Thursday, #22 2012 2013 (9/27/12)

Corps of Discovery Monument, Jefferson City, MO by don j schulte @ oxherder arts

 Day 22 of week 5

The “Jaws A-Thon”  is tomorrow!!!  
We need a few more parent volunteers.  It is a great way to watch the kids jog, encourage them and enjoy some of this delightful sunshine.  
If you can help click here.  5th grade needs just a few more volunteers.
This is PFC’s big fund raiser for the year so we are asking that you harass family members and friends for at least $20 per student.    Let them know it goes to a great cause, the kids are exercising in the glorious California sun and it is supporting future “heroes.”  
We are asking kids to wear blue or anything spirit wear.   
The “super” volunteers will be bringing the kids masks and some kind of sticker or something to distinguish them as Hubbard's Heroes.
Kids can maybe pull out an old bath towel or sheet and make a super hero cape?  They can wear an excessively hot  rubber mask and jog for 30 minutes.    They can wear military camouflage, police or firemen outfits and look like our everyday heroes.  

Today’s news:
Lewis and Clark -- we learned about the Corps of Discovery's meeting with the Lakota a.k.a. Teton Sioux
It was a big stand off where the Lakota wanted our boats, we didn’t want to give them up.   Clark pulled out his sword and pointed it towards a Chief’s heart, Lewis had the cannon loaded up and ready to fire, and close to 100 Lakota warriors were ready to shoot their arrows.  Ask your son/daughter how that all played out.

Seaman --- they read about the Lakota/Corp standoff through the perspective of a historical narrative.

What is a setting?  How does one describe a setting?  Compare and contrast the setting in Seaman with Dublin 2012.  
The kids began working on a ven diagram and putting together a compare/contrast paragraph.  It will be due on Wednesday.

Library visit.

Math
More division practice and notetaking.   
We watched this movie in its entirety over 45 minutes, taking notes and discussing the various ways to divide.

If you or your child still thinks this is craziness, click here for further explanation regarding this method of division.  

Not updated notes because the notes are from the movie above.  
I did lower the homework to page 87  13-27 ODDS ONLY due on Friday
Students need to do fewer problems but use one of the “newer” methods that we have spent almost two hours practicing over the last two school days.  

They then had science for the day with Mrs. Cargo

They then had a class discussion on the “You Owe Me” assignment.  They discussed how they would have handled such a high peer pressure situation.  

We then reviewed our grammar lesson for the week which focused on conjunctions.  

Finally they ended the day rotating to Mrs. Cho’s class for more work on graphing.  

Kind regards,
Ron

Homework for the week:

Math:
page 87  13-27 ODDS ONLY due on Friday

Jaws A-Thon is on Friday.
If we can average $20 per student we could have Ms. McGovern dressed as a chicken dancing like this.
If you can help and volunteer on Friday during the Jaws A-Thon here is the link.  
Also our class needs a “theme” for the Jaws A-Thon, practical/easy ideas?  If someone wants to run with the theme, banners, or whatever please feel free to do that.   

Peace Maker applications were offered to students.  They have to be completed by Oct. 1st if a student would like to be a peacemaker.  

Free-write due on Friday
A “free” free-write.  Write about whatever you want to write about for 1 full page or 20 minutes.  Fiction/non-fiction -- whatever --just sit down and write

Comprehension due on Friday
P.B. 26 and 27

Thomas Jefferson due Friday

Spelling and vocab test on Friday:
Here are the words - this week is “Eye of the Storm”

Wednesday, #21 2012 2013 (9/26/12)

Today was “Primetime” since it was Day 21 of the school year....

First off:
The “Jaws A-Thon”  is this Friday.  
This is PFC’s big fund raiser for the year so we are asking that you harass family members and friends for at least $20 per student.    Let them know it goes to a great cause, the kids are exercising in the glorious California sun and it is supporting future “heroes.”  
That is right, we have a theme!!
We are asking kids to wear blue or anything spirit wear.   
The “super” volunteers will be bringing the kids masks and some kind of sticker or something to distinguish them as Hubbard's Heroes.
Kids can maybe pull out an old bath towel or sheet and make a super hero cape?  They can wear an excessively hot  rubber mask and jog for 30 minutes.    They can wear military camouflage, police or firemen outfits and look like our everyday heroes.  
Just have fun and wear some jogging shoes.  

Tuesday -- I apologize but the network computers went down until 4:30’ish.  
Here is the big part of what we accomplished:  

Regarding today:  
We graded last night’s math homework and took last second questions regarding the topic 3 math test.  
Then we took the topic 3 math test on multiplication.  Students that finished that early were able to work on the language arts assessment, IXL, discover their google account, work on homework or read in silence.  

Math lesson:
Our first lesson on the “new” division.
Here are the notes, I spent extra time going over this method.  
What I would suggest because people were visually frustrated with this new method, is to emphasize to people that this is a learning process and this will take time.  It is uncomfortable and it takes more time because it is new.  However it is something that they will master with more practice and experience.  
Please note though:  I changed the homework to 9-25 (ODDS ONLY!)
You will see in the notes that I posted that I already did #9 for them.  So they need to rewrite #9 and then do eight problems practicing with one of the new more challenging methods.  This challenging method will pay off in large dividends as we move onward through the challenging fraction computations this year.
If you or your child still thinks this is craziness, click here for further explanation regarding this method of division.  
Here is a short step by step of the three methods.


Vocabulary Skills....
We discussed how to a dictionary and how to find words.  We then discussed what year that dictionaries would become obsolete like my hard copy encyclopedia series that I have.  Why would anyone that possesses a tablet or a smartphone even consider picking up a dictionary to read and find a dictionary when either Siri or Google Voice will look it up for you in a split second.  

Regarding the vocab cards -- wow!  Some of the creativeness, the humor and skillfulness in creating the flash cards are amazing.

CNN students-Note Taking:
Quick today since it was collaboration Wednesday.    President Obama addressed the United Nations and defended the USA’s “freedom of speech.”  They discussed how President Obama and Romney would go about trying to help young people deal with the escalating college tuition costs.   Then they had a short description of Yom Kippur and the holiday’s significance.  

Google Accounts -- we are going to be the elementary test school for google accounts.  Students will be able to open and save documents and powerpoints using Google.   This allows for easy working on documents here at school and at home.   No email or flash drives, it is all stored in the “cloud.”  Students will have a DUSD only email that comes with the google account.  This email can NOT receive emails from outside DUSD and students can not successfully send emails outside the DUSD students/teachers.   They will also be given access to Google sites which will allow them to easily create website/blogs that they can share among themselves.  This allows us to have another type of way to show our work besides written documents or powerpoints.   It is exciting and it gets the students closer to learning further skills necessary to present their learning and their ideas in the 21st century.  

Kind regards,
Ron

Homework for the week:

Math:
page 80-81 9-25 ODDS ONLY  all due on Thursday
page 87  13-27 all due on Friday

Jaws A-Thon is on Friday.
If we can average $20 per student we could have Ms. McGovern dressed as a chicken dancing like this.
If you can help and volunteer on Friday during the Jaws A-Thon here is the link.  
Also our class needs a “theme” for the Jaws A-Thon, practical/easy ideas?  If someone wants to run with the theme, banners, or whatever please feel free to do that.   

Peace Maker applications were offered to students.  They have to be completed by Oct. 1st if a student would like to be a peacemaker.  

Free-write due on Friday
A “free” free-write.  Write about whatever you want to write about for 1 full page or 20 minutes.  Fiction/non-fiction -- whatever --just sit down and write

Comprehension due on Friday
P.B. 26 and 27

Grammar due on Thursday
P.B. 33, 34, and 35

Thomas Jefferson due Friday

“You Owe Me” due on Thursday -- complete sentences and complete thoughts.  

Spelling and vocab test on Friday:
Here are the words - this week is “Eye of the Storm”

Technology Tuesday 9/25/12

1.  Start off with Khan Academy and Singapore math. Here is the next installment.  Remember to take notes for it is a great way of learning math and there will be a quiz.
Click here to watch, take notes and learn with part 2

2.  Pearsonsuccessnet.com 
Go to www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/
Sign in and complete "at least" the first 12 questions.

3.  Brainpop movie and quiz on Conjunctions
Sign into Brainpop, watch the video, stop it and take notes, and when you get to the end take the quiz. 
Click here to take the quiz
Choose "Graded Quiz" -- at the end choose print , put your name on it and hand this to Mrs. Cooper so we can put this into the grade book.

4.  Try to get into Google Accounts.

5.  www.ixl.com
Focus on these lessons:

Multiplication

• F.1 Multiply by 1-digit numbers
• F.2 Multiply by 1-digit numbers: word problems
• F.3 Multiplication patterns over increasing place values
• F.4 Multiply numbers ending in zeroes
• F.5 Multiply numbers ending in zeroes: word problems
• F.6 Properties of multiplication
• F.7 Choose numbers with a particular product
• F.8 Estimate products
• F.9 Estimate products: word problems
• F.10 Multiply by 2-digit numbers: complete the missing steps
• F.11 Multiply a 2-digit number by a 2-digit number
• F.12 Multiply a 2-digit number by a larger number
• F.13 Multiply by 2-digit numbers: word problems
• F.14 Multiply three or more numbers up to 2 digits each
• F.15 Multiply by 3-digit numbers
• F.16 Multiply three numbers up to 3 digits each
• F.17 Multiply three or more numbers: word problems
• F.18 Inequalities with multiplication

Monday, #19 2012 2013 (9/24/12)

Day 19 in the 5th week.
Monday...Monday...Monday..

P.E. in perfect weather.  Not too hot and not too cold.  

Language Arts assessment...I promise this our last one for about 1 month.  

Math
Exponents.....
Here are our notes from today.  

Here is a series of six video lessons that explain exponents if your son/daughter have exponent amnesia when they get home tonight.  

Here is the brainpop movie on exponents.  

**Students were explicitly told to write the original problem and then write below the solution.  This allows for us to go CSI on it when they miss a problem.  

CNN students-Note Taking:
Things to ask your son/daughter about:  Iran & the US Congress, what is ROTC?, why do you join the ROTC?  Does Harvard have a ROTC program?  What day was the first day of Fall?  Do they have any ideas on how to solve or end teen-texting and driving?   Today they had to submit a write up with their ideas.  There were some creative realistic solutions.

Spelling Pretest:
Here are the words - this week is “Eye of the Storm”

Lewis and Clark -- today we discussed how the “Great Plains” were so awe-inspiring to the members of the Corps.  Also we saw how Lewis was an exceptional artist and scientist as he documents all the new plants and animals the Corps discovered.  

Google Accounts -- we are going to be the elementary test school for google accounts.  Students will be able to open and save documents and powerpoints using Google.   This allows for easy working on documents here at school and at home.   No email or flash drives, it is all stored in the “cloud.”  Students will have a DUSD only email that comes with the google account.  This email can NOT receive emails from outside DUSD and students can not successfully send emails outside the DUSD students/teachers.   They will also be given access to Google sites which will allow them to easily create website/blogs that they can share among themselves.  This allows us to have another type of way to show our work besides written documents or powerpoints.   It is exciting and it gets the students closer to learning further skills necessary to present their learning and their ideas in the 21st century.  
Kind regards,
Ron

Homework for the week:

Math:
Page 67  8-34 evens due on Tuesday
Page 72-73 1 - 15 all due on Wednesday
Topic 3 test will be on Wednesday
page 80-81 9-26 all due on Thursday
page 87  13-27 all due on Friday

Jaws A-Thon is on Friday.
If we can average $20 per student we could have Ms. McGovern dressed as a chicken dancing like this.
If you can help and volunteer on Friday during the Jaws A-Thon here is the link.  
Also our class needs a “theme” for the Jaws A-Thon, practical/easy ideas?  If someone wants to run with the theme, banners, or whatever please feel free to do that.   

Peace Maker applications were offered to students today.  They have to be completed by Oct. 1st if a student would like to be a peace maker.  

Free-write due on Friday
A “free” free-write.  Write about whatever you want to write about for 1 full page or 20 minutes.  Fiction/non-fiction -- whatever --just sit down and write

Comprehension due on Friday
P.B. 26 and 27

Vocabulary due on Wednesday
P.B. 32 and the 5 mini-vocabulary posters
Spelling & vocab test on Friday.
Here are the words - this week is “Eye of the Storm”

Grammar due on Thursday
P.B. 33, 34, and 35

Thomas Jefferson due Friday

“You Owe Me” due on Thursday -- complete sentences and complete thoughts.  

Thursday, #17 2012 2013 (9/20/12)

 Day #17

**I forgot to hand out the passwords to set up your www.engrade.com and www.classdojo.com accounts.   Many of you have already set up your engrade accounts, but the classdojo needs the paperwork to be set up.  I will send those home w/ Friday’s stuff.  If you can’t wait, this will have your code for classdojo.com

The shark bytes are still on my desk.  Here is what you missed:

Assessments, silent reading, www.ixl.com, and working on Thursday evening homework.

Seaman -- students read some more and then we did our first reading comprehension work related to the story.  18 students finished and 8 students have some additional homework.  Click here to see the three questions.


Library visit.
Students had an opportunity to find their:
non-fiction or
realistic fiction or
historical fiction book for the first book presentation.  
I showed many kids this great resource for discovering books:
Click here to search for books by genre, award winners, age range, etc
If you have an Alameda County library card, you can go here
Once signed in, look up books from the recommended reading lists, ask to put them on hold and within 48 hours you can go pick up your books that are waiting for you in the front of the library.  

Math
More work with larger multiplication.
Here is what is slowing us down.  Students are not using the nice blue boxes on their graph paper.  Students are doing a great job of either decomposing numbers or using the generic area model.   However when they line up all of the products and them calculate the end sum, they are making mistakes.   They are not working neatly and that is leading to errors.  No one is lost however many people are not caring enough to get it right the first time.  
USE THE LINES ON THE GRAPH PAPER!!
Here are our notes from today.

Which Clown -- students worked in teams of 5 and shared out stories when they were wrongly accused, why teachers make mistakes and how the protagonist could have responded differently or next.  

John Adams -- like our 2nd president’s presidency, the activity proved to be edifying yet mostly uneventful.

CNN Students  Things that they wrote about and we discussed:
What is satire?  Endeavour is our last space shuttle, how are we going to get to the space station?  What are we doing with the shuttles?  Texting while driving = deaths and you drive worse than a drunk driver.  Ask your son/daughter what part of the brain can not effectively handle multi-tasking.

More art -- we are doing our 2nd week learning to draw a dog.  We will be doing this for four weeks and we will track what we create, our ability to learn/improve from the previous week and most importantly our efforts to improve.  

Cold Stone fundraiser on Thursday night.
I am scooping from 6:oo-6:45     It is a great opportunity for your son/daughter to show up and “make me work.”  I told it was their chance to give me orders and have me mix 3 or 4 challenging toppings.   

Homework for the week:
Math
Page 64-65 3-19 all due Friday.
Here are all the chapter 3 notes.
Here is a great walk through of the multiplication this week.
Here are some model examples of what is coming up.  

Language Arts
Spelling Words and Challenge Words.
spelling and vocab test is on Friday

P.B. 6 & 7 and 14 & 15 due on Friday

Grizzly Bear due on Friday

Wednesday, #16 2012 2013 (9/19/12)

For any Niner fan growing up in the 80's, #16 can only mean one person.

Day #16

Super quick because collaboration days always take longer than the allotted 60 minutes.  

FYI -- you should have received an invite to join Engrade.  You can keep up to speed on all our homework and class work on this website.  
FYI #2 -- you should have also received an email from www.classdojo.com  I can only put one email on this invite :(  Therefore you may need to share the information with other interested parties/loved ones.  
Tomorrow -- I will send home with all students the sign in for Engrade and how to create your own account on www.classdojo.com;   

We began the day attempting to complete our district assessments and curriculum associates.  

We then made more further progress westward in reading our Seaman book.  

CNN Students  Things that they wrote about and we discussed:
1. What is foreign policy?  What does it mean to negotiate? (as a president, with your mom/dad or with a sibling)  How do President Obama & Romney differ on this issue?
2.  What is a swing state?  Why do they get so many more Romney/Obama adds in those states than we do in California?  
3. 30% of American adults are considered obese.  What % will adults be obese in 2030 unless we make some food choices?  
4.  Finally how are cockroaches going to be used in the future to help us?

Math -- we reviewed last night’s homework.  Students appeared to kick some serious butt and were highly successful.  Tonight is more of the same, just two days of practice.
No new notes today because after reviewing the kids had no questions.

We had a water presentation from someone from Alameda County.  She did a great job of breaking down how to conserve water, where does water come from and having the kids do an interactive lesson on the “complete” water cycle.

We ended the day with reviewing our vocabulary cards and correcting last night’s grammar homework on types of sentences.  

Cold Stone fundraiser on Thursday night.
I am scooping from 6:oo-6:45     It is a great opportunity for your son/daughter to show up and “make me work.”  I told it was their chance to give me orders and have me mix 3 or 4 challenging toppings.   

Homework for the week:
Math
Page 57 15-19 all and page 61 14-28 due Thursday
Page 64-65 3-19 all due Friday.
Here are all the chapter 3 notes.
Here is a great walk through of the multiplication this week.
Here are some model examples of what is coming up.  

Language Arts
Spelling Words and Challenge Words.
spelling and vocab test is on Friday

P.B. 6 & 7 and 14 & 15 due on Friday

Grizzly Bear due on Friday

“Which Clown” due on Thursday (please note that I changed this one, it has said Thursday on the board all week)

Writing:
Free-Write due on Friday
“I just invented a time machine and I am off to....”
1 page or 20 minutes (w/ parent’s autograph)

History:
John Adams due on Thursday