MANY PROJECTS AND LONG TERM ASSIGNMENTS COMING DUE

You may be noticing that your 5th grader has a lot of projects and assignments due one after the other. If your child has been keeping up with these assignments all along, then completing them should be very possible.  The model of the invention should be completed by tonight and a photo taken and printed and brought to school tomorrow. Many students have already brought in their photos and their completed Log Books. Log Books are due Wednesday (April 30).  All but three students have completed their final drafts of their outlines for their Women in History research reports and are working on writing their first drafts of the report itself.  Two students have already written their first drafts. The first draft of the report is due: May 4.  Your child should be working on one or two paragraphs a night in order to complete the report on time. Those who are very behind and are still working on their outlines, should be spending some weekend time catching up. There will be a history test on The Southern Colonies May 7. I will be giving some review and study time in class. I will also be giving the essay questions in advanced (tomorrow) and some study guide sheets this week. Please help your child by making sure your computer is working, your printer is working and your child is reminded about the nightly work on the report and all due dates. You might want to post a calendar with the due dates circled and labeled with the assignment. 

In school we are working on completing the Million Dollar project, reading Johnny Tremain, studying about the Southern Colonies and slavery, doing some activities related to some science curriculum we learned on our field trip to the Headlands, writing letters to parent chaperones, writing memoirs from a slave’s point of view or “graphic novels” depicting the three passages of slavery. We had a great time on our Headlands trip and got a chance to see and explore sea life and eco- systems we could never have done on school campus. At the Headlands the outdoors became our laboratory. 

Gail’s Blog is Back!

Yes, it’s been a long time but my blog is back and there is so much to tell you about. The class has been working very hard in math, literature, writing, science and history.

•  Literature: 
• Finished Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, one of the best written books for young adults there is. We used the author’s writing devices, vocabulary and techniques to model for us and inspire us to grow as writers as well as lovers of  literature.
• Beginning Johnny Tremain tomorrow.
• Students will be picking books to read independently for next book report due mid-May.
• Math:
• Completed units on fractions, decimals, ratio and percent.
• Introduced weekly math enrichment, every Thursday, in class. Students get to work on high level critical thinking problems and puzzles and topics such as exponents, coordinates & graphing, statistics, number theory, tessalations, geometry and more.
• Science:
• Learning about the physics of simple machines. Recently explored properties of incline planes, Archimedes Screw, levers and balaces. Made an Archimeded Screw as well as a levered balance out of K’Nex pieces and conducted various explorations based on measurement and equation to determine how these machines made work easier.
• Learned physics vocabulary such as: the load, the effort, the fulcrum, the load distance, the effort distance, the mechanical advantage.
• Completed 4-day workshop on puberty education
• Completed preliminary activities in our inventions unit. Students have learned about the history of many inventions, the purpose of inventions and how one goes about trying to invent something based on a necessity. Students have conducted surveys and research and are now ready to make their inventions and to determine their targeted market based on their survey.
• History:
• Completed large unit on Early European Settlements in America. Students took notes, worked in study groups, made outlines to prepare for test, wrote four essays, worked on map skills, used compare and contrast format to understand the difference and similarities among the Spanish, French, Dutch and English settlemts. The major concept was to see how America offered either economic opportunity or religious freedom to the early settlers and to understand why these forces were so compelling.
• We also traced the economic reasons for slavery in America and in particularly, in the Southern Colonies. We watched two volumes of Roots, a mini series from the late 1970’s which traces one African American man’s family back to Africa and being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Students got to see the nature of slavery in the early 18th century and see how European and American beliefs rationalized this inhumane situation.
• We have begun the next unit in colonial American history which will emphasize the different economic development of the English colonies due to their geography and social/cultural influences. We will emphasize the ever dividing attitudes towards slavery in the Southern and Northern colonies as well as the ever uniting idea of independence from Great Britain. We will look at the Declaration of Independence and interpret it words and intent.
• Students have been working hard in their reports on a woman in history. It has been a real challenge for many to take notes, to get enough information, and to know what is important and what should be left out. We have begun working on writing an outline for the report. Many students are finding out that they need more information and are having to go back and take more notes. This is a learning process.  Students should be working every night on their outlines. They work in class for a period a day but many need more time to complete the amount required each day.
• Writing:   We finished writing science fiction stories inspired by the movie E.T. Students have used their wonderful imaginations to create amazing stories. Everyone has grown so much as a writer this year. They have illustrated their writing as well and will have a beautiful portfolio to keep forever at the end of 5th grade.

SOME IMPORTANT DATES FOR HISTORY REPORT:

• OUTLINE DUE APRIL 3
• FIRST TYPED DRAFT OF HISTORY REPORT DUE MAY 4
• COVER FOR HISTORY REPORT DUE MAY 5
• TITLE PAGE FOR REPORT DUE MAY 6
• BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR REPORT DUE MAY 7
• COMPLETE CORRECTED FINAL DRAFT DUE MAY 18

SOME IMPORTANT DATES FOR INVENTION PROJECT:

• INVENTION MODEL COMPLETED BY APRIL 29. PHOTO OF INVENTION DUE IN CLASS ON APRIL 29. INVENTION, ITSELF, STAYS HOME UNTIL –JUNE 1.
• INVENTION LOG BOOK ENTRIES NEED TO BE MADE EACH NIGHT YOU WORK ON INVENTION, SIGNED AND DATED BY A WITNESS. LOG BOOK AND ALL ITS COMPONENTS ARE DUE BY APRIL 30, AND HANDED IN THAT DAY.

MILLION DOLLAR PROJECT AND INVENTION POSTER BOARDS WILL BE DONE IN CLASS AND TEACHER WILL SUPPLY MATERIALS.

KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES

I so much enjoyed meeting with you at parent conferences. I regard my role as your child’s teacher to be a partnership with you, his/her parents and myself. Together, we create the best possible educational and emotional experience for your child. Thank you for taking the time to conference with me and for your insights which help me be a better teacher. I am truly loving my class this year. It is such a luxury to have a small and bright class that allows me the time to work with each child and to provide each child with  the help and guidance he/she needs.  

As always, we have been very busy learning in school. In my math class, we are learning so much about fractions. There are many skills to learn with fractions, including problem solving and measurement. There will be a test on all that we have covered in fractions so far, next Monday and Tuesday (November 24 &25). I have given each student a practice test and other review sheets which we are working on in class all this week. Your child will need to practice and study from these review sheets in preparation for the test. In order to give the children enough time to review every skill, I am giving the test next week, even though it is right before the Thanksgiving break. If your child will be away next Monday and/or Tuesday, he/she will have to take the test upon returning. So, make sure he/she studies and the material is fresh in his/her mind upon returning.

We will be having our annual Thanksgiving feast next Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 11:15 - 12:15.  We celebrate Thanksgiving not only because it is an American holiday, but because we are studying American history in 5th grade. The story of the Puritans and their establishing a colony in America to be able to practice their religion free from persecution, is an important part of our understanding of the historical events  that has shaped our country and our values. In honor of all this, we will be cooking in class on Monday, Nov. 24. We will be making a hearty and delicious vegetable soup and corn bread. The other 5th grade will be making some dishes and we will come together and eat, talk about what we are thankful for and sing some songs about America. Each child has been assigned an ingredient to bring to school by Friday. An E-mail was sent out about this and I will post the list in class.

Our exploration of colonization is continuing with our student colonies filling their ships with cargo for the journey to the New World. Choices they make are crucial to their success. Will they bring enough food to see them through the long journey across the ocean? Will they have enough people to hunt, fish and farm for sustenance? Will they be able to negotiate with the Native American for land, food, water? What perils await our eager colonists on the ocean as well as the wilderness which is the New World? 5th graders are busily using their reasoning and problem solving skills to make the best possible choices in these life and death decisions.

In our study of writing, we are learning to recognize as well as write our own topic sentences and detail sentences to form paragraphs for narratives and essays. We work almost daily in these activities which will culmunate in writing a 3 -5 paragraph essay.  In literature, we are getting close to the end of our book. We are discussing the author’s use of: personification, symbolism and comic relief as literary techniques which make the book come alive.  In our study of inventions, each student has written a mini-report on an invention and its inventor. They typed it up in the computer lab, got pictures from Google Imagesand super imposed it onto their reports. The results look great and we all learned a lot about  some inventors and inventions. They are posted on the classroom wall.  

New Units of Study

Having had our history test on European Age of Exploration and Discovery, 5th graders are seeing the fruits of their studying labors. Those who studied their notes and study sheets and practiced writing the answers to the essay questions did very well. Children need different amounts of time to learn the material. Many of the 5th graders are starting to see that they may have needed to practice, study and prepare more than they did. Others found the right amount of time they needed to learn the material well. Each child is unique and needs to find the ways that work best for him or her. Part of the goal of giving the test was to teach our students study skills and test taking skills. Everyone has grown academically from the whole experience. Hopefully, everyone has a better understanding of what the world was like in the 15th and 16th centuries and how it has impacted America’s development to this very day. 

We have begun a new unit in history on early American colonization of North America. In order to make the concepts come alive and be real for our students, we will be doing a month long simulation of colonization, imitating the English colonization of the Atlantic coast.  The simulation involves dividing the class into three colony groups. They will be learning map skills, using a budget to buy supplies for their ships, sailing across the ocean and trying to colonize the land they arrive in. Along the way they will experience hardships, problems and excitement that the early English colonies experienced. They will have to survive by negotiating with the Native people, trading, fishing, hunting, and farming. They will pick fate cards that replicate actual experiences that early colonists had. Crops can be destroyed, epidemics can wipe out portions of a population, Native Americans can show your colony how to fish and hunt - all things that did happen to some colonies. This simulation will really help our students understand what life was like and what the goals were in establishing colonies in the “New World.” Students will be using problem solving strategies, math skills, leadership, collaborative team work, creativity and reading and writing skills to make their colony succeed. 

As you know, the presidential elections are almost here. We are discussing the electoral college- why it exists, what it does, and what is needed to win the election. I am asking the class to watch a half hour of the election returns (if parent allows) next Tuesday evening. They will have a map of the U.S. with the states and their corresponding electoral votes printed on it. The students’ assignment is to watch the news coverage of the election and jot down an O or an M on their maps on any states whose votes have been counted. I would also like them to see the big “fuss” that surrounds this event. We will discuss the elections the next day in school.

In our English and writing classes, we are finishing up writing a creative short story on being granted three wishes. The students have great imaginations. I am enjoying reading their stories as they work on them. The first draft will be due November 5. Then, they will need to get typed. I’m encouraging the class to try to type their stories themselves. But, I know the reality. For many children, they don’t have the typing skills to do so in a timely way. Many will need parent help. I would like to suggest that parents (who are willing) type a page and have your child type a page, or a paragraph or two paragraphs. As long as the child types some part of the story, he or she will be taking the first steps towards familiarity with the keyboard and with setting up  word processing.  The more students type up their work, the better they will get at it. Some of your kids have written very long stories so, your contribution to typing may be really needed.

We are learning about writing paragraphs, topic sentences and supporting details. This is the building block for writing essays and reports and for any expository writing. We continue to practice proof reading and the rules of punctuation that go with it. This week I will introduce our first spelling list. Most of the words are from our study of history and from the errors I see on the students papers. 

We continue working on the Million Dollar Project. Many of the children have listed most of the items they think they’ll need for their project and have begun pricing them. What good practice for real life and for working with a budget!  They are rounding prices to the nearest 10, 100, 1000 which calls upon their math skills. We are using calculators to add the totals, which gives them practice with calculators.  In Gail’s math class we have begun a unit in fractions. Some of the vocabulary we are learning in math is: numerator, denominator, lowest common multiple, divisor, equivalent fraction, and reducing to lowest terms or simplifying. Ask your child what these all mean. Maybe he or she will give you examples. It’s great when math discussions can happen at home.

The Happy Holiday Of Sukkot

Rabbi Tsipi told us that Sukkot is the one holiday in the Torah that commands us to be happy. I wish all of you a good holiday and to enjoy the beauty of the Fall and of the new fruits and harvest. We are having these wonderful holidays and yet, the learning process must go on in order for us to finish our fifth grade curriculum by the end of the school year. With that in mind, I need to announce that there will be a math quiz for my math group this Friday, October 17,  and a history test on Friday, October 24th. We are spending class time to study for the history test but students will need to review their notes and outlines in the days before the test. I will be sending home a study sheet listing all the topics that will be on the test and the three essay questions this Thursday.  Some students have some math to finish tonight, due Thursday.  They need to finish Textbook page 32 (#’s 7-14) and workbook page 30. Most of this assignment was done in class.

A Sweet & Healthy Rosh Ha’ Shana

I hope you all had a pleasant and meaningful Rosh Ha’ Shana. Despite the days off, the Fifth Grade has been very busy with our units of study. For the last two weeks we have been learning about some important inventions, writing mini-reports on an invention, drawing and writing about an invention and how it looked and worked in the past, in the present and the most fun, how might it evolve in the future. The latter assignment engaged the students creativity and thinking. We have many books on inventions displayed around the classroom. Students were fascinted by such old relics as the record player, the typewriter and the original telephones.  They are already thinking about what original invention they might design. Many children in the class were surprized that “bread” is an invention. We discussed the role of agriculture and use of grains as one of the key elements for the advancement of civilization in the history of humans.

In history, we are finishing up our unit on the Age of Exploration. Each student is keeping a history notebook where they take notes. They are learning outline form and Roman numerals and hopefully, how to use notes as a study aid. We are reviewing the unit and are learning how to prepare for a test. Next week, I will give everyone a study sheet listing all the topics that will be on the test and the 3 essay questions. I will have them write outlines for the essays - once again, showing them how to study. Study skills are a major skill that I strive to teach 5th graders over the course of the year.

In writing, the students have been writing stories in their journals. Some, have made several “chapters’ and hope to continue on in their novellas all year. We continue to practice proof reading/editing skills. Next week, I will begin teaching the class how to write a formal paragraph with a topic sentence and supporting details. This will develop into how to write a multi paragraphed essay and eventually, a report.

In math,  my math class has begun a unit on division with 2-digits in the divisor. We just finished learning multiplying by 2 and 3 digits. Division is one of the great challenges of the curriculum. Soon we will start fractions and learn how fractions is a form of division. Today, Tuesday, some students had to finish up some math for homework. I never give homework on the holidays but, they have a full day tomorrow before the holiday begins and they need the practice for mastery.

We have gotten to the exciting part of the book we are reading, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. The class is really riveted by the juicy plot and the great descriptive writing in this book. Last Friday we went to the library and every student took out a book for independent reading. They should be reading their new book as close to daily as possible.

In our  last Wednesday class meeting, we discussed how hurtful and embarrasing it may be for people to point out or make fun of other people’s physical characteristics such as: “you’re so short,” “Your ears are as big as Dumbo’s,” “You’re fat/skinny/tall,” etc. Many kids shared with the group how they have been teased or humiliated by other kids making these kinds of statements. When asked, “who in this class has ever felt bad about being teased about their physical traits, every child raised a hand.   We spoke of the Jewish value of not doing to others what you wouldn’t want for yourself. We spoke about the concept of empathy. How would you feel in that situation? Everyone agreed that we should pledge to be careful with our words and not use them to be hurtful to others.

Gail’s Math Class

There will be a test on Wednesday, September 24, on the topics we have covered since the beginning of the school year.  There will be review this Monday and Tuesday. The topics are: place value, rounding to nearest 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, 1000,000, estimation and approximation using compatible numbers, multiplying and dividing by numbers ending in zeroes, word problems and order of operations.  Pages 6 through 25 in the textbook demonstrate each topic covered. I suggest the students review a few problems from each lesson in their text book or in their workbook to make sure they remember how to work the problems.  

Million Dollar Project

The Million Dollar Project began as a math project. Its purpose was to give students a “real” experience with the concept of a million and to reinforce how to make fractions into decimals and decimals into percent and, to make a pie chart (graph) showing the percentages spent on each major category of expenses. It has since evolved into not only a math project, but social studies and Jewish values as a tsedakkah project. In addition, it has also evolved as a way to learn computer skills such as how to make a spread sheet, make an advertisement, design titles and find information. It deserves its name because it integrates so many skills and develops many important concepts.  The fifth grade students have been introduced to this project which will be our theme for most of our computer lab sessions during the year. They have been shown projects done by students in past years and, I will continue to give them samples of work for every aspect of this project. Most of the work will be done at school, either in class or during computer lab periods.

       The first assignment, which will be due October 3, is a written proposal explaining what they would like to do for their Million Dollar Project. I have given each student two examples of written descriptions done by two former fifth graders.   The assignment is to write one paragraph explaining and describing the project you would like to create with the million dollars. Keep in mind that it must be something which benefits a community, a group of people, the world, the environment, etc.  Some examples of the past have been: a cooking school and restaurant for the homeless, a summer camp teaching Vietnamese culture, a mobile mammography clinic to poor neighborhoods, an after school tutoring and computer learning center, an animal rescue after natural disasters, etc.  And, write a second paragraph telling why you think this is an important project and why you personally would like to do it.   It would be convenient if this write-up would be typed, double spaced so that it can be developed easily for later use in writing a final description.   Every student should have brought home the two pages with the sample proposals. I’ve encouraged students to talk to their families and older friends about ideas. This will help each child to think about the kind of issues that exist in the world that might need their help and that of a million dollar funding. I encourage parents to see this project as a vehicle for growth for your child not only scholastically, but also with regards to fulfilling the Jewish idea of repairing the world.

Ceative Output for Studying History

We have been studying the Age of Exploration in History. Recently, we have been learning about Columbus’s seven year effort to convince various rulers of Europe to finance his proposal to sail west around the globe to find a sea route to The Indies (Asia). After repeatedly being turned down because the expedition was seen as dangerous, stupid and far too costly, Columbus convinces King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to finance him. The fifth graders in Gail’s class were given roles to enact this scene from history. Their task was to write a script; write their own lines in the context of the story. The students far exceeded expectations when Avi Duhan and the group he was working with decided to make it a musical. The next thing I knew, Soluna, Amalya and others made up “raps” to go with their lines. It was so charming and creative. If we only had a lot more time, the students could have made the whole skit a musical presentation. As it is, they were all great. So many good actors and writers in our class! I don’t think they will ever forget the pros and cons that the monarchs’ advisers had to debate. Tomorrow, they will be writing a letter of petition to the King and Queen as if they were Columbus. This activity not only ensures an interesting history lesson, but prepares our class for learning how to write persuasive essays and how to debate.

Homework 9/16/08

Math: Gail’s math class- Workbook pages not completed through page 23.

Science - Due Wednesday: What do you think is the most important invention of all time? See p.3 of Invent Booklet to get details of requirements of this assignment. Talk to your family and friends and get some ideas and opinions from them. Use the internet (with parent permission) to research the invention you have chosen or even to get some good ideas. Don’t forget that inventions are in many categories such as food, medicine, convenience, health, tools, transportation, communication, etc. Be prepared to tell the class why you chose the invention you did. Do write-up on an index card or a paper the same size and don’t write on the back of the card but you may use more than one card. Have fun with this.