STUFFED!!!

Greetings,
I believe I have chosen a particularly apt title for today's post. After the Pancake Breakfast (my daughter, Leland, ate a donut, a muffin, a pancake, fruit, bacon, and some eggs) and the sack lunch extravaganza - the students and I have definitely had sufficient. It has been a wonderful week. I wish we could have this amazing weather all the time. The amount of sunlight has really helped with our plant experiments. Here are the highlights for the week:

MATH
This week we focused on multiplication. Early in the week the students and I went through the multiplication tables and realized that at this point there were only 23 facts they really needed to learn. This number was based on the fact that the 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's, and 11's have already been mastered or have a quick pattern that make immediate recall easy. The students' challenge this week was to practice these facts until they were able to state the equation and product as quickly as possible. At this point I need to discuss something I shared with many of you at our recent conferences. It has to do with the best way to study basic facts. I have read some recent research that suggests a more effective way to practice basic facts. Here are the steps:
1) Give the student a basic fact (i.e. 6 x 8)
2) The student should respond by saying the factors and the product (i.e. "6 x 8 equals 48)
3) If the student gives an incorrect response, they should be given the correct answer and then they should repeat the factors and product 3 times.
Studies have shown that by having the student say the entire fact ("6 x 8 equals 48") they are better able to retain the information. We have been doing this in class and I highly recommend that this practice be adopted in your home as well.

SCIENCE
The students continue to observe and record data associated with the various plant experiments we have going on in our classroom. The amount of sunlight this week has been a blessing and has provided a large amount of growth amongst the plants. Every other day, the students gather up their plants to observe and record their data. They have been measuring (using the metric system, of course) and recording the height of their grass. In fact, many of the groups have been calculating the average height of their grass to better consolidate their data. Their have been some interesting results and I can't wait for the students to develop conclusions next week based on these results. In other science news, we have been discussing what sort of things may harm an ecosystem. This week we focused on acid rain. We have had some great discussions about this environmental issue and the kids have done a good job applying the reading for information skills we have been working on this year.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!