Moon Festival - We started our Thursday with our guest teacher, Cecilia Wu (Audrey C's mom). She taught us about the Chinese holiday that is celebrated this year on September 13 (tomorrow!) and coincides with the Harvest Moon. We learned lots and even tasted a mooncake (those of us who want to). We're planning to write our own legends to explain the monthly lunar (moon) cycle in Writing Workshop .
Math - We've been working with numbers, noticing patterns, sharing strategies for adding numbers easily, and using base ten blocks as we explore place value. Today we worked rounding numbers, both to the nearest 10 and the nearest 100. We used an open number line to visualize and contextualize our work. At this point, we are simply determining which multiple of 10 (e.g., 30 or 40) our number (e.g., 32) is closest to (spoiler alert: 32 is closer to 30, so we say, "32, rounded to the nearest ten, is 30"). Eventually we will discover the generalizations/rules of rounding, but right now it is important to understand what rounding actually means, what it is. Nothing written came home today as we worked in our Math notebooks (green).
Clever Badge Login - Today, students brought home a 3x5 index card containing their Clever Badge, which is a QR code enabling them to log onto their Clever account without typing in their username and password. On our Chromebooks here at school, the sign in page pops up as soon as it's turned on. At home, you will first need to go to Clever.gusd.net (also written on the card), then select login with Clever Badge. This will access your computer's camera to take a picture of the QR code and take students straight to their homepage. It is important for students to also be able to type their login information as some of it will be required for CAASPP testing in the spring. But we have had too many problems with student accounts which is wasting a lot of time, so we've got the Clever badges for home and school use at this time.