Monterey Bay Aquarium

Make sure you read about the aquarium before we go on our field trip tomorrow.

Monterey Bay Aquarium homepage.

The aquarium runs a research institute.
Check out their Seafood Watch page.
You can also read about it on Wikipedia.

Congratulations to the Class Cooks

Congratulations to Lorelei and Ethan C for entering the District's recipe contest and placing third and fourth.  If you are interested in trying out their recipes, they were kind enough to post them online.  Check these out!

Lorelei's Fruit Trifle Minis

Ethan's Tropical Green Smoothie

I am very impressed with both of you.  These recipes look awesome!

Introduction to Dividing Fractions and Whole Numbers

Practice this concept at Khan Academy.
Try this Learnzillion video.
Practice on IXL.

Weather Mythology -- PBL

Throughout history there have been many different types of myths and legends about the weather.  These range from stories and legends to deities.  Please pick a few to read about as a supplement to your weather project.

Gluskabi and the Wind Eagle (Native American legend)
Why We Need Wind (Native American story)
The Bird Whose Wings Made Wind (Native American legend)

Chuqui Illa, Inca Thunder God
Njord, Norse Wind God
Susanowo, Japanese Storm God
Tawhiri, Maori God of Wind and Storms
Thor, Norse Thunder God
Tlaloc, Aztec Rain God
Tonenili, Navajo God of Water
Xib Chac, Mayan Rain God

Modern Folklore about weather
Myths, legends and folklore about weather put together by an elementary school.

Changing Decimals to Fractions and Back

Quiz yourself on converting decimals into fractions.
Quiz yourself on converting fractions into decimals.

Multiplying Fractions

Multiplying two fractions: example: Let's practice multiplying two fractions together. We'll learn to simplify the answer, too.

Practice this on Khan's website.
Try out this tutorial for more help.
Quiz time!

Eyewitness Video -- Weather

Weather Project -- PBL

How does weather affect the lives of the human populations throughout the world?

This is our driving question for this project. This week you will be creating Google Slideshows to present this to others. For this project you will need to pick one climate or weather problem that has an effect on humans.

Suggestions:
Blizzards
Climate Change
Droughts (& CA's drought)
Floods
Hurricanes
Thunderstorms
Tornadoes

In your Google Slideshow, you will need to include the following:
1.  A cover slide with your topic and the driving question.

2.  At least 10 slides which explain the following:

• What causes your weather event?
• What are the characteristics of this weather event?
• What kind of damage can be caused by it?
• How does it affect people?
• How do humans react and respond to protect themselves?

3.  A final slide with a list of links and resources that you used to gather information for this project.

Bonus work:  If your group finishes early, you can create an online poster at Lucidpress.

Word Problems -- Multiply Fractions by Whole Numbers

Multiplying fractions word problem: milk love: Who doesn't love milk? Our family sure does. Let's figure out how much milk is consumed each month if each person consumes a fractional amount of milk.

Watch the video above and then tackle a few word problems using the links below.
Khan Academy
Math Teaching Resources
Quiz yourself with some easy problems.
Try another short quiz.

Multiplying Fractions by Whole Numbers

Conceptual understanding of multiplying fractions and whole numbers: Here we have a nice visual explanation of how a mixed number is really a multiplication of a fraction and a whole number.

Try out a few of these practice problems from Khan Academy.  You can also watch more videos on this subject using that link.

Try out more practice on IXL.

Paul Revere -- Legend vs History

Paul Revere was written about in a famous poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The poem is called "Paul Revere's Ride" and is probably the most famous American history poem ever written.  We will be using this graphic organizer to analyze this poem.

This poem may not be entirely accurate.  We will read about Paul Revere's ride in his own words and compare this to the poem.  Read Paul Revere's letter about his ride (abridged).  Read the full text of this primary source here.  We will use this organizer to analyze this letter.

Finally, we will compare and contrast the poem and his letter.

You can read more about the myths vs the facts of Paul Revere's ride.
This lesson was taken from this website.

Paul Revere and the Battles of Lexington & Concord

Read about Paul Revere.
Read about Paul Revere's midnight ride.
Read about Paul Revere's ride in his own words. (primary source)

Learn about the battles of Lexington and Concord. (short video)
Read about these battles.
Learn more on Liberty's Kids.
American Revolution for kids.

As you are reading and watching the videos, you should be taking notes about what happened on your organizer.  When you have completed the reading and videos above, please summarize what Paul Revere did in 1775 and what happened at the battles of Lexington and Concord on Kidblog.

Ledesma Science Fair!!!

I hope you are as excited about the Ledesma Science Fair as I am.  Our class will be participating in the science fair, which will occur in April.  We will be using the month of March to work on our projects.  Please check out Teacherp's science fair directions and refer back to them as you work on your project.  If you have an idea that is not an experiment or demonstration, please talk to me about what you want to do.

Your first assignment related to your project is to figure out and write about what you will do your project on.  What will your experiment or demonstration be?  How will you make it work?  What materials will you need?  Please post this information on Kidblog.

Do you need ideas for a science fair project?  Try these links:
https://kids.usa.gov/science/science-fair-projects/index.shtml
http://www.education.com/science-fair/
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects.html
http://www.parenting.com/gallery/easy-science-fair-projects-kids

Fractions as Division Problems

Try a few of these problems from Math Antics.


Try a few problems from Common Core Sheets.

Weather Project -- Post #1

We will be blending language arts and science in the next few weeks of school.  As a culminating event we will create and present a project about weather.

Here is our driving question for this project:
How does weather affect the lives of human populations throughout the world?

Watch this video as an introduction to this topic: