Class Reminders:
- Wednesday December 7th - Division quiz (open notebook)
- Friday December 9th - Earth's Features Unit 1 Quiz
- Students will be using various algorithms to divide multi-digit by one-digit numbers
- You can help your child greatly in math this year by practicing their multiplication facts (even just 3-5 minutes a day will make a huge difference). I find just using regular flash cards through 12x12 is best, but there are also many apps that can help if your child has a phone or iPad.
- In the role of geologists, students investigate how a dinosaur fossil found in the fictional Desert Rocks National Park formed, which serves as the anchor phenomenon for the unit. Students make inferences about the history of the park based on the fossil itself and the rock layers in which it is embedded. Investigating how the fossil formed leads students to learn about sedimentary rock formation. Students use books, hands-on investigations, and the Earth’s Features Simulation to figure out how fossils and sedimentary rock form and how different sediments build up in different environments, forming different rock in those environments. This helps them learn how to tell the environmental history of a place by observing the rock layers present. Finally, in an effort to explain a new anchor phenomenon, why two different canyons in the fictional Desert Rocks National Park have different amounts of exposed rock, students figure out that rock can be broken down and layers can become exposed by things in the environment, such as water.
