Pictures/Math Cube Toss (Probability)

Fun Math Review...enjoy the pictures!

Current Events

Thank you Michelle for doing an excellent presentation on current events! Michelle presented a Scholastic News article about the updated election 2012 information. We discussed how Mitt Romney is in the lead as candidate for the Republican party. We discussed his competitors and who we think might stay in the race. Michelle brought the numbers from Super Tuesday so we could compare some states. Job well done!

Current Events

Congratulations to Aviva on an excellent current events presentation! Aviva brought in a news article from the Wall Street Journal about the recent meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting was in regards to Iran's nuclear threat and what to do about it. The presentation was clear and well-prepared! We had a great discussion following the presentation. The girls were attentive and had great questions which lead to the discussion... Job well done!

Art Trip Tomorrow

Reminder: Art trip tomorrow morning with Morah Irina to the Jewish Museum in Manhattan

State Exam Schedule

Dear Parents and Students,

Here is a heads-up about this year's schedule for the State Exams. We will be sending home a note shortly with more information and tips. I'd like to share my general approach to the tests:

DO YOUR BEST. THE TESTS ARE NOT A GOAL IN AND OF THEMSELVES; THEY ARE TOOLS TO SEE WHERE YOUR CHILD HAS MASTERED SKILLS OR RETAINED INFORMATION, AND WHICH AREAS NEED MORE WORK. We will work in school on test prep, and it is advisable that you support the effort by paying extra attention to the prep work sent home.

English Language Arts: April 17, 18, and 19

Math: April 25, 26, and 27

Science: End of May

Morah N.D.

Math Update

We've been working on FRACTIONS in Unit 7, as well as PROBABILITY. Today we focused on ordering fractions from smallest to largest. We learned that we can easily compare fractions with LIKE numerators (numbers on the top of the fraction) and LIKE denominators (numbers on the bottom half of the fraction), but comparing fractions that have different numerators and denominators can be tricky. We explored some strategies we could use: we could make the two fractions have the same denominator by reducing or multiplying the fraction. We could also make a graph or number line to help us understand if this fraction is LESS than or GREATER than 1/2. This can help us with ordering.

We learned that PROBABILITY is the likelihood of an event happening. The fraction that tells us the probability is the "desirable outcomes" over the "total number of outcomes." For example, if we have a bag of 75 jellybeans, 16 of which are pink, the likelihood of us randomly choosing a pink out of the bag is 16/75. This event in UNLIKELY. However, if we have 48 blue jellybeans in that bag, the chances of getting a blue  is VERY LIKELY...48/75. The closer the numerator is to the denominator in number (the closer you are to ONE WHOLE) the more likely the event is to happen.

We also learned that we can find EQUIVALENT FRACTIONS - multiplying the fraction by some number over some number (For example 2/2), or reducing the fraction - dividing by some number over some number (for example 4/4). So if we want to say 1/2 in another way we could say 3/6, 4/8, 50/100, etc.

It would be great if you discussed the concepts with your child at home and use practical examples as they come up (i.e, dividing a bar of chocolate and looking for and comparing fractions, or slicing oranges into fractions and comapring fractions, etc.).