided by 3 can mean 24 divided into 3 groups with 8 things in
each groups OR 24 divided into
groups of 3 with 8 groups of three.
3.
Students should be able to draw the difference
in #2 when requested to do so. For example, they should be able to draw 24
divided into 3 groups by drawing 3 circles with 8 dots in each circle. Then
they should be able to show 24 divided into groups of 3 by drawing 8 circles
with three dots in each circle. (Tally marks or other appropriate marks may
also be used.)
4.
Students should be able to perform division with
a remainder. For example, 20 divided by 3: Is there anything times 3 that
equals 20? No! What is the math fact for 3 that is closest to 20 but not
greater than 20? 3 x 5 = 15; 3 x 6 = 18; 3 x 7 = 21. 3 x 7 is greater than 20,
so 3 x 6 must be the math fact we want. Now subtract to find the remainder. 20 –
18 = 2. Therefore, 20 divided by 3 is 6 remainder 2. (Students do not need to
put all this work on paper, this is just one example of a conversation to have
in case a student is unsure how to answer.)
5.
Students should be able to read and evaluate
exponents. For example 5³: You read 5³ as “five to the third power” or “five
cubed.” 3 is the exponent. It tells you how many times to multiply 5. You multiply
5 three times. 5 is the base; it is the number being multiplied. 5³ = 5 x 5
x5 = 125
Science Video Links
1.
Respiratory System (Whole Video) http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/humanbody/respiratorysystem.html
Science Study Guide
1.
Cells: Every part of your body is made of
smaller parts called cells. Your skin is made of skin cells, your muscles are
made of muscles cells, your bones are made of bone cells, etc.
2.
Your body’s cells need oxygen. They use it for
fuel similar to the way your car uses gas for fuel. After your cells use
oxygen, they release carbon dioxide waste. This is similar to the way your car
releases smoke out the back after it burns gas.
3.
Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide: You breathe in air. Air is not just oxygen;
it has other things in it as well, like carbon dioxide. However, you breathe in
air in order to get the oxygen in the air so your cells can use the oxygen. You
breathe out in order to get rid of the carbon dioxide waste from your cells.
4.
4 parts of blood: Red Blood Cells, white blood
cells, plasma, platelets
5.
Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to
the all the body’s cells and carry away carbon dioxide from the cells back to
the lungs.
6.
Red blood
cells turn red when they are carrying oxygen and blue when they give away their
oxygen. There are no such things as “blue blood cells.” They are not called
blue blood cells; they are red blood cells that have given away their oxygen
and so turned blue.
7.
White blood cells protect your body from
invaders. They devour bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders
8.
Platelets protect you from losing too much blood
when you get cut by sticking together to form blood clots. When the clots dry,
they become scabs.
9.
Plasma is a yellow liquid in which the other
three kinds of blood cells float. Plasma carries blood cells, nutrients and
hormones.
10.
Path of blood through the heart: Blue red blood
cells that have given away all their oxygen and are carrying a load of carbon
dioxide enter the right side of the heart. They go into the right atrium. When
the right atrium is full of blood, it squeezes the blood into the right
ventricle. From the right ventricle, the blood red blood cells leave the heart
and go to the lungs. In the lungs, the blue red blood cells drop off the carbon
dioxide from the body. They pick up oxygen from the lungs to bring to the rest
of the body. As they pick up oxygen, they turn red again. The red blood cells
carrying oxygen return to the heart. They enter the left side of the heart
through the left atrium. From the left atrium they go into the left ventricle
and out to the body. The red blood cells bring oxygen to each cell of the body
and pick up carbon dioxide from each cell of the body. As they give away their
oxygen, they turn blue. When they have given away all their oxygen they turn
fully blue and return to the right side of the heart to start the process all
over. (See the video on the circulatory
system through 1:40 minutes for a visual explanation of these concepts.)
11.
Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide: You breathe in air. Air is not just oxygen;
it has other things in it as well, like carbon dioxide. However, you breathe in
air in order to get the oxygen in the air so your cells can use the oxygen. You
breathe out in order to get rid of the carbon dioxide waste from your cells.
12.
Diaphragm: A large muscle beneath your lungs.
13.
Motion of breath: When you breathe in your
ribcage pushes out and your diaphragm moves down. This creates extra space in
your lungs. Air rushes in to fill the extra space. When you breathe out, your
rib cage pushes in and your diaphragm moves up, forcing the air out of your
lungs. (See the video on the respiratory system for a visual.)
14.
Path of air: Air goes through your nose and
mouth, down the windpipe in your neck. When your windpipe meets your lungs it
branches off into two large tubes, one in each lung. The large tubes are called
bronchi. The bronchioles branch off into smaller tubes called bronchioles. At
the smallest ends of the bronchioles are small round structures called alveoli.
Oxygen passes through the alveoli into the red blood cells. Carbon dioxide
passes from the red blood cells, through the alveoli and into the lungs.
