Mr. Blanc's Class

Here are a few pictures from the field trip to the Cedar Mill Wetlands today. Have your student tell you whether they think it is a healthy watershed and why.

Updates I can't believe we've reached the last full week of the school year! The year has flown by! Students will not have a vocabulary test this Tuesday, but they will have their final reading log of the year due. Weekly Volunteers Now that we have reached the final full week of school, our schedule will be a little different than the usual. Because of this, we won't need our weekly math and reading volunteers this week or next. Thank you so much for helping out our class this year! Idiom of the week: have mixed feelings Field Trip  On the day of the field trip to the Cedar Mill Wetlands our class will leave West TV at 9:30 and arrive at the site about ten minutes later. Chaperones will meet us at the site. Students will move through four stations and then we will head back to school at 11:10. We will be outside in tall grasses and a creek bank. Books, hats, and long pants are recommended. Prodigy The students were introduced to a math online curriculum c...

Inquiry Things are getting interesting in our Sharing the Planet inquiry with the central idea of natural resources have a structure and function within a community. Last week students collaborated with peers to create a model of a wetland. They used their knowledge of how wetlands function and demonstrated effects that communities can have on the environment. Next week we will begin some preparations for our upcoming field trip on 6/12 to the Cedar Mill Wetlands. Students will learn how to do a transect study to estimate the number of species in an environment and they will learn some ways determine water quality. Field Trip  If your student has not turned in their permission slip for the upcoming field trip please send that back to school ASAP. Thank you for everyone who has volunteered to join us for the trip! We will have a meeting with all of the chaperones at the Cedar Mill Wetlands on Friday, 6/8 at 3:30. This should only take about 20 minutes or so. On the day of the ...

Math Students will continue working with measurement. They will be given problems involving time, capacity, and distance. An example of the type of problem they are working on is, it took 5 minutes 23 seconds for Bob's oven to preheat to 350 degrees. That was 28 seconds faster than it took Becky's oven to preheat to 350 degrees. How much total time did it take for the two ovens to reach 350 degrees? Reading Students continue to read in their book groups. When each group completes their next book, each member is responsible for creating some sort of response project. Possibilities include but are not limited to creating a new book jacket for the book, making a wanted poster about one of the characters, or making a design for a t-shirt about the book. Ask your student when they will finish their current book and what response they are planning on completing when they are done.  Idiom of the week: icing on the cake Field Trip To further our study of natural resources, ...

State Testing Next week will be our final week of state testing. The last test the students will take is the Math Performance Task. I have been very proud of the effort the students have given on these assessments! Math We have started our final math module of the year. This module covers unit conversions in both US standard and the metric system. To be successful in this unit students need to have their multiplication facts down and understand the metric prefixes like milli, centi, and kilo. Reading  Students are continuing to participate in book groups. All of the groups are in different places with regards to the books they are reading. Some of the groups have selected a second book to read and others are getting near the end of their first book. Check in with your student and have them tell you about their book. Have them tell you what the theme of their story is and why.  Idiom of the week: behind the eight ball Inquiry Our inquiry unit with the central ide...

Reading Next week students will begin book groups. Each student will be placed with a group of peers. Each group will get to select the book they want to read. In addition, they will be determining how many pages each member of the group will read each day. Ask your student what book their group is reading after school on Monday.    Idiom of the week: a gray area Math Our math focus will shift from decimals to geometry. Students will learn how to draw and measure angles and find unknown angles by using given angle measures. In addition they will learn how to identify different types of angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals. Inquiry  As we come to the end of our inquiry unit with the central idea that people use scientific knowledge to respond to a changing Earth, students are preparing to film their video on their natural disaster. So far they have made a storyboard that outlines their video. The next step is to write a script of what each child will say in th...

Math Friday the students took their fraction assessment. Next week we will begin working on decimals. In this unit students will be converting between decimals and fractions, adding and subtracting decimals, and comparing decimals. Reading Students continue to have the expectation to read three hours outside of school each week. Weekly reading logs are due each Tuesday.  Idiom of the week: state of the art   Inquiry The next part of our inquiry unit with the central idea of people use scientific knowledge to respond to a changing Earth, will have students making a video. They will work in a group to share warning signs of their natural disaster, examples from history, and ways to be prepared. The videos will be filmed with a green screen so students can add fun backgrounds!   Upcoming Dates Tuesday, May 1st - State Testing - ELA CAT - Reading Log Due/Vocab Test Wednesday, May 2nd - State Testing - ELA CAT Thursday, May 3rd - Art Lit Friday, May 4th - S...