Ms. Lisa - Room 105 - Math & Social Studies

Math (continued):
We will continue to work on the speed & accuracy of the basic math facts. Students need to be able to answer 100 basic math facts questions in 5 minutes. We are using the Oswego math games website for their sprints. They need to master multiplication and division.  Please have them practice at home: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/maths1.html Here are some other practice sites as well: www.wildmath.com/   http://multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm www.bigbrainz.com/   http://www.algebra.com/tutors/lessons-by-tutor.mpl?tutor=nutshellmath

 IXL weekly homework requirements:
- Students will be required to spend a minimum of 2 hours working on IXL a week
- They can choose which lessons they feel confident to complete each week, instead of having specific lessons assigned.
- For each lesson they must either earn a score of 90 or above
- They must have all grade level lessons completed by the end of the school year.
- The assignment week will go from Monday to the following Sunday.
- To find a record of time spent & lessons mastered, click on the “Report” tab on the top of the IXL screen. Next click on the “Performance” link on the left of the screen – then “Performance by Skill”. Enter the assigned dates for the week. Make sure that the correct grade level is selected. Category should be “All”. Lessons should be “All”.  The green & yellow on the circle graph will show the number of lessons mastered. The time spent is shown under the Performance Summary.

Currently during the regular school week, students have 40 minutes Monday morning during Math Lab to work on IXL. They also have an hour during homeroom either Monday or Wednesday. There is math club Monday mornings from 7:30 – 8:15. I am available Tuesday after school until 4:30 pm for Math Tutoring. I have sent several math resource pages/tutorials that might help. We go over formulas that they will need and they write them in their math notebook journal (which they should be bringing home to use while they are doing IXL). There is also a list of formulas and math information on pages 8 & 9 of their planner. The website  www.MathPlayground.com is another excellent source of video tutorials. Other helpful websites are: www.purplemath.com  http://www.mathgoodies.com/ www.khanacademy.com  www.math-videos-online.com www.mathvids.com   www.mathtv.com  www.justmathtutoring.com  www.algebra.com  www.brightstorm.com  www.nutshellmath.com  www.algebra.com/tutors/lessons-by-tutor.mpl?tutor=nutshellmath

As always, please communicate with me about any difficulties that your child is having and we will work together to make sure that they understand.

Social Studies
Students should be working on their Living History Museum project. Their written speech was due Tuesday, January 24^th. They should be practicing this at home so they will have it fully memorized for the presentation March 21^st. Their full-color (hand-drawn) collage page was due Tuesday, February 14^th. The timeline is due this Tuesday, February 21^st and the fact poster is due Tuesday, February 28^th. The map is due Tuesday, March 6^th. Presentations will be March 21^st-28^th.

Students are working in small groups to create a poster and presentation about the Maya, Aztecs, and Incas. We are finishing that up this week. We have started studying the Middle Ages & Renaissance time period & will continue that for the next few weeks.

Throughout the year Fifth grade will be studying the American Revolution. Students in 6^th-8^th grade will be reviewing the American Revolution & Civil War from last year.

In Geography, the test on the capital of the US states will be Thursday, March 1^st. They can practice at: http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/CapitalUnitedStates.html

We have begun our new project this week. Each student have selected a presidential candidate that they want to follow and learn more about. I will send home the details, requirements, and due dates for this project soon. A helpful website is: http://2012.presidential-candidates.org/

Students will continue to work with their team to compete in the Stock Market game with Ms Tricia.

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