Dear Parents,
I hope you were able to spend some extra time with your
children on our recent R&R weekend. I know how excited they all are to have
an extra day off, especially without homework!
This week in science class we will finish our study of
natural disasters and begin studying meteorology. While many people think of
meteorology as weather, it is actually a broader topic. Meteorology is the
study of earth's atmosphere. Since the motions of the atmosphere play a large
part in creating weather, meteorology includes the study of weather, but it
also includes other topics related to the earth's atmosphere, such as the water
cycle.
In literature, we are excited to begin some new routines for
the new semester. We will continue reading in class, of course, but we are
going to structure our discussions differently. We will frequently be giving
the students worksheets with questions about the reading to use in class. These
questions will be on points that students may struggle to understand
individually but which they will be capable of understanding when they work
together as a group. Questions about words used metaphorically or incidents in a
story that are implied but not directly stated can be difficult for many students.
By using structured questions and working as a team to find answers, we hope to
deepen our class discussions.
In math, we are finishing our study of numerical expressions
and word problems. We will also have our test on long division on Friday. While
our previous test included a few long division problems, the topic was not
thoroughly covered on the previous test. Although the basic steps for long
division are always the same, slight variations can occur when dividing by two
or three digit numbers, or when the digit in the first place value of the
dividend is too small to divide with the divisor.
Students should all be able to perform long division
accurately, and they will need to be able to do so for the test. The topic was first introduced in the middle of second quarter and
they have had plenty of time to practice. For this
reason, we will spend very little time reviewing long division in class.
However, please note your student's performance on our long division quiz. The
results should be in the Monday folders we sent home this week. The quiz should
give you a good idea of whether they understand long division or if they need
some extra review.
I am not going to include a formal study guide for long
division. The process would be difficult to describe through a blog, and I'm
sure you all know long division from grade school anyway. In case students are
stuck, here are some pointers you can give them:
1. The steps for long division are: Divide, multiply,
subtract, bring down. In each place value students must perform all these steps
until they have no more digits to bring down. The last three steps are sometimes confusing. We multiply to check our division. We subtract to find remainder. By bringing down, we regroup are reminder so that we can including ti in our next division step,
2. Students should always start performing the steps of long
division in the highest place value first. When they have performed all four
steps in the highest place value, they should move to the next place to the
right and repeat.
3. Students should be able to perform basic long division,
long division by a two digit number (252/12) long division in which they first
place of the dividend is too small to divide (304/4) long division that ends with
a remainder, and long division in which one or more of the digits in the answer
will be zero (721/7).
4. In case any student's long division skills are rusty, you
can easily help them find a good explanation on the internet.
These are all the notes I have for you this week. Please
email me with any questions, comments, or concerns you have.
Sincerely,
Miss Wycklendt
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