Talking About Diseases!

Today, we began with some work time on our projects, quickly followed by a discussion about diseases. What diseases are genetic or out of our control, and which ones are impacted by our personal choices? We took a doctor quiz online to see if we could successfully diagnose some common conditions based on a set of symptoms. Students also shared some of the diseases they have been researching in connection with their expert body system project.

Ms. D shared a book (which we have four copies of in class) about 10 of the top most extraordinary diseases that generally do not have cures, which created a lot of great discussion.

During math, we continued looking at data analysis and wrote down a poem that will help us remember the definitions of median, mode, mean, and range. Please ask your child to share it with you. Students worked on some sample problems to ensure they understand these math terms, and if they didn’t finish the page, it was their homework for tonight. We also did some review of division involving decimals, as this is newer for some students. Work was done by hand; however, when finding the mean, at times calculators were used for higher number division.

In the afternoon, we continued our read aloud and then watched a video called Portion Distortion which was all about getting the right portions when we eat, as well as the stomach’s actual capacity inside for food. Afterwards we had a discussion around food portions as students reflected on what they eat at home and school. This will prepare us for next week’s discussions around personal choices involving food, sleep, and exercise.

Finally, we ended the day in the gym, getting great exercise through running and play. We played a relay game involving cards, and after playing we reflected on what parts of the game (with winning as our objective) we could control, such as running faster and strategizing, versus the things we couldn’t control, such as which cards we were going to pick up on each relay. Students discussed how this is related to real life, as well. We then played virus tag, which was great fun! Have your child explain the card relay game and tag to you. For next Wednesday, students have been asked to think of a relay game we could create that would involve both factors we can control and ones we cannot.

Thursday night is our parent night 6-7 PM in the portable. Hope to see you then!