Today was the day of our third annual PTSA Golf Tournament.  Since a lot of my students in both classes are in chorus (they sang the national anthem), many were missing.  In that case, I just had the weekly warm-up quiz and then review of multiplicative comparisons which most students have mastered.

Today was a normal day with a normal schedule and with normal instruction.  Math was a review of the quickly-mastered multiplicative comparisons concept.  

We did a hands-on activity to reinforce the concept of multiplicative comparisons using either multiplication or division.  Each student was given a bag containing 30 jelly beans and had the choice to model one of two simple word problems.

In science, we discussed the parts of a forest ecosystem and food web and the roles each member plays.  I showed the following picture below.

Each student was then given an index card.  The task:  quickly and accurately draw the above image (including the arrows to indicate who eats whom) and choose one of the animals.  

Next, they were to take the index card and place it over their chosen animal to represent it being removed from the ecosystem.  This could be the result of pollution, human interference, etc.  

The final task:  write a short reflection piece on the index card to predict how this missing member will affect the rest of the ecosystem.

Today was the 4th and final early release day for this school year.  We are getting into that time of "lasts" such as today.  If you think about it, April is really that last "normal" month of the year since we still are covering new material.  Most of May will be for review and assessment and by the time I write in this blog exactly one month from today, it will be on the eve of Memorial Day weekend.  A lot is going to happen between now and then!

In math, we began the second-to-last concept:  multiplicative comparisons.  Multiplicative comparisons mean one is comparing two things together that need to be multiplied.  It is usually found in the guise of a word problem.  An example would be, "Misti is 12 years old and she is four times as old as Buster.  How old is Buster?"  There are at least two ways to go about solving this.  

1)  Do the opposite and divide:  12 divided by 4 is three.
2)  Ask yourself, "Four times what number gives me 12?

Today was the day of the big literacy common assessment.  It was similar to the mock EOG's that we had before in which the students are in their homerooms (most of them) for the entire day.  

There are two math assessments coming up soon before the end-of-grade tests.  The first one is on Tuesday, May 2nd and that is our spring MAP test.  I will be giving each student his/her unique goal tomorrow.

The big common assessment in math is on Tuesday, May 9th and the procedures will be the same for today's.

Today is the last day for geometry!  Tomorrow is the big literacy common assessment and then we begin multiplicative comparisons.