thetutorwhisperer

Bionicle Pencil Case

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:20:03 +0000

Recycling comes in many forms. My son, who cannot get enough of building Bionicles, also loves the containers they come in. We have so many, and he just doesn’t want to throw them away. Instead, we have come up with other uses for them. This year, Joshua has kept all of his school supplies in his Bionicle container; he uses it as a pencil case. All the pencils stand vertically, and he also puts his erasers, pens, and markers in there. Sometimes, I think that he loves school so much because his supplies are so cool!

Erasable Highlighters

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:16:06 +0000

For years, I have thought about the importance of marking up one’s book, whether underlining or taking notes on the side, in order to retain information, find quotes at a later date for a paper, or study for a test. In most public schools, the books are reused, so the students are not allowed to write in their books. My new find is FriXion light made by Pilot. A pack comes with six erasable highlighters (orange, green, yellow, pink, purple, and blue). With these highlighters, students can actively learn and then erase their markings for the next year’s class. Although the eraser does leave some residue, I think that the benefits, including increased comprehension and soaring grades, will far outweigh that one concern!

Toy Story 3 Review

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:06:04 +0000

By Ilana Cohen (6th grade)

Fifteen years after Toy Story 1 came out, Toy Story 3 has just hit the theaters. Each movie was a whole adventure of its own, so if you didn’t see the other two or don’t remember what happened in the other movies, you will still enjoy it no matter what!

The movie was not just action-packed but also had some relationships with friends and the theme of love. The movie was emotional sometimes, especially at the end when I wanted to cry for happiness. I had to hold back my tears so I wouldn’t cry out loud in the theater.

When I watched the movie, I saw it in 3D. The 3D effects didn’t do much to the movie, so if you don’t see it in 3D, don’t feel left out. Also the music helped me understand when the movie was sad, happy, excited, or adventurous.

However, there is a dark side to this movie. There is one small scene where Woody and his friends are in a junkyard, about to be thrown into a fire. They all hold hands, and the three aliens save them as if they had just come out of a “grab a toy” machine. There are two creepy toys, the Big Baby doll and the screeching monkey, which maybe why this movie is for ages five and up.
The message of the movie was teamwork. Each time one of Andy’s toys had some trouble or was in trouble, they all worked together to restore peace and order.

Abby’s Book Corner

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:03:09 +0000

Recommended for ages 7 on

As a fifth grader going into middle school, I know what the latest books are. One series that got my class excited was the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. It is about three kids. Their names are Percy, who is the sea God Poseidon’s son; Annabeth, Athena’s daughter; and Grover, a satyr. In the first book, The Lightning Thief, you learn all about the characters. You also hear about the quest that Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are given. Zeus’s master lightning bolt and Hades Helm of Darkness have been stolen. Everybody blames Percy because he is one of The Big Three’s children. The Big Three took an oath never to have kids again after World War II. But Poseidon broke the oath and had Percy. Percy and his two friends go on a dangerous quest to retrieve the lightning bolt and the helm. The rest, you will have to read!

Book Summaries

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:58:48 +0000

So much controversy surrounds sites that summarize the chapters of books, such as Sparknotes, BookRags, PinkMonkey, etc. Many schools ask their students to sign a contract that they will under no circumstances use these sites. The problem is that many of us tend to look for a quick way out of our work, and these summaries get used in place of reading the book. I actually think that these summaries can be a critical tool, particularly for those with weaknesses in reading comprehension and memory. If my students who struggle with retention are assigned a chapter of reading, I typically ask them to read the online summary first. Then they must read the chapter to get the details and soak in the author’s style of writing. By reading the summary first, the student has a better understanding of the plot and can now follow along in the book without feeling lost or confused. These summaries are not meant to be a replacement to reading; however, I think that certain middle schools and high schools are actually doing a disservice to their students by banning an important learning tool.

Multiplication: 12’s

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:53:27 +0000

Many children have trouble memorizing their twelves tables in multiplication. I have found that by exploring patterns in math, children who don’t just automatically memorize their times tables are better apt to learn. What I noticed is that the ones column has a pattern of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 that continues throughout all the facts. In the first five facts, the tens column keeps the 1, 2, 3, 4.

The first five multiplication facts are:

12 x 0 = 0
12 x 1 = 12 (in the tens column, keep the 1)
12 x 2 = 24 (in the tens column, keep the 2)
12 x 3 = 36 (in the tens column, keep the 3)
12 x 4 = 48 (in the tens column, keep the 4)
______________________________________________________
The rule changes every multiple of 5:
We now have 12 x 5 = 60
(the rule changes: in the 10s column, the number will increase by 1)
The ones column keeps the 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 pattern.

12 x 5 = 60 (the five increases by one to 6)
12 x 6 = 72 (the six increases by one to 7)
12 x 7 = 84 (the seven increases by one to
12 x 8 = 96 (the eight increases by one to 9)
12 x 9 = 108 (the nine increases by one to 10)
_______________________________________________________

We now have our multiple of five: 12 x 10 = 120, which means our rule is changing again.
(the rule changes: the number will increase by 2)
The ones column keeps the 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 pattern.

12 x 10 = 120 (the ten increases by two to 12)
12 x 11 = 132 (the eleven increases by two to 13)
12 x 12 = 144 (the twelve increases by two to 14)
12 x 13 = 156 (the thirteen increases by two to 15)
12 x 14 = 168 (the fourteen increases by two to 16)
________________________________________________________
We now have our multiple of five: 12 x 15 = 180, which means our rule is changing again.
(the rule changes: the number will increase by 3)
The ones column keeps the 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 pattern.

12 x 15 = 180 (the fifteen increases by three to 18)
12 x 16 = 192 (the sixteen increases by three to 19)
12 x 17 = 204 (the seventeen increases by three to 20)
12 x 18 = 216 (the eighteen increases by three to 21)
12 x 19 = 228 (the nineteen increases by three to 22)

The pattern continues on and on…

Marking Your Book

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:48:44 +0000

Marking up a book is a key to success in school. So many times, students read through a book and then later have trouble locating quotes, setting, symbols, or even just answering questions on a quiz or test. By writing some key notes to oneself on the top or side of the page, the student typically remembers where the information is. If not, he or she can look at the short, hand-written notes, rather than re-reading the entire book, attempting to search for the answers. Marking up one’s book actually alleviates a lot of frustration and saves a ton of time in the long term! This sample is from the book The Outsiders. One of my sixth graders has started marking up her book right from the start! She has excelled as a student and has already mastered the art of taking notes in her book. Notice her comments written both at the top and the side of the pages. By utilizing this technique at such a young age, she has already prepared herself as a student for both high school and college.

Mnemonics

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:45:22 +0000

I am a firm believer in using mnemonics as a memorization tool. To shove information into the brain in large amounts can be absolutely overwhelming. I have found that when the student makes a fun sentence out of a series of information, not only does that child learn the information quicker, but he or she is likely to retain the information over time.

The example I am sharing involves memorizing the states on a map. Many of my students would complain about the length of time it took them to remember 50 states, their locations, and their spellings. I made up these mnemonics (although it is better for the child to make up ones that are meaningful to him or her), and my students memorized these first 17 states in a matter of minutes, not hours.

“Are you having a COW?”
1. C=California
2. 0=Oregon
3. W=Washington

“NA!”
4. N=Nevada
5. A=Arizona

“I OWE U something NEW!”
6. I OWE=Idaho
7. U=Utah
8. NEW=New Mexico

“MAN, can you get a TAN?” “WHY?” You need a little COLOR!”
9. MAN TAN=Montana
10. WHY=Wyoming
11. COLOR=Colorado

“DAKOTA, do you want to go NORTH OR SOUTH? Well, if you are really ASKing me, I C(K)AN go HOME to TEXAS.”
12. North Dakota
13. South Dakota
14. ASK=NebrASKa
15. C(K)AN=Kansas
16. HOME=Oklahoma
17. TEXAS

Marking Your Book

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:37:36 +0000

Marking up a book is a key to success in high school. So many times, students read through a book and then later have trouble locating quotes, setting, symbols, or even just answering questions on a quiz or test. By writing some key notes to oneself on the top or side of the page, the student typically remembers where the information is. If not, he or she can look at the short, hand-written notes, rather than re-reading the entire book, attempting to search for the answers. Marking up one’s book actually alleviates a lot of frustration and saves a ton of time in the long term! This sample is from the book The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Notice the comments written both at the top and the side of the pages. By utilizing this technique, the information gets imprinted on the brain as the student reads. The student also analyzes and makes connections as he or she reads. During midterms or finals, the story may not be fresh anymore; when the student needs to go back to the book to find out, for example, where the fish was harpooned, the page is easy to locate!

Online Calculator

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:34:01 +0000

Have you ever started your Algebra II or Trigonometry homework only to find that you left your calculator at school? Well, you don’t have to drive back to campus or ask to borrow a friend’s.

Just type in: http://web2.0calc.com/ and you will be able to use a scientific calculator, complete with square roots, squares, sine, cosine, and tangent functions, and logarithms. One of the nice features is that you can click on either degrees or radians at the bottom. Just know that when you use this calculator, you press the number first, then the sin, cos, or tan buttons, and then the equals sign. For instance, if you want to find the cosine of 90 degrees, you press 90, then cos (cos 90 will appear on the top), then equals, and you will have your answer! I also love that this calculator has a button for cubing and taking the cubed roots of numbers as well as plugging in any exponent, such as 8 to the sixth power. Parents should know about this online calculator as well!