Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Checks and Balances


Some of the Dance for Heart festivities.


Learning Algebra using Hands-on Equations.


Today was a quiet pleasant day with one with noisy and wild moment.

We have begun our Open Court Unit 2 testing. We did a good deal of preparation for it last night, and we took the Comprehension and Spelling subsections today. A few of the students took the fluency test as well.

But then we all went out to the yard and did "Dance for Heart." Ms. Toby Smith, our LAUSD dance teacher, developed this to show children that some kinds of dance can provide aerobic benefits just like running or playing certain sports. We learned a dance based on basketball moves, and the children came up in large groups to practice and perform. They had a great time, and it was just nice being outside in the sun and the fresh air for the teachers.

After we came back we did the "check" part of our day. We checked almost all of last night's homework - no easy chore! We did the "balance" part after lunch. We did the first lesson in the Hands-on Equations program, a special math system designed to introduce algebraic thinking to elementary and middle-school children using manipulatives. You can see an example of this above. We'll be continuing with the program throughout the year.

Home Studies: (1) Do the three Open Court papers - "Prefixes and Suffixes," "Commas" and "Dear Mr. President". (2) In the Math book, do "Find a Rule," p 173, and "Work Backwards," p 175. Do all problems.

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