Multiplication, Mysteries and More

We've just begun our second unit on multiplication, and I have a new website for you and your child.  Mr. R's World of math and science has something for everyone! This site has math songs, math poems and math music videos as well. It is important to get the math facts and math concepts in to our memory in any way possible. This site might excite some students who are music smart. That is he/she can sing any song, rap or rhyme. He might always be tapping or drumming. It is thought that music, math and science may share some thinking processes. Besides all of these good reasons, learning something in a fun way is always easier and more rewarding, so check out these new resources with your child.
We are finishing up our mystery reading partnerships! The students have enjoyed being sleuths and discussing their reading with their partners. The next step is independent reading of a mystery of each students choice. The only requirement is that the book is at the student's just right reading level.
Here is a website that has some awesome additional mystery resources that would be fun and educational. SuperThinkers Website: SuperThinkers encourages you to become a thinker, not a memorizer. The goal of SuperThinkers is to teach how to think by creating connections, looking for meaning behind facts, and analyzing to understand. Choose a game from the Peetnik Mysteries, watch a short video, then begin using information on the site to solve the mystery. In addition to games, the site includes a Creativity Workshop that features short online books with ideas for creating a book, making a movie or making a jigsaw puzzle. Many of the mystery pages include an audio button that will read the text to you!
Finally, this is our second week of poetry in our writing unit. We are focusing on free verse poetry. This is a style of poetry that focuses on delivering powerful thoughts in small packages. The author's message is delivered through careful observation, creative thinking and selection of just right words. Finally, students are exposed to different types of craft. They add their own personal style with appropriate line breaks, repetition, alliteration and a variety of other figurative language to deliver their ideas with appeal and impact.
As I write this post, I am hearing a weather report for more snow! I guess our January thaw was short lived! : (