Sunday, December 10, 2017

Highlights of October and November

Language Arts
We finished the novel Maniac Magee, ending the unit with writing to the author Jerry Spinelli. We are waiting to see if he responds to all of our questions (if you would like to read our letters, copies are currently on a bulletin board inside the office)!

We began our new novel The City of Ember, a science fiction novel that might or might not take place in the future on Earth. We are focusing on the main characters, Lina and Doon, making inferences about them and thinking about the sci-fi genre and comparing their world to ours.

After lunch we enjoyed hearing Walls Within Walls by Maureen Sherry and just started reading See You in the Cosmos by E. Cheng.  Thank you for making this year’s Book Fair a success and for adding to Room 22’s library!

Room 22 finished a personal narrative writing unit. Mentor texts were read (this one being the start of the unit) and students were encouraged to write about such things as: a favorite room, a special object, a turning point moment, a time they learned a lesson, etc. After choosing one to publish, students began the typing and editing process in Google docs.

Math
Room 22 has been busy with adding/subtracting and multiplying/dividing decimals. We have been using our knowledge of multiplying/dividing whole numbers and applying that process to decimals.

Visual Representation of Square Numbers

Science
We began a unit on Space Systems: Stars and the Solar System . We have discussed the sun: a mass of incandescent gas , the students created a planet booklet, made a scale model of the planets’ distance from the sun, and discussed the life cycle of a star.

Social Studies
Room 22 learned about different theories on how people came to the Americas, we learned about the first civilizations in the Americas, and focused on the Native People by region who lived in the United States. Students have now been assigned a specific tribe and are creating a poster detailing the tribe.


The postcard race is going well! Keep those cards coming! To date we need the following states:   Wyoming, one of the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Maryland, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana!
Negative/Positive art with Winoka
Publishing a Personal Narrative

Making Monkey Bread for a pre-Thanksgiving treat.

Watercolor Winter Foxes


Thursday, October 19, 2017

Maniac Magee Games

Play a version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with questions about Maniac Magee.
Play a version of Jeopardy with questions about Maniac Magee.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Physical Fitness Testing


 The California Department of Education provides videos to show the tests 5th grade students will be taking in March 2018.

Flexibility Test:  Shoulder Stretch 

Abdominal Strength/Endurance Test: Curl-Up

 Trunk Extensor Strength/Endurance Test: Trunk Lift

Upper Body Strength/Endurance Test:  Push Up

 Aerobic Capacity Tests:   PACER  or One Mile Run

USA fun links

 A couple of fun links to explore the USA: National Geographic , Wilson and Ditch , and Tour the States song.

Highlights of the Month of September

Language Arts
We are continuing the novel Maniac Magee focusing on theme (kindness can make all the difference and treating all people with respect) and character inferences. After lunch we have been enjoying the ghost story Took by Mary Downing Hahn.

Room 22 continued our fiction narrative unit with getting inspiration from pictures and writing from the perspective of an inanimate object. We selected one piece to edit focusing on character, plot, and setting elaboration. Students are in the process of typing the second draft in Google.docs.


Math
Room 22 has been busy with multiplication. Focus has been on halving/doubling method, partial product method and the traditional method of 3 digit by 3 digit numbers.  We have also been working with prime factorization, exponents, and learning the order of operations. 

Science
We began a unit on Matter. We have discussed the differences between solutions and mixtures and physical vs. chemical changes.  Students continue to focus on life sciences (plants) in the lab with Debbie. 

Social Studies
Room 22 is learning about the different regions of the United States. We are focusing on the geography, natural resources/industry, and climate of each region and creating a map of each region. 

The postcard race is going well! Keep those cards coming!


(since this photo was taken, we received New Mexico, Oregon, and Nebraska)

Miscellaneous
We have met with our Room 8 (2nd grade) buddy class and created a poster based on our similarities.

Friday, September 1, 2017

Highlights of the First Two Weeks



Language Arts
We have begun reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. Students have been discussing what makes a story part of the "realistic fiction" and "legend" genres, the importance of reading a book's blurb to figure out key story elements, and using inference skills to talk about the personalities of the characters. Room 22  also enjoys listening to Rump for a few minutes after lunch. 

We have begun the writing unit: Narrative Fiction. Students listened to stories by author Jon Scieszka which are fairy tales told from a different character's perspective and/or re imagined. Also we listened to stories involving "messy situations" and "what if?" scenarios to inspire us with ideas for our own fiction stories.

Math 
We have been brushing up our multiplication skills using the volume of rectangular prisms.


 Science
Students have been learning about the scientific method and practiced utilizing the steps with an experiment called "How Many Licks?" based on the old TV commercial regarding Tootsie Pops. Students hypothesized how many licks it would take them to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop and then performed the experiment.  😎

Art
Students made self-portraits in a cartoon style, chose a word that describes their personality and made a word bubble; and created hand art using warm and cool colors.




Tuesday, February 28, 2017

The Lost Colony

The village of Roanoke was one of the first English colonies to be established. However this village did not turn out to be successful.The small population of Roanoke complained about their lack of food and tools.They also had frightening suspicions that the Natives may launch a surprise attack on them.  These complaints made John White go to England to get proper supplies the colonists requested.  John White returned three long years afterwards. But what he returned to was not that of a colony but of a ghost town.  The area which was once a village was stripped of its people.  Houses and other shelters were nowhere in site.  What was left behind were some small cannons, an opened chest, a tall fence built around the perimeter of the former village site, and a single word inscription carved on a fence post, “Croatoan”. '

Read the five most popular theories trying to explain what happened to The Lost Colony and answer the questions on your worksheet.



And you can watch this guy's silly video about The Lost Colony and this video. PUT ON HEADPHONES!

Monday, February 27, 2017

Colonial Williamsburg Tour

Go to the virtual tour of colonial Williamsburg, Virginia . On the right hand upper corner of the screen, click on the arrow "take a tour" . To answer the questions you will need to read through "Historic Points of Interest" and "The Trades".
Image result for colonial williamsburg

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Highlights of the Month

We just completed reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. The novel has many themes, but we focused on the theme of survival. Students discussed how the main character, Brian, followed the theme: "in order to survive, one must stay focused, motivated, and never have self-pity". We also watched the movie based on the book and discussed the differences between book and film. A majority of the students preferred the book to the movie.

After the break we will begin our next novel, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.



We began our informational report writing unit focusing on a state in the United States. Students decided on four topics to research and they have been busy taking notes from a minimum of three different sources. Many are now at the point of organizing their notes and drafting their report.

Speaking of the United States, see the map below for the current status of our Postcard Race (states not colored are the ones still needed!). 



We are finishing our unit on European Exploration of the New World and moving on to the 13 Colonies. We studied the reasons the Europeans began exploring in the 15th Century and read about some notable explorers to the New World. 

We began our fraction unit with a delicious Froot Loops activity. We have reviewed adding/subtracting like denominator fractions and have moved on to adding/subtracting unlike denominator fractions. Learning about the greatest common factor (GCF) and lowest common multiple (LCM), helps us with fractions. Soon we will be moving towards multiplying and dividing fractions. 


And there is always the art.....