Math Vocabulary for State Assessment Practice

Learning these vocabulary words will help your child do better on the state math assessment! Some of the words will be new to your child. Remember they are a list for grades 3-5. Use the vocabulary words in a game. Pause after each question for thinking or discussion time. With the right answer, your child can roll the dice and advance on any gameboard. Students will not need to know the terms median, mean, mode, and range.

March 20, 2013

Due Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Dear Parents: 

     I hope you all have a fun and safe spring vacation.  Instead of the normal writing assignment, I have attached an optional activity.  Students will be given extra credit if they write a sentence or two with their handmade quill pens (with parent’s help!) and homemade ink.    The peacock quill has been given to your child.  The “How-to-Sheets” are attached to this letter.

The writing is due on Tuesday, April 2, if your child wants extra credit.

    

     I’ve also attached a Scholastic News “Extreme Plants” for reading and the graphing activity for practice.  This may be used for RAH minutes one day.  It is due on Tuesday, April 2.

Continue reading with your child for 30 minutes each day and recording it in the RAH folder.  In reading we are reading non-fiction, informational texts, learning about main idea and supporting details. 

     Falcon Fast Facts are now on the RAH folders.  Have your child work on Xtra Math or flashcards for a few minutes.  Mark your initials by Falcon Fast Facts on the RAH folder each day.

            Please continue to have your child use SumDog.  If you need the password for SumDog or Xtra Math, please let me know. 

     Check out the Blog site for pictures and video of B1’s field trip to Champoeg Park.

                                            

Making a Quill Pen

Many of the world's most important historical documents were written with
quill pens. Now your child can make his own, and experiment writing with a
feather pen-- just like Washington and Jefferson.
The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Magna Carta,
and many other vital documents were written and signed with quill pens. In
fact, the word "pen" comes from the Latin word "penna", which means
feather.
Help your child step into Franklin, Paine, and other forefathers' footsteps,
by teaching him to make his own quill. By the time students have mastered
the skills of penmanship they can begin to appreciate ways to make writing
unique. Every quill writes differently and your child can see how his
penmanship changes with unusual tools.
Find your own feathers during a nature walk, or take a trip to a craft store to buy a package. Throughout
history, quill pens were made from the flight feathers (preferably the largest wing feathers) of large birds.
Here's how your child can make his own!
What You Need:
Large wing feathers (A pack of plain turkey quill feathers can be bought for under $3). Try to find
feathers that are about 12" long or more, with a thick shaft.
An art knife to cut the correct angle on the feather shaft
Ink in a bottle - can be purchased at most craft and art supply stores. You might want to start with
non-permanent ink until you are experienced.
Cutting board
Marker
Tweezers
What You Do:
1. Select your feather. You need a feather long enough to hold comfortably, with a sturdy shaft (the
spine of the feather). Prime wing feathers can be purchased from places like www.ostrich.com or
you can gather one on a nature walk. Quill pens were most often made from goose feathers, but
turkey feathers were also popular. You can leave the feather as is, or trim the sides of the feather
for several inches, to leave more room for a better grip.
2. Follow the natural curve of the feather. You want your writing point to point down.
3. Take your marker and make a dot at the point where you'd like the writing tip to be. Place your
marked feather on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, cut the end of the quill at a slant less than
45 degrees.
4. Take the tweezers and clean out any materials left in the cut shaft.
5. Dip your new quill pen into some non-permanent ink. Give your child a chance to experiment with
the quill. How does using it change his penmanship?
Did You Know?
Feathers evolved from the scales of reptiles and are one of the things that set birds apart from all
other animals.
Feathers have a hollow shaft and can produce a sharper and more flexible tip than metal nibs.
The quills described above are easy to make and simple in design, but you can create a more
complex nib that is more like metal nibs-- it just requires greater cutting skill.
© Copyright 2006-2012 Education.com All Rights Reserved.

Making Your Own Ink

Nature can provide for everyday needs such as writing ink. Traditional ink sources include flower petals and tree bark, and though fruit sources are less traditional, they also make for useful ink. Berries and cherries, with their high juice content, are ideal for ink making. Unlike other juicy fruits such as watermelons, citrus fruits or peaches, berry and cherry juice are dark enough to show on writing paper. Use fruits that are commonly available at supermarkets, or go hiking to gather wild berries such as pokeberries or sumac berries if you'd like to take your eco-lifestyle up a notch.

Items you will need:

1.                             1 to 2 cups berries, 1/2 cup liquid yield

2.                             Blender

3.                             1/2 tsp. salt

4.                             1/2 tsp. vinegar

5.                             2 oz. glass jar

6.                             Mesh strainer

7.                             Metal or wooden spoon

8.                             Glass or ceramic bowl

Step 1:

Purchase or harvest your fruits. Ideal ink candidates include blackberries, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, pokeberries, cherries, black currants, elderberries or sumac berries. Small, hard wild fruits such as rosehips, winterberries or juniper berries will likely not yield enough juice or will be too light to make effective ink.

Step 2:

Mash fruit in a bowl or whirl them in a blender or food processor. If using cherries, you'll need to remove the pits first.

Step 3:

Put a fine-mesh strainer inside a bowl or balance a smaller strainer on the rim of a bowl. Fill the strainer with fruit and any juice left from the mashing or chopping.

Step 4:

Press the fruit pulp against the sides of the strainer with a spoon. If you use a wooden spoon, it may become stained permanently. Don't try to drain the fruit of all its juice. Forcing the juice from the skins of the fruits results in cloudiness, affecting the final product.

Step 5:

Remove strainer and discard fruit pulp or set aside the pulp for another use.

Step 6:

Mix the vinegar and salt into the fruit juice. Vinegar and salt clarify and deepen the color of natural dye and ink products, as well as preserve the juice from spoilage.

Step 7:

Pour the fruit ink into a small, wide-mouthed jar. Recycled and cleaned 2 oz. baby food jars or specialty jam jars are ideal.

Tips

1.                             Make an old-fashioned quill pen for your homemade ink with a bird feather found outdoors or purchased from a craft store. Cut the tip of the feather at an angle with a craft knife, then use the knife to create a small notch at the very top of the tip. Using this technique allows the ink to be held better than simply using a rounded feather tip. To use, dip the feather into the bottle of fruit ink, tap to remove any excess and blot the tip on a paper towel or coffee filter before writing. Dip the feather into the ink bottle when your tip needs more ink.

2.                             Berry and cherry juice, even when preserved with vinegar and salt, has a short shelf life. Make it in small batches and store in small jars.

3.                             While berries and cherries yield the best ink from the fruit family, you may wish to explore other classic natural ink resources. Infused poppy petals yield red ink. For black ink, turn to oak galls, the knots that form on oak trees. Oak galls are rich in tannin, which slows the fading process.

Warnings

1.                             The autumn-emerging berries of the wild plant pokeweed yield such deep, rich colors that the plant was once nicknamed "ink berry." But only use pokeweed berries as an ink or dye material when working with adults or older children. The berries are extremely toxic. Another wild autumn berry, the sumac, should not be confused with poison sumac, an unrelated plant. Sumac trees yield fuzzy red berries ideal for making a lemonade-like drink and for making dyes and inks. Poison sumac, which causes skin rashes, is a small, shrubby plant.

Champoeg Field Trip March 15, 2013

Expository Graphic Organizer

Idea Web Graphic Organizer

March 14, 2013

Due Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Dear Parents: 

           

     Continue reading with your child for 30 minutes each day and recording it in the RAH folder.  In reading we are reading non-fiction, informational texts, learning about main idea and supporting details. 

     Falcon Fast Facts are now on the RAH folders.  Have your child work on Xtra Math or flashcards for a few minutes.  Mark your initials by Falcon Fast Facts on the RAH folder each day.

            Please continue to have your child use SumDog.  If you need the password for SumDog or Xtra Math, please let me know. 

   

Family Writing: 

Fill out the organizer form for the paragraph. Tell about your favorite place you have visited. Write a strong paragraph about the place. Before you begin writing, think about the (1) location (description) of your favorite place. Think about (2) when and why you like to visit this place. Think about the (3) benefits of visiting this place. Now write a paragraph of your favorite place.

Since                                         

March 7, 2013

Due Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Dear Parents: 

           

 Continue reading with your child for 30 minutes each day and recording it in the RAH folder.  In reading we are reading non-fiction, informational texts, learning about main idea and supporting details. 

          Falcon Fast Facts are now on the RAH folders.  Have your child work on Xtra Math or flashcards for a few minutes.  Mark your initials by Falcon Fast Facts on the RAH folder each day.

            Please continue to have your child use SumDog.  If you need the password for SumDog or Xtra Math, please let me know. 

      

Family Writing: 

Fill out the organizer form for the paragraph.  Everyone has jobs or chores. Tell the importance of one of these jobs or chores.  First, brainstorm the importance of one of these chores.  Then, go through your list and choose three really strong reasons why this chore is important.  Next, think what your topic is, and write a topic sentence.  Write a detail sentence about one of your brainstormed reasons.  Write another sentence about that same reason, backing up your answer with a specific example.  Do the same with the next two reasons.  Finally, write a concluding sentence.  You should have a total of 8 strong sentences.  Proofread your paper carefully.