A writing workshop about a baboon?!?!?

What happens when we do a writing workshop on a baboon?!?!

As part of grade 6 language arts, students are required to research and report on a specific topic. So, as part of our science unit on flight, the students have all been assigned a famous person pertaining to flight to research and write their biography (biographies are a grade 5 outcome).

Our writing workshops the next couple of weeks concentrate on various skills needed to research, compiling a bibliography, and writing a well-written and interesting biography.

We've looked at the book Barack  as an example text.

Now students are looking at researching information about one of our bookshelf friends, Cheeks.

"Cheeks."  Baboon.
Isn't he cute?

The writing process was furious. There were so many questions to answer and they had to be based in fact with some creativity thrown in.

to read the final copy, come check it out on the wall at the front of our classroom, or email for the pics!

More fraction action!

Fractions, Fractions, Fractions!

We've been working hard at exploring concepts associated with grade 5 and 6 math and fractions.

We've been talking about benchmark fractions such as 1/2, 3/4, 1/4, etc.

We've also been exploring where fractions fit on a number line:

We've looked at how to make equivalent fractions and have also started exploring adding and subtracting fractions.

Here are some equivalent fractions links for practice:
http://www.mathplayground.com/visual_fractions.html
http://www.aaamath.com/fra42ax2.htm
http://www.mathsisfun.com/equivalent_fractions.html
http://www.learningplanet.com/sam/ff/index.asp

There is also this website which helps with all kinds of fraction concepts.

To review how to add fractions, you can explore these websites:
http://www.mathplayground.com/fractions_add.html
http://www.math.com/school/subject1/lessons/S1U4L3GL.html
http://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions_addition.html
http://www.aaamath.com/fra66kx2.htm