Holidays

I would like the students to relax and enjoy their holidays, but also practise some of what we have been doing in class. Students should review their notes on the digestive system and respiratory system (see previous posts for the notes) so that they can match system parts with their names and identify what each part does. As well, students should work on identifying various polygons by the number of sides and number of vertices (see previous post). If you have a protractor available at home, students can also practise measuring and drawing angles.

Have a great holiday!

Nutrition

In health we have been talking about nutrition. I encourage the students to look at the nutrition label on the side of their food packages to become familiar with what they are eating. We have been learning how to read these labels and discussing how nutrition ties in to our digestion unit in science. We have also been discussing healthy food choices, and how media influences our food choices. Please take the time to look through food packaging with the students and discuss healthy food choices.

Angles

Students have been working on measuring angles with a protractor. Practise doing this will be beneficial. I have been working with students to remember that one arm has to line up with the 0 line and the vertex of the angle has to line up with the T point in the protractor. Then I remind them to begin at the zero and move up towards the second arm of the angle to measure.

Respiratory system 2

Students took the following notes on respiration:

Your Lungs are two spongy, saclike organs inside your chest, that hold air. The lungs hold air while oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged.

Your Diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that divides the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. It moves down to increase the depth of your chest cavity during inhalation, while your ribs move outward to widen the space so that air will rush into the lungs. During exhalation, the diaphragm moves up and the ribs move in, squeezing the air out of the lungs.

Respiratory System

We spoke today about respiration and the students took the following note:

Inhalation is when we breathe in. It allows oxygen to be absorbed by the body. Exhalation is when we breathe out. It allows us to push carbon dioxide out of our bodies. Inhalation and exhalation is part of what we call respiration.

Please review these notes as we go through our unit in order to help the students remember the systems, each part of the system, the processes and what each part does.

Digestive System notes

The following is the notes the students took in class:

1. The first step in digestion is using your mouth to chew your food. You use your tongue, teeth, and saliva to help break your food apart. We turn our food into a liquified ball called bolus. 

2. Your esophagus is the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach. Contractions of its muscles, called peristalsis, pushes the food through the esophagus.

3. Your stomach is at the end of the esophagus. It uses acids to break your food into smaller pieces. It changes the bolus into a yellow liquid called chyme.

4. The chyme is then released into the small intestine. The small intestine breaks down the chyme into nutrients for the body to use. The inner parts of the small intestine has small finger-like coils, called villi, which pick up the nutrients to deliver them to the blood.

5. At the end of the small intestine, the chyme moves into the large intestine (or colon). The main function of the colon is to remove water from the chyme, which is now called feces. The feces moves through to the end of the colon, called the rectum. Feces collects in the rectum until there is enough to "go to the bathroom", when the feces is released at the end of the colon by the anus.

Geometry

We have begun working on geometry in math. We have discussed polygons as a closed figure with at least 3 sides, as well as the names of each figure (from triangles up to octogons). We have also gone through the different quadrilaterals and triangles and the names and attributes of each. It would be beneficial for students to review these at home so they become familiar with the terms and the attributes of these shapes. Here is a list of terms by number of sides:

3- triangles: scalene (no sides equal)

                   Isosceles (2 equal sides)

                   Equilateral (all sides equal)

4- quadrilaterals: trapezoid (1 pair of parallel sides)

                           Parallelogram (2 pairs of parallel sides)

                           Rhombus (2 pairs of parallel sides and all sides equal)

                           Rectangle (2 pairs of parallel sides and all right angles)

                           Square (2 pairs of parallel sides, all sides equal, and all right angles)

5- Pentagon

6- hexagon 

7- heptagon

8- octogon

Body Systems

We have finished discussing the digestive system and are moving into discussing the respiratory system (we will continue to discuss digestion now in our health unit on nutrition). The students have taken notes on the different sections of the digestive system (mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine or colon) and it would be good for them to review as there will be a test on the different systems at the end of our unit. In the section on the respiratory system, students will again be taking notes on the way the system works. It would be good to discuss the way we breathe with the students, and I will try to add more information on the blog as we move along.

Math Test Monday

On Monday students will have a test on addition, subtraction, and multiplication. For addition, students should be able to add up to 4-digit numbers, with and without regrouping (carrying over). For subtraction, students should be able to subtract up to 4-digit numbers with and without regrouping (borrowing). This will include having to borrow from the thousands column to subtract in the ones, for instance: 3000 - 2356 where you would need to borrow from the 3 thousands because there are no ones, tens, or hundreds. Some of the students found this difficult and may need more time practising these. For multiplication, students should be able to multiply single digits, a single digit by a double digit, and a double digit by another double digit. Students should be able to work on solving problems involving multiplication, addition, and subtraction, and be able to tell which of these they are being asked to do in the problem. A sample problem may be: There are 2 mountains. Mount Moriah is 1263km tall, Mount Mustaine is 978km tall. How much taller is Mount Moriah?

Please review these concepts with students over the next 4 days to help them prepare for the test.