Reminder

 7:45 am Newspaper meeting (room 9)   tomorrow Tuesday 2/23!

JFK's Student Newspaper

The first edition of the JFK Student Newspaper is out!

Click here: http://pub.lucidpress.com/thekennedymonthlyjan/  to enjoy!

Be sure to look for the article by Ciara!

Classroom Update

Social Studies: We have finished out unit on exploration and discovered the many trips of different European explorers. Below are a few pictures from our week of presentations (Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures for most, but the students agreed posting a few would be ok :)

Writer's Workshop: Last Friday students finished their persuasive essays! Your child can share their essay with you by logging on to their Google Docs account. We used this technology to peer edit our writing. Students learned to give helpful feedback instead of fixing the work for their partner. We have many convincing essays on animals, environmental concerns, homework, sports, and many more. 

Math Workshop: We have completed more work in fraction concepts focusing on understanding word problems by drawing a visual and writing an equation. Students also worked on a collaborative math mini project on Friday. Students "acted" out a wall painting situation with colored paper to determine the solution to the problem. Groups of three created a poster to clearly show their thinking to others. 

Reader's Workshop: We have begun our non-fiction reading unit to coincide our non-ficiton writing unit. Students have set a purpose for reading non-fiction text as well as looked at various non-fiction text features. We discussed how these features help us to understand the information in the text and thought about which ones we may use in our informational birds of prey text in writer's workshop. 

Classroom Update

Math

We are well on our way to completing our work with fractions. Before winter break students learned how to add and subtract both fractions and mixed numbers. We also started our unit on multiplying fractions before vacation. These past two weeks we continued working on multiplying fractions using area models and two different strategies for multiplying mixed numbers. This coming Monday we will begin the last part of our fraction work by looking at the division of fractions.


Reader's Workshop

Students have been working hard before vacation reading and preparing to meet in book clubs. All groups have had some really good conversations about the books they are reading. Many connections have also been made to our read aloud Wonder. Some groups have completed their book and other groups will be finishing next week. A final book club meeting will discuss turning points in the story and theme.


Writer's Workshop

Students are in the process of revising their persuasive essays. Students choose a topic that they feel strongly about and would like to persuade others to take action. We have begun revision with two strategies, adding evidence and unpacking or analyzing evidence. We will continue to work on other revision strategies next week.

Social Studies

Before vacation students learned about early explorations in China, Africa, and Europe. Students are now in the middle of their partner research project on an assigned explorer. Now that students have completed their research, they will create a presentation that will teach their classmates about their explorer. Students have also been learning a lot about how to research information using books and the Internet, an important skill for our upcoming Birds of Prey informational writing project. We began talking about plagiarism and why is it  important to paraphrase or put informational into your own words when doing research and taking notes. Along with this we talked about the need to cite the sources that they are using to find information on their explorer. And finally we discussed how to find reputable Internet sources and how to effectively Google search.

Classroom Update

Thank you to all who donated to our class room's wishing well at Open House. I receive a generous Barnes and Noble's gift card and was able to purchase copies of the much anticipated Auggie and Me: Three Wonder Stories.

Last week students participated in The Hour of Code. This is a global event to promote computer science and show students that children in elementary school can learn basic programing skills. Students really seemed to enjoy this activity. We also made some thoughtful connections to our math practices. As the levels of programing got harder students really had to preserve in solving problems and use different strategies to finally complete the level. 

Math: We have completed 2 shorter units in math these past few weeks. In unit 9 student learned about adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. We reviewed simplifying fractions and finding equivalent fractions as well. In unit 10 stud nets learned how to add and subtract mixed numbers. After Unit 10's assessment, students will learn how to multiply and divide fractions. 

Literacy: Last Friday students joined their first round of book clubs for the year! We have 5 groups  and with 4 different books being read! This past week students participated in their first book club meeting. Students are making some really great connections between the ideas in their book and our recent class read-aloud Wonder. Students are also learning how to manage the requirements for book clubs, including how to plan out the required reading to be ready for the next meeting. 

Last week we also finished Wonder by RJ Palacio. Students really enjoyed this book as it has many connections to every fifth grader's world. Last week and continuing on to this week, we will continue to discuss and work on the story elements of theme and story structure. 

Last week we have finished our first science unit on Earth Materials. Students participated in two different hands-on explorations during this unit. The first exploration helped students to understand the changes of weathering and erosion. Along with Mrs. Kroeber's class, students moved around 5 different stations in our "experiment room". Experiments included predicting how long it would take to crumble a cookie by shaking it in a container, helping students to understanding that weathering is a slow process. Other's included dragging "glacier ice cubes" across soil and adding water to brown sugar and soil mixtures. Experiments were a little messy, but well worth the hands-on exploration in helping students understand these important concepts. 

 The final concept in this science unit dealt with the concept of minerals. Students learned about the different physical properties of minerals and the following day set of to do some mineral testing of their own. Students had to identify 9 mystery minerals and 1 mineral that Mrs. Williams found in her backyard. Students used different tools to identify each minerals' hardness, luster, color, and streak. Obsidian and quartz were among the favorite minerals.

This past week students started our new unit in study exploration during the 1400's. We began by learning about trade in China, Africa, and Europe during this time. This week we will continue to learn about Marco Polo and the silk road and some of the first sea explorations of Portugal and Spain.

The Hour of Code

http://botlogic.us/play

https://code.org/learn

Classroom Update

Reminder: 

Scholastic Orders are due Friday November 20th. Placing the order in November will ensure shipment in early December. If you would like to order any books as gifts please let me know and I would be happy to set aside your order for you to pick up. 

Science: 

We are midway through our unit on earth's materials. Student have learned about the layers of the earth and how this creates conditions for certain things to happen at the earths crust such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. Students have also learned about three forces acting on the crust (compression, tension and shear). Many students have shared their extra credit research  in these topics and we have learned some very interesting facts. I have posted these extra credit presentations on the right side of the blog so that students can view them again if desired. Next we will will continue to discuss other constructive and destructive forces on earth by learning about weathering and erosion. On the right side of the blog there is a page for "Science Links". Students are encouraged to visit these sites to help review information learned in class. Many of these are also fun to interact with, especially the volcano maker. 

Math: 

On Friday students took their Topic 5 assessment. Students worked hard these past two units on mastering the standards algorithm for division (aka long division). They even practiced "walking" through the division with their feet. Student enjoyed this fun and active practice. Our next Topic will be adding and subtracting fractions.