Mr. Blanc's Class

Friday, 2/2 will be a Grading Day, so there will be no school. Teachers will be working on report cards. You can expect your report card to be sent home on Friday, 2/9. In past years there have been three report cards sent home, but this year there will be two. Reading As you know students are expected to read three hours outside of school each week. Please let your child choose what they want to read for their at home reading. If your student is having trouble finding books they enjoy reading, consider looking into a magazine subscription for them. I never got much enjoyment from reading as a child until my mother got me a subscription to Sports Illustrated for Kids. Then I realized that reading was something that gave me power to access the entertainment that I wanted to access.  Idiom of the week: in hot water Math We will wrap up our unit on multiplication and division next week. Students will work on a practice test on Wednesday, 1/31, and be sent home with an answe...

I was excited to finally get back in to the class on Friday, my family was hit hard by the flu and I'd been out of the room for a week. I'm looking forward to a having a typical week next week. I hope this post finds you all healthy! Reading Students continue to have the expectation to read three hours a week outside of school. The reading logs to document this are due on Tuesdays. As part of our inquiry unit we've been practicing our nonfiction reading. A big part of our focus is using the text structure to help us understand the text. Ask your student to tell you about the text structures we have studied. They are cause and effect, description, compare and contrast, problem/solution, and chronological. Idiom of the week: a piece of cake Math  In math we will continue working on dividing by numbers with three and four digit dividends. At the end of the week students will be introduced to two by two digit multiplication.  Inquiry We just finished up our first ...

Reading When students return to school on Tuesday, 1/16, they will have reading logs due. They will receive their new reading logs to be turned in the following Tuesday as well. We are beginning a reading unit that focuses on reading nonfiction, specifically science. This ties in well with our current inquiry unit in which we're learning about energy. Idiom of the week: cat got your tongue Math This week in math we will revisit division. Previously we have worked on problems with 2 digit dividends. This week we will go up to three and four digits in the dividend. Have your student tell you what Dracula Must Suck Blood has to do with division. Inquiry So far students have studied mechanical, electrical, and light energy. Next week they will learn about thermal and sound energy. Students will take a vocabulary test when they return to school on Tuesday, 1/16, the words they will be tested on all have to do with our inquiry unit. Upcoming Dates Tuesday, January 16th - R...

Inquiry Hopefully you had a chance to watch the videos of the provocation for our new inquiry unit that were posted on Seesaw. Our new unit is under the theme of How We Express Ourselves. The central idea is people innovate using creativity and knowledge of energy. The lines of inquiry are transfer and conversion of energy, how design is used to solve problems, and ways innovation expresses creativity. Next week we will begin building some background knowledge on energy and some of its different forms. Math  Next week students will learn about the difference between factors and multiples. It is essential that students have a strong grasp of these concepts, as they will be used heavily when we get to our fractions unit later in the year. By the end of the week your student should be able to explain to you what a factor and multiple are. Reading Students will be given their next weekly reading log on Tuesday, 1/9. It will be due the following Tuesday, 1/16. A new vocabulary l...