Hi friends,

It’s a short week thanks to the Presidents Day holiday, which means no school Monday in our district. Short weeks always seem to fly by, but there is still a lot of meaningful learning packed into the days ahead.

Winter sports have taken over our classroom ❄️

We are continuing to read about different winter sports during our language arts block. The excitement and drama of the games have completely hooked us, and our students are just as invested.

We try to time our lessons so students learn about a sport on the same day medal events are happening. It gives them something real to watch at home and helps connect school learning to the world outside the classroom.

While much of the world is still confused about curling, our students can explain exactly how the skip helps guide the stones to the button and why having the hammer can make all the difference in securing a win! Watching students become experts in something so quickly has been one of the highlights of this unit.

👉 Check out the bundle here!​

Celebrating Lunar New Year 🧧

We are also adding something special to our language arts block this week: Lunar New Year.

This is always particularly meaningful because Quyen gets to share parts of her culture directly with her students. We use our Lunar New Year Presentation and Firework Craft to teach students about the history, traditions, and significance of the holiday.

Students take notes during the presentation and then transform their learning into a firework craft. These crafts add so much color to the classroom and serve as a lasting reminder of what they learned.

We have also been known to hand out red envelopes with crisp dollar bills (or homework passes!) after students practice saying chúc mừng năm mới or another New Year greeting. It is always a memorable moment.

Dividing fractions (and doing it the right way) ➗

In math, we are moving into dividing fractions.

We had a colleague who has since retired but was a true math guru. She made it very clear that “keep-change-flip” should never be the starting point. Instead, she helped us focus on helping students understand why fraction division works.

Even though she is no longer down the hall, her voice is still in our heads as we teach this unit. Rather than jumping straight to an algorithm, we start by asking questions like, “How many 1/4s are in 1/2?” Students use fraction bars and visual models to see that two fourths fit inside one half. This helps them understand that division is really about finding how many groups fit inside another number.

We begin with unit fractions, which makes the concepts more accessible and allows students to build meaning step by step. Once they see enough examples, the procedure begins to make sense naturally instead of feeling like a trick they have to memorize.

Still, if you are like us, you know fractions can be challenging for students. Taking the time to build conceptual understanding first makes a huge difference in their confidence and long-term success.

Report cards + a huge time saver

Report cards went home over the weekend, and we are incredibly thankful for the support of Instructron’s comment generator.

It helped draft personalized, meaningful comments using actual student performance data. We still reviewed and edited each comment to ensure it reflected our voice, but having a strong starting point saved hours of work.

If you have not explored it yet, it is definitely worth a look. 👉 instructron.com​

You can use code TOPFLOOR20 for 20% off any subscription.

This week’s freebie 🎁

To support your own Lunar New Year lessons, we are sharing a free section from our Lunar New Year interactive lapbook:

​Chinese New Year Traditions FREEBIE​

If you want the complete resource, you can find the full lapbook here:
​Chinese New Year Interactive Lapbook​

We hope you have a great week and enjoy the extra day off. Short weeks always seem to bring some of the most meaningful learning moments.

Joe and Quyen from Top Floor Teachers

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