You could not have told me a year ago that I would have kids so excited to start a new project. We were in between projects for about two weeks and everyday I had a few students ask what our next project was going to be and when we were starting. As I was walking around yesterday I noticed one of our very shy students sitting with his new group and talking excitedly about the new project. This is one of the wonderful things about PBL! It is so exciting to see the kids growing in how the communicate with each other. We did not let the students pick their groups this time and we tried to mix them up quite a bit. Not all groups are perfect but they are learning to accept others even if they are not their "friends". These are great skills and we really feel that our discipline problems have been much less this year due to the fact that these students are working together and really getting to know lots of different people on our team. Fifth graders tend to group themselves with their "friends" and don't venture out much. This year we really see them caring for each other not just their friends. This is a great group of students and it has really made this new adventure easier to start!!
Hopefully, you are aware of what our new project is all about. Our "Driving Question" is How can one person or group of people change history? We are learning about the Civil Rights Movement and hoping that the students will be able to see how we all can make a difference. The students have a Tic Tac Toe to help their group in this project. The students are excited about this and we have heard some wonderful conversations already and we have only just begun. We hope that the students will share with you what they are learning. We are covering a lot of language arts standards in this project and we are hoping to make the kids more aware of the history of our country.
In math, we have begun to study geometry. This will be the main focus this quarter in math. We will also continue to work on the standards we have covered so far this year to get the students ready for the ISTEP. Please encourage your students to practice at home their facts if this is a struggle. Also, IXL math has great practice and they are all registered for this. All students are also registered for SumDog and we are now participating in a contest so any encouragement you can give at home is helpful.
In language arts and social studies we have been working on things we will need for our project. Studying civil rights and how to write dialogue have been a focus this week. The students also took Aims Web tests this week in the areas of reading comprehension, fluency and math.
We hope that you have a wonderful weekend and that the students are ready for the next two busy weeks of working on their new projects.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Quick Week!
We just finished out first semester and wow did it go quickly. This week we had out semi final presentations on our Indian projects. Twelve groups presented to a panel of administrators and they all did a fabulous job. There have been four groups chosen, one per Indian group, to go and present at Washington Discovery Academy in the near future. We will get that information out to parents as soon as we can.
In classes, this week, we were reviewing and finishing up first semester items. Students need to keep working hard on some of the skills that are giving them trouble. Report cards are being sent home on Monday. Please look for these in the Red Folders! We will be Aims Web testing next week. These are the tests that we give to test reading comprehension, oral reading and math skills. Please help us by encouraging your students to do their best on these tests!
We will be kicking off our next PBL project on Monday. We will be investigating how one person or one group can change history. We will be investigating this through learning about the Civil Rights Era. The kids should learn a lot and we hope they enjoy this project.
We hope you have a great long weekend and remember there is school on Monday. This is a make up day from the fog day earlier this fall.
Here are some photos of our Indian presentations this week. Students got to use some new technology for presentations and they did a great job!
In classes, this week, we were reviewing and finishing up first semester items. Students need to keep working hard on some of the skills that are giving them trouble. Report cards are being sent home on Monday. Please look for these in the Red Folders! We will be Aims Web testing next week. These are the tests that we give to test reading comprehension, oral reading and math skills. Please help us by encouraging your students to do their best on these tests!
We will be kicking off our next PBL project on Monday. We will be investigating how one person or one group can change history. We will be investigating this through learning about the Civil Rights Era. The kids should learn a lot and we hope they enjoy this project.
We hope you have a great long weekend and remember there is school on Monday. This is a make up day from the fog day earlier this fall.
Here are some photos of our Indian presentations this week. Students got to use some new technology for presentations and they did a great job!
Friday, January 11, 2013
Welcome to 2013!
Wow! I can't believe it is 2013! Time sure does fly! This school year is going so quickly and we have great plans for the remaining half of the year. We hope the students are ready to work hard and learn a lot!
This week we got back into the swing of things with a "regular" schedule. We do have some students polishing their Indian projects so that they can present to a panel of administrators next Thursday. The students did a great job on this project. We will be starting our next PBL project in a few weeks.
The students have begun to research an explorer that they will be doing a written report on next week. It is a language arts requirement that the students write research papers and this is the first one we are working on. We decided to tie this into what we are studying in social studies. So Mr. Hunter has been giving the students explorer background. The students have chosen which explorer they want to learn more about. Please ask your child who they are studying.
In math we worked on converting common percents, decimals and fractions. The students made flip charts with the different steps and examples and they have done a nice job. Reducing fractions is the hardest part of this. Most students are getting so much better at this skill. We still have a few that do not know their facts and this makes things difficult for them. Encourage your child to review their facts. They can do this online or with good old fashioned flash cards. (Dollar Tree had some last time I was there!)
The last day to get AR points for this quarter will be next Thursday, January 18th. This was a very long grading period especially with Thanksgiving break and Christmas break so a lot of the kids have their goals already. Just a heads up the next two grading periods are a little bit shorter so even if they have their goal they should be reading and take those test on January 21st.
Have a great weekend!
This week we got back into the swing of things with a "regular" schedule. We do have some students polishing their Indian projects so that they can present to a panel of administrators next Thursday. The students did a great job on this project. We will be starting our next PBL project in a few weeks.
The students have begun to research an explorer that they will be doing a written report on next week. It is a language arts requirement that the students write research papers and this is the first one we are working on. We decided to tie this into what we are studying in social studies. So Mr. Hunter has been giving the students explorer background. The students have chosen which explorer they want to learn more about. Please ask your child who they are studying.
In math we worked on converting common percents, decimals and fractions. The students made flip charts with the different steps and examples and they have done a nice job. Reducing fractions is the hardest part of this. Most students are getting so much better at this skill. We still have a few that do not know their facts and this makes things difficult for them. Encourage your child to review their facts. They can do this online or with good old fashioned flash cards. (Dollar Tree had some last time I was there!)
The last day to get AR points for this quarter will be next Thursday, January 18th. This was a very long grading period especially with Thanksgiving break and Christmas break so a lot of the kids have their goals already. Just a heads up the next two grading periods are a little bit shorter so even if they have their goal they should be reading and take those test on January 21st.
Have a great weekend!
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