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. 

Year Book Cover Contest

Congratulations to Sowndharya, Ruth Ann, and Ciara who were finalist in the year book cover contest for our class!

.... and congratulations to Ruth Ann. Her art work has won the school-wide vote and will be the cover of our Kennedy School 2015-2016 year book! 

Student Council

Congratulations to Nihara, Sowndharya, Reece, Daniel, Alex, Lily, Emma N, Ciara, Ruth Ann, and Chris who ran for our student council class representative. 

...and Congratulations to Ruth Ann as our elected Student Council Representative!

Classroom Update

Important Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday 11/3: No School
Wednesday 11/4 Early Release 11:40 & Parent/Teacher Conferences
Thursday 11/5 Early Release 11:40 & Parent/Teacher Conferences

Parent/Teacher Conferences: I look forward to sharing your child's progress so far this year with you.  A conference appointment reminder notice was sent home early last week. If  you need to change your appointment, please let me know.

Reading:

We are continuing to read aloud Wonder in class. Lessons each day focus on tracking evidence from the text about characters. Together we then create theories about each of the main characters in the book based on the character's actions, reactions, and what they say. We have had some surprising twists in how characters act. Theories that we made about particular characters in the beginning of the book are now changing. We look forward to reading on to help us determine the motivation for these actions. We have also learned about Precepts or rules to live by. In the book, fifth grade students are given a precept each month to think about and respond to. We have also discusses and responded to these same precepts. September Precept: When given the choice between being right and being kind. Choose kind. October Precept: Your deeds are your monuments.

Wonder has a very unique text structure in which the reader experiences the book from several different characters' point of view. We have discussed how this impacts the information that is revealed to us. We practiced writing from Auggie's point of view by writing a letter from Auggie reacting to Jack. Your child typed his/her letter in their Google Drive. They can access this from home to share their letter with you.

RJ Palacio has also included another unique feature in her book. At the beginning of each section of the book she has included a portion of the lyrics from a particular song or poem. As good reader's we ask why the author has included this feature. We listened to each song and then read the lyrics closely to determine what the song is about. Then we looked for words or phrases that connected to the section of the book that we have just read. Finally, we have had some very interesting discussions about why we think RJ Palacio included the lyrics of these songs in her book.


Book Talks:

We are about half-way through our schedule of book talks. I am so impressed with the book talks given so far. The students are well prepared and are excited to share their book. Thanks to these book talks we have many new books on our reading wish list.


Writing:

Students have just about completed their personal narratives. I am so proud of all the hard work they have put into their extensive revisions. We have talked about how published authors go through many revisions before their final piece of writing is complete too. Students focused in on the "heart" of their story, in other terms the most important part of their story or the turning point  in their story. We have used many revision strategies to elaborate on this part of the story. One of the strategies that I think students enjoyed the most was adding figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, to help their reader feel the emotions in the story.  Students enjoyed creating playful and intriguing comparisons.Finally students worked on editing their writing. We discussed some important skills such as paragraphing and special punctuation rules.



Math:

After finishing Topic 3: Multiplying Whole Numbers in which students mastered the standard algorithm for multiplication we took a close look at a few of the 8 math practices or habits. We revisited some of our work and problem solving tasks from September looking closely at how we communicated our thinking. Students realized that very little of their math thinking was shown on their paper or poster. We discusses expectations for showing math thinking when solving problems. With-in this concept students also learned to use writing to explain or defend the choices they make when problem solving. We then learned how to give feedback to others and were able to help each other improve our written math communication skills. In the end students revised their original work using our new checklist for showing math thinking. Students learned the importance of communicating their work clearly so that others can understand their ideas. Many times students solve problems in different ways and it is important that another person can understand their thinking.

Next, we moved on to Topics 4 and 5: Division of Whole Numbers. Students have been using Daddy, Mommy, Sister, Brother, Rex, and Cocoa to help them learn the standard algorithm for division (aka long division). So far students have practiced dividing by 1-digit divisors. We will move onto 2-digit divisors next. In both division and multiplication procedures students have been continuing to use estimation and check methods to check their final answers for reasonableness.

Students are encouraged to work nightly on Xtramath.org to continue to grow their math fact fluency. Recalling basic math facts quickly  and accurately will help students when multiplying and dividing larger numbers.


Social Studies:
We finished off our ancient civilization unit by comparing the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. Students discovered that there are many characteristics that all three civilizations share as well as many unique features to each civilization.


Science:

We have started our first science unit on Earth Materials, Students will be learning about rocks and minerals, soil composition, and about the systems and processes of our earth. We will also review related science concepts learned in previous years in preparation for Grade 5 Science MCAS.

Other News:

-We had our first community meeting on 10/ 15 that focused on our core value: being physically safe.

-We meet our 1st grade buddies for a short time to help build our school community by helping them with technology.

- We meet again with our  1st grade buddies this Friday for orange and black day and a special snack.

-Friday morning we had a  special morning meeting spiderweb group challenge task. Students focused on teamwork strategies, collaboration, and patience.

- Friday we discussed reading fluency and practiced reading with expression in small groups with the play: The Headless Horseman 

-Students participated in an Extra PE Session: cup stacking challenge

Spider web Challenge 

The Headless Horseman 

1st Grade Buddies !

Classroom Update

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend, especially with this beautiful weather.

Last Week....

We began our first class read-aloud of the year. During this time we read a book together as a class. I am able to continue to model the strategies and skills we have worked on in reader's workshop so far this year and introduce new skills. Students will practice these skills in our read aloud book as well as in their current independent reading book. I can tell that all of the students are really enjoying Wonder  by RJ Palacio so far. During this book we will work on building theories about characters and well as tracking narrative story elements. Students have started using sticky notes to tag as we read to provide evidence from the text to support their theories about characters. RJ Palacio tells the story of a fifth grade boy in a very unique was by changing perspectives throughout the story. We will look closely at this unique point of view and how to helps us to develop theories about the characters.

In math we have been making good progress in Topic 3: Multiplying Whole Numbers. Students have learned about the four properties of multiplication, which we also learned can help us when solving problems. Students also learned the very important skills of multiplying by powers of 10. Next we explored the are model to find the product of two factors. This is an essential step in students understanding the procedure for the standard algorithm for multiplication. Students are also working on Xtramath.org to practice the multiplication facts. 

We also continued to revise our narrative stories by looking closely at leads and endings. First we reviewed strategies for creating good leads and endings. Then we looked closely at how you as a writer can revise the lead and ending to bring forth the meaning of the story. 

We have completed our study of the Aztec and used a mind-mapping application to organized the information we learned. We also discussed study strategies for the upcoming Ancient Civilizations test on Thursday 10/29. Students were given a study guide and encouraged to "create" a study tool. 

Classroom Update October

We welcomed in October this week with Open House and cooler weather. It was so nice to see so many families at Open House. Students have accomplished a lot in our first month and were excited to show off their work. 

Thank you for all those who ordered from Scholastic this month; our class has earned many points to use to buy new books. I will place the order on Monday afternoon after students help me choose which books to get with our points. I know they are excited for some new titles! 

Math Workshop: We have completed Topic 2 adding and subtracting decimals this Friday. Students have been using their study guide to study for Monday's assessment. In this unit students not only learned the standard algorithm to add and subtract decimals but they also developed their mental math skills by using rounding and compatible numbers to estimate sums and differences. They also used their mental math skills to check to see if their sum or difference was reasonable. When adding and subtracting students used the acronym ESSC: Estimate, Setup, Solve, Check to help them calculate with precision and accuracy, one of the 8 mathematical practices (aka Math Habits). Students developed their own acronym to remember these steps. 

Reader's Workshop: We have completed our unit on narrative story elements this week. After analyzing a charterer's thoughts, actions, and feelings students were able to identify the traits that describes that character. Next students learned about the different types of conflict in a narrative story. In particularly we focused on character vs. self conflict. Often times this self conflict is "tough" a decision that the character must make, like Ben's decision about pulling Truman's chair in "How Bad Could It Be" from our Storyworks magazine. Then we learned how to develop a theme statement by identifying a theme topic and recalling evidence supporting the topic from the story, to ultimately develop a statement about the author's message. We brought the entire unit of investigating story elements together by learning to write summaries about the books we read. The key to this is choosing which ideas and events are most important. Next week we will begin our first read-aloud of the year: Wonder by RJ Palacio. 

Writer's Workshop: These past two weeks in writer's workshop students worked on developing their narrative story idea. We first talked about the message they want to send their readers by asking themselves, "what is my story really about?" Then we mapped out our story ideas using a story mountain map just as we have learned to map out a story in reader's workshop. After drafting students began revision by identifying the important parts in their story and elaborating on them by adding in sensory details, thought shots, and small actions to help their reader see the importance of their story. This week we will continue to work on a variety of revision strategies. 

Social Studies: Students have completed their guided research on the Maya and used two technology applications to organize their knowledge of the Maya. First students used Google Docs to create a three column vocabulary chart with important words from their Maya study. This will also help students study for their upcoming test. And second students used a word cloud application to share main ideas about the Maya. On Thursday we began to study the Aztec using the same process as we did the for the Maya. Students are also working on note-taking and identifying important ideas in non-fiction text. We will continue our study this week with the Aztec and our final civilization the Inca. 

Room 27 Update

Wow, despite not have a full five-day week of school yet, we sure have been busy learning here in room 27.

Math: This week in math we finished Topic 1 on place value. Today, with much patience, students successfully took their first math assessment online, despite some technology problems with the website this morning. Your child's score can be viewed when they log into pearsonrealize.com (password is in homework folder). Your child's work and official score will be sent home on Monday. I am very proud of the students for showing all of their working and strategies as they completed the test. Monday we will being Topic 2: adding and subtracting decimals.

Social Studies: This week students started reading non-fiction text about the Maya civilizations, hoping to answer their curiosities recorded in our online "social studies classroom". Students are practicing organized note-taking and identifying the important ideas in non-fiction text. We will continue to read about the Maya from other sources of information including as books, magazine, and videos.

Writing: Len Cabral, an amazing storyteller, visited our school this week. He came just in time to kick off our narrative writing unit. Len introduced students to the idea of "scar stories" or stories that have left an impact on who we are. After, we returned to class and began to brainstorm our own ideas for personal narrative writing. Next week we will choose a topic and begin drafting.

Reading: This week we continued to explore narrative story elements. We focused in plotting story events and identifying the turning point or "peak" of the story mountain. Students will use this knowledge in their reading as well as when they begin to write their own narrative stories. For the past few days we narrowed our focus in on setting. Not just being able to identify the setting but analyzing how the setting impacts the characters. We read the first two chapters of The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe  by CS Lewis and practiced describing the setting of the Professor's house and Tumnus' cave. We also practiced using textual evidence or looking for text in the book that supports our conclusions about how the characters are impacted by the setting. Today students got to read a special narrative non-fiction story written by the I Survived  author Lauren Tarshis, describing the Joplen tornados. We discussed the unique point of the that Tarshis used to tell this story along with another element of narrative stories: mood. Next week we will be continue to dig deeply with other story elements such as characters, conflict, and theme.


Enjoy your Weekend! :)

Our First "Week"

We had a GREAT start to the school year this week. To build our classroom community and get to know one another we participated in many fun activities including "A What?", mystery bags, "Would you rather?", and fact or fiction. We have set routines, organized our materials, and began to develop our thoughts about the kind of place we want our classroom to be. Today in math students worked in collaborative groups to solve the Rectangle Challenge. I am looking forward to another great week! 

Happy long weekend!  

Mrs. Williams