Day 116 of week 28 Thursday, February 27, 2014

Sorry for not posting sooner this week.  On Monday I had an important, at the time I thought it was important, district technology meeting that I had to prepare and present.  Then Tuesday and Wednesday involved school related tech trainings and end of trimester grading.  

Tomorrow is our read-in-day and the day ends at 12:31.   Students may wear PJ’s or  comfortable clothes as long as they meet the school dress code requirements regarding decency.  The kids do still have a 30 minute PE class therefore if they should bring appropriate shoes and/or a change of clothes for the PE class.  Students may also bring a blanket and pillow.  Provided you are comfortable with this, you child may bring an electronic reading device (e.g. Kindle, Nook, tablet, etc.)  Absolutely no gaming devices should be brought in tomorrow.  They should also bring magazines or books that they would enjoy reading tomorrow.  

Students can also retake a spelling test or two tomorrow.  

Students do have two large science assignments that are due tomorrow:  1.  A weather journal and 2. a water cycle poster;   Also students that scored 79% or lower on the space test, may retake the test tomorrow as well.  

Tomorrow is also the very last day to get those Six Flag forms into me verifying that your son/daughter read the 6 hours this month.  

Today we completed the final book projects for this trimester.   We have had a cornucopia of projects submitted.   The students have created numerous poster boards, powerpoints,a prezi.com, a website, a few board games, and crossword puzzles & word searches beyond count.  I will call up the students tomorrow as they are reading to re-review and to ask some final questions.  

Two articles that stood out for me this week were:

How to get a job at Google

This article points out how at Google they look for someone who is:

1.  willing to learn

2.  strategically know when to be a leader and when to step back and not be a leader

3. intellectually humility -- “knowing how to learn from failure”

4.   collaboration skills

5.  adaptability

All soft skills and character attributes that are not always focused on within school however things definitely to roll model and discuss with your kids.  

When and How to Let Learners Struggle

The ideas and suggestions in this article remind me of Stephen Covey’s quote, “when leading humans, fast is slow and slow is fast.”   Jumping in or giving a kid an answer may pay off in the short term (they finish their homework quicker)  however it could slow down their learning and determination long-term.   

Have a great evening.

Mr. Hubbard

Homework for tonight:

Math 11-6 260-261  (1-29 *skip #5)

Science 1. Weather journal  2.  Water Cycle Poster and 3. Space Retest

Six Flags 6 hours of reading = free ticket; due back tomorrow.

Day 109 of week 27 Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The book project should be due tomorrow.  However we have several band students with a performance tonight.  Therefore for the entire class they have until Thursday the 20th.

Click here for instructions if you need to look them over 1 more time.  

Math today was a discussion about having too much information or too little information.  We did some examples similar to tonight’s homework.  

Click here for the math notes.

This week we are watching and reading all about zoos.  We discuss their positives and their negative advantages.  Students will then decide for themselves if zoos are a good thing or a bad thing.   We will be spending about 45 minutes per day on this project.  

Science -- 80% of the students passed last week’s science test.  0% of the students that completed their study guide late  and then were able to use it for studying passed the test.  There appeared to be a statistical correlation between completing and using the study guide versus not completing it or not studying it.  

We had time after recess for our Shark of the week presentation and also for the students to write down and plan out their work week.   

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

“My name is gossip…I maim without killing.  I break hearts and ruin lives.”

• Jerry West

Homework for the week:

Math

12-5 282-283 1-14 all due Wednesday

5-6 128-129 1-11 all due Thursday

16-6 377-378 3-15 all due Friday

Conflict in North America due on Thursday.

Book Project is now due on Thursday.

The Trouble With Homework written by Annie Murphy Paul -- read it and then pull out at least three facts from the article that you can use to persuade someone that we need more, less or different homework.

Check out her website for some great parent reading.  Her new upcoming book looks like a great read.

The other articles we have read as a class and completed finding the quotes and pull out facts.

Alfie Kohn "Down with Homework"

Dr. Marks "Homework: How it helps, and how parents can get it right"

Spelling Test #18  is on Friday.

Science

Weather Journal due 3/4/14

Study Guide due 3/6/14

Floppy Book pages 118-153 *at least do lesson 1 the rest is extra credit

water cycle poster due 3/4/14

Day 108 of week 25 Friday, February 14, 2014

Time for a special Valentine's Day posting.

It was a special unique day for our class.  Through a crazy coincidence eleven years ago both our co-room parents had children born on Valentine's Day.  So we had birthday celebrations with yummy ice-cream at the end of the day.

We started off our morning with homemade fresh off the griddle pancakes with strawberries & cream combined with bacon.  It was a yummy feast!  The students also used this time to pass out their Valentine's Day cards.   A special special thank you goes out to our industrious generous room parents for making today a memorable occasion.

Between the breakfast feast and the birthday ice-cream we found time to watch to Valentine's Day inspired movies and have some great conversations regarding inference and the meaning of the movies.   If you have time maybe watch the two movies and have a discussion with your son or daughter.  I'm posting both of them so you easily watch them if you so desire.

Here is the first movie that we watched and it is titled ",Validation," and it is a play on the literal and figurative meaning of validation.  At the beginning of the movie the main character's employment is that of a parking validator who also happens to validate people emotionally as the get their parking ticket validated.



Here is the second movie that we watched and it is titled, "World Builder," and it is a far more open-ended movie that can be interrupted several ways.  This one we had a spirited conversation regarding what certain events meant and what we could and could not infer was the director's intent.  We eagerly watched this one twice and held two discussions regarding it.



Have a wonderful three day weekend.

Mr. Hubbard

Day 107 of week 25 Thursday, February 13, 2014

Mr. Hubbard's 5th grade basketball team.  Which player is Mr. H?

Super quick because I wasn’t around most of day due to curriculum planning with all of the 5th grade teachers.  

First big big news:   We decided this last week while I was sick and then I have been playing catch up all week so I haven’t sent it to our class yet.   Unfortunately as a 5th grade class we had to cancel the field trip to the San Jose Tech Museum that was going to be on the 19th.   As a school we currently have 95 students and we were no where close to having enough seats to get everyone there.    I APOLOGIZE for the late notice.  This is 100% my fault, the other two classes were informed last Thursday.  

Why not take a bus?  They run close to $700 per bus and we would require “at least” 2 of them.  We try to offer a variety of field trips in 5th grade along with the 3.5 day field trip known as fifth grade camp.  The camp alone is already a $300+ expenditure for parents and don’t kid yourself, PFC also contributes mightily to ensure everyone attends 5th grade camp.  Therefore with the rest of the field trips during the year we try to best lesson the expenditures required by families and PFC.  

However for the Intel field trip for Thursday, April 10th is still a go!!  It is a super amazing field trip in the heart of Silicon Valley.     We still have time to recruit more drivers for that field trip.  If you can drive on this field trip -- please click here to let us know.   If you already completed this survey when we sent it out two weeks ago, you do not need to complete it again

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow -- see Monday’s post about the cards.  We are Hakuna Matata about the cards, see here.    Also Julia in our class hand made envelopes for every student to use to collect their Valentine’s Day cards.    So unless your child has strong opinions regarding designing their own box or bag, Julia has that all covered.

5th grade dedication:

Ms. Prevas at matia.prevas@gmail.com  is in the process of organizing the 5th grade baby/toddler photos and dedications for the DES yearbook. It is FREE!!  It costs you NOTHING except X amount of time to honor your 5th grader in the yearbook.  Also it allows us me to say to each kid when we handout the yearbooks at the end of the year, “you were a really cute baby, what the heck happened to you?”  

You have exactly ONE WEEK to take advantage of this FREE heartfelt act.  

How to do it?

Email Ms. Prevas  a photo (jpg or pdf) and a dedication of 30 words or less by Friday, February 20th.  If you have the cutest baby picture but you got it at JcPenny’s or Walmart therefore you don’t have the JPG, you may also drop a photograph (in an envelope marked attn: yearbook) in the PFC box outside the school office and it will be scanned and returned to you via the classroom.  

Once again:    Dedications are 30 words or less and typically contain congratulations, well-wishing, advice for the future, or what you find special about your child.

If there are any questions, please feel free to email: Ms. Prevas

One more time:  Common Core Tests

If you have time, I would suggest making 30 to 45 minutes to try out the new style tests, click here to see all six modules and practice style/tests that will be the new Common Core practice.     

Please ask your son/daughter about their thoughts regarding the new style of testing.  I would love to hear about what their thoughts are regarding the assessment.  

If your child came home feeling overwhelmed by the test, they are not alone.

Read these articles that originated from New York.  New York rolled out the Common Core testing a year ahead of all the other states therefore parents, students and teachers had opinions regarding the new style of testing.

I am sure there are articles out there where people were ecstatic and fired up regarding the new test. I included articles to help you understand if your child felt overwhelmed by the testing.

Here is one article mentioning parents concerned  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/opinion/sunday/bruni-are-kids-too-coddled.html

This one is pretty short but I liked some of the comments:  http://www.joannejacobs.com/2013/11/core-to-kids-youre-not-so-smart/

Here is one from Diane Ravitch (fyi -- not a big fan of common core):  http://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/29/new-york-parent-common-core-is-killing-my-childs-love-of-learning/

If you are thinking of complaining, don’t go to Arne Duncan and expect a shoulder to cry on:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/16/arne-duncan-white-surburban-moms-upset-that-common-core-shows-their-kids-arent-brilliant/

This article has Mr. Duncan’s restatement of his original statement with a mom’s direct letter response to his original statement.   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/19/white-suburban-mom-responds-to-arne-duncan/

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

“You say misspelled I say reinvented”  Alison Agosti

Homework for the week:

Math

11-5 258-259 2-30 evens due Friday

“Free” Free write due on Friday

Science:

Read pages 90-99 and do the questions in the floppy science book

Read 20 minutes every night and earn the Six Flags Ticket

Spelling Test number 17  on Friday

Book Project is due on February 19th.

Day 105 of week 25 Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Today was our usual technology Tuesday.  Therefore we rocked the chromebooks with typing, Scootpad and we practiced the Common Core released test questions.   

The viewing and practicing of the Common Core practice questions is something that we are going to continue doing over the next few days and weeks.  Today we right after the math performance task.  It was asking kids to solve total % or total fraction in comparison to a number.   It has them create an equation.  It has them graphing with square feet and  also adding/subtracting with fractions that have different denominators.    It was a “shock and awe” moment for the class.  I had shown them the site earlier in the year however today was the day they had to man the practice test all by themselves.  There were looks of disbelief, there literally were tears, and thankfully there were some satisfied grins as kids began to master the new style of assessment.  

If you have time, I would suggest 30 to 45 minutes, click here to see all six modules and practice style/tests that will be the new Common Core practice.     

Please ask your son/daughter about their thoughts regarding the new style of testing.  I would love to hear about what their thoughts are regarding the assessment.  

Science -- the students had their large science test with Mrs. Cargo today.  When students returned they shared that if you knew the study guide really well then you were super successful on the science test!!!

After science we did some math related to the Common Core assessment that we took.  We practiced area, volume, square feet, cubic feet, converting from square yards into square feet and how to find the product of a number when asked to find 1/3rd of a #, or 40% of a # or .62 of a #.  

Click here for today’s notes.

AFter lunch we discussed and watched this video about grit, determination and how this lady’s studies have proven grit is a greater determination of one’s success rather than IQ, good looks, physical appearance, and  one’s family income.  

We spent a great deal of time discussing this therefore feel free to ask your son/daughter what they got out of this message.  

Valentine’s Day update -- Julia’s family is inspired to hand make artful envelopes for each student therefore you do not have to stress out about making a box or decorating a brown paper bag for the exchange of Valentine’s Day cards.  

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

“You say misspelled I say reinvented”  Alison Agosti

Homework for the week:

Math

9-5 206-207 1-13 all due on Wednesday

10-5 224-25 1-15 all due Thursday

**please note student must show the two numbers being compared, to assist with learning students can NOT just put 1. > 2. > 3. < etc…

11-5 258-259 2-30 evens due Friday

Language Arts:

Excretory System  due Thursday

Trash: It’s Got to Go Somewhere due Wednesday

“Free” Free write due on Friday

Science:

Read pages 90-99 and do the questions in the floppy science book

Read 20 minutes every night and earn the Six Flags Ticket

Spelling Test number 17  on Friday

Book Project is due on February 19th.

Day 104 of week 25 Monday, February 10, 2014

Thank goodness we finally had some rain!!!  It was so nice to walk/jog in the wetness on Sunday.

We started the day with silent reading time or the students were strongly encouraged to use this time to study for their big science test that is tomorrow.  We discussed how our brain science article had confirmed how effective self testing works and that they should use that method to prepare for tomorrow.  

We then took this week’s spelling pretest.  Real test on Friday.

We then spent the rest of the morning reading Seaman and learning more about Lewis and Clark.  The biggest events today were deciding which part of the “fork” in the Missouri River was still the Missouri River and which part was some random tributary.  Also Sacagawea became severely sick for a while.  Despite Lewis trying to “bleed” her she eventually overcame what ailed her.  We ended the day with Lewis and the entire team now realizing that the Northwest Passage was not really what people had been romanticizing and hypothesizing for 300 years, those Rocky Mountains were going to be a pain to cross.  Finally we left our reading and discussion with the Corp eagerly and desperately looking for the Shoshone in order to trade for some horses.  

Science with Mrs. Cargo -- preparing and  discussions regarding tomorrow’s big test.  Your child should have their study guide that they received last week.  If they know the study guide well they should be successful on the test tomorrow.  

Math -- The biggest news was that I showed how equations behave and will produce a constant output that can be graphed in a straight line when the arithmetic is done correctly.    I was able to graph out an example and also a X/Y box from tonight’s homework and make them into perfectly straight lines.  

Students were given about 20 minutes to work on tonight’s homework so in theory they should be close to having it completed.  

We rounded out the day with preparing for the week, discussing Friday’s Valentine expectations and working on some of our homework.  

Regarding Valentine’s Day -- students should “decorate” a box or a brown paper bag for receiving their Valentine’s Day cards.  The term “decorate” is entirely in the eye of the beholder and how much time a student desires to utilize towards this endeavor.   Regarding Valentine’s Day cards -- they may either:

1.  Use the class list that I handed them today to put a student’s individual name on outside of each card and sign the “from” section.    or

2.  Generically bring 31 cards, sign your name on the “from” section and equally distribute them.  This is known as the time saver method.  

My only request is that if your son/daughter chooses to bring cards that they bring 1 for every student.  

Other things of note -- I’m feeling 98% back to normal.  Some congestion however I have my voice back and my ears were deemed infection free.  Thank you for the emails asking about my well-being :)   

FYI -- Thursday will be one more 5th grade all-district professional development day.   Therefore I will not be here on Thursday however please don’t think that I had a relapse.  

I had another student again today request the book project instructions.  It now has its own link on the right hand side of my website www.mrhubbardsclass.com    It is due on February 19th.  I am really really really expecting the students to use Common Core expectation skills where they have specific references to parts of their book that inspired their activity and/or their product.  From their presentation or from their writing, it should be clearly understood why the created what they created and where they specifically in the book received it from.  General and/or generic is not cutting it and meeting expectations.  

The read a thon money should be returned at your earliest convenience.  It was due on Friday however due to my fevered and sickly ways I failed to remind everyone.  If you could pretty please return the donated money that would be highly appreciated.  

FYI -- on February 20th the students will earn their pizza party for reading the most in 4th and 5th grade.  Students do not have to bring lunch that day unless they do not enjoy eating pizza.  

Kind regards,

Mr. Hubbard

“You say misspelled I say reinvented”  Alison Agosti

Homework for the week:

Math

16-5 374-375 1-14 all due on Tuesday

9-5 206-207 1-13 all due on Wednesday

10-5 224-25 1-15 all due Thursday

**please note student must show the two numbers being compared, to assist with learning students can NOT just put 1. > 2. > 3. < etc…

11-5 258-259 2-30 evens due Friday

Language Arts:

Excretory System  due Thursday

Trash: It’s Got to Go Somewhere due Wednesday

“Free” Free write due on Friday

Science test on Tuesday -- know the study guide by heart and you will be successful

Read 20 minutes every night and earn the Six Flags Ticket

Spelling Test number 17  on Friday

Book Project is due on February 19th.