Breaking the Force

This was the big day for our orchestra players, their first concert! They performed for the second and fifth graders this afternoon, and they will be performing for parents tonight at our annual winter Family Night. This is also a great time for some Christmas or Hanukkah present purchases at the Book Fair!

We did a few things differently because of this, and the students who are not in orchestra had an hour of "study hall" at the end of the day. Our students worked on a project for Mr. Lawton this morning which combined both music and fractions. They read a story about Jaime Escalante, the famous calculus teacher from Garfield High School. They went to Mr. Pratt for Social Studies. They learned the difference between radii, diameters, and chords in mathematics.

Probably the most interesting thing we did today was to explore how distance can weaken the force of magnetism. The students were given balances. On one side of the balance was a magnet on a stick. In the cup above it there was another magnet. The students had to carefully add washers to the other cup and then determine how many washers were sufficient to "break the force" and separate the magnets. They then added little plastic chip between the magnets and repeated the process several times. They recorded and graphed the results. This was fun!



Homework: (1) Write all spelling words 3 times in cursive and write sentences for words 11-15. (2) Do pages 173-174 in the Practice book. (3) Do the "Division 3" math worksheet. (4) Do "Circles," on pages 204-205 in the math book.