Organizing our notes for our presentations...

9.4 Challenge

A man bought a car for $155,000. He must pay compound interest each month for 36 months. How much will he end up paying? What percent increase is that over the beginning amount of $155,000?

Fun at the Swim-a-Thon

The Swim-a-thon was a fantastic success! You all were GREAT swimmers. I am so proud of you! Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time to count laps!

Please finish collecting your pledge money by next Friday, May 3rd. The organizations that we are sponsoring thank YOU!!

Thursday Night Homework-Finding Articles in SIRS Discoverer

Here's the link. The login and password are singapor.

Remember to click on "advanced search".

Be sure to select "full text" in each of the drop down menus. Also select "date", "World Almanac" and "Encyclopedia". UNselect "challenging".

See below for a picture...

A few photos from Sungei Buloh...

9.2 Converting "Easy" Fractions into Percents

I have $100 left in my classroom budget. I want to buy some treats for the class party. Ms. Graham says I can spend 1/2 of the money on drinks, 1/4 of the money on snacks and 1/10 on plates. I have to save the rest for books.

What PERCENT can be spent on snacks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on drinks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on plates? How much money is that?

What PERCENT do I have left? How much money is that?

Be sure to prove your thinking with a representation.


Part II

Oops, I made a mistake. I only have $40 left. Ms. Graham says I can spend 1/5 of the money on drinks, 1/4 of the money on snacks and 3/10 of the money on plates. I have to save the rest for books.


What PERCENT can be spent on snacks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on drinks? How much money is that?
What PERCENT can be spent on plates? How much money is that?


Be sure to prove your thinking with a representation.

Part III

Silly Ms. Graham! She changed her mind AGAIN! Now she says I can spend 20% of the $40 on snacks, 30% of the $40 on drinks, and 35% on plates. How much can I spend on snacks? On drinks? On plates?

Be prepared to communicate your thinking with a representation.


Part IV
Drinks are $.25 each. Snacks are $.10 each. Plates are $.10 each. If we use the calculations from part II, how much money do I need for 22 students ? If I can only spend 1/5 of the money on drinks, 1/4 of the money on snacks and 3/10 of the money on plates, how much money will I need to pay out of my personal account? What if we wanted to share that cost equally between 22 kids and 1 teacher. Approximately, how much would each kid pay?

Percent Problems

The fire department hopes to raise $30,000 to repair a fire house. So far the department has raised $1,750.00. What percent is this of their goal?

Yay! It's Matthew for Student of the Week!

Sungei Buloh Field Trip-Thursday, April 18

Mrs. Gaskell’s Sungei Buloh Chaperone Sign Up

Dear families,

On Thursday, April 18 from 8:10-12:00,  our class will visit the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve. This is a terrific social studies/science field trip where students explore the uniquely adapted flora and fauna of the mangrove and wetland biome. For more information on the reserve, you can visit http://www.sbwr.org.sg/ Chaperones can meet at school by 8:10 to ride the bus or meet us at SBWR by 8:30. Chaperones will guide a small group at the nature reserve. If you would like to chaperone, please sign up below.

Below are the enduring understandings and essential questions to guide the field trip.

Enduring Understandings for students:

1. Environments have unique features.
2. People and environments are interdependent.
3. There are different perspectives on environmental use.
4. Certain environments are at risk and we have a civic responsibility to take care of them.

Essential Questions for our Sungei Buloh investigation:

1. What makes a mangrove and wetland environment unique?
2. How do people and environments depend on each other?
3. Why do we care about mangrove and wetland habitats?

What to wear:

Precaution against mosquito bites (from the Sungei Buloh website): “SBWR is a nature reserve where mosquitoes naturally inhabit. To prepare for a visit to the wetland reserve, visitors should wear shoes and socks and apply insect repellent on exposed skin and clothing before entering the wetland reserve. The insect repellent can help to keep the mosquitoes away and make your visit to the wetland reserve a more enjoyable and safe outing.”

·    Tennis shoes or good hiking shoes with socks (no sandals)

·    A hat

·    Sunscreen and insect repellent (please spray your child PRIOR to school – or send your preferred repellant in your child’s backpack)

·    Sunglasses

·    Bag lunch and a healthy snack (i.e. packed sandwich, a bag of crackers, fruit) Please, no fizzy drinks or soda.

·    A bottle of water – it’s a lot of walking!

·    A small, folding umbrella that can fit in a backpack. If there is rain, but no lightning, the field trip will still take place.

·    Field glasses/binoculars (optional)

·    A camera (optional)

Chaperone’s Name	Put an X under this box if you will meet us at Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve at 8:30.	Put an X under this box if you will come to school and ride the bus at 8:10.
Debra Surrency		X
Benedicte Heaney	x
Jody Havens		X
Brian Koldyke	x

Don't forget the Tabitha Sale next week! Cash only!

Trustworthiness-Finding Information in More Than One Place

1. Find 2 (or more) facts about whales in AT LEAST two out of the 3 articles. Highlight them in one color.

2. Record the notes in your Writer's Notebook. Tell which article you found the information in.

Example: Whales-marine animals. Found in What is a Whale? and Fun Whale Facts

3. Be prepared to share your trustworthy facts with the group. You can simply take a picture of the sections in the different articles.

4. Find an interesting fact about the whales that was only in one of the articles that you think would be worthwhile doing further research to see if you can find the information in another resource. Record it in your notebook.

Useful and Readable Text

Assignment for Friday: Read each of the following articles. After reading each article, start a new blog post entitled, "Useful and Readable Text". Label the post gr4 and critical literacy.

On your blog, record your response to the following question for each article:
If you were doing a research project on this topic, would you use this article to collect information? Why or why not?

Please use this format when you record your responses:

"Mighty Moose-Big Backyard"
If I were doing a report on moose, I would/would not use this article because...


Articles
Mighty Moose-Big Backyard

Life in the Trees is a Breeze-Ranger Rick

Tropical Deforestation-Observatory

Look who is Student of the Week! It's Luke!

Assembly Rehearsal 2

Assembly Rehearsal Video

In anticipation of Friday's assembly, if you have a chance to watch your performance and think about how to improve, that would be great!

Battle of the Books List

Click here for the list.

Important Upcoming Dates for Music

Day C

April 9 - Recorder Show-Off/Testing Day #4

April 11 at 7am - Musical Show and Tell sign up CLOSED

April 12 - Musical Show and Tell #2

Assembly Preparations

The kids are almost ready for Friday's assembly!

Assembly Friday and Sungei Buloh Field Trip

The assembly is this Friday from 10:15-11:15 (tentative for time-still verifying the time in the theater). The kids will be sharing "The ABC's of Endangered Environments". Please join us in the Elementary Theater if available. If you cannot attend, I will post the assembly on the blog afterwards.

The other event is the Sungei Buloh Reserve field trip that supports our Endangered Environments unit. That trip will take place on Thursday, April 18 from 8:10-12:00. Please click here for more information and to sign up as a chaperone. I will send a paper copy of the permission slip home for you to sign. Hope you can join us!