Here is our writing list for the Holidays
added to and updated.

things we are grateful for
things we remember about grandma and grandpa
santa
clothes, this could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on which angle you were looking at it.
christmas tree in the house and its affects if it has any.
what we want for Christmas and WHY, this could be a good persuasive piece.
does santa still use the same sleigh that he has had for hundreds of years or does he have a new updated sleigh that is all hi tech.
animals, likes don't likes
what if santa used different animals besides reindeer to pull his sled.
a ride on the polar express
snow storm that we had to stay home because of
snow storm during school so that we weren't able to go home because it was so bad
the turkey wasn't dead when we started to cook it
christmas songs, favorite, worst, write one
christmas movies, favorite, worst,
what we should eat instead of the traditional thanksgiving dinner
instead of wearing a red suit what color should santa's suit be
how people from 100 years ago react if they tried to play with the Xbox Kinect
funny or sad christmas and thanksgiving memories.
santa only brought me clothes
if I were santa's head elf




I will be adding to the list and re-posting it through the christmas season.  Please leave more writing ideas in the comments and I will add it to the list when I re-post.

Have a great Thanksgiving and a fantastic Christmas season.

wes

a Water Cycle song

We have started the water cycle in science in my class and I found a cool song, video on you tube.

here it is.

Holiday writing (Thanksgiving through Christmas)

There is something that we always forget when it comes to learning, or doing homework at home.  I have even done it with my kids.  We are working so hard on math and reading that it gets forgotten.  Writing.  And then we come to a holiday like Thanksgiving and homework gets kind of forgotten.  Well we could do some homework without the kids even knowing that it is homework.
So here is some thoughts on things to write about during holidays, Thanksgiving in particular.

things we are grateful for
things we remember about grandma and grandpa
santa
clothes, this could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on which angle you were looking at it.
christmas tree in the house and its affects if it has any.
what we want for Christmas and WHY, this could be a good persuasive piece.
does santa still use the same sleigh that he has had for hundreds of years or does he have a new updated sleigh that is all hi tech.
animals, likes don't likes
what if santa used different animals besides reindeer to pull his sled.
a ride on the polar express
snow storm that we had to stay home because of
snow storm during school so that we weren't able to go home because it was so bad
the turkey wasn't dead when we started to cook it
christmas songs, favorite, worst, write one
christmas movies, favorite, worst,
what we should eat instead of the traditional thanksgiving dinner
instead of wearing a red suit what color should santa's suit be
how people from 100 years ago react if they tried to play with the Xbox Kinect


Yes my kids helped me with part of the list.
I will be adding to the list and re-posting it through the christmas season.  Please leave more writing ideas in the comments and I will add it to the list when I re-post.

Have a great Thanksgiving and a fantastic Christmas season.

wes

Does your kid struggle with 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication?

Here is a little idea that might give some help.
We can call it box multiplication, and it will give us our partial products.
partial=part
Product= the answer to a multiplication problem.

So we will get the Partial products and then add them together.

Here is the link to the video. Click here

Dino pee? Yes

So take a second and think how logical this is.  Why did dino's pee?  They drank water, they drank it from some source; river, lake, pond, somewhere.  Then it came out and landed on the ground.  The water then permeated through the ground.  From there it evaporated out of the ground or a plant used it, or it ends up in some underground water collection.  Then back to a river, or water vapor and then condenses into a cloud, or back to a plant or animal, and then into a lake and then evaporated and then to the ocean and then...  The water cycle process isn't much like a circle, it is a here and there and then back over here then there and back over there.
    The other thing we need to remember is that you can't get rid of water.  When you boil water does it disappear?  No the water that was in the pot is now water vapor in the air.   Water is matter that can not be destroyed it just changes stages.

Enjoy drinking that dinosaur pee.
(of course it is not the exact same, but the water particles are the same.)


wes

Dino pee

Check back next week to hear thoughts and facts about the water cycle.

Learning your basic facts

Basic facts are your 0's (zeros) and 1's. Now the basic facts that we are talking about
right now is addition. This still applies with multiplication though.

First you need to help your kids know that any number plus 0 is that number.
Remember that we want to keep these numbers under 10.
1+0=1; 2+0=2; 3+0=3; and so forth up to 10.
When your kid understands this and gets it right all the time move on to 1's.
(Note: your kids should be able to count fairly good at this point.)

When we move on to 1's we are just count up one. Remember to make this point that they are just counting by one when we add by one.
1+1=2; 1+2=3; 1+3=4; 1+4=5 and so forth up to 10.

Practice practice practice is what your kids need.   Let them use their fingers there is nothing wrong with that, or use macaroni, beans or things like that.

Don't worry about subtraction at this point, your kids need to get this down first.

Follow me on twitter.
user name: education_dad

happy homework.

wes

Help with Math homework and Reading skills

The more I teach and the more I listen to my wife as the parent there are two things that parents really care about in their child's education.
1-That they can read and that they are were they should be (level wise) and
2-they understand how to do math, and are up to par with it.

I hear a lot of parents say that they can't help their kids with their math homework because they don't know how to do it.  In a way I find that a little funny to say, since they learned the same material, just 20-40 years ago.

So here I am to help with math and reading homework.  I have made some adjustments in my thoughts and what to write about.  Most of it will be on math and reading skills, and ideas that will help you as the parent.
Please send me your questions that you may have, and I will do my best to answer them.

Blank thought.

Math and reading skills a must in today's world.  I had a saved draft and I looked and Its blank.  How fun.
have a great night.

Common reading mistake

Something that I have even got caught in, is something really simple yet, makes a big impact on our reading ability. This really is helpful for the younger kids but can work miracles for older kids as well. Fluency. The ability to read smoothly without making very many mistakes. My son brings home a new book to read everyday and we were reading them. The thing that I should have worked on more was he's fluency. He would read, struggle a little, I would help him and we would get through it. We would then send it back and get a new book the next day. Well we should have been keeping those books until he could read them smoothly without any help, and get confident in his reading ability. You can do the same thing with older kids, yes even in chapter books. Have them read a page and then read it again, hopefully more fluent the second time. A great activity that would help your child to see there progression would be to keep a record of how many minutes they could read in a minute. Make a little bar graph and mark how much they read.  Then next time read the same passage and mark another bar graph next to the last and see the progression.

Help your kids become very fluent readers on the level they are on before moving to harder books. (applies more to younger kids K-2,3.  But remember to help them find books that they like when you are getting them yourselves.)

Happy reading

Wes