Mrs. Palanio’s Classroom

We are working on the writing process using an expository prompt.  Pick a favorite pet you have had.  Explain to your teacher in several paragraphs why you chose that as your favorite pet.  We have planned our writing, written a first draft (sloppy copy) and we are currently working on editing and revising.  On Friday we will write our final copy (and edit/revise again) before we hand it in.

Science:  We have finished our egg experiments.  We found that the white vinegar reacts with the calcuim of the egg shell to form carbon dioxide.  In time the shell is dissolved.  We called the eggs “rubberized eggs”and the feel like water balloons.  Have your child tell you what happens to the “rubberized egg” when it is placed in corn syrup.

Bowling:  Bowling was such great fun for the kiddos.  Next week we will look at the mathematics of bowling…scoring and some of the geometry of bowling.

Stepping Stones Christmas Party:  Last night was the Stepping Stones Family Christmas Dinner and Party.  It was such a fun time…decorating cookies, computer games, making decorations, board games, singing and family pictures.   I’m not sure who enjoyed it the most…parents or kids.  The food was great also.  Stepping Stones is our after school program.  As a teacher and grandmother to a Stepping Stones student, I wanted to thank all of the adults who help with this program.

Food Drive:  Our class is doing great in our efforts to help others at this time of the year.  So far our class has collected 241 food items.  The food drive ends this Friday morning.  I wonder if we can get to 300 by Friday! 

Reading:  Good readers always ask questions as they read.  Sometimes the questions have to do with new vocabulary.  The sentence we read was,”Those mushrooms at my feet were bioluminescent.  Our question was, “What does bioluminescent mean?”  We started by decoding the work (with Mrs. Palanio’s help).  We looked for a root (base) work…luminate, which means to light up.  ‘Bio’ deals with living things (plants, animals, bacteria); therefore, living things that produce light.  No, you are not bioluminescent if you turn on a light switch– the living thing has to be able to make its own light, like a lightning bug or certain mushrooms deep in the rainforest of Brazil!  Sometimes we ask questions to clarify meaning while other times we ask questions to learn more! 

Friday, December 12th:  We will be attending the homelink play down at the old Deer Park Elementary School.

School Trivia: Mrs. Palanio used to teach fourth grade down at the old Deer Park Elementary.  Yes, 4th grade used to be there when it was a 1-4 school.  Kindergarten was in Clayton, Arcadia was 5th through 8th grade and the middle school was Deer Park High School.

Did you know that Arcadia was named after the Arcadia Apple Orchard, which was the worlds largest apple orchard.  The orchard was irrigation water came from Loon and Deer Lakes.  Because of the large amount of water used, these two lakes were nearly drained dry!  The orchard was only in operation for about 20 years.  Want more information…read the sign on the north-west corner of the Arcadia playground.

Friday, December 19th:  Can you believe it?  Winter Break begins at the end of the day.  We will be learning about how “brain power” can save lives that day!  Does that sound mysterious?  I hope so.

Posted on December 10th, 2008 by palanib
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We started an interesting science experiment on Monday of this week.  Mr. Goodall, from the district office, stopped by our room today and got a little more than he expected.  He ended up listening to the children explain the science experiment to him.  He was so facinated, that he might come back tomorrow (Thursday) to see how it is going!  If you child has not told you about the egg experiment ask them to tell what he or she has observed and learned about the egg in vinegar.

You might also ask them to explain the difference between a scale and a balance as well as weight and mass.  We have been massing our eggs in vinegar each day, using the metric unit of measure of grams.  Did you know that one gram is about the mass of a regular paper clip?

Math:  Dean came up with a great strategy for solving the X 5 facts.  Multiply the number times 10 and then half it.  5 X 6 becomes 10 X 6 which is 60…half of 60 is 30, so 5 X 6 = 30.  Austin noticed a pattern within a pattern to help him solve a math problem.  Kyndra knew that 8 X 5 had to have a 0 in the ones place because five times any even number will always have a zero in the ones place; therefore, 5 X 8 could not equal 42.  Each day the class learns more and more about mathematics!

Reading:  Did you know that good readers are always asking question to help them understand what they are reading or to learn more.  For instance, we have been reading The Mystery of the Mary Celeste.  We came across the term “sea time”.  We discovered that land time goes from midnight to midnight while sea time goes from noon to noon?  I wonder why?

I hope you are enjoying reading about our classroom happenings.

Posted on December 3rd, 2008 by palanib
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Our Principal’s Pride winners for the month of November were:  Maaria, Rachelle and Austin.

DPHS Science Club will visit.  Next week, members of the Deer Park High School Science Club will be visiting the fourth grade classroom with another science experiment.  Last time they worked with our kiddos on density and what will sink and what will float.

 We will be going bowling as part of our PE program soon.  I don’t have the exact date yet.

 Conferences:  I enjoyed meeting with all of you for conferences.  I just wish we could meet more oftern.  Our next set of conferences will be in March.  Check your Arcadia calendar for the exact date.  The format will be different next time as well.  My understanding is it wll be two full days, with no half days.  Please bring your child to the next conference.

Posted on November 30th, 2008 by palanib
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A palindrome is a word, phrase, sentence or number that can be read from left to right or right to left and are exactly the same.  Some examples of palindromes are: mom, noon, race car, 1991 and 2002. 

So here comes part of the fun.  How many different palindromes are found on a digital clock (in a 12 hour time frame)?  Please no “military time” although that might add some interest to the problem!  Most of the students have figured this out.  HINT: Be sure to look for patterns and use an organized list.

Next we will be working on finding out how many steps, using subtraction, does it take to turn a two digit number into a palindrome.  I wonder if any interesting patterns will emerge.

Number Sense:  Ask your child what he or she knows about this number: 1,005.  Ask your child to explain how they know.  Be careful…the word digital root or composite number might surface!

Skittle Math:

We gathered data about mini-bags of Skittles, organized our date, graphed the results and sampled Skittles this past week.  Students had to give their graph a title which told who and what the graph was about as well as deterimine the appropriate scale.  They did great math work with their data and graphing.

READING: 

We read in the National Geographic Explorer about Reef Rainbows.  We accessed our prior knowledge (PK) and discussed what we learned.  Those beautiful coral reefs are built by small animals called coral polyps.  Ask you child to tell you more about what they learned.

Writing: 

We are currently working in small groups on adding action to conversation.  I wrote the conversation, your kiddos wrote the action.  Here are a few examples of the action the groups wrote: 

Eeerrr, Thunk!!! The door slammed behind them.  They heard a high pitch cackle coming from upstairs. 

Slowly, the girls tiptoed up the rickety stairs.

A clap of thunder was heard.  The sounds of high-heeled shoes and black billowing robes emerged.

They started to walk up the stairs…crrreek, crrreek.

They rang the doorbell…ding, dooong.  The door slowly crept open.  The boys hesitated and walked in!

SPELLING:

Ask your child about our activity “Making Words”.  Parent challenge-What words can you make from the letters: a, e, o, o, c, c, h, l, s, t 

What word can you making using all of the letters?  The word was not hard for your children, however, the spelling was rather difficult!

HINT:  It is a rather delicious word.

Posted on November 5th, 2008 by palanib
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Math:

Students have been learning to find the digital root of numbers to help them know if a number is a multiple of a certain factor. 

What is a digital root you ask?  To find the digital root of a number you simply add the digits of that number together until you find its single “digit root”.  For example, 27 becomes 2 + 7 = 9.  Nine is the digital root of 27.  The digital root of 39 is 3 + 9 = 12, 1 + 2 = 3, so the digital root of 39 is three.  So how does this help us in math your ask.  We have found that all multiples of three have a digital root of 3, 6 or 9.  So is 423 a multiple of 3?  Find the digital root to find out.  (This also will help you know if 423 can be divided equally by 3.) 

There are some other interesting patterns that emerge when finding the digital root of other numbers.  For instance take the first 10 multiples of 9 ( 9, 18, 27, …) and find the digital root.  What do you notice?  Can that help you when learning the basic facts for nine?  How about a general rule for the multiples of nine?  What about when dividing by nine?  Ask your child to show you some of the other patterns they found when they plotted their digital roots on a 9-point circle.

Posted on October 29th, 2008 by palanib
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