Lower Elementary

June 1-5, 2020

Ferns, Non-Flowering Plants

“Only spread a fern-frond over a man’s head and worldly cares are cast out, and freedom and beauty and peace come in.” — John Muir

• We have frequently studied flowering plants. It’s easy to give angiosperms (flowering plants) attention because their bright corollas and inviting scents naturally seem to call to us. Today, let’s give our attention to pteridophyta: ferns.
• There are over 10,000 species of ferns. Ferns do not produce flowers and therefore do not produce seeds. Ferns reproduce with tiny spores, which are carried by the wind. The leaves on ferns are called “fronds.” They grow from underground stems. Spores are made and grow on the underside of fronds.
• The small sections on the frond of a fern lets the leaf catch more sunlight. Photosynthesis, the plant’s way of making its own food, glucose, is also important for producing spores.
• Echoing a previous lesson about how plants defend themselves, the stem at the bottom of the frond is usually protected with hairs, scales, or thorns.
• Based on studies of fossils, ferns are theorized to have first existed 360 million years ago in the mid-Devonian period.
• The three major parts of the fern:
  • the rhizome (the underground stem)
  • the leafy frond (See diagram for further details.)
  • sporangia (the reproductive structure)

• Follow-up Activities:
  • (Intro Level) Go on a nature walk (this can be your garden, your neighborhood, the plants section of the grocery store, or a nearby park). Search for a fern. Capture the botanical specimen artistically then identify the parts.
  • (An Artist’s Approach) Use clay to make a fossil model of the fern you found. After, create little tickets to identify the parts.
  • (A Geographer’s Approach) What was the Earth like during the Devonian Period? Describe the planet’s state.
  • (A Paleontologist Approach) What creatures existed during the Devonian Period? How did they meet their fundamental needs?
  • Imagine your own way to follow up with this lesson.

Planting Cycles

• Gardens are planted now all around our region. Some garden vegetables are ready to harvest already. We will have to wait a long time for others. 
• Here is a list of fruits and vegetables. Use a planting and harvest chart like this one to find out which ones are almost ready and which plants won’t be ready until July or later.
  • Strawberries
  • Lettuce
  • Watermelons
  • Peas
  • Red Potatoes
  • Pumpkins
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Peaches
  • Corn
  • Blackberries

 

June 1-5, 2020

Quantitative Adjectives

• Through your work with Grammar Boxes and adjective games, you know that adjectives are words that describe. Today, let’s focus on one particular kind of adjective: quantitative adjectives.
• Quantitative adjectives answer the question “How many?” They describe the quantity of nouns.
• Examples:
  • Much
  • Little
  • Some
  • All
  • A few
  • Several
  • Most 
  • Many
  • Any
  • Enough
  • A lot
  • Numerous
  • A plethora
  • A pair of
  • A couple of
  • One, two, three, ten, five-hundred, a million
  • A tenth, a fraction, a hundredth… etc.
• Follow-up Activities:
  • (Intro Level) Describe quantitative adjectives.
  • (Practice Level) Write 10 sentences using the examples of quantitative adjectives above.
  • Imagine your own follow-up activity.

Spelling

• Choose a spelling list for this week from the Instructional Spelling Program by Andrea Rolfe or choose the last list from The Reading Teacher’s Big Book of Lists (Intermediate Spelling Demons) by Kress and Fry. Practice spelling your list out loud with a parent or sibling. Make up sentences for each word and write them down. 
  • stir, dirt, third, first, born, short, storm, sport, north, form.
  • plays, played, stays, sprayed, dries, dried, fries, fried, worries, worried.
  • grate, great, died, dyed, coward, cowered, loan, lone, bold, bowled.
  • danced, dancing, loses, losing, carved, carving, shares, sharing, pasted, pasting.
  • yield, written, visible, usually, twelfth, system, running, quantity, pursue, ordinary.

Writing Conferences:

Please reach out to Ms. Navarro by email if you would like to schedule a writing conference with her. She would love to hear what you are writing about these days and support your creative work!

June 1-5, 2020

Divisibility, continued

• Let’s look at more patterns in numbers and their factors. Remember we can determine whether a dividend is evenly divisible by a divisor or not by looking at the patterns in the multiples of numbers. Remember the parts of a division problem: 468 (dividend) ➗2 (divisor) =  234  (quotient).
• Today let’s look at the multiples of 9.

Divisible by 9 - - - - - - - - 9 - -

Not divisible by 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 - 10 11

 

• If we continue looking at numbers to 27, we see a pattern:

Divisible by 9 - - - - - - 18 - - - - - - - - 27

Not divisible by 9 12 13 14 15 16 17 - 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 -

 

• Let's look at the three numbers that we have found that are divisible by 9: 9, 18, 27. What is the relationship between tens and units in these two digit numbers? Do you notice something? 
• If we continue looking at multiples of 9, the pattern becomes clearer for two digit numbers. Consider the next four multiples of 9: 36, 45, 54, 63
  • What is the sum of each number pair? Is every two digit number whose digits add up to 9, evenly divisible by 9?
  • Write down all the skip counting multiples of 9 from 63 to 99 and see if they too add up to nine. Write them out and circle all the ones that add up to 9.
  • Look at three digit numbers that add up to 9: Are they all evenly divisible by 9?
  • Write the skip counting sequence for 9 from 99 to 180. Does the rule hold true that far?
  • What happens when we get to the next number, 189? What is the sum of those digits? Does this new number relate to 9 somehow? How is it related?

Clapping Rhythm Patterns and Recognizing Counts, Part 2

• Building on a previous rhythm patterns activity, practice these measures. The three notes connected are triplets. They stand for one count. This continues our 4/4 counts.
  • The first measure is counted like this: ONE, TWO-AND-A THREE, FOUR
  • The second measure is counted like this: ONE, TWO, THREE-AND-A FOUR
  • The third measure is counted like this: ONE-AND-A TWO, THREE, FOUR.
  • The fourth measure: ONE-AND-A TWO, THREE-AND-A FOUR
  • The fifth measure: ONE-AND-A TWO-AND-A THREE FOUR
  • The sixth measure: ONE, TWO-AND-A THREE-AND-A FOUR
  • The seventh measure: ONE-AND-A TWO-AND-A THREE-AND-A FOUR

• Follow-up Activities:
  • (Intro Level) Play each of the measures. Practice each a few times. Tap or clap out each rhythm if you do not have any instruments handy.
  • Write a short song using the rhythm patterns above. 
  • Imagine your own follow-up activity.