letters to my class

Aug 31, 2012

August 30th, 2012

Dear Dolphins,

Hey, that’s the name you picked for our class. In fact, you picked The Flaming Cheese Dolphins. I don’t really know what that means, but I can get behind a class that likes cheese, and I especially can get behind a class that likes dolphins, which are incredible animals and rumored to be one of the smartest species out there. Scientists also think they’re one of the most playful, so they are a perfect mascot for our class.

Today we’ll continue classbuilding activities including making a 5th grade song and deciding on some of the rules and norms that we have for our classroom community. It’s important that our class cares for one another, watches out for each other, and challenges one another to be the best we can be. You will remember the people you go to school with for the rest of your life. We want those memories to be filled with laughter, leaning, and joy.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck
August 30, 2012

August 29th, 2012

Dear Multipliers,

Knowing your multiplication and division facts is the key to 5th grade. It makes everything easier. Adding and subtracting fractions is a piece of cake. Finding area and perimeter is a walk in the park. Doing long division is as easy as winter shaking leaves from the trees.

Sure, you could try to memorize your multiplication facts with flash cards. But I think it’s better to internalize them by playing games, drawing pictures, and doing activities that really help you understand what multiplication is. Making arrays and describing them with number models is one good exercise.

Today, we’ll talk about factors, which are the numbers we multiply to make a product. When we find a product’s factors, it’s like looking at that number’s fingerprint–factors are what make each number unique.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
August 29, 2012

August 28th, 2012

Dear Array Makers,

I like to think of math as the process of making models. Models help us better understand things because models break those things into their parts. We don’t just make models of trains, cars, and airplanes, however; we can also make models of numbers.

One way we can make a model of a multiplication problem is with an array. You have been working with arrays since Second Grade, and you see them all the time in everyday life. For homework this week, you will collect and bring to class arrays that you notice in the real world. One of the main jobs of a mathematician is to see math coursing through everyday life. Rather than just seeing a muffin tin as a muffin tin, a mathematician sees it as a 3×4 rectangular array.

If you have a firm grasp of arrays, you will be prepared for much of what we’ll learn in 5th grade–multiplication, fractions, percents, and area, just to name a few.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. H
August 28, 2012

August 27th, 2012

Dear Musicians,

Today, we’ll go to a concert and you’ll get the opportunity to hear and choose an instrument. I encourage each of you to take up an instrument or join the choir. Music is a gift that will last your entire life. No matter how many hours you spend practicing, there’s always more you can learn. I’ve played the guitar for 15 years, and I still learn something new everyday.

Music is also a great place to practice the skills we’re learning in class. Because math and music both deal with patterns, they are very similar. When practicing the trumpet (or whatever instrument you choose) you’ll also be practicing fractions and arithmetic and many other mathematical concepts.

Most of all, taking up an instrument or joining the choir will teach you that success and greatness are only achieved through hard work. The greatest musicians in the world got that way by spending tens of thousands of hours practicing. You can still enjoy playing an instrument without being the greatest in the world, but the hard work and dedication offers many rewards.

Play on!

Mr. Heimbuck
August 27, 2012

August 26th, 2012

Dear Unique Individuals,

Because we’ll study U.S. history this year, we’ll read a lot about Benjamin Franklin. And we’ll hear a lot of his clever and wise sayings. You’ve probably heard some of them like “Honesty is the best policy,” or “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” My favorite is this one: “If everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking.”

To conform means to do something everyone else is doing without asking yourself if it’s right. As you get older, you’ll feel more and more pressure to conform. Today we’re going to talk about the importance of staying true to who we are and who we want to be.

We need more thinkers in the world, and my goal is to help you all become the best thinkers you can be. But that will only happen if you’re thinking your own thoughts and staying true to who you want to be.

I’m excited for a great year,

Mr. Heimbuck
3 November 2011

November 3rd, 2011

Dear Surveyors,

The biggest question we ask as thinkers and problem solvers is how can we be sure of what we know about the world? What we know is only as good as the method we used to discover it.

One method we’re going to try out today is called a survey. A survey is a collection of data from a sample of the population that we use as a model for the entire population. With a survey, we try to get a sense of the big picture by looking at lots of tiny pictures. For our big picture to be accurate, we have to follow certain rules about what we ask, who we ask, how we ask, and what we do with the answers to our questions.

As we’re making our survey, asking the questions, and analyzing our data, ask yourself how well you think you did at making the big picture.

Sincerely,

Mr. H
2 November 2011

November 2nd, 2011

Dear Chemists,

Lately, we’ve been talking about chemical reactions. We’ve learned that chemical reactions form new substances. Today we’ll talk about what must always stay the same in any chemical reaction: the amount of matter. This is the law of the conservation of mass. Scientific laws are different than societal laws because they can never be broken.

Scientists have long known about this law. The ancient Greeks knew that “nothing comes from nothing,” but it took many centuries before scientists were able to use the law of conservation of mass to create the field of chemistry. Through experiments, close investigations, and communication of their results with others, scientists in the 1600 and 1700s uncovered entirely new insights about the transformation of substances after chemical reactions.

Isn’t it comforting to know that despite all the changes and transformations going on, there’s at least one thing that stays the same? It sure makes the world a whole lot easier to study and understand.

Sincerely,

Mr. H
1 November 2011

November 1st, 2011

Dear Polygon Creators,

The difference between knowledge and a hunch is how well it’s explained. Often, we look at things and know what it is, but what we’re really doing is quickly recognizing the properties that make it what it is. Learning isn’t about knowing what a thing is. Learning is about observing, investigating, and explaining the properties that make it that thing.

So before you call something a square, stand on a little better authority and say, “It’s a square because it has 4 equidistant sides that all meet at 90 degree angles.” A square isn’t something that we draw on paper: it’s the idea of those properties. And ideas lead us to imagine things that were previously unimaginable.

Sincerely,

Mr. H
31 October 2011

October 31st, 2011

Dear Pumpkin Carvers,

Today we’ll use all of our thinking skills to find ways we can know about a pumpkin. Where did the pumpkin come from? Why does it look the way it does? What other things is it like? What things is it totally unlike? Pumpkin farmers are always trying to grow the biggest pumpkin (The current world record holder is over 1800 pounds). What is it about the pumpkin that allows it to grow so big?

By posing these questions, we learn not only about pumpkins, but we learn about the world that the pumpkin is woven into. There’s nothing really all that special about the pumpkin. It’s just an orange gourd that happened to spring from the bush of life in North American a few thousand years ago. While there’s nothing universally true about the answers we get about the pumpkin, there is something universally true about the questions we ask.

How do we know about the pumpkin? What properties and information can we discover about the pumpkin that allows us to communicate its essence to other human beings? These are the questions that last, and these are the questions we use to discover everything we know about the world and our place in it.

Sincerely,

Mr. H
4 October 2011

October 4th, 2011

Dear Calculators,

Before we had electronic calculators and computers, human beings created ingenious methods for calculating large numbers. Only recently have electronic calculators become cheap enough that anyone can have one. Before that, humans used mechanical calculators or simple devices to help them calculate. The abacus is one example that you’ve all seen. Today, we’ll create another calculating device called Napier’s Bones. You will notice that Napier’s Bones look a lot like the lattice method of multiplication. That’s because Napier borrowed that algorithm from people in the Middle East who had been using it for hundreds of years.

If you’re patient in the construction and use of Napier’s Bones, they will not only help you calculate multiplication problems, but they will also help you better understand what exactly multiplication is and what it does.

Sincerely,

Mr. H