April 30, 2012
Dear Families of room 210,
April's warm and windy weather proved enjoyable for kite flying. Students chose materials and created their own kites to test outside. It was a memorable afternoon! See if they can create a kite from materials in yor home. Students were extremely resourceful!
During Social Studies, students entered Willimamsburg , Virginia 1770. Each student visited a center to teach them about the experiences of that time in history. Students had to approve or reject bills as governor and discovered that the governor was appointed by the King of England and did not represent the members of the colony. Students also analyzed songs that were written during the Slave Trade, "Juba" and "Amazing Grace." Ask them about the meaning behind the music. They also examined runaway slave posters ( primary source). Last, they got a taste of what it was like in schools during Colonial Times. They copied rules of ediquitte and greeted their teachers properly. Some ettiquette rules were very interesting, ask them about it.
Students are wrapping up their persuasive pieces. Thank you for your efforts and interest in the project. We will research different addresses to send certain papers for persuasion. Please let us know if you find addresses of interest based on the conversations with your child. May is a book talk month. We will be scheduling those soon.
Thanks,
Jen and Judi
March 31, 2012
Dear Families of Room 210,
It's been an action packed month. Student worked very hard on their MCAS assessments last week and I am looking forward to getting back to our projects!
Friday was a special day for our classroom. Everyone played an important part in out "All School Share" on stage.
Millena, Angela, Jarod and Jalen created a banner to support the Harvard Big Brothers at Cunniff.
Joe L. and Peter were responsible for the banner and it's implementation at the event.
Botan, Trevor, Bandna, Noah and Shay all spoke eloquently to the Cunniff students about the importance of understanding differences and being the best we can be by being respectful, responsible, ready and safe. They also showcased their Anti- Bullying campaign posters.
Olivia and Bandna spent time analyzing their classmates' poetry for examples of rhythm, white space, line breaks, repetition, rhyming, personification, metaphors and other areas students practiced during writing workshop. They composed their own introduction for their classmates' poetry to share on stage. Bandna and Olivia were excellent MCs.
Angela, Botan, Brendan, Katie, Shay, Miladi and Joe B. presented their inspiring poetry to the whole school. They projected their voice and presented well.
Olivia and Jarod wowed the audience with their super jump roping skills. It was awesome!
Shannon, Marco and Ashley created a whole school call and response rally on stage. Fantastic!
Students should be SO proud of their efforts this month.
Please ask your child about their persuasive writing topics. They began research on their topic, so any conversations to push student's thinking will help their project immensely.
Thanks for your support!
Sincerely,
Jen and Judi
P.S We are always in need of tissues, if ever you are able to donate, it would be greatly appreciated.
February 28, 2012
Dear
Room 210 Families,
It's been a short, but packed month. Poet in residence, Andrew Green came to visit to share his poem journals and writing experiences with us. Students have been working the last week on their poem drafts. Students should be proud of their efforts. Thank you to the PTO for their efforts in making this happen.
Students took part in rock examinations with Museum of Science materials earlier this week. Students were able to analyze rock samples by testing them with glass scratching, acid testing, mineral size and testing for layers. Students identified rocks in a systematic way with partners.
Fifth graders did an excellent job of planning for interactive read alouds with their K/1 buddies. Some students brought in their childhood favorites and others chose from my son's collection. Students needed to plan out background knowledge conversations, purposeful moments to pause and reflect with their buddies and culminating activities. The K/1 buddies delighted in the activity.
During reading group, students are practicing different strategies that "expert" readers use. For example, expert readers pay close attention to the mood that dialogue creates, or expert readers notice how dialogue reveals character or expert readers know that sometimes authors have alternate explanations for what is really going on, and expert readers know that authors create complex characters.
During math this week, we practiced trial and error for a math strategy in problem solving and we are reviewing and drilling double digit multiplication and long division.
Students will be studying the 13 colonies and working on a technology project to demonstrate their knowledge in PREZI. Stay tuned.
ATTENTION INTERESTED WRITERS: here's a link for a grades 4-12 contest. Check it out!
http://sportsmuseum.org/education/will-mcdonough-writing-contest.aspxThink Spring!
Jen
Valentine's Day- There will be a poet in residence during caf time, please bring your own lunch.
Students may bring in valentines for classmates ( needs to be all 20)
If candy is distributed ( as I know some candy is attached to store bought valentines these days), it will be put in the backpack to go home. THANKS!
February 1, 2012
Dear Students and Families of room 210,
Students in room 210 have been quite busy lately. It's another of my favorite times of year, as skills are building in the form of projects! During Social Studies, students worked in small groups to plan, create and execute two different projects. First, they chose a topic of study for Ancient Maya civilization and taught the class in any way they designed. We use a rubric in the fifth grade that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, problem solving and risk taking. The daily reinforcement of these ideas are reaching these budding middle schoolers in unexpected ways. Some students were solving problems of how to keep their puppet show theater they created in standing form, others were creating instruments, building farm replicas, creating power points, drawing replicas on kid pix, building pyramids and observatories and others were re-enacting family life. In building the connection that Ancient Mayans were Native Americans, we did a quick study of some of the Native American cultures (such as the Eastern Woodlands and Plateau region) in the now USA. Students worked in partners to design ways to advertise for people to come visit different Native American Cultural regions during the 1400s. There were enthusiastic info-mercials, real estate agents that had to make the big sale and nightly news reports.
Most recently, as an introduction to motivations and technologies of early explorers from Europe, students worked in pairs to re-enact a sunken ship excavation. Students alternated roles as diver and scientist to record the object's location from the grid, sketch artifacts ( astrolabe, compass, tobacco, bible, etc..), research their meaning and importance of those objects during the 140Os.
During reading, students completes their most recent essay on Antarctica, their reading response letters and are now working on their book talk. We have been working on elements of non-fiction in preparation for middle school. In conjunction with the science studies, during reading we concentrate on a reading goal, for example, learning about the motion of planets and moons one day and about gravity the next day. We have discovered that sometimes in informational text, we need to read cover to cover, but other times we skim for parts that are predicted to be most useful for our understanding.
During guided reading groups, all students are reading a fiction novel with me, (
Bloomability,
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, and
Frindle). They are also required to read their own independent book.
This is a great deal of reading. Please remind students that they need to read each night for at least 30 minutes to build stamina, practice fluency, keep up with assignments and oh yes, to build the daily reading habit, in hopes to have life long book lovers.
We are studying decimals and fractions and discovering real world connections with banking/money/ gas prices/mortgage rates/ounces in place values beyond hundredths. At anytime that you can point out where a number such as 3.765 is used will be very helpful in their understanding of the real world connection. Students have just finished their adaptation writing projects. Soon they will be designing their own imaginary creaure with adaptations ( structural and physical) on a fascinating computer program.
Thank you families for all the donations to the Buddy Instrument Making Day. It was a hit! They solved problems as a team and created beautiful ( loud) music in the end together! Fifith graders are fabulous leaders to their buddies. Last week, the younger buddies taught the fifth graders how to make a book mark. The young ones ( the teachers) beamed with pride at their student's ( the older ones)accomplishments. Thank you fifth graders for helping to organize and put all the extra recycleables in my car to ensure a safe route to the Framingham Recycle Center!
Next up... Students will be analyzing persuasive writing in the form of blogs, websites, opeds and Dr King's letter from a Birmingham Jail to begin the foundations for their own persuasive pieces. We will keep you updated on this project and certainly be asking for some support in students' understanding of the real world context of these ideas.
Thanks for reading!
Enjoy this amazing winter weather.
Sincerely,
Jen
September 2011
Please help students choose a HEALTHY snack for school. Also, we are always in need of extra healthy non- perishable snacks ( granola bars, pretzels, whole wheat crackers, low sugar cereal etc...) for students who occasionally forget their own. Thanks for all of your support in building independence and high expectations in our community of learners. It's a privilege to teach and learn with the fifth graders each day. I am so thrilled to be teaching at Cunniff, with these budding leaders of the future!
We have been learning the routines and getting to know each other. During the first few weeks of school students will be engaged in creating a strong and supportive community. Students do this by working together in groups, greeting each other in “Morning Meeting” and taking the time to take responsibility for themselves and others. We will work on how to be a good listener, give a friendly handshake, actively participate in group work, speak clearly, advocate for themselves and others and share materials. The work of the first few weeks of school is largely based in a social curriculum or a "Caring School Community" or “Responsive Classroom”. The community building work that is done now will allow students to feel safe to take risks academically and socially so that when the rich curriculum unfolds as the months proceed they will be in a supportive community of learners to try their very best. Working in groups may be new for some students but I have no doubts that they will succeed and reap the benefits of learning to problem solve, resolve conflicts and agree to disagree at times.
SOME ROUTINES OF THE CLASSROOM:
Students will have Physical Education on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please have students ready with sneakers that day.
Many families have kindly asked what they can donate to the class. Classrooms always need sponges, paper towels and extra non- perishable healthy snacks for children if they forget to bring their own occasionally. Thank you to those who were able to bring in many supplies for students ( tissues and wipes).
Students will have homework most nights of the school week. We ask that students read for at least thirty minutes each night. They will also have math and/or writing assignments.
We have a snack period each day. In order for students to perform at their best, please be sure they have a HEALTHY snack each day. No candy or soda please.
Please be aware that if you send me an e-mail message, jsanangelo@watertown.k12.ma.us, I may not check it until after school since I am teaching during the day.
Thanks for all the support and kindness that has been shown to our classroom community already. I am excited about the year with these fabulous fifth grade students. I look forward to meeting you all in the near future.
Sincerely,
Jen SanAngelo