This Week: Quick Review Ideas for Science, Literacy & Math

We wrapped up a BUSY week with the review of key concepts in Science, Literacy& Math......

The students final Science assignment this week was to sum up/review the last portion of the unit we've been working on, with a song. Students were put into groups (at random), and created songs. The grade 6's focused on Invertebrates and the 7's focused on Interactions within Ecosystems.

The students used iPods, iPads, Nexus', & Chrome Books (from school and home) to put together their Science Jam! Each group chose a familiar song and adjusted the lyrics to summarize our last few lessons.

Here are a few to listen to:

This song is about Invertebrates (Gr.6) using the song "Trumpets" by Jason Derulo

This song is about Interactions (Gr.7) using the song "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift.

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Halloween sparked some suspenseful reading and writing this week. We have been working with Narratives and dove particularly into Suspense stories.

This online episode by Patrick Carman "Mr. Mason's Jars" was one of the stories we looked at this week to review key features. We then used this story as a jumping off point for our own writing.

Short Story Writing Assignment- We used the pictures in the book entitled The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, as a writing prompt. These pictures represented the middle of the suspense story. The students then created narratives with suspense features, to create short stories.

Here are a few of the pictures:

 Their short stories are almost complete and they are great. I can't tell you how helpful these pictures were in sparking the creativity in so many students that don't necessarily think in a creative way or need to ask "how should I start?"

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Finally, I am all about quick reviews at the beginning of each math class. This is a brief example of involving the students in review lessons.

This week I gave each student a card and told them to write down a decimal within 2 numbers. I collected the decimal numbers and then randomly called students up to place the decimals on the "yarn" number line.

Also, providing videos for students to use as a "note" at home to complete homework or use as a reminder, is also a big help
(for parents, too).

Here's one that we used this week after much practice with dividing decimals.

View How to Divide Decimals on Howcast

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! :)

~Kaitlin~