letters to my class

Dear Word Watchers,

It was great seeing your parents and families last night. They left with flashcards full of prefixes and suffixes for you to practice each night, so you become better readers and writers.

The English language is full of funny words, weird words, and words that don’t follow rules, but like all languages, it’s also full of patterns. We talk in math a lot about looking for patterns, but the same thing is true in language. More important than learning definitions of words is for you to learn how words relate to each other.  Then, you’ll start to see how easy it is to change words slightly to create new meanings and be more precise with the language that you use.

Play slide tic-tac-toe or Yut with a partner.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Woodshedders,

If you want to be great at something, you have to work at it. You’ve probably heard people tell you that over and over, but we repeat it because it’s true. And it’s not just true for important things like learning your multiplication facts or learning how to read, it’s true for everything. If you want to be a great kazoo player, you have to spend tons of time playing the kazoo. If you want to be a good Minecraft player, you have to spend tons of time playing Mincraft. If you want to be a good math thinker, you have to spend lots of time thinking about math. 

Most of our time spent practicing something is time spent messing up. You have to play a bunch of wrong notes on the kazoo before you can ever play one right note. Success is not the absence of failure but the persistence through it.

Play slide tic-tac-toe or Yut with a partner.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Individuals,

We don’t perform acts of kindness because we’re supposed to, and we don’t do it because we hope they will be repaid in the future (although they probably will). We perform acts of kindness because it’s what makes us human beings. Through kindness, we can get a glimpse into what life is like for others, and we can further our own understanding fo the world. Remember, we’re only one of seven billion.

Today we’ll talk about how to measure the volume of irregular things like rocks. Human beings have developed incredible methods for solving tricky problems like this. Our job in school is to learn from these methods and try to come up with some of our own, because there are still a lot of tricky problems left to solve.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

I was proud to be a Meadow Eagle on Friday. The assembly was spectacular. Your performances were excellent. And the playground dedication was a great celebration of Ms. Marchi. I saw every one of you go out of your way to show random acts of kindness to your classmates, and that made our classroom an great place to be.

Kindness is like a muscle. The more we use it, the stronger it grows. So I want you to continue to show random acts of kindness, especially to those you don’t normally associate with. We’re all in this thing together, so the better we get along, the more we’ll all accomplish.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” –Aesop

Dear Energy Users,

Energy runs the world. This is true literally and figuratively. Throughout history, the world has been shaped and changed through our natural resources. It’s not an accident that previous periods in human history are named by the major resource of the time (think Bronze age, Stone age, etc.)

When humans find a new source of energy, the world changes forever. Currently, we use mostly fossil fuels to create energy, drive our vehicles, and heat/cool our homes. Our society is dependent on these sources of energy, and they have created the most prosperous world in history. But we’re always looking for new forms of energy and new places to get it. Your generation will be faced with finding new forms of energy. If you’re able to do it, you will change the world for the better.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck.

Dear Geometers,

Geometric solids are one of my favorite things. I especially like the five regular polyhedrons–tertrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. They are regular polyhedrons because each of their faces is a regular polygon.

Thousands of years ago, Plato and other ancient Greeks proved that these are the only possible regular polyhedrons, so now we call them Platonic solids. Plato was interested in timeless truths about the world and in math and geometry he found many of them.

That’s what’s so great about math–it gives us truths about the world that last forever.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Citizens,

I am sure you saw the news of the Boston Marathon bombing last week and the manhunt and capture on Friday. You guys are old enough to know that sometimes people do bad things against our country and its people. Since we live in a free society, we’ll never be able to stop all bad things from happening. Our job as citizens is to strike a balance between freedom and security. We figure this out through discussion, debate, and politics. Sometimes that process is messy and frustrating, but it’s much, much better than the alternative.

Even though you’re only 5th graders, we need you to start thinking about these issues. Soon you will be the ones carrying on this important work of government by, of, and for the people.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Measurers,

Today we will talk about capacity–how much something can hold. We use capacity everyday in our lives, but we don’t always understand how the different measures relate to each other. How many ups are in 13 pints? A goal for all fifth graders is to to know how to convert between measures of capacity.

To understand the world, we measure it. And like everything in math, there are many, many ways of expressing the same amount.

Please find a partner, dice, counters, game boards, and play a game or two of Yut.

Dear Collectors,

Today we’ll read about one of the most famous baseball cards in the world. Not only is it famous, it’s also very valuable as well. It’s a little strange that a tiny piece of cardboard could be worth millions of dollars, but the way humans value things does not always make perfect sense. Things have value if human beings want them. I wonder what things are valuable to you?

We’ll also review fraction concepts, practice computation, and think about all the many ways we can break wholes into equal parts.

Please get a partner, die, eight coutners and a gameboard to play Yut.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

Sixty-six years ago today, Jackie Robinson played first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was the first African-American to play Major League Baseball in over 50 years. Crossing the color line took restraint, confidence, and bravery. Jackie Robinson not only had to be a better player than most ballplayers, but he had to be a better person as well. Robinson went on to become one of the greatest players of his generation, and we still remember his contributions to Major League Baseball.

Today, all major league baseball players will commemorate Robinson by wearing his number 42 on their jerseys. In our class, we’ll remember him by reading a story about Robinson’s first year in the majors and one incident that really showed Robinson’s courage.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck