ISAT Testing

Hello 5-4 Parents,

Next week we will begin ISAT testing. Please help your child to get enough rest and to eat a healthy breakfast, snack, and lunch in preparation for the tests.  Our class' testing schedule is as follows:

Monday      3/3     Reading 2:00
Tuesday      3/4     Math 9:15  and Reading 2:00  
Wednesday 3/5     Math 9:15
Thursday     3/6    Math 9:15

Tuesday       3/11   Reading 2:00

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Sincerely,
Kelly

Student Reflection 2/21/14

Jamie, Kaley, and Ava played instruments for the whole class. Kaley played the trumpet for us. Jamie played the trombone and Ava played the violin. Its was a very cool experience for our class to hear them play.

We also did an experiment in science about our heart rate. We predicted which exercises we thought would increase our heart rate the most and then tested them out. Wow! Those jumping jacks and burpees really got our hearts going.

We also made bone burritos. We used jelly for bone marrow, lady fingers as the spongy bone, Oreo cookies as compact bone, and a tortilla as thin membrane. It was a fun, tasty experiment that we learned a lot from.

Valentine's Day! 2/14/14

Thanks to Mrs. Giannopoulos for planning and throwing a super-fun Valentine's Day celebration for 5-4.  We're so thankful to have her as our room mom!  The fifth graders really tapped into their creative juices to write some hysterical stories using as many conversation hearts as they could incorporate. They used Air Server to share the stories they created on Google docs. The end result was a lot of laughs and smiles!

News From 5-4 2/9/14

News From 5-4
February 9, 2014

Our classroom is buzzing with excitement about the class set of iPads we have the whole month of February. Our favorite discovery so far is using Air Server. Whenever the students want to quickly share a strategy or an idea, they can project right to the white board. This has proven helpful in sharing math strategies, writing prompts, and presentations like "Explain Everything." 

We will be having our Valentine's Day party on Friday from 2:45 until the end of the day. We will exchange valentines on Friday. Please don't worry about creating a container for the valentines, as we will take care of this at school. Here is a list of student names for your child as he/she is creating the cards: Kaitlyn, Alex C., Ava, Jamie, Lexi, Jack, Jade, Alex G., Ben, Max, Audrey, Logan, Ajla, Rick, Miranda, Eric, Michael, Jake, Kaley, Ryan, Mia, Lukas, Nick.

Dates to remember:
2/11-  100th Day of School

2/14- Valentine's Day Party 2:45

2/17- No School Presidents' Day

2/19- Student Variety Show Rehearsal in gym 4:00

2/20- Student Variety Show Dress Rehearsal in gym 4:00

2/21- Career Dress Day

         Variety Show 6:30 in commons

Here's what's happening in 5-4:

Literacy:
We have finished another novel in guided reading groups. The end of book tests came home in the Friday Folder this past week. The students will also be assessed on their daily work in their literature logs including signposts, words worth noting, figurative language, comparing characters and events in literature, and identifying problems and solutions.

During shared reading time we have been reading informational texts related to our science unit, The Human Body. While reading The Human Machine, we focused on identifying the internal structure of the text. Identifying the structure not only helped the students decide how to best structure their notes, but also strengthened their comprehension of the material. While reading Bones and Muscles and Respiration and Circulation, we will focus on choosing and defining words worth noticing. We will be reading and taking notes with a text dependent question in mind. The students will be asked to explain the relationship between the respiratory system and the circulatory system, using text evidence and their interpretations of the text to support a claim this week.

Math:
During Unit 7 we have been exploring exponents and negative numbers. We've worked on understanding exponential notation, powers of 10, scientific notation, parentheses, and order of operations. This week we will work on ordering and comparing negative numbers, adding and subtracting negative numbers, and continue practice with line graphs and line plots. Our Unit 7 test will be the week of February 18. Unit 8 will dig deeper into fractions and ratios.

Science:
The fifth graders have been enjoying our Human Body Unit. Through experiments and models we've discovered how the body moves and what systems work together to make that happen. We've determined the importance of the nervous system in movement and explored voluntary and involuntary movement. Seeing our reflexes in action and comparing that to our ruler grabbing experiment last week, helped us to determine how the body works differently to move in different situations.

Our class created a Human Body Wonder Wall where we can post any questions we have as we are studying the human body and its related systems. These questions have evolved into a mini-research project where the students are researching, documenting, reflecting, and commenting on peers' documentation. It is exciting for me to see how many of them have changed their questions as they've dug deeper into a topic and how their peers' feedback has moved them forward in their thinking.

We've split into small groups to research the different systems in the body. Groups are using Google Docs to record facts that help them to answer the two essential questions: How does this system work? Why is this system important to the body? They will be creating Explain Everything presentations to incorporate videos, photos, diagrams, and text to convince the rest of the class of the importance of their system. We will share these presentations with the entire fifth grade.

As always, please feel free to email or call me with any questions and concerns!

Sincerely,
Kelly

Student Reflection 2/7/14

This week we became experts on Air Server. This is Jake sharing his WEX entry. He was able to project it right from his iPad. This has come in handy while we are showing how we solve math problems too!  We can't wait to explore all the ways we can use Air Server. Having the class set of iPads this month is awesome.

During science, we explored how our nervous system helps us to react to things. During this experiment, we dropped a ruler and asked our partner to catch it. They used their sensory organs to sent a message to the brain. The brain thought about it and then sent a message through the nerves to the hand muscles. The muscles contracted to pull on the bones so we could grab the rulers.


Other times, your nervous system has reflexes. Two examples we saw were the reflex of our pupils in reaction to light (see video of Kaitlyn) and the blink reflex. Did you know that we have reflexes to protect our body?