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Class Business Week of October 27

Oct27

I want to apologize in advance for the amount of information I’m about to deliver in this blog post.

Firstly, our class will be joining Ms. Holly’s lower elementary class on a field trip to the Ben Lomond Cemetery this Thursday, October 30.  This walking field trip will allow students to explore our local history by participating in grave rubbings as well as an historical scavenger hunt.  We took this field trip last year and the children really enjoyed it.  If you are interested in joining us on this field trip, even though it is short notice, please let me know by Wednesday,October 29.  We will be leaving the school at 9:00 am,  and returning by lunch at 12:00.  This is a great trip for parents who can’t take an entire day off work (been there, done that).  Because the field trip will take place in the morning on Thursday, we will be holding reading groups on Friday.   If you are a Thursday reading group volunteer, we will plan on seeing you again on Thursday, November 6.

Our October book reports are due this Thursday.  As previously stated, these book reports are student choice.  From the genre to the presentation method, these reports are in the hands of your children.  They can turn in a simple written report, they can do a power point, they can create a display board or even a diorama.   If your student is planning on doing a power point presentation, they will need to turn in a print copy of their power point on Thursday October 30.  We will do the actual presentations on Wednesday, November 5.

This week is Red Ribbon Week.  We have several different activities happening this week.  Our class is participating in a door decorating contest in which the winning class will receive a pizza party.  Our class has a great concept that we will be working on tomorrow.  Tomorrow we also have an assembly featuring Dorian Willes.  Dorian is a recovering drug addict from Idaho who has dedicated his life to educating others about the dangers of addiction.   Please take time this week to speak to your children about making healthy choices.  We have spoken a bit about what it means to be healthy and why it is important to be drug free.  The theme for Red Ribbon week is “Love Yourself.  Be Drug Free”.

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Thank you to those who are helping their children with homework!   Whether it is science fair, book reports or weekly IXL assignments, your support is vitally important to your child’s success.   I like to think of your child’s education as a team effort.  I am with your children for such a small percentage of time during the day that I count on your support when it comes to your child’s academic, social and emotional progress.  If you ever have a concern about your child’s development, whether academic, social or emotional, I am happy to schedule a time to meet with you.   If you are curious about how our classroom runs, you are welcome to schedule a time to come and observe in our classroom.   We welcome observations in 30 minute blocks.  Please contact the front office to schedule observation times.

Lastly, we have a 6th grade student and parent meeting on Thursday, October 30 at 4:30 pm.   Upper elementary teachers will be discussing the 6th grade student council, committees, expectations and fundraisers.  We will also be discussing the 6th grade Alliance Redwoods field trip.  We are so proud of the 6th grade students and who they are becoming.  We want you to be well informed about what is going on this year.  Please plan on attending, we hope to see you there.

Normalization Nearing and End and an Update

Sep29

I really, truly cannot believe that we are beginning our 7th week of school.  It is nutty how quickly time is passing.

The students are all settling nicely to our daily routines, and most of the time are using their time wisely.  We still have some fine tuning to do before I can say they are completely normalized, but overall I am pleased.

The last two weeks we have spent a lot of time discussing what it means to write a complete sentence.  As such, we insist that all answers (written or spoken) are done so using complete sentences.  Last week we discussed the parts of speech we use when writing complete sentences, and the students all did follow up work honing their skills. This week we are getting down to the actual writing of “good” sentences which contain an adjective, subject, and vivid verb.  The goal is to write “best” sentences.  Though this simple sentence writing has been time consuming, I am confident the time we take now will pay off 10 fold in the long run.

Level 4 students are studying Utah History and began studying the five Native American Tribes of Utah.  This preliminary study before the field trip next week will give them a great background to the activities they will be participating in at the American West Heritage Center.

Ute Dwelling

Level 5 students are studying Mesopotamia and the people of Ancient Babylonia.  Today we talked about King Hammurabi and the students interpreted the early code.  They acted as judges to pass down a sentence they thought was appropriate before comparing their sentences to Hammurabi’s Code.  Whew!  I would not want to go before some of your children in court.  They were harsh!

Hammurabi’s Code

Level 6 students have been studying Ancient Rome.  Today we discussed the three types of government in Ancient Rome and then they began researching and interpreting the Twelve Tables.  We will continue this discussion throughout the week.

This year our cultural routine is working out marvelously.  We are working in units of individual subjects rather than a different subject daily.  This is allowing the students to really immerse themselves in one subject rather than continually switching gears.  My observations during their individual work time have convinced me that this is a good change.

If you have volunteered to help with reading groups, I will be sending out an email by mid-week.  Watch your inbox please.

One more thing, book reports and science fair questions are due tomorrow.  So far the cereal boxes and questions have been fantastic.

~Cheers

Homework Update and October Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up

Sep24

Good Morning!

Thanks to all of our parents who volunteered for our field trip to the NHMU.  It was a great success and the kids had a great time.  The level 4 and 5 workshops were really fantastic!  I will definitely plan this field trip again next year.

Because your children have a book report and their science fair question due next Tuesday, September 30, there will be no new IXL homework this week.  They should continue working on the previous IXL homework if they have not already completed it.

We have been learning about what makes a complete sentence, and this week we are focusing on all the parts of the sentence that make a Great sentence.  As such, we have studied strong verbs and how and when parts (aka prepositions).  Your children will have homework tonight that will help them understand  Dead Verbs (weak verbs and “be” verbs).

Our first Parent Teacher Conference is coming up October 13-15.  Please sign up for a 30 minutes slot.  The sign-up is available on the right-hand sidebar.

~Cheers

In the Home Stretch

Apr14

I’m not sure about you, but for me, this year has flown by.  I can hardly believe we are down to the final 7 weeks of the school year.  It has been quite a whirlwind in room 24.  I am so excited to see the progress your kids have made this year.  They have grown so much, both academically and emotionally.   I’m so proud of them and how they have all carved their own niche within our classroom.  Students who were quite shy at the beginning of the year have come out of their shells and students who don’t know what a shell is, still don’t know what it means to be shy, but they lend their boisterousness to make our classroom the menagerie that it is.   I love them all.

Because it is the end of the year, that means testing.  Our class begins  testing next Wednesday, April 23rd.  Please be sure your children are accessing the practice tests at home.   Because lower elementary is also testing,  students do not have much computer time in the classroom.  When I say “much”, what I mean is, next to none.  It is important that they become familiar with the ins and outs of the program, so if you have a computer with internet access at home, please allow your children time to access the website.

This week we are wrapping up a unit on Science Fiction literary analysis.  We will be reading a short Ray Bradbury story, then we will watch a short film with the same title.  The students will analyze similarities and differences between the story and the film.  We watched Wall-E last week and did a character study.  I was quite impressed at everything the children got from the movie.  This unit combined science fiction analysis with Earth Day studies so we will also be doing poetry analysis using lyrics from a song.  When given the opportunity, these kids sure know how to dissect literature!

Tomorrow Lifetouch will be here taking Spring photos as a fundraiser for Operation Smile.  All proceeds will go to this amazing organization.  A flyer was sent home with your students today.  These photos are completely optional.  Photos for our 6th grade students will be taken next Tuesday, April 22.  A graduation photo, if you will.

We have the 6th grade field trip coming up April 27-May 2 and we are all so excited.  We also have a combined class fieldtrip, to the Leonardo Museum, May 6.  If you are interested in being a chaperone and would love to spend your day wrangling our amazing students please contact me.  We need 2 chaperones as we will be taking the Frontrunner and Trax to our destination.  More details forthcoming.

Don’t forget book reports are due April 23rd.  Your student was given a paper with the complete criteria for the book report.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Cheers!

This Week in Room 24

Mar9

This week we finished watching the BBC’s Planet Earth: Mountains program.  The students loved it!  With amazing photography, well presented facts and Sir David Attenborough narrating, who wouldn’t love it?!

This program kicked off our biome study and our next group project.  The students were broken into groups, given a mountain range to study and a general list of expectations.  Within their groups, the students can decide how they would like to break up their workload.   It will be a fantastic learning process for the students in our class as they figure out how to work with each other to create a presentation that they will share with the class March 28th.

Today we also started our poetry unit, beginning with a figurative language review, using lyrics from pop songs to illustrate metaphor, simile, hyperbole and personification.  The students have interactive notebook pages to work on to help drive the concept home (no pun intended).

Level 6 spent the morning working on an open ended question that allowed them to practice math, language and critical thinking skills.  We will have more problems like this in the future to stretch their comfort zone and allow them freedom to explore.  This week we also discussed the first continental congress and the students chose one of the intolerable acts to present to the group.  This is a small research project, one that will be done completely in class.

Level 5 students were given a lesson on the difference between estimating and guessing.  We used a jar of pennies as our prop.  They were then asked to answer several questions and complete a graph using their data.  This week in science we were lucky enough to have Ms. Amy’s dad, Mr. Bob, give a lesson about electromagnets.  He also brought all of the supplies for building electromagnets.  It was a big hit amongst the kids.