|
The class has researched various career options in three career clusters given to us. We researched Education & Training, Art, AV, & Media, and Medicine & Health. The presentations are student researched, designed, and published. It was great fun helping them all master the art of media presentation. I am very proud of their success. Each student was to research a career, write an essay about it, then make the presentation using sway.com. The presentation is to have a total of 7 'cards', at least 1 image card, 1 text card, 1 video card, and a group of cards.
Here was an example given to them.  We are just a few weeks away from the ending of the first semester. We have been busy learning about America's history and understanding the world around us. These discoveries are deepening our understanding of who we are and helping us make connections to things around us. We started this semester with the Civil War and learned what Americans in the north and south needed to do to rebuild the Union during Reconstruction. As Autumn arrived, we learned about how freedom rang across the land, and discovered the difficulties settlers faced to build a life on the Great Plains. We continue our journey through the past by identifying the Great Migration into America at the Turn of the Century (20th) and the American Industrial Revolution. During this unit of study, we will learn how inventions changed the way of life for many Americans, Immigration into America and the changes this brought in developing urban areas, and the Constitutional Amendments that brought reform to our Country. A favorite part of this unit is the simulation of Ellis Island. Students will experience the process of becoming an American Citizen. Please volunteer your time as it is a worthy experience for your child. While we were studying Electricity, we discovered how circuits work and created light. We also got to use electricity to create an electromagnet in order to collect paperclips. It is unfortunate to say that our power supply was rather drained and we were not very successful in picking up more than a couple of paper clips at a time. As we move forward, we develop a scientific understanding of how to classify organisms. This includes the animal kingdom as well as plants. This understanding of Classification will carry over into our everyday lives as we continue learning how to organize the world around us.
Lots of things to get caught up on this week before our big overnight field trip on Thursday. In order for all of us to be at the same place at the same time, we are going to take a step back and get everyone caught up-to-date. This includes a number of things that your student may/may not have done. As there are other teachers that work with the students in my class, not everyone gets the same homework. Please keep this in mind as you read over the following list as parts of it may not apply to your 5th grader.
Homework Tonight:
Other important events: -Picture Day is September 29th. Please mark your calendar. Order forms are coming home tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20. -Wellness Week (09/19 - 09/23): This week contains special activities to help our student population remember how to be healthy and take good care of our bodies. Today was our Wellness Assembly, where we learned about all the important things to take good care of ourselves. Each day, your student is to track one aspect of wellness and mark their Wellness Week Journal Page. Today is 30 minutes of exercise. Tuesday is limited screen time. Wednesday is water intake. Thursday is balanced diet. Friday is adequate sleep. Please continue to reinforce these healthy lifestyle habits at home. When students are asked to complete assignments at home through the Google Classroom, there are a couple of logins required. The first login is to the student's google page. This is the child's email (school email) address and his/her password. The second login may be a surprise because your child doesn't see it while at school. This is a network security login and has a blue screen. A student is to sign into this one using their network login information as well. Login changes slightly on this page. The username is domain\network name. For the students, this is STUDENT\network name. The network name is the one a student uses to login to the computer. The password is the same as their password for computer login.  Welcome Back!
I do hope you enjoyed the 3-day weekend. We are back to working and the students were really busy today. I hope to have the Discovery Activity: Fugitives on The Run video uploaded soon so you can see and hear what the students worked on. This week brings a variety of projects to be accomplished. Please note due dates on the calendar. This is help with planning and getting work finished on time. During our afternoon rotations, students will be completing the Civil War Battles Chart. A helpful resource for this is found here. The students will be shown this link tomorrow before we start our work session. Another focus for the Civil War is the ABC Civil War book. The research for this is due Friday, September 9th. This is simply brainstorming all the people, places, events of the time on their graphic organizer. The organizer is kept in the accordion folder. Science includes researching, drawing, labeling, and describing the organelles in animal and plant cells. The students started this last week. The papers look great so far! New math schedules begin tomorrow. As the new Advanced Math teacher, I will be working with those students that took the accelerated math class last year. All other 5th graders are working with one of the fifth grade teachers in a departmentalized fashion in order to meet the individual needs of all students. Remember to check the calendar for homework updates. As with everything in life, nothing is permanent. We begin September with change in many forms. The season is changing as the air feels lighter and the leaves begin their turning to orange, red, and yellow. Football season rolls in and captures our attention with hopes that our favorite team wins big this season. Autumn harvest brings delicious treats to our table: apples, pumpkins, and various fall vegetables. And, there is change at school too. As some of you know, Jackson lost a teaching unit this fall. With sadness we lost the Advanced Mathematics teacher, Ron Callenino to Bolton Elementary. With this happening, I will be teaching the Advanced Math curriculum within a departmentalized environment to ensure all children get their needs met while participating in a challenging learning environment. The Advanced Math schedule will resume Wednesday, September 7th.
Over the past couple of weeks, collaboration and cooperation have been utilized in a variety of ways. We discovered appropriate group sizes as well as appropriate personality match-ups. Throughout the process I have observed specific behaviors that are positive to our learning as well as those that need tweaking to enhance the learning experiences for everyone. I shared these observations and insights with the class. Based on the discussion about my observations the class came up with these Essential Agreements to live by while at school. Each one has a brief explanation underneath it.
Respect Others and Property We chose this as it is important to treat others the way we want them to treat us as well as the property in our classroom (personal or class collective). Our words and actions reflect the value we see in each other. We have learned how to ask to borrow someone's personal items, as well as where in the classroom the class supplies are located. We have been reminded about returning items to where they belong in good working condition. One Voice at a Time We know that conversations involve speaking and listening. In order for all 27 of us to share our thoughts, we have chosen this agreement. As listeners, we are working on turning to the speaker so he/she knows we are actively listening to him/her and show that we care about the topic being shared. As the speaker, we are working on correct pronunciation and articulation of the more advanced vocabulary being developed over the course of this year. Stay Out of "The Zone" This agreement was decided to be of great value in achieving all other agreements. The students and I know all too well of "The Zone", the place the mind wanders to when we become disengaged from the learning moment. We have made a promise to each other to do our best to help each other STAY OUT OF THE ZONE. This will be a direct result of our Active Participation in all activities (our favorite is Brain Break :-) ) Appropriate Behavior for the Environment As 5th graders, we know where and when different behaviors are acceptable and expected. Throughout the multitude of experiences with family and schoolmates, we have learned when to run around and yell (recess) and when to quietly walk without talking (hallways of schools and hospitals). We agreed to be cognizant of our behaviors so they match the environment we are in. We began our Cells and Microorganisms Unit of Study today. The children took cheek cells and attempted to view them under a microscope. Success was not achieved. The skies clouded over and the rainstorm blocked out the needed sunlight. We will attempt this experiment again tomorrow in hopes of seeing what animal cells look like.
Study Guides Coming Soon: The copy machine has finally been fixed and I will be able to scan study guides and notes to the website. Please be sure to check that page over the next week as I am able to get the various items scanned to digital copy. Important information to place on your calendar at home: Friday, August 26th
Monday, August 29th
Monday, September 5th Labor Day - No School Thursday, September 22nd to Friday, September 23rd 5th Grade Field Trip: Blue Ridge Outdoor Adventure Setting up our next project, Underground Railroad through Jackson Elementary, Ms. Preiss shared with both classes The Patchwork Quilt book. We created a list of the various designs used in the quilt, and where the patterns came from as told in the story. Students were then given an opportunity to simulate the journey of a fugitive slave. Each student was to work his/her way through the Underground Railroad Maze without communicating to others, and only receiving a 'yes' or 'no' response to indicate the correct position on the path to freedom. Definitely a repeat activity as the students felt the pressure of making the right choice in order to get to the end and freedom.
|
AuthorA 5th grade teacher working to inspire her students to solve problems, think critically about various topics, and build relationships. Archives
December 2016
Categories |
Ms. Van Wormer's Class
RSS Feed
