Dear Parents,

We have now completed nine chapters of Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones.  So far, students appear to be very interested. We also watched a YouTube parody of the book..  Additionally we have been learning when and how to use quotation marks properly in setences.

In Social Studies this week we wrapped up our investigation into the impeachment proceedings in Washington and looked at President Trump’s remarks during Tuesday evening’s State of the union Address.  We also looked at the results of Monday’s caucus in Iowa.  We discussed the primary system, how it works and how it might be improved after tech problems delayed results on the Democratic side. We also looked at the positions of the following candidates around a variety of issues:

• Donald Trump
• Bernie Sanders
• Pete Buttigieg
• Elizabeth Warren
• Joseph Biden

In Science we learned about something called “Alien Hand Syndrome.”  Students found this affliction quite interesting.  Alien Hand Syndrome is a neurological disorder in which one’s own hand seems to have a life of its own and cannot be controlled.  We looked at the case of a woman who was actually being beaten and choked by her own left hand

 

For more information, checkout the following link:

https://www.healthline.com/health/alien-hand-syndrome#causes

 

After reading about water creating rainbows in gasoline after a rainstorm we investigated the phenomenon and discovered that gasoline refracts light. White light has every color in the rainbow and gasoline splits it apart. It’s called light dispersion.  For more info, checkout the following link:

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/refrn/Lesson-4/Dispersion-of-Light-by-Prism

We also learned how plastic is polluting the ocean and that plastics may actually be killing the marine microbes that produce the oxygen necessary for life.  We also investigated some actions that we can take to reduce the impact of plastics in the ocean including:

• Buying fewer things
• Reducing the amount of plastic we use
• Recycling the plastic we use
• Saying “No,” to plastic straws, utensils, bags and other products that are used just once

In Math, we worked on converting decimals into fractions, fractions into percent, percentages into fractions and decimals into percent.  We also explore prime factorization using larger numbers.  Below are some examples of prime factorization:

24 = 2 x 3 x 2 x 2

72 = 3 x 3 x 2 x 2 x 2

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at: michael_flynn@platoacademy.org

Dr. Michael