Teacher Guide: Lesson 12.3

The Weekly Reader Connections feature on Kids' Place Houghton Mifflin Math provides your students with additional information about the topics that appear in the Curriculum Connection feature in their student books.

The article “On Thin Ice” focuses on the loss of snow cover at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, to alert students to the worldwide glacial melting that has resulted from global warming. Note that scientists say that 67 Alaskan glaciers are melting at an average of six feet a year, a staggering rate. And, in Montana, “Glacier National Park” might one day need a name change! (In 1850, 150 glaciers covered 61 square miles of the park. Today, fewer than 30 glaciers that cover just 16.5 square miles remain.) Researchers expect that the Rocky Mountain and Cascade Mountain ranges are also in danger of eventually losing their glaciers.

In the Word Wise activity, students identify words that, like “glacier,” have the sound of “sh.” They circle those letters in each word that are responsible for making the “sh” sound. (Note that the letters in bold type have the sound of “sh.”)

• machine
• school
• ocean
• sure
• buckle
• muscle
• ship
• mention
• direction
• special

Converting the average high temperature at the top of Kilimanjaro is the challenge for the Data Hunt activity. Students are presented with the formula for converting the temperature given in degrees Celsius to the equivalent temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. Then they apply the formula as follows:

1. 10°C = 50°F
2. 15°C = 59°F
3. 100°C = 212°F
4. 75°C = 167°F