Wednesday #177 2012-2013

Day 177 of Week 39

June 12, 2013

With the heavy wind blowing and bright sun today the flags looked inspiring during practice.  

Biggest news is that tomorrow’s promotion takes place at 8:45 a.m.   

I would suggest showing up around 8:15’ish.  Parking will be crazy so you will have a little bit of a walk.    I would suggest parking on Vomac near the public park that my window looks out at.  You can cut across that lawn area to get to the promotion seats.  

The promotion activities will be taking place on the large blacktop area next to the 4th and 5th grade wing (also known as the C-wing).  

Promotion will run from 8:45 - 10:00 a.m.

Photos with family, friends, teachers, etc will take place  in the the C-Wing from 10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.

After friends and family leave then the students will have the rest of the day (until 12:30) to play games and enjoy treats.   Students should bring a  change of clothes from the promotion because for the game part if the weather stays warm they may get wet.  

FYI -- Friday is also a 8:30-12:30 day.  

Today consisted of working on a project, taking a district survey, answering random questions that I had of them, practicing for the promotion, playing mystery person, Ian’s student of the week presentation and discussing the meaning of the Star Spangled Banner.  

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

‎"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."

• Albert Einstein

Homework:

Reading Around the World

Students should be working with you to get their final signatures.

If the form has been lost, an EMAIL FROM AN ADULT with the final numbers will be sufficient.

Community Service Hours.

You can also send into school by email or on a signed piece of paper that documents the hours that the students worked to help out our community.  

Famous American reports.

All students received their grades back.  In ALL cases students received either:

1. An email describing how their grade and rubric were determined.

or

2. Using the comment section of their document, comments were made onto the document itself and their rubric handed back to them today.

If you are curious, you should ask to have them open up their document, email and rubric to show you.  Also the Engrade now reflects the Famous American report and the current grade on there.  

Students have until Thursday to make revisions if they would like to improve their Famous American score.

Tuesday #176 2012-2013

Day 176 of Week 39

June 11, 2013

Today went by super quick because we were constantly on the move.

In the morning the students practiced singing for Thursday morning’s promotion.  

Immediately after singing practice, we did our walking field trip to Earl Anthony’s bowling establishment.    I have never seen nachos and french-fries be consumed so quickly as this year’s group.  The walk must have made them super hungry.  

They ate lunch outside.

Then we read another 40 minutes of Johnny Tremain.  Today he is becoming good friends with a British soldier, he is part of Paul Revere’s spy team and he teams up with Rab to get Dove drunk & talking.  

The last ten minutes of the day the students that order yearbooks received them and proceeded to look through them.

For the four students that did not purchase a yearbook and who may still be interested in purchasing one:  after school on Wednesday and Thursday they can be bought for $25 (unless supplies run out).  

Students may continue to bring yearbooks into school/class and have them get signed.

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

‎"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."

• Alber Einstein

Homework:

Reading Around the World

Students should be working with you to get their final signatures.

If the form has been lost, an EMAIL FROM AN ADULT with the final numbers will be sufficient.

Community Service Hours.

You can also send into school by email or on a signed piece of paper that documents the hours that the students worked to help out our community.  

Famous American reports.

All students received their grades back.  In ALL cases students received either:

1. An email describing how their grade and rubric were determined.

or

2. Using the comment section of their document, comments were made onto the document itself and their rubric handed back to them today.

If you are curious, you should ask to have them open up their document, email and rubric to show you.  Also the Engrade now reflects the Famous American report and the current grade on there.  

Students have until Thursday to make revisions if they would like to improve their Famous American score.

Monday #175 2012-2013

Day 175 of Week 39

June 10, 2013

It was the last Monday of their elementary school years.  

The students began the day with P.E.   Mrs. L gave them free choice day and they could play whatever they desired.  

When they returned we discussed tomorrow’s field trip to the bowling alley.  

To review:  We leave DES at 9:30 a.m.   We have lanes reserved from 10:30-11:30.  They can bowl as many games as humanly possible within those 60 minutes.

They may bring $ if they desire to purchase items from the vending machine or snack bar.  

PFC is supplying a thing of french fries and nachos for every six students.  

Absolutely no purchasing of energy drinks and/or playing video games while there.  

We do not require parents to walk with us since for many of the parents this week is already a taxing week mentally, physically and responsibility-wise.  If you would like to see them throw the ball around, you can show up between the 10:30-11:30 time.

Please have students wear appropriate walking shoes.

We are returning to DES for lunch.  

Promotion begins at 8:45 A.M. on Thursday.  We had three kids today believe the promotion was at some random time on Thursday evening.  

We did an intense 45 minutes of Johnny Tremain reading today.  The main thing we covered was the big meeting where the Patriot leaders decide now is the time to move forward with a rebellion.  Here is a key passage from James Otis’ speech:

There shall be no more tyranny. A handful of men cannot seize power over thousands. A man shall choose who it is shall rule over him. . . . We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skills . . . we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up.”

We had a deep conversation about what does it mean “that a man can stand up” and we discussed the “ideals” that our country, the United States, stands for that was especially unique for the 1770’s.     If you have time please ask your son/daughter what they took out of today’s discussion.

We then how the Well’s 8th Grade Jazz Band show up and perform for about an hour.  This year’s band is easily ½ DES alumni therefore the students and myself had a great time rooting for our old “Sharks!!”  

After the assembly I read a great book titled, “One.”

It is a great book that touches on bullying and how all it takes is “one” person to stand up first to help solve the challenge.  

We were even able to tie in this picture book on bullying back James Otis’ speech about “only that a man stand up.”  So today’s lessons were able to come full circle.  

After lunch we had our 7th annual dodgeball competition where the 5th graders take on the DES staff.  In girls versus staff -- the staff was victorious; in boys versus staff -- the staff was victorious; however with all of 5th grade versus staff the 110+ students were just too much as they pulled out the victory.  

Famous American reports.

All students received their grades back.  I ALL cases students received either:

1. An email describing how their grade and rubric were determined.

or

2. Using the comment section of their document, comments were made onto the document itself and their rubric handed back to them today.

If you are curious, you should ask to have them open up their document, email and rubric to show you.  Also the Engrade now reflects the Famous American report and the current grade on there.  

Students have until Thursday to make revisions if they would like to improve their Famous American score.

Notebooks and workbooks.

Students were not allowed to recycle them here at school.  I wanted to give you an opportunity to keep them if your son/daughter frequently say, “I’m bored” or if you wanted them to practice math skills or read up on more American History over the summer.  You are under no obligation to keep the workbooks however I wanted an adult to be part of that decision making process.

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

‎"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."

• Alber Einstein

Homework:

Reading Around the World

Students should be working with you to get their final signatures.

If the form has been lost, an EMAIL FROM AN ADULT with the final numbers will be sufficient.

Community Service Hours.

You can also send into school by email or on a signed piece of paper that documents the hours that the students worked to help out our community.  

Thursday #173 2012-2013

 Day 173 of Week 38

June 6, 2013

It was a great day for the kids.  

They were able to watch the history and science based plays that 4th grade put on today.  

Other students stayed with me and retook math tests and watched math lessons so they could improve their math grades.  I have four different students raise their grades by 10% or higher over the last three school days.

Other students are just about completed their Birthday Party budget.  Students have been using Safeway, Sprouts, Luckys, CostCo, Ebay, Google, and Amazon.  They also were searching for coupons and party websites.  

Their goal was to spend $200 on their birthday party.  They had to invite guests and detail how they would spend their money.  

If you have time, ask to see their birthday party budget.

Tomorrow is the final exam on the states and capitals!

Go here for the final practice maps.

Tomorrow is day 1 of the book exchange.  Please bring books in that you wish to donate.  

We took our all 5th grade photo!!

The free bowling certificate...

I’m making students sign off that they really received it.  Only half the students have come up at recess or lunch to sign off and receive their free summer bowling certificate.   

Summer time should equal reading time.   1 minutes of reading = 1 minute of screen time

Why?  Check it out here:

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/the-case-for-preserving-the-pleasure-of-deep-reading/

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

‎"Brave people don't live forever, but cautious people don't live at all."

• Richard Branson

Homework:

1.  The final states and capitals exam will be on June 7, 2013.  

Go here for the final practice maps.

2.  Reading Around the World

Students should be working with you to get their final signatures.

If the form has been lost, an EMAIL FROM AN ADULT with the final numbers will be sufficient.

3.  Book Swap is Friday

Wednesday #172 2012-2013

Day 172 of Week 38

June 5, 2013

I am sorry for the lack of updates.   The end of the year hits everyone like a big heavy bag of bricks.  This year to further complicate the end of the year there are new district technology and new promotion challenges that lessens time spent writing and reflecting.  

We have spent a great deal of time this week taking end of the year assessments.  Unlike previous ones this year that would guide how and what to teach, these will be used when creating final report grades.  Both the math and the language arts are intended for the final part of the year and reflect the 5th grade standards we have covered this school year.   By the end of the school day we had 26 of the 29 students fully completed with the assessments.  

Buddies:

Today was our final visit with our buddies.  We were able to drop off our paragraphs of wisdom and advice.  Then we made two different types of paper airplanes.  Finally we then took on the Dublin wind and flew them outside.  No eyes were poked during this process therefore it was a successful and fun day.  

States and Capitals?  

We have three tests so far and the results are AMAZING.  

Test 1: Class Average Was 92%

Test 2:  Class Average Was 92%

Test 3: Class Average Was 89%

On the third test we had 26 of 29 students earn 80% or higher!!  One student was only 1 question away from earning 80%.  So we really had 27 of 29 earn 78% or higher!!  That is some serious butt kicking.  

The final exam will be on June 7, 2013.  

Go here for the final practice maps.

PEP is going on!!

Mrs. Phipps is PEP’ing it!!

She taught two lessons on Friday and one today.  She has covered the topics of refusal skills, marijuana and alcohol.  

Your kids are really really bright and they ask some deep and thought provoking questions.  It would not hurt you to maybe probe and ask them what message or what lessons did they “hear” from the three lessons so far.  I think the real power of PEP comes from the follow up conversations at home the lessons facilitate.  

Bowling on Tuesday...

Parents are already working their butts off the last week of the school.  We do not need chaperons for the bowling field trip.  We just walk to Earl Anthony’s.  If you enjoy bowling or if you want to come, take photos and snag nachos/french fries from the kids, you are more than welcome to join us at Earl Anthony's.  

**Also no $ needs to come in for the bowling.

Dodgeball is Monday at 1:10.

If you want to see 5th graders take on teachers in 5th grade dodgeball, then come on out at 1:10’ish on Monday.  

All 5th grade photo is on Thursday, June 6th.

For whatever reason we did not take an all 5th grade photo on the day we left for camp.  Therefore we are asking for students to please wear their 2012-2013 Blue Shark Fin shirt TOMORROW.    A few students, really just ONE, have voiced concern over wearing this shirt.  We have asked for those non-conformist students that they bring the shirt with them to school and wear it for the five to ten minutes it takes to capture the photo.   Students that forget will have an opportunity to wear some of Dublin El’s finest blue collection liberated from the “lost and never found.”  

The free bowling certificate...

I’m making students sign off that they really received it.  Only half the students have come up at recess or lunch to sign off and receive their free summer bowling certificate.   

Promotion

It sounds like it will be on the black top.  

If you want to help with chairs early in the morning, please contact Ms. Van Lare.

If you want to help with decorations also early in the morning, please contact Ms. Clingerman and/or Phipps.

If you want to help with the games and whatnot, go to this link:  

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/5080B49A4AD22A57-5thgrade/9343027

Brainpops...

We are slowly getting down to wear students are getting close to completing their science Brainpops.  

Book Swap is on Friday

Bring a book or two and possibly find a book or two that you like.

Worse case scenario, you donate books that classes or younger grades can use.  

Summer time should equal reading time.   1 minutes of reading = 1 minute of screen time

Why?  Check it out here:

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/the-case-for-preserving-the-pleasure-of-deep-reading/

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

‎"Brave people don't live forever, but cautious people don't live at all."

• Richard Branson

Homework:

1.  The final states and capitals exam will be on June 7, 2013.  

Go here for the final practice maps.

2.  Reading Around the World

Students should be working with you to get their final signatures.

If the form has been lost, an EMAIL FROM AN ADULT with the final numbers will be suffecient.

3.  5th Grade Photo is Thursday, June 5, 2013

Wear the Shark Fin blue shirt with everyone’s name on it.

4.  Book Swap is Friday