Happy Holidays!

     We are about finished with our last week of 2012.  It has been a great start to our year.  We have had a very busy week.  The kids did a great job in our Christmas program on Tuesday night.  It was great to have so many of our kids there!  We have had a lot of kids absent this week so we hope they all get rest over break and come back ready to tackle 2013! 
     The students gave their Indian group presentations this week.  We had a lot of wonderful projects.  We have chosen 2-3 from each group to present after break to a panel of guests.  They will pick one project form each group.  It was great to see that not the same people are chosen each time.  Everyone is having their time to shine and it is great to see. 
     We hope to each and everyone of you has a wonderful and restful break.  We can't wait to see what 2013 brings.  This group is very special and once again we thank you for sharing them with us.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

 Christmas program

 Watching presentations

 Indian presentations

 Discussing display

 Dress up presentation

 Cool house

Three ladies took he initiative to dress up! 

What a Caring Group!

      This week has been just as hectic and busy as most December weeks are in a fifth grade classroom.  This week has also made us realize once again what a caring group of kids we have this year.  We took on the task of adopting two families and with your help and your children's we have been able to provide these two families with a Christmas they will always remember.  We wrapped several outfits for each of the four children as well as, boots, shoes, snow pants, toys, books, socks etc.  We gave each family two boxes of food and were able to give them gift cards to the grocery store and we gave each family a Martin's coupon book!  At the time of writing this post one of the families came in and the mother could not believe when Miss Cobb told her that all five boxes were for her family.  She cried when she realized that we had provided them with so many needed items.  Thanks to all of our families, whether you sent in one item or many they were all appreciated and you helped teach your children a great lesson about helping others. 
     We have been in 'build' mode for our latest PBL project this week and it has been a bit stressful and very messy.  We had a few days where we were questioning this entire project but, after some refocusing the kids have rallied and they are looking pretty good.  The kids will be presenting to each other next week.  We are excited to see how it turns out.  We are all learning in this process not just the kids. 
     We are happy to report that a lot of the kids on our team are signed up for PBL next year.  If you have not applied but would like to it is still not too late.  Applications will be available online until December 21.  If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact one of us and we will do our best to answer or find the answer for you. 

 Working on our build early in the week.

 sketching out our regions

 Double checking that we are right on our design.

 Group discussion

 Making a long house

 Hard at work.

 Making sure we like what we see.

 Taking shape.

 Helping wrap presents.

 Gifts for one of our families

Taking gifts to the office for pick up!

First Week of December!!

     What a busy week for us here at Riverside.  The first Rocket Night is now over with and it was a big success.  We collected a bunch of food for the Neighborhood Center Food pantry and the kids had a great time.  It is a crazy hour and a half but the kids love it. 
     On Wednesday night we had a PBL information night and a gallery walk with some of our students presenting some of their projects.  We are so proud of these kids and what they have been able to do so far this year.  There was a pretty big turn out and our students did a wonderful job answering questions.  Remember if you are wanting your child to learn in the PBL environment next year you need to fill out the online application that is on the Plymouth Website.  The application goes "live" on December 10th at 8:30 am and will remain "live" until December 21.  If you have any questions about where this is available ask your child as Mrs. Dennie showed each class where the application was on Thursday.  
     The students have been working on their Indian projects and most are finished with what we are calling "Phase one" and are beginning their building which is "Phase Two".  Ask your student about their Indian group and what they have learned so far.  Students will be finishing up their building next week and we will have them present to each other the 17th to the 20th.  Then after Christmas Break the top projects will be going to Washington Discovery Academy to present to some students there.
     We are planning on having a Christmas/Winter "party" on December 21.  We will get more details out next week.  We will probably show a movie and have food.  
     The items for our two families that we have "adopted" are due by next Tuesday, December 11th so we can have time to wrap the items and get them to the Neighborhood Center.  We have had a lot of items brought in already and hope to see the rest after this weekend.  We love the giving spirit of our students this year!  It has been neat to see them bring items in and be so excited about what they bought from boots to food!  We are truly blessed this year with your children.
     In our classes this week we have been busy as well.   We have been multiplying and dividing fractions in math.   We have been working on commas in language arts and reading our trade books.  We have finished up our animals in science and we have been learning more about Native Americans in social studies.  In art class the Graffiti walls turned out really well and are hanging in the halls when you come for the music program you will have to take a look. 
    We hope you have a great weekend and we look forward to a good but busy next two weeks!

Last week of November!! Wow!!

     As this is being written we are in our last day of November.  Wow, has this year flown so far.  We are really enjoying working with these kids so much this year that the days and weeks are really flying by.  As we get ready for the holiday season we want to let you know a few items. 
            *We had such a great response by our kids for the one family that we added a second family to adopt this Christmas.  We thank all of you for your help with this.  There are a few tags left if you still want to participate.
             *Our team's will be performing in the Holiday Music program at 5:30 on December 18.  Students need to be here by 5:15.  ( a paper is coming home in the Monday folder with details)
             * If your student has enjoyed working on the PBL projects and would like to continue next year please consider coming to one of the information meetings.  The meeting here at Riverside is December 5 at 6:30.  Some of our students will be here with some of their projects.  Applications open on December 10th and there are only a certain number of openings at each grade level so if you want to make sure your student can be apart of this next year please go online and apply December 10.  More information about this process will be given at the informational meetings.
              *Rocket Night is December 6 and this is a night for all Riverside Students.  This is not a family event this is just a time for Riverside kids to hang out and have some fun.  The only cost is an item for the food pantry.  Pizza, pop, and cookies will be available for purchase.  (We could use a few more helpers if any of you would like to help (tdennie@plymouth.k12.in.us)  and could use some more small wrapped candy bars for prizes)
               *School get's out for winter break on December 21.  We return to school January 7, 2013.  The end of this grading period is January 17th.  This is different then we have done in the past so we wanted to make sure you were aware.  
     
      In classes this week we have been working on fractions in math, our trade books in language arts, and our life cycle project with our critters in science.  For social studies we have been working on Indians and continued that in our PBL work.  We took an Acuity test in math and language arts this week as well.
     We hope you have a great weekend and we are sure December will be a busy month and fly by as well!!!

Short Week

     Well, a day off we did not expect today due to fog.  We hope this finds all of you safe and enjoying the extra long weekend.  We planned on keeping all of the computers here at school for the weekend.  Some of the students left them here but some had some items to finished and took them home.  Please be sure students are keeping them in a safe place and charging them.  The biggest misuse of computers is over breaks.  We do not want our students who have their computers to be pulled in on Monday for inappropriate use over the holiday weekend.  Remind students that the schools Gaggle system picks up inappropriate searches and it can lead to lose of computer privileges. Our team has had very few issues with this so far this year and we want to keep it that way!  Thanks for your help.

     Tuesday we had a guest speaker, Norm Rhoads.  Mr. Rhoads is a Cherokee Indian.  He brought some of his items to show the students and talked to them about the Indian way of life.  He did a great job and the students enjoyed his information and were great listeners.  He even sang a song for the students while playing his homemade drum.  We will be digging into our next project after break. 

     Our team will be adopting a family for Christmas this year.  More information will be coming home soon.  Please if possible consider helping us make this Christmas brighter for another family.  We are very thankful this Thanksgiving for our team and the students that we have this year.  This is a great group (talkative at times but great)  and we are so thankful for this as we are working on our real first year as a PBL team.  Have a wonderful long weekend and a Happy Thanksgiving. 

November 12-16

     This week we started out with a Veteran's Day program for the entire school.  Our fifth grade choir sang and our own Andie Kizer had a solo and did a great job.  Griffin Nate also did the slide show to honor our Veterans and it was very well done.  We are so proud of our students and the things they are doing to help our school.  Our students are making items for the announcements for Ecology club, basketball team, Digital Citizenship and they are writing posts for the school Blog.  We are so proud of all of our students and the way they have taken many roles to help make our school great.  We say every week how pleased we are with this bunch of kids.  They may be chatty at times but they have great ideas and are fabulous workers.
     We have been working on FRACTIONS like crazy this week in math.  We are adding and subtracting them.  We have used two different methods and one way works for some and one way for others.  We will be testing on this next Wednesday.  Then we will move on to multiplying and dividing them.
     In science our lizards arrived and we are learning about them and the life cycle.  We will be working with these creatures for the next few weeks.  The students seem to really enjoy this and even with our PBL project focus being social studies based we will work time in every day to do something with these fun animals.
     In language arts we have been working on our trade books.  Students are working in small groups to do activities with these each day.  We have also been working on other standards as we read these novels.
     We kicked off our next PBL on Wednesday.  Students will be researching different Native American groups.  They will create a Keynote presentation, some sort of display with the housing used from these groups and an activity to go along with their group.  The top groups will be invited to go to Washington Discovery Academy to present and do their activity with a class over at Washington.  The kids are excited.  They will be getting background material for the next few days in social studies and then we will get into groups to work on these projects. 
    So ends another successful week for Team Hyper Space.  Have a great weekend. 

Week of November 5-9

    This week began with our school election.  We are very proud of our candidate, Griffin Nate.  He did not win but he did a great job with his campaign.  We hope all of the students learned something during this process. 
     We went back to a "normal" schedule this week.  We are working with fractions in math and will continue with this for the next 4 weeks.  We will be adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing them.  In science we will be starting our life cycle unit and the lizards have arrived.  It is a fun unit and the kids will enjoy this process. 
     In language arts we started reading different trade books for each class.  Ask your student about it!  In social studies we wrapped up election week.  Mr. Hunter was gone for three days so the students did some work from the old textbooks. 
     Next week we will be kicking off our next PBL project.  This will be based around Native Americans.  We are excited about beginning another project. 
    Speaking of PBL, we want you all to know that next year you will have to apply to be part of the PBL team.  If your student has enjoyed the projects and you think you would like for them to continue this way of learning please watch for the application information.  December 10th is the date that the applications are to go "live" online.  More information will come home regarding this.  Please if you have any questions let us know.  This application process is for students going into 6th grade as well as students coming to 5th grade.  So, if you know a 5th grader who you think might like learning this way please pass that information on to their parents. 
     Have a great weekend. 

October 29-November 2 Update

    This week we have had fire safety presentation from our local fire department.  The students all got to visit the fire safety house and practice having a plan to get out of a burning house.  This has been Red Ribbon Week as well and we have enjoyed the different dress up days as you will see in the photos.  We have also just finished our first round of Explorations.  The students each went to different classes at the end of the day Monday through Thursday and got to learn to do something different.  Ask your child what his or her Exploration was this week!  They seemed to be enjoying themselves. 
   We moved to our next part of our PBL Election project and the students were all given roles in the government of Team Hyper-Space.  We worked on taking situations and determining if a law needed to be written due to the situation.  The House of Representatives wrote the laws and the Senate either approved or sent them back for revision.  If a law was approved then the Supreme Court got to look at the law and decide if it was Constitutional or not.  If the law finally made it through our president then decided if he should approve or veto the law.  Our executive branch, the president and his cabinet worked on a ten million dollar budget and that was quite an experience.  The cabinet nearly had a heart attack when the legislature decided to send three million dollars in aid out east to help with Hurricane Sandy.  They had to decide whether to go into debt more or to cut from their original ten million.  Quite a challenge for this group but the did a great job.  Ask your student about this experience.  We are confident they will do well when asked about the three branches of government and how a bill becomes a law later in the year. 
    We used Face Time this morning to talk with State Senator Randy Head.  He was impressed with our kids so much that he has invited any of them who would be interested in serving as a page for him in Indianapolis to contact his office.  He said that normally students they have are in Jr. High but after talking with us he would love to have anyone who is interested from our group.  He gave the students his number and said to contact his assistant Mike Brown at 317-232-9488.  We spoke with Mrs. Hirschy and she said that students serving as a page are not counted absent from school on the day they serve.  If you decide to pursue this please let Mr. Brown know your student is from Riverside and a fifth grader invited via Face Time.  This is a cool opportunity for our students who are interested in learning more about our government. 

 Shaq via Skype last Wednesday.  Such a cool experience. 

 Some of our Judicial Branch presenting.

 Some Legislative posters

 Executive Branch

More Executive Branch

 We lined the hall with our awesome posters on the three branches of government.

 Our House of Representatives

 Mr. Hunter talking to Senator Randy Head via Face Time

 Senator Head via Face Time

 Our Secretary of State, President and Vice President

Our Cabinet and Senate.

Have a great weekend! 

Short Busy Week!

    This week may have only had three school days in it but it has been very busy!  We have had four speakers this week and have been finishing up our Three Branches of Government part of our current PBL project.  The students have done a great job listening and asking questions and all of our speakers have been very complimentary! The students have learned about the election process and about a lot of different jobs.  At the end of the day today our entire school will be able to participate in a Skype call from Shaqulle O'Neal.  We had a Riverside 6th grader who wrote him a letter and from there it evolved into this unique opportunity.  The kids are so excited and so are we!

      Next week will be equally crazy with fire safety, explorations and our next step in our PBL project!  It should be fun.  We hope this kids get some rest over Fall Break and are ready for a very busy week next week!

 Secretary of State Lawson via Skype

 Listening to our County Assessor Debbie Dunning

 Our Marshall County Clerk Julie Fox showing how a voting machine works

 Mrs. Fox talking to our kids

Attorney Rick Huff talking with our students.

October 15-19th--BUSY WEEK

     This was another very busy week for Team Hyper-Space!  Our groups have been working on our latest PBL project dealing with the three branches of government.  Our groups have been experiencing some different issues as this has been a different project.  We are all working together to make sure that they all get their issues solved in the best possible way.  A big part of PBL is learning to work with all sorts of different types of groups.  We have really appreciated the patience of most of the students.  Some are learning to delegate to others and some are learning to be more organized.  It is a work in progress.
    Next week is parent teacher conference week.  Students are invited and encouraged to attend so they can be part of this process.  The conference times are only 10 minutes, we will try to stay on task and get through as close to on time as we can.  Please let us know if you cannot attend or need to change times.  We would like to talk to each and every family. 
   Next week we will be Skyping with our Secretary of State on Monday and have a few other speakers in from local government.  We are excited about these opportunities.
    Fall break is next Thursday and Friday so we hope everyone can enjoy a little time off relaxing and getting ready to hit the second grading period following the three R's. . . . Respectful, Responsible and Ready to Learn.

PBL out in the Community.

This week we had four groups present at the Blueberry Board Meeting.  The kids did a great job and the room was packed.  We showed all of the students the final four projects and we talked about doing projects just to get done and doing our personal best on each and every project.  We want the kids to take pride in their work.  We had great response to this first project and we have some things we will do differently next time but all in all it was a big success.

 The entire group while Mrs. Dennie explains our project.

 Toleman, Kaylen and Gracie presenting their iMovie

 Olive, Adam and Grace presenting their Keynote.

 Carly, Lauren and Analee presenting their brochure.

Adam, Griffin and Carlie presenting their commercial.

Here is a link to the post about our project on the school corporation's PBL Blog.
http://pcscpbl.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/riverside-fifth-grades-first-pbl-project/

Here is the link to Mrs. Hirschy's Blog post about our project from the school corporation's 180 days of learning.

http://pcsc180daysoflearning.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/riverside-project-based-learning/

This week we started working on our next PBL project dealing with the election.  We had our vice-presidential candidates answer questions that their classmates had written.  The candidates did a great job.  On Wednesday we voted and selected Griffin to be our team's candidate for the school election.  We will be working as a team to support Griffin in this process.  

Our candidates answering questions from Mr. Hunter.  

We are finishing up the grading period next week.  So AR point are due on Friday the 19th.  Computer carts were delivered this week as well so unless students have homework computers will stay at school over the weekends.  Please help your child remember to bring their chargers to school.  

Have a great weekend. 

October is Here!

Well, ready or not October is here!  We are winding down the first grading period.  The students have been working hard at getting their AR goals!  To be able to attend the Riverside Roster party students have to have their AR goal and have one of the following, perfect attendance, all 3's and 4's on their report card or all homework done this quarter.  The roster parties are a fun time so we do not want anyone to miss out.  AR deadline is October 19th. 

My Big Campus is a place where some of us are posting things for our kids to access for our classes.  This is not a "Facebook" for kids.  We have been discussing this with our classes.  Students need to make sure what they are posting is realavant to school.  Things they are posting are filtered through Lightspeed  and we also have a person on staff who is addressing these issues.  We ask that you also talk to your student about making sure what they post is school related.  Along that same line please as a parent check what social media your child is using.  Students are posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter quite often.  Most of the time they are innocent and fun but sometimes children of this age post things without thinking.  Earlier in September we had a week of Digital Citizenship here at Riverside and we discussed these things with the students.  We would just appreciate if you also have these discussions with your child. 

Next week we will be starting our next PBL project dealing with the election process.  Students will be either running or helping another student run for a class office.  We are also having someone from our team run for Vice-President of Riverside.  Today students put their names into a box if they were interested in running for this major office.  Students will be learning about the three branches of government and about the election process.  Look for more information to come!

Have a great weekend! 

Last Week of September

WOW!  I can't believe that it is the last week of September.  This year is going by so fast. We have ha another busy week.  We did our first round of Acuity testing and we will share those results with you at parent teacher conferences.  You can also have your child share their student data tracker with you and you can see their latest results. 

The kids are working hard at getting their AR goal.  AR goals are due October 24th.  If your child struggles with this, have them read with you. . .  discuss the book they are reading together.. . . some extra encouragement from home is sometimes all they need.  We are giving time in class and trying to encourage them here at school and we appreciate any encouragement you give at home. 

We are also working hard on Achieve 3000.  This is a new program for fifth grade but we are seeing great things from it already.  Each week the requirements are for each student to do two articles at 75% or above.  Most students are making this goal and more.  Their writing is improving each week on their "Thought Questions" and we are really seeing growth.  Thanks for encouraging your kids to continue to strive to do their best on this wonderful program. 

We worked on division this week in math and some students are struggling with double digit divisors.  We will continue to work on this and multiplication next week to get ready for our common assessment next Friday.  Encourage your student to work on their math facts.  They can always practice on www.ixl.com/signin/plymouth what we have been working on this week.  This is a wonderful site for math practice.

In language arts this week we wrote friendly letters to our parents.  Ask your child to show you their letter on Google Docs.  In science, we continued with Sun, Moon and Stars.  The students have been very attentive and have shown they are learning a lot.

We hope this finds you all well! 

September 16-Busy Week

     This has been a very busy week for Team Hyperspace.  On Monday, nine of our eighteen projects were presented to Mrs. Hirschy, Mr. Boyer, Mrs. Cobb and Mr. Funston.  This group picked four projects that they thought should go on to the next level.  These four projects were then presented on Thursday to two members of the Blueberry Office/Board.  These kids did a great job and all four groups have been invited to attend the Blueberry Board meeting on October 8th.  We will be seeing their products out and about soon! 
   In math this week we have been multiplying large numbers.  Most of the kids are doing very well with this and have chosen either the traditional way or the Lattice method.  Some students are still struggling with this and it is because they do not know all of their math facts.  Have your student practice their facts on the computer or with good old flash cards.  They have to know these well to be able to do a lot of the things we do this year in math.
    In science this week we have been learning about the sun, moon and stars.  We have gone outside and traced our shadows and examined how the shadows change with the time of day.   Students have been working on some activities on their computers as well. 
    In language arts we have been working on writing summaries.  Students will be doing this a lot in Achieve 3000.  We also read Ultimate Field Trip 5 and did some activities with that.  Students should have half of their AR goal by today.  If your child does not have at least 10 points they need to get reading.  They cannot attend Roster parties if they do not meet their AR goals.
     This week all students took the Aims Web fluency, comprehension and math tests.  These will be given three times throughout the year to monitor progress.  Students who do not score on grade level will be getting extra help during the school day. 
    We hope that you have a great weekend and keep your child reading!

 Here are the finalists for our Blueberry PBL.  Congrats kids!

At the end of our PBL project the students all gave their answer to our "Driving Question"  How does hosting a large event impact a community? 

September 14, 2012

    This week we have been working on our projects.  Our students have been working hard and the projects are looking good.  This has been an adjustment for the kids to work in a group.  Some have had to really work at letting go of all control and having others help.  Some have had to learn that they have to do their part and if they don't they let the group down.  All these are great skills and we will continue to work on these all year long.
    Next week 8 projects will be presented to a panel of other people who will be asked to pick two or three projects to go to the Blueberry Board.  If your child's group is not chosen please ensure them that it is o.k. and that this was about learning and that next time they may be chosen!  
    In math this week we have started multiplying large numbers.  If your child struggles with their math facts then the next few weeks will be hard.  There are many websites on the kids My Big Campus math page.  Encourage them to practice these skills.  Students were introduced to Lattice multiplication and this is an option not a requirement.  If the traditional method is working for them then they can continue to use that.  If they are having trouble with the traditional method then I may encourage them to use the Lattice method.
     In language arts we have been working on context clues and cause and effect.  Students have worked on vocabulary and making their own definitions.  Your child can go on My Big Campus to practice these skills as well.  There are also some podcasts on the students iTunes account that they can watch again if they are unsure of a topic.
    In science and social studies we have worked on sun, moon stars and with our PBL project we did not get as far as we would have liked.  This will continue into next week.  There are a bunch of websites that the kids have bookmarked where they can practice some of the items we have been working on!
    We hope you have a wonderful weekend!  

This week in Team Hyper Space

     This week we began work on our first big project.  The students are working in groups to design some sort of advertisement for the Blueberry Festival.  Our discussions began with the question, "How does hosting a large event impact a community?"  We have had visits from four guest speakers and the kids have done a great job listening and taking notes.  Tuesday, we worked on writing good questions and then figuring out which speaker we should ask what questions to during the week.
     We have been very impressed at how excited our students have been.  Now, we have moved into the work phase and the students are really learning how to work in a group.  Some are natural leaders and some are followers.  We are trying to work on these skills in all of our students.  We are trying to encourage collaboration and team work.  Some kids are not comfortable with working in a group and we are encouraging them all to include everyone.  This is a process and as the year goes on we hope that our students grow in this process.  We are learning along with the kids.  It has been another great week for Team Hyper Space!

Group Work

Making questions

Posting questions

Mr. Wayne Smith of Tom's Tasty Taters came to speak on Wednesday morning.

Mrs. Sheri Martin, from the Blueberry office,  and Blueberry Hank visited us on Wednesday afternoon

Mr. Mike HIte from the Plymouth Park Department came to see us on Thursday afternoon

Officer Owen spoke to us on Friday afternoon.