Sunday December 13th, 2009
Math 4/5 : It looks like everyone took to the estimation strategies for
multiplication and division this week, so we will work on some more advanced
methods for estimation this week. Remember, we are not doing this because
it's the fastest way to solve multiplication and division, but because it
helps us understand why our answers work! My plan at the moment is to give
out homework on Tuesday and Thursday, though this may change.
Science 4/5 : We'll go over everyone's answers to the homework on Monday
and do some more demonstrations of phase changes in matter. We will spend
the rest of the week looking at two forms of energy (potential and kinetic)
doing and in-class experiment on Tuesday and some more demonstrations on
Wednesday. There will be a form to fill out and turn in based on the
experiment, and I am planning on collecting that on Wednesday.
Thursday and Friday I am planning on doing some in-class demonstrations of the
three main forms of energy (heat) transfer, convection, conduction,
radiation). Here is an online demonstration to get you started
http://www.wisc-online.com/objects/index_tj.asp?objid=SCE304
Social Studies: 4/5: Most of this week will be spent working on the Native
American posters that are due on Friday the 18th. I'm VERY impressed with
the quality of everyone's research so far and am looking forward to seeing
how they posters will turn out. On Friday you will have the chance to show
off your poster and take notes on what the other students have presented.
On Monday I will introduce what a works cited page is and how to make one
because I expect everyone to include one on their posters. I use a web page
to help put everything in the right format, but this has been difficult for
students in the past and it would be nice to make sure you have some help
with these. I will share more about this on Monday. If you'd like a
preview, go to the class web site and click on the English tab. You can
find the link there.
Those who finish early will have the opportunity to make their own
(miniature!) totem pole in class.
English 4/5 : I need everyone's rough draft of their fictional narratives
turned in to me by Friday so that I can take them home and grade them over
the break. I will be giving you time to do these in class, but make sure
you spend time on them at home as well so that you are not rushing to finish
yours by Friday. Since we have been spending class time working on how to
properly include quotes into stories, I will be looking for you to properly
include lots of dialogue in yours.
Japanese:4/5: 1st years will have a hiragana quiz on Monday, and will spend
the rest of the week learning how to share their hobbies with others. 2nd
years will have a katakana quiz on Monday and will spend the rest of the
week practicing how to talk about their families. Both classes will also be
working on Japanese New Years cards, and I will give a full class period on
Wednesday for this. Cards will need to be finished by Friday to be entered in
the contest!
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Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Some small changes to the schedule...
Math: After working with you guys on the assignment I handed out today
(estimating division) I got the feeling that we need more time to talk about
it in class before I make you finish it at home. Instead of making it due at
the beginning of class, I will collect it at the end of class after doing some
more practice and giving you time to work on it. I will give an arigatou to
anyone who has it completed by the beginning of class.
Social Studies: This isn't a change, just a reminder that I will be looking
at the information you've gathered for your Native American posters and giving
you feedback on it tonight. I will return it to you tomorrow.
English: The quote assignment is your #1 priority tonight! I think we went
over it enough in class today that you should be able to finish it on your
own, so I will collect it at the beginning of English class. Arigatous for
the whole class if everyone has it ready on time!
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Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Math 4/5 : If you didn't finish the short assignment on rounding I handed
out on Wednesday, make sure it is ready by class on Monday. We will go over
it then. We will use that to help practice estimating strategies for
multiplication and division problems this week.
Science 4/5 : Exciting times in science this week! Monday and Tuesday we
will talk about Isaac Newton and his first and second laws of motion. The
rest of the week we will talk about the phases of matter (solid, liquid,
gas).
Social Studies: 4/5: Finish listing which states each of the ten groups of
Native American groups we are studying in class could be found. Use the
map on your pre-test from Monday to help you. If you were not able to
finish this in class, have it ready by Monday. Also, spend some time this
weekend researching the group of Native Americans you chose on Wednesday.
Here is a reminder of the requirements of your project.:
Make a poster showing the following information about the group you chose.
Include a brief (about five sentences) description of each;
1) Location (Where they lived) Include a map.
2) Homes (What the lived in)
3) Food (What they ate)
4) Art (painting, monuments etc.)
5) Culture.
Include at least five visuals (pictures, drawings etc.) to help illustrate
the information you will include on your poster.
Include a reference page to show which sources you used to get your
information (we will talk about how to do this in class).
Ready for class on 12/18 (Friday)
We will spend most of the next two weeks of class working on this, but
class time is limited so spend plenty of time outside of class on your
research.
English 4/5 : Choose one of the Calvin and Hobbes comics I handed out on
Wednesday to turn into a short story like the example we made in class.
Make sure to use the dialogue in the comic you chose for the dialogue in
your story, and include lots of description to explain what's happening in
the comic. Have your short story typed and ready by Monday.
The rest of the week we will talk about the rules for using quotations in
your writing such as how to include punctuation and when to change
paragraphs. You also have new spelling words this week for the first time
in a while.
Japanese:4/5: 1st year have a Hiragana quiz on Tuesday, and 2nd years will
have a katakana quiz on Monday. The rest of the week, 1st year students
will continue to memorize and practice words for hobbies while 2nd years
will practice how to talk about their families. Both classes will be
getting together on Wednesday for a culture lesson on how Japanese people
spend the holiday season to help set up making New Years cards.
================================================
Sunday, November 29th
Math 4/5 : Starting this week we will begin working on estimation strategies
for both multiplication
and division. There will be one homework assignment in math this week that I
will hand out on
Monday and collect on Tuesday. it will cover topics in both math and science.
There will also be a
homework assignment over the weekend.
Science 4/5 : We will finish talking about speed on Monday (the homework
assignment will be the
same as the one I will hand out in math). On Tuesday and Wednesday we will
talk about force,
inertia, friction and Newton's first law. There will be an assignment on this
that I will hand out on
Tuesday and collect on Wednesday.
Social Studies: 4/5: This week we will talk about the names and locations of
a few well-known
Native American cultures. This is one of the major standards for the 5th
grade benchmarks in social
studies, so we'll be putting extra emphasis on it, including a quiz next
Monday. There will also be an
assignment I will hand out on Monday and collect on Wednesday.
English 4/5 : After collecting the students' summaries of their personal
narratives on Monday, we
will talk about how to properly include dialogue in a story. There will be a
short assignment to help
with this that I will collect on Wednesday. I will also ask the students to
complete an assignment
over the weekend in which they turn a comic strip into a short story with
dialogue. More on this
later. To help prepare for the state writing assessments coming up later in
the year I would also like
the students to practice cursive writing, and we will take some time for that
on Tuesday.
Japanese:4/5: Both the first and second year classes will continue to
practice self-introduction
phrases (review in the case of the 2nd year students). 2nd year students will
have their first quiz on
all of the katakana on Monday, and will have an assignment to complete by
Tuesday. We will also
start preparing Nengajo (New Years cards) to complete by winter break.
===========================================================
Sunday, November 22nd
Math 4/5 : The assignment I handed out in class will be due on Monday, and I
have another
assignment that I will ask the students to work on over the break. Both
assignments will be posted
on the class web site by the end of Sunday.
Science 4/5 : We didn't have time to get to the activity on speed and
acceleration that I had planned
last week due to some unfinished work on the exhibition. We will complete
this activity on Monday
and Tuesday this week, and there will be a short online assignment for the
students to work on over
the break. I will post a link to this on the class web site.
Social Studies: 4/5: We have talked about theories on how Native Americans
arrived in North
America, and this week we will practice making timelines to help us put into
context the cultures and
events we will talk about over the next few weeks.
English 4/5 : I will collect the adverb activity that I handed out on Friday
in class on Monday, and
we will discuss our answers in class. Over the break I would like the
students to write a summary of
the fictional narrative they will write in preparation for the rough draft we
will be working on before
winter break. I will give out new spelling words the week after Thanksgiving
break.
Japanese:4/5: The first year Japanese class has homework due on Monday, and
the 2nd year class
will have a quiz on katakana lines 4-6. 2nd year homework is also due on
Monday. 1st years will
continue to practice basic self introductions while the second years will
focus on the final lines of the
hiragana chart. 2nd years will have a quiz on all of the katakana the Monday
after Thanksgiving
break
=====================================================
Thursday, November 19th
Just wanted to let you know that because of some activities we needed to
finish in class related to
the exhibition, the activity on motion, speed and acceleration that I had
planned for Thursday and
Friday this week will be moved to next Monday and Tuesday. Thanks for
understanding!
======================================================
Sunday, November 15th
Some of you have noticed that I have started a class web site to post
assignments and talk about
what's happening in class. Here is the link
http://sites.google.com/site/sjs45gradeclasssite/home
Since it is through Google Sites I need to invite everyone who wants to look
at it. I have invited all of
the students, and if you are a parent and would like access send me an e-mail
and I'll invite you as
soon as possible.
Here's what will be happening in class the second week of the new grading
period. The first three
days of the week will be devoted to making sure everyone is ready for our
exhibition on Wednesday
night. I have been lightening the homework load so that everyone will have as
much time as they
need to get ready.
Math: We've been working on the reversibility of multiplication and division,
and will continue
practicing that this week. I have an assignment that I will have you begin on
Monday, and I will give
you until Thursday to complete it. Everyone will get a copy of the assignment
on Monday, but I will
post a copy of it on this page Monday night in case anyone needs extra copies.
Science: After the exhibition we'll talk about the difference between motion,
speed and acceleration
with an in-class activity on Thursday and Friday. We'll be timing each other
walking around the
school and making graphs based on our data. You should have enough time to
finish your graphs in
class, but if you don't you can finish them over the weekend and turn them in
on Monday the 23rd.
I'll post more information on this activity later in the week.
English: We'll spend the beginning of the week reviewing presentation skills
in preparation for
Wednesday's exhibition. On Thursday and Friday we'll talk about some ways to
make your writing
more descriptive, including an assignment on using adverbs that I'll give you
on Thursday and collect
on Monday. We'll also talk about what the climax of a story is and how to
include one in your
fictional narrative. There wont be any new spelling words again this week due
to the exhibition.
Social Studies: On Monday our social studies class will join with
Leighty-sensei's class to do some
more work on the exhibition. Beginning on Thursday and Friday we'll begin our
unit on Native
American cultures by talking about how the first inhabitants of North America
arrived.
Japanese: Both the 1st year and 2nd year classes will have quizzes on Monday,
the first years on
dakuon (ga, gi, gu, ge, go etc.) and the 2nd years on the first three lines of
katakana. After the
exhibition, the first years will continue on with hiragana and the 2nd years
will work on the next
three lines of katakana. There will be a practice worksheet due on Friday,
and a homework
assignment to be completed over the weekend. All assignments will be posted
on the class web
page.
Sunday, November 8th
This will be a short update just to get us started into the first week of the
next grading period.
Come
back on Wednesday for more information on what we'll be doing for the next
nine weeks!
Math: We'll be working on strategies for multiplication and division over the
next several weeks, and
this week we will be looking at properties of multiplication. This sounds
very boring, I know, but it is
very important to make the rest of our work with multiplication easier. On
Monday I'll hand out an
assignment on this that will be due Thursday in class.
Science: To help make the work we'll be doing for the exhibition make more
sense, we'll work the
next
two weeks on units and conversion. The nice thing about this is that it fits
right into the work we're
doing in math! I have an online assignment I would like you to do during the
day off on Wednesday,
and I will be e-mailing everyone about that soon. There will also be a link
to that assignment here
soon, so be sure to check back. The information you will be gathering in your
assignment is
important
for our class on Thursday, so it's important that everyone completes it on
time! If you don't have a
reliable internet connection at home, I have worksheets I can give you that
can substitute for the
online
assignment.
Social Studies: Our classes over the next two weeks will be taken up by work
on our exhibition.
We'll
be looking at the tourist locations that will be showcased by the different
advisory groups, as well as
working on the displays we will be showing during the presentation next Wednesday.
English: Because it is a short week I will not be giving any new spelling
words this week. Instead we
will start talking about the fictional narrative we will be writing over the
next grading period. There
will
be a short assignment related to the fictional narrative that I will hand out
in class on Tuesday and
collect on Thursday.
Japanese: We will split the Japanese class into two groups beginning on
Monday, with the 1st year
students continuing on with hiragana and the 2nd year students beginning work
on katakana. Both
groups will spend time in class becoming comfortable with the Japanese they
will need for their
exhibition skits.
