The culminating event for our unit was a huge success! I was so proud of the students and the work they did during this unit! Many students continue to write powerful poetry. Please take a look at your child's blog and leave a comment about their writing. Enjoy the video that was shown the evening of our Expressions of War Art Gallery.
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Flag Performance
The fifth graders were enthusiastic cheerleaders during the Homecoming Game on Friday. We enjoyed cheering on our Senior Mentors! -Curriculum News-
Unit Of Inquiry We finish up our How We Express Ourselves unit this week and will begin How The World Works, a unit about Matter. Literacy Reading-I am conferencing with students about the war themed novel they read during the unit. Please ask your child if he/she can answer the guiding questions for the novel. *Who was the main character? How was this character affected by the war? (3 ways) *What war is this novel centered around? Where was this war? What was it about? *What was the author's message? Writing- Poetry Unit is wrapping up, we will continue to focus on figurative language, word choice, and sentence fluency. Math We are reviewing place value and subtraction strategies. Ask your child to show you at least 2 strategies to solve subtraction problems. Look for the Unit assessment by the end of the week. *Check out the Blog- "Math Tutorials 2" for subtraction strategy explanations It has been an incredibly busy few weeks. Thank you so much for attending Parent/Teacher conferences. There were some questions about the MAP testing so I am including a link that will give you more information as well as some helpful websites for your child to visit. http://www.nwea.org/support/article/930/parent-toolkit The Sqworl Website on the top of this page also has some math websites for students to visit. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Students enjoyed getting a sneak peak into our Middle School this afternoon. They were greeted by Mr. Rentoule, the Middle School principal, and Ms. Omori, our head of student activities. Students got a little preview of the types of activities, clubs and classes offered at LJA's Middle School. Ice cream treats topped off the afternoon activity! Ask your child to tell you more about their experience today. Important Upcoming Events October 29th from 6:00-7:00 Expressions of War Art Gallery Your child will act as a docent as you visit our Expressions of War Art Gallery and look at photos and read poetry. This is our summative assessment for our unit. Hope to see you there! October 30th Field trip to Pearl Harbor has been rescheduled October 31st Halloween Parade & Celebration November 2nd All School Open House/Check out the Middle School November 13th Art Academy Field Trip _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ Last week we had a presentation by representatives from the U.S.S. Arizona. We heard about the history of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, saw different maps that showed the attacks and saw photographs from this eventful day in history. The highlight was the guest speaker, Uncle Jimmy, who was a fifth grader at the time of the bombing. An amazing storyteller, this "witness to history" kept students mesmerized as he retold the bombing from the perspective of an 11 year old boy. Students learned so much from his heartfelt presentation. We are looking forward to our visit to the U.S.S. Arizona next week! Happy Birthday to Jonah and Ethan! We enjoyed the birthday treats! Inspired by nature to write amazing poetry! Unit Update "War, Huh, What is it Good For?" After, learning about the Revolutionary War and the different perspectives from King George to Paul Revere, students are designing their own propaganda posters. Step inside our classroom and you will see a room full of poets practicing their craft. We are studying poetry and how words, carefully chosen, convey powerful messages. Next week we look at war themed photographs and write poetry that captures the feeling/mood of the photograph. The summative task for this unit is to choose a photograph, reenact the photograph, write a poem that captures the feeling, and orally recite the poem with fluency needed to convey the message. The projects will be on display at the Expressions of War Gallery on October 29th. Global Read Aloud Students are enjoying Sharon Draper's book, Out of My Mind. This book is part of the Global Read Aloud Project that is bringing schools together through one book. Melody, a young girl, with cerebral palsy is telling her story of the challenges she faces daily trying to communicate her thoughts. Find out more about the Global Read Aloud at The Global Read Aloud Project. We held our second Mystery Skype Session Friday. Students cooperated, communicated and were committed to finding the school's location. We were thrown off by one of their answers but got back on track and persevered until we inferred Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Students were excited to learn that this school is an IB school. As students met each other they shared something they liked about being an IB student. A few student comments about why they liked IB- - it has themes that we study every year so we know what to expect - the projects are fun -we work on traits that will help us in life -every IB school no matter where it is in the world has units and common things -I get to be creative and have choice in how I show my learning -our teachers push us to do even more -we are becoming international learners We are looking forward to a year long partnership with this IB school from Alabama. Field Trip Update- Our field trip to the U.S.S. Arizona has been canceled due to the Government Shut Down. Wednesday morning we will have guest speakers from the U.S.S. Arizona come to speak to us about their experiences during war. I am looking forward to Parent/Teacher Conferences this Tuesday!
We used the globe, maps, google maps and introduced ourselves by giving a virtual high 5! The essential flowchart, the recorder at work, our questions and celebrating after we solved the mystery! Our first Mystery Skype Session was a hit with the students! The students demonstrated so many of the learner attitudes. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm, confidence, commitment and cooperation. Each student had a role to play in our session and they worked together. Our goal was to find the location of our Global Read Aloud blogging buddies. The Skype Session began with a greeting and then a game of 20 questions. (The day before we brainstormed questions that we thought would help us narrow down the location and then Jessica and Jonah volunteered to stay after school and organize our questions into a format that would help guide the session.) The mystery school was astounded that we were able to guess their location with just 5 questions. Our logical reasoners used the flowchart along with advice from our mappers to determine the next questions that needed to be asked. We introduced ourselves by giving a virtual high five to our new blogging buddies who are from Iowa! Ask your child about the important role they played during the session. *Thank you to our photographer, Katelyn, for the amazing pictures that you see above. We are now ready to begin the Global Read Aloud with the book Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. This is a project that is connecting schools around the globe with a single book. We have a few more Mystery Skype Sessions to connect with other schools and we will be blogging responses about the book. Please encourage your child to blog with their blogging buddies! **************************************** Please check the dates again for the field trips. I apologize for the mix up with some of the dates, in my haste to communicate I had a few dates mixed up.... Upcoming dates- Oct. 14th- Discoverers' Day No School Oct. 15th Parent Teacher Conferences PLEASE SIGN UP if you haven't already Oct. 16th Pearl Harbor Field Trip Thank you to Ms. Chong and Ms. Spencer for volunteering to chaperone! Oct. 29th Expressions of War Art Gallery Oct. 31st Fall Harvest/Parade at 9-9:30 Nov. 2nd- All School Open House/Check out the Middle School Nov. 13th Art Academy Field Trip ****************************** Ms. Winger will be substituting for me this Friday through the following Wednesday. I attended the IB Academy last Spring and am now an IB Evaluator/Trainer. I will be on a Site Visit to an IB Candidate School in California. During my absence please direct any questions or concerns to Ms. Winger. Tutoring will resume October 17th after conferences and our field trip. Thank you for your support! ************************ Happy Birthday James! We loved the healthy snacks! They were delicious! There is also a new page on this website. Please check out the Sqworl/Website tab at the top of the page. This is where you and your child can look at the different resources that we are linking to in our units.
International Peace Day Friday was International Peace Day. We learned about the Nobel Peace Prize early in the week. Students were surprised to learn about the history behind the prize. Ask them to tell you what they know! Students then did some research to find their favorite quote about peace. These quotes will be engraved onto beautiful Koa Peace Poles that each student is currently sanding to perfection. The 5th graders will also be creating a large Peace Pole for LJA. We were inspired by Mr. Goi the thinker behind peace poles. You can read about him and the history of the peace pole at this link http://www.peacepoles.com. The students are already looking forward to our next sanding session... If you would like to send in a sanding block for your child to use that would be helpful! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * Students worked hard to complete their historical journals and summative flip books. This week we will be photographing and videotaping students in their historical dress. (Simple basic attire is all that is needed.) We will kick off our new unit this week. New Unit- How We Express Ourselves- "War, HUH, What is it Good For?" Central Idea: In times surrounding war, people express and promote their points of view in many ways. Lines of Inquiry: War is a result of conflicting viewpoints & perspectives Artistic expressions relating to war (writings, songs, art, monuments, and protests of war) How these expressions impact both the creator and audience Save the Date Oct. 29th* 5th Grade Art Gallery - Expressions During Times of War More details forthcoming IMPORTANT DATES September 24th and September 26th - TESTING- Please make sure your child eats breakfast and comes to school well rested so they can put forth their best effort! *We will begin promptly at 8:00, tardy students will be sent to the office and will remain there until the testing session is complete. Oct. 15th -Parent Teacher Conferences No School for Students Parent Teacher Conferences are coming up! I am looking forward to discussing your child's progress so far this year. Please sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences by clicking on the Sign Up Genius Button on the right side and choosing a time slot. Please contact me if you are unable to sign up Field Trips Oct. 16th- Field Trip to Pearl Harbor Nov. 13th- Field Trip to Art Academy Please send me an email at [email protected] if you are available to chaperone Curriculum Update- Language Arts Literature Circles/Books with a conflict theme Responding to Text/Showing evidence of your thinking Poetry-Imagery and Figurative Language Vocabulary Workshop Thank you for talking to your child about the books he/she are reading. Our Book Talks have motivated everyone to read more. We are well on our way to 100 Books! Math Unit 2 - 3D Geometry Unit 1 Assessments will be coming home soon, please review them with your child, sign the folder and return to school. Kidblog Update- If you haven't had a chance to visit your child's blog please check it out and leave a comment. Check out our Math Tutorials Blog where you can learn more about the strategies we are using to problem solve! Thanks Jessica, Oni, James & Jonah for posting and training the rest of the class on the app Show Me. Look for more Math Tutorials by our mathematically minded students! Happy Birthday Skylar! Thanks for the refreshing birthday treats! After researching one of the original 13 colonies students are now writing a historic journal from the perspective of a colonist. Included in the journals are answers to our lines of inquiry- who colonized the colony, what was life like in the colony, what were the interactions with the native people and what impact did the colonization have on the environment. In art class, students created portraits for the covers of their journals. Students will also dress as the colonist and will be photographing/videotaping each other. Summative Assessment Students are engrossed in researching a country that has been colonized. Ask your child to tell you about the country they have chosen to research. We will continue this research next week as we wrap up our unit on colonization. Reminders Tutoring sessions are Tuesday and Thursday from 2:50-3:25. Tutoring is for any student who needs extra support on homework/class work. I will notify you if your child needs to attend tutoring. Book Orders due Monday, go to the Scholastic Button on the right sidebar and order online. LJA Garden Party Sept. 21st Happy Birthday Spencer!
The oreo cheesecake birthday treats were scrumptious! Literacy News This week we met our 12th Grade Writing Mentors, this is an ongoing project that we are piloting this year with Ms. Yoshida's senior class. Each 5th grader is paired up with a 12th grade writing mentor. We will be meeting to talk about the writing process and to share our writing with each other. This week the students were excited to share their favorite picture books. We will be writing a short piece about the importance of this book. Thank you Ms. Yoshida and our 12 grade Writing Mentors, it was a highlight of the week. UNIT OF INQUIRY UPDATE Students have been researching the colony they find the most intriguing and will begin writing their historical journal through the perspective of a colonist. We looked at the elements that make up historical fiction and I am looking forward to seeing what they create! Math News On the kidblog sidebar you will see a new blog. Math Tutorials will be a place for students and parents to go when they need help understanding a strategy. Math tutorials may be created by students and the teacher. Students who can clearly communicate a strategy may submit their work to me and then it will be posted on our Math Tutorials blog. Thank you Jonah for submitting our first tutorial! Jonah is our trainer for the Show Me app used to create tutorials. Books Scholastic Book Orders were enclosed in the Friday envelopes. There are great deals on books and when you order you also help build our classroom library! Please order online by clicking on the blue Scholastic Book Club picture at the top of the blog. This will take you to Scholastic where you can set up an account, view books and order online. This month's book order is due September 16th. Blogging News
Please check out your child's blog on the side. Check out what they are documenting and leave a comment! It was great to see so many parents at Parent Night. I hope you were able to get a peek into what a day in fifth grade looks like. Please let me know if you have any questions about the upcoming year. A few reminders- *The best way to contact me is by email at [email protected], I am busy working with students and may not be able to answer the phone. * Independent and Responsible are the words to describe fifth graders. Please assist your child but don't rush to rescue. The mistakes and consequences in fifth grade are pretty minor and will help them learn along the way and become more independent and responsible. *Look over the planner daily and check in with your child. If your child struggles to complete homework/daily class work we will set up a more structured check in system between student/parent/teacher. *Students are excited to blog and document their learning. Check out your child's blog by clicking on their name. Please comment on their learning! The pictures below show parents working together to learn about our Units of Inquiry and solving Math Puzzles. Our student council candidates had awesome speeches, presenting their vision for LJA and why they would make a great representative. I was impressed with their confidence, enthusiasm and passion! I just wish there were enough representative spots for all of them... Next week Ms. Shigehara will announce the two boys and two girls that will represent our class. This Week's HighlightsWe tweeted about our week! Curriculum News Math Unit 1- Finding Factors and Prime Factors, Multiplication and Division Strategies Fifth graders are expected to know their multiplication facts up to 12's. Please have your child practice their math facts at home! They need to have them memorized so they can work with confidence and accuracy. Language- "CRAFT" stands for Comprehension, Respond to Text, Awareness of the Organization of Text, Fluency and Text Features/Vocabulary During "CRAFT" time we learned about picking the right book and the routines of Read to Self. Students are reading with tenacity towards our class goal of 100 books! Once students complete a book they fill out a Book Talk Card and share it with the class. They will bring home their Book Talk Card to share with you first, please sign the back of the Card showing that they discussed the book with you. Writing- We will begin researching and writing our Historical Journals in the upcoming weeks. The six trait focus will be on Ideas and Word Choice. Unit of Inquiry- How We Express Ourselves, "This Land is Your Land, But Now It's My Land This week students learned about different explorers that discovered the Americas. They shared their knowledge with their classmates by performing skits and presenting posters. We also learned about Roanoke, "The Lost Colony". In the next few weeks, we will be learning about the different American colonies, why they were colonized, the people that made up the colonies, the impact and different perspectives. Students will then pick a colony and write a historical journal based on a fictional character. The summative assessment for this unit is an independent inquiry project into a country of interest that was colonized. Students will create a flip book that showcases their new knowledge. Media Center- We have been busy in the media center preparing for our blogging journey. Students are excited to begin. We will be going over blogging agreements and students will set up their blogs and will begin posting. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at Parent Night! Mark your calendars- August 26th 6-7:30 Parent Night K-2 August 28th 6-7:30 Parent Night 3-5 August 29th Picture Day |