Monday, January 31st and the day before ZEUM

Field trip to Zeum tomorrow!!

1. We are asking students to arrive at the Dublin Elementary School parking lot at 7:45.

• We would like the bus to leave promptly at 8:00 a.m.

2. We will be returning to the school close to 2:50.

• Our usual release time on Tuesday is 2:05 therefore please plan for our later release time.  

3. There is no snack-bar at Zeum so please have your son or daughter pack a lunch.  If they usually enjoy a morning snack, you may want to pack something for that as well.  

4. It is in San Francisco and www.accuweather.com is saying that it will be a high of 59 tomorrow with clear skies.  

5. For the chaperons that are going on the field trip, please park outside our school parking lot.  

• This will make parking and coming/going much easier for our community throughout the day.  

We started our day with the monthly assembly for February -- Trustworthiness

We then had our school level spelling competition.  All 4th and 5th graders were able to compete in this year’s competition.  Our class earned one representative:  Taylor Hitchan.   The other two DES representatives and “Hitch” will represent our community at the district level sometime in early February.   

We came back and did our weekly pre-test in spelling:
http://www.eduplace.com/spellinglists/lists/sl_g5t04_02.html

DEAR time -- students could read or work on researching for their Famous American Report

Math:
A follow up to our Friday lesson -- multiplication and division with decimals.
Friday’s lesson :  multiplying by 10, 100,  or 1000  
Today’s lesson:  multiplying with one whole number and one decimal
Our notes from today’s math lesson:
http://www.box.net/shared/8hcenbm024
Here is the Alameda lesson on multiplication with decimals (about 20 clicks into presentation):
http://www.acoe.org/acoe/files/EdServices/Area%20model%20through%20the%20gradesV2.swf

Here are two great resource lessons on multiplying decimals as well:
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/multiplying-decimals?playlist=Developmental%20Math
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/multiplying-decimals-2?playlist=Developmental%20Math

Homework for the week:
Math
page 136-137 all  due Wednesday
page 138-139 odd due Wednesday
page 142-143 2-34 evens due Thursday
page 144-145 2-38 evens due Friday

Comprehension all due by Friday:
Read pages369 through 385
Answer any two questions on page 385; make it your master piece;
P.B.  218
A.R. test

Grammar all due on Thursday
Commas
P.B. 227, 228 and 229

Vocab all due on Wednesday
P.B. 217, 222, and 226
5 challenge words -- definition and use them in a sentence
http://www.eduplace.com/spellinglists/lists/sl_g5t04_02.html

Free-Write due Thursday:
Tell me about your experience at Zeum

Free-Write due Friday:
Describe the day in the life of “Mookie”

Science:
study guide is due on Wednesday and the large exam this week.  

Famous American Report:
http://www.box.net/shared/4idhdcrbhs
Here are the high level due dates:A person chosen & a book found Friday, February 4, 2011
Notes due – broken into the five topics Friday, February 18, 2011
Rough Draft due                                             Friday, March 18,  2011
Final copy due                                                Friday, April 15, 2011

Advanced Vocabulary for Week 5

https://spreadsheets1.google.com/viewform?formkey=dF95aWNYbTZfdlNETkN3NlBCT3lydEE6MA#gid=0

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sorry for the late email/posting....I had a 2 hour technology meeting at the district office.  However I wanted to get the links out for studying chapter 12 test.

I was out Wednesday, I was and still under the weather.  However I am fever free so I’m putting up with the rough voice and congestion.  

Dear Time

In class spelling B - everyone participated and about 99% of the students tried their best.  We had one obvious personal sabotaging.

Math --
Getting ready for the chapter 12 test tomorrow.
Main confusion -- when to use the reciprocal and when not to.    Also if you need to find 2/3rds of something, you MULTIPLY ⅔ by the total number.  
Here are the math prep work and all of our math notes for chapter 12:
http://www.box.net/shared/8hcenbm024

Grammar -- we reviewed our adjectives

Only one person took me up on the offer to tell me what about education did President Obama speak about in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.    I extended this offer to Friday.


Homework for the week:
Math
Handout Version A due Friday
Chapter 12 Test will be on Friday
http://www.box.net/shared/8hcenbm024

Comprehension all due by Friday:
Read page 342 through 358
Answer any two questions on 358; make it your master piece;
P.B. 198-199
A.R. test

Vocab and spelling tests on Friday
http://www.eduplace.com/spellinglists/lists/sl_g5t04_01.html
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12N3cPK-UPWIK_kZvep9aeI-ZLVLPs6m3xvRJjNBfO1Y/edit?hl=en&authkey=CKKO7_IL

Free-Write:
Let me tell you about life on a …...  or
Let me tell you about life in a …...

Famous American Report:
http://www.box.net/shared/4idhdcrbhs
Here are the high level due dates:
A person chosen & a book found         Friday, February 4, 2011
Notes due – broken into the five topics    Friday, February 18, 2011
Rough Draft due                                                                               Friday, March 18,  2011
Final copy due                                                                                       Friday, April 15, 2011

Zeum Field Trip Survey.......

Please click onto the link and then tell me your name, your homeroom teacher and your top two choices.


https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFVCTTl5M2R1eUc5elFNbE5SWU5sNFE6MQ#gid=0

January 25, 2011

Technology Tuesday...

We spent about 20 minutes discussing how to take notes for the Famous American reports.  We covered how to use note-cards to take your notes, how to use a word processing document and how to look up a great list of potential people to do your report on.  

Students were then given 50 minutes to begin discovering who they will do their project on and/or begin the process of researching for their project.  

I did show the students how by using Google documents, they can easily access their notes both here at school and at home.   I do believe you can set up a google documents account WITHOUT your son/daughter opening or receiving a unique email.   You can open up the account for them using your email address and then the account is linked to your email address.  So the student does not have the ability to email.   However this is not a MANDATORY requirement, it does make it easier for them to work both at home and at school since the information is held in “the clouds.”    However I also respect everyone’s comfort level with opening up accounts.   So I made it clear to students that 99% of all prior Famous American reports were done without the feature.

They they spent 30 minutes working on a chapter 12 assessment.  Upon completing, it will tell the students which specific sections from this chapter do they still need to work on.   Students should be using this tool as the prepare for Friday’s test.

Math:
We really got into doing the multi level work that they have been doing the last two days/evenings.
I think the students are starting to understand the idea of working downward and going step by step.
Here are our notes:
http://www.box.net/shared/oooiia4zb2
Homework tonight:  page 282-283 and 288-289 all

Language Arts:
We continued showing the biography posters that we created last week.  Some people chose to really above and beyond and created some great presentations.

P.E. at the end of the day.

Homework for the week:
Math
282-283 & 288-289 all  due Wednesday
290-291 all due Thursday
Handout Version A due Friday
Chapter 12 Test will be on Friday

Comprehension all due by Friday:
Read page 342 through 358
Answer any two questions on 358; make it your master piece;
P.B. 198-199
A.R. test

Grammar all due on Thursday
Adjectives
P.B. 207, 208, 209

Vocab all due on Wednesday
P.B. 197, 202, and 206
5 challenge words -- definition and use them in a sentence
http://www.eduplace.com/spellinglists/lists/sl_g5t04_01.html

Free-Write:
Let me tell you about life on a …...  or
Let me tell you about life in a …...

Science:
study guides
Test on Wednesday and a larger test on Thursday

Famous American Report:
http://www.box.net/shared/4idhdcrbhs
Here are the high level due dates:
A person chosen & a book found Friday, February 4, 2011
Notes due – broken into the five topics Friday, February 18, 2011
Rough Draft due                                                                Friday, March 18,  2011
Final copy due                                                                    Friday, April 15, 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

Happy Monday everyone....this may be a short one.  I have what feels like a sore throat coming on.  So I may head out early and try to rest this one to health, especially since we have had a few kids and teachers with sore throats and fevers lately.  

DPIE art discussing.  Our class is putting together a photo collage.  They were given a disposable camera and a handout with what they are supposed to take photos of.  
Their assignment:
2 photos of grass or lawn
2 photos of the sky
3  photos of the Dublin hills -- try to get as little of the sky as possible
3 photos that captures the word “Dublin”  (e.g. dublin blvd sign, dublin bowl, welcome to dublin sign)
3 photos spelling out the word Dublin with recycled cans, pinecones, shamrocks, rocks, leaves, etc.  Anything you can imagine.
3 photos of your favorite places in Dublin.  May include school, pizza place, a bike store, library, etc..
1 photo of a classmate that hasn’t had their photo taken
2 photos of your name spelled out with somethign that you like.  Match box cars, slices of pizza, tiny soccer  balls, etc..
3 photos of a tree -- try to get the whole picture of the tree
1 photo of your bike, scooter, skateboard, or a means of transpiration other than a car
2 photos of your family
1 or 2 head shots of yourself, preferably in green

Dublin Band Concert (from Mrs. I):
In case you happen to get any questions, I am giving you our concert information.  It also can be found on my webpages, and in a letter I sent home the first week of January.
Our concert is on Wednesday, March 2nd, in the Dublin Elementary School multipurpose room.  The performance begins at 7:30 p.m., will be finished by 8:00 p.m., and students are doing a group warm-up at 7:00 p.m.  The concert attire is school shirts (or colors) and dark bottoms, no skirts or shorts.   It is very important that students do not bring more than 2 audience members per household.  Seating will be very limited, due to the large number of participating students this year.  

Dear Time:
Students were given 30 minutes to read independently, begin studying for their two science tests (one this Wednesday and one next Thursday), read this week’s story or read for their Famous American.

Spelling Pretest:
http://www.eduplace.com/spellinglists/lists/sl_g5t04_01.html

Math:
More multiple step calculations with adding/subtracting fractions and then dividing the fractions.
Since last Thursday, I have gone out of my way to emphasize that successfully solving this problems require solving these line by line and working downward.  See my notes for how solutions should work:http://www.box.net/shared/1iqqcm1rzl
http://www.box.net/shared/begpmyooq5
**Students were given 25 minutes to begin working on their math homework:  page 286-287 (10-28 all)

Language Arts:
We reviewed this week’s key vocabulary.
We reviewed this week’s comprehension strategy -- character problem and solution

Famous American Reports:
We began discussing this last Thursday and Friday.
Here are the written deadlines:
http://www.box.net/shared/4idhdcrbhs

Here are the high level due dates:
A person chosen & a book found Friday, February 4, 2011
Notes due – broken into the five topics Friday, February 18, 2011
Rough Draft due                                                                Friday, March 18,  2011
Final copy due                                                                    Friday, April 15, 2011

Homework for the week:
Math
286-287 (10-28 all) due Tuesday
282-283 & 288-289 all  due Wednesday
290-291 all due Thursday
Handout Version A due Friday
Chapter 12 Test will be on Friday

Comprehension all due by Friday:
Read page 342 through 358
Answer any two questions on 358; make it your master piece;
P.B. 198-199
A.R. test

Grammar all due on Thursday
Adjectives
P.B. 207, 208, 209

Vocab all due on Wednesday
P.B. 197, 202, and 206
5 challenge words -- definition and use them in a sentence
http://www.eduplace.com/spellinglists/lists/sl_g5t04_01.html

Free-Write:
Let me tell you about life on a …...  or
Let me tell you about life in a …...

Science:
study guides
Test on Wednesday and a larger test on Thursday

Famous American Report:
http://www.box.net/shared/4idhdcrbhs

Thursday, January 20th

Technology lab today:

1. typing
2. science Brainpops
3. Thank You letters
4. Projects
5. Autobiographies

Presentations:
Another impressive day of Animoto, powerpoints, and Prezi

Math:
Multiple Step multiplication with fractions.  
Tonight’s lesson is really some more serious style algebra.   We did two problems in the class that we counted had 5 different steps in order to solve.
Students were given 25 minutes to work on tonight’s homework.

Famous American reports..
We started discussing what the report was all about.
I will firm up the due dates and send home a hard copy.  For today, they were able to see what the requirements are.  

Lice -- Our entire school has this challenge.  So please check your child’s hair.  Also no jackets or clothing of any kind will be left here for the 3 day weekend.  They are coming in and cleaning out everything on Friday evening.  

Kind regards,
Mr. Hubbard

Homework for the week:

Theme 3 Projects are being shown and graded this week.  
Here is when your child is presenting:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtOH1AduQvi0dHR0TlR5S1o3Uy1zS2cxWmZCUTMwLVE&hl=en&authkey=COqAu-sI

Free-Write due Friday:
A free free write -- any topic

Math:
Page 284-285 (1-29 all) due Friday
Multiplication:
http://www.acoe.org/acoe/files/EdServices/Multiplying%20Fractions.swf
Division:
http://www.acoe.org/acoe/files/EdServices/Dividing%20Fractions.swf

We have locked down the field trip for ZEUM (www.zeum.org) on Tuesday, February 1st.
Students need to be here by 7:45 in the morning and we are shooting to return at 2:50.  Please note that it is a usually 2:05 return time that day.
Here is the permission slip:
http://www.box.net/shared/z3f4l6t8u4

Read an Autobiography Story from our L.A. book and create a mini poster about this person:  DUE ON FRIDAY.
You only have to read ONE of the stories and do one poster.
Langston Terrace on pages 574-578
Jane Goodall on pages 579-581
Bill Peet on pages 582-587
Alex Rodgriguez on pages 588-591

Your poster must have the following:
Clearly have the person’s name.
What important thing(s) has this person accomplished?
What three new facts did you learn about this person from the reading?
From another source other than the story (e.g. wikipedia, encyclopedia, book at the library) what three new facts did you learn a bout this person?
What three questions would you ask this person and why?
Poster may be done on-line as a prezi, as a powerpoint or done on typical poster paper (which I can get you).  
DUE ON FRIDAY  - not intended to become a 2 or 3 hour ordeal.  Child should spend no more than 45-60 minutes on this assignment.