November 7th (..really!?!?)

Is it just me or has this first quarter flown by?  I find myself incredulous that the last time I wrote on this blog was, ahem,  the middle of October.  Trust me though, it is not for lack of learning that my writing has been sporadic.  We have been quite busy in the classroom.  Here's what's been going on.

MATH

We have completed the third unit which focused on geometry.  Geometry is primarily a spacial and visual discipline, so some kids excel at it while others struggle.  The assessments gave me a good picture of areas where I need to patch some holes in understanding (mostly around the measure and sum of angles), and I will be reviewing theses concepts before we dive into unit 4.  Unit 4's focus is division, and I will continue to work on solidifying automatic recall of the basic multiplication facts.  You can help too!  If you have access to the internet, check out the math sites that I linked to the blog.  If not, spend some time quizzing your child on his/her multiplication facts each day.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Our Independent Reading program in the classroom is up and running.  Each student writes me one letter per week about what they are reading and I respond.  I am seeing a lot of critical thinking and excellent insights in many of the letters I read. 

In Guided Reading we have moved on from our whole class reading of Hatchet, and transitioned into small groups reading books about early European settlers in North America.  We are fortunate to have enough multiple copies of books to be able to embed our social studies unit (The Colonization of North America) into our reading work.  This style of reading instruction is pretty fast paced and purposeful (the kids have reading and/or writing assignments each day), and allows me to pay close attention to the students' comprehension and oral reading ability.

The work around Hatchet is finally drawing to a close.  Many of the Wiki pages for our survival guide are done, and the rest should be completed by this week.

SCIENCE

We finished off our study of Matter with a demonstration of making ice cream using a saltwater solution.  A saltwater solution boils at a higher temperature than pure water, and freezes at a lower temperature (strange, but true!).  We measured the temperature of salt water mixed with ice at -15˚ celsius!  That's very cold indeed and was just the thing to freeze our mix of milk, sugar and vanilla.  The salt dissolving in the water needs energy to break apart those H2O molecules and reform them into NaCl in an H2O solution -- the energy comes in the form of heat which is robbed from the system, dropping its temperature as that heat is converted into chemical re-organization.

Our next science unit will focus on cells and classification.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We have wrapped up our study of the early European Explorers with a poster based on the book Fortunately.  Each student chose one explorer and created a six panel poster highlighting the cause and effect relationship between those doing the exploring (Columbus, Pizarro, etc.), and those being explored (The Inca, the Aztecs, the Native North Americans, etc.).  Next, we will be focusing on the colonists.  This is an exciting and contextual unit for us since we are near to the site of the Phippsburg Colony.  As I wrote earlier, much of our learning will be embedded in the books we are reading in reading groups.

It was great to see so many of you at conferences.  Thanks for making me feel so welcome at Phippsburg!  Have a great week.

Mr. Kovacs

MATH FACTS RESOURCES!

Hey everyone, here are two fun math sites that I have used  before.  They're great for all operations and are actually quite fun!  Enjoy,

Mr. Kovacs


http://www.aplusmath.com/Games/index.html

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Class News, 10/12/10

Hello everyone!  I trust you all had a great holiday weekend.  Thankfully, we have completed the NECAP tests and we can get back to the important work at hand:  LEARNING!  I am attaching a link to this post for the Columbus webquest we are doing this week.  It has a lot of interesting information on the man whose holiday we just celebrated.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748145

Have a great start to the week and look for an update in a few days.



Mr. K

Welcome, Again!

Well, here we go again. I really wanted to like the Scholastic Web Page Platform, but in the end it didn't work for me. So I am switching over to a blog on blogger.com, a format I am much more familiar with.

We have had another great week here in 5th grade.

In social studies we have "said goodnight" to the Vikings and delved into the amazing travels of Marco Polo in the 11th century. I am reading a book aloud to the class all about his life that is beautifully written and illustrated.  I am always impressed by authors who can bring a potentially dry subject to life with great writing.

In science we began our study of matter by conducting an experiment.  We mixed three liquids and ended up with a colloidal solution with properties of both a solid and a liquid.  It was a lot of fun and I was impressed with the class' reserve and care around  scientific experimentation.

In writing we have wrapped up our narrative pieces and placed them in the writing portfolios that will serve as a record of our writing for the year.  Next we will be writing instructions for emergency survival inspired by the experiences of the main character in Hatchet.  The focus of this writing will be the trait of organization and writing strong leads.  I hope to complete this writing digitally with the help of Mrs. Phelps in the library.  We will also print out a physical book of the collected essays on how to survive.

In math we continue our work with probability and problem solving.  We are all really enjoying the hands-on nature of unit 2.  It seems we are conducting some sort of fun experiment every day.  I am pushing the kids, and they moan sometimes, but we are getting it done.  I came to love math relatively late in life, but love it I do.  I hope my enthusiasm is contagious!

In reading the students have begun writing letters to me each week about a book they are reading.  I write back to each of them.  It generates a lot of nice conversation and thinking around literature and how it connects to our lives.  The book is also a beautiful keepsake of all the great work that we do around books in this fifth grade year.   

We will be administering the NECAP standardized tests next week.  Please make sure your kids are well rested and relaxed!  This is the standardized test that serves primarily as a ranking tool for the government.  We will receive the results during the school year (in January I believe), so we will be able to use the data to direct our instruction, but the DOE will also use the results to decide if PES is making Adequate Yearly Progress.  The most important thing to do is to tell your kids to relax and to try and do their best.  We'll have tests every day of the week. 

Remember that Friday October 8th there is no school for students for a staff professional development day, and that  Monday the 4th is Columbus Day.

Have a great weekend!

PS:  If you would like a printed version of this newsletter just ask your child to let me know.  Otherwise it will be posted on this blog weekly (most of the time).