Check out these elves!

check out these elves!

12/20/12 Make Ups Due for banking Unit Friday 12/21/12

Some humor as we start Holiday Break :)  Enjoy!

12/14/12 Banking Grades Complete PLEASE READ

The assignments for the banking interdisciplinary unit are complete and placed in the following content classes:

Vocab Packet for A Penny Saved- worth 20 points on Portfolio 1 for Ms. Hunt's class.  This assignment was due today.  Extra copies have been distributed, but if you still need one, please ask.

Inflation Paragraph from Brain Pop video - Mrs. Petranchuk's class.  This grade is a rubric grade and was distributed to all today.

Banking Portfolio (includes Brain Pop quiz, The Gift of the Magi graphic organizer, saving circle map, the video conferencing activity)- another grade for Mrs. Petranchuk.  Portfolio cards were distributed today with grades assigned for each.

The above assignments are allowed to be turned in until Friday, December 21st for late credit.  There is a sign up list on the white board in room A5 for students to stay after school Tuesday thru Thursday next week.

Linear Equation Worksheet (Jose or Samantha)- this grade is a n assignment on Mrs. Oakley's portfolio next week.

Again, if you have not complete any of the assignments or have not turned them in, please do so for late credit by Friday, December 21st.  After that, these grades are closed out for the remainder of the marking period.  Contact Ms. Sobon with additional questions at ssoboon@esmschools.org

12/10/12 Math Unit 2 Review Jeopardy Game

Try to play this game with someone (like a parent, friend, or sibling) and see how well you know solving systems graphically and algebraically!

Solving Systems Jeopardy

12/10/12 Mars in ELA Lit

To listen to articles, type the name of the article in the search box on this website:

Opposing Viewpoints

Also, here is a link for graphic organizers:

Graphic Organizers

How to Write Good (a hilarious joke)

1. Avoid alliteration always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. The passive voice is to be avoided.
4. Avoid cliches like the plague. They're old hat.
5. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
6. Writers should never generalize.
Seven: Be consistent.
8. Don't use more words than necessary. It is highly superfluous.
9. Be more or less specific.
10. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

Check out the new MARS tab in the livebinder! (see top of blog)

Due Friday Dec 7th: Complete the Comic Book Vocab Sheet

Writing Stations with Saving Money

Learning Goals:

• to recognize the importance of saving money early and consistently
• to understand how inflation and interest are related 
• to use critical thinking skills when evaluating a video clip's purpose, audience, and formulate questions students would want viewers to have the knowledge to answer

Activities:

1. Complete the short response on the BrainPop video from yesterday on banking and the  relationship between interest and inflation in regards to bank loans.  Type responses on PB Works site.  Create a Money folder to place the writing assignments for this unit in.
2. Stations:  Students break into 3 subgroups and watch one of the short videos  (Animal Savings, Family Savings, Sesame Street)  Students in each assigned group become experts in one of the videos and determine the following for the video: audience, 1-2 main points, and create 3-5 questions on the video for other groups to answer)
3. Students then switch groups and have 20 minutes at each video to answer the questions that were left on the white board.  

ELA Lit Tues and Wed

Students will engage in the following activities:

• complete reading A Penny Saved comic book 
• fill out the definitions on the vocabulary sheet from the content from the comic and/or short informational videos we have watched thus far
• end goal: to create a short poem or rap/song that explains the benefits of saving to kids.  The main goal is to use at least 5 content vocabulary words

AXA Presentation: Saving Money and Linear Systems

For team Blue Classes:

• Students watch the Common Craft video on savings (see link Common Craft Savings Video)
• Students listen to the presentation by Michael Leonelli from AXA Inc. and ask questions at the end (see link for powerpoint Financial Strategies PPT)

For Team Orange Classes:

• Students listen to presentation by Michael Leonelli (see link above)
• hand out students transparency graphs of Jose and Samantha's savings plans.  Students sit in a Jose-Samantha pair in their groups (A,B,C, and D). 
• Transpose the transparencies over each other and locate the solution.  
• Complete the worksheet in pairs (one worksheet per pair).  Be sure both students' names are listed on the worksheet to hand in for a grade.  
• On the back of the worksheet, solve the system of equations using the substitution method.
• Here are the answer keys: substitution method and graphs

Money Lesson ELA Writing: Inflation Focus

Today we are are to readdress The Gift of the Magi.  We are looking at it again through the eyes of inflation in prices of items and costs of services (bills).  Here is the agenda:

1. Watch Common Craft video on banking and compound interest (objective: obtain definitions for vocabulary such as interest, loan, etc)
2. Brain Pop Video on Banking (see link below)
3. Look at the story The Gift of the Magi  and extract any time a cost is mentioned.  Place those items/bills on the center column in the grid and the cost of each on the left column. (see template below and create on own sheet of paper)
4. Use the inflation calculator to see what the cost of those same items/bills would be nowadays.
5. Read the following interesting facts related to inflation and money for the 1900s:

Inflation

• From 1940 to 1946, the average income in America doubled. During 1940, the average worker was paid less than $600 a year. In 1946 the same worker got $1,200 a year.
• In 1919 the average income in America was around $650 per year.
• In the 1920s you could buy a brand new car for less than $300.
• In 1931 a new Chevrolet cost $623. Between 1968 and 1978 the price of new cars went up drastically. Cars cost twice as much in 1978 as they did in 1968.
• Shopping was fun in 1900. Women could buy a pair of shoes for just $1!

5.  REMEMBER: add any new facts you learned to the "saving" circle map you began in Ms. Hunt's ELA Lit class

6.  Answer the True/False Questions on the BrainPop Banking video.
7. Ticket Out The Door: Write a short response to the following writing prompt in pbsworks:

As a general rule, prices rise over time.  This is called inflation. How does inflation explain why banks charge interest on loans?


  Inflation Calculator

Banking BrainPop

Comic Relief re: Linear Systems LOL!!!

Lego Article and a Guest Speaker for Linear Systems!!

Under Parent Resources in the Learning Resources Binder there is an article on the benefits of Lego education in instruction and a comic book on banking.  This comic book is called A Penny Saved and is from the Federal Reserve.  It is about the importance of saving.  We will be reading this comic book in ELA classes as well as doing a math activity incorporating the learning objectives of solving systems of equations.  A certified financial advisor from AXA Inc. will be a guest speaker next week!  Please read the comic book in the livebinder under Parent Resources/Banking.  Here is the link again:

Learning Resources LiveBinder

mediaCONNECT

This is a great resources for students to use when trying to find videos and sound files for a presentation.  It is located in the LIVEBINDER titled Learning Resources under Student Resource subtab.

Learning Resources Available for Students and Parents

Click here http://www.livebinders.com/edit/index/657849  for different ideas to use for presenting information with video, finding images, researching with an approved site, finding a helpful graphic orgazizer, or playing some fun math games for review!!

Student Grouping

Groups:

• students placed in four instructional groups
• these groups change based on skill and content
• heterogenous groups based on needs and modified for projects and activities -
• differentiated instruction with remediation and enrichment activities are a focus