Mrs. Otto's Updates

Here are a few highlights of our first week of Trimester 3:

• We’ve begun one of my favorite books, The Giver, by Lois Lowry.  The students have a Venn Diagram (charting similarities and differences between Jonas’s community and our community) and a Life Schedule in progress.  There are some pretty interesting things going on in this book!
• Word Masters has started up again, with our last list of 25 words.  We’re doing a few cards each day, as the group looks at sentences and dictionary definitions.  They are making great connections to other Word Masters words. Their first practice quiz on words 1-12 will be next Wednesday, March 24th.
• We’ve begun daily writing skills practice with the addition of “Sparks”.  Ask your child about this beginning-of-class activity.
• The students received their first writing assignment for this trimester.  They are to write about their “Utopia”.  Look for the yellow information (and 5th grade Writing Standards sheet) that went home today.  The students may either write or type their paper, or share it via Google Documents.  They are due on Tuesday, March 23rd.

Next week, we will officially begin an exciting new technology endeavor…Novel Blogging!  I have shared the idea with the class, but next week is when the fun starts!  

They are an enthusiastic and motivated group of kids!

We are in the middle of Chapter 8, which introduces the students to algebraic terms and formulas, along with graphing ordered pairs.  It’s a new unit added to the curriculum this year.  We are all working hard on the chapter’s Learning Targets, as well as spending time each day to practice a few MCA problems and review testing strategies.  The test for Chapter 8 will be next Thursday, March 25th.

• Report cards went home yesterday.  Make sure to look at them with your child and send the signed envelope back to school.  If you have any questions, please let me know.
• We had a presentation on Fire Safety yesterday, and will attend the 4th grade recorder concert this afteroon.  Reading is shorter on both days.
• This afternoon, we’ll have our last ART lesson with Mrs. Erikson. The students will learn about Andy Warhol and create a piece of pop art.
• Our science unit began this week, and partners completed a Circulation web quest over the past 2 days.  Upon completion, they worked on a simulated (cartoonish) open heart surgery.  Cool!
• Friday will be the first spelling test of the 3rd trimester. The students have 2 more squares on their spelling choice board before they can choose anything for their assignments.  As a reminder, the students can either turn in their assignment or share it via Google Documents.
• We’re in the middle of a boxtop contest. Please bring in any that you have, or will have, between now and the end of April.
• The Woodland Carnival will be held tomorrow, March 19th from 5:30-8:00.  It’s always lots of fun!

The Trade fair was a great success!  Check out some pictures of the students at this event.  Also, I posted a picture of each colony during sailing.  The kids learned a lot during the Discovery simulation.  Congratulations to all of the colonies!

Treasure Bay Colony

The Rebellion of Darkness Colony

Pirates Colony

Royal Navy Colony

Trade Fair "wares"

Happy trading

This coming week:

• Continued focus on organization and planners
• No spelling
• Greek and Latin Root practice (Monday with laptops and net books)
• Linking Verb and Action Verb Grammar (Grammar partners on Wednesday with laptops and net books)
• Last Discovery round, simulation discussion, colony rating, final journal entry and test
• Trade Fair on March 11th at 2:30
• End of the trimester on Thursday
• No school on Friday due to Report Card Marking (report cards go home on March 17th)
• New Reading Groups begin on March 15th (regrouping based on mid-year MAP testing, Star Reader, Fluency and class participation/effort)

Have a great week!

This will be the last week of chapter 7.  The students will take their chapter test on Wednesday (March 10th) and receive their scores on Thursday.  Any reteaching and/or retesting will be done on Thursday.  Students need to be able to multiply and divide multi-digit numbers (both with and without decimals), as well as solve word problems and round decimal numbers.  A good way to study is by reviewing their completed and corrected homework, as well as looking over the practice test in their student activity book.

Poetry became part of our discussion last week!   On Thursday and Friday, the students learned about TPCASTT (or Title-Paraphrase-Connotation-Attitude-Shifts-Title-Theme), a strategy for analyzing poetry.  I modeled a few using “Dreams” and “Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes, and then the students worked independently and/or with partners to try “Democracy” by the same poet.  They did a phenomenal job!  They dug deep to find meaning and look for figurative language and themes in these poems.  On Monday, they will take the Theme 3 Reading test, and then Tuesday-Thursday will be our last Junior Great Books story (part of the G.E. Verbal seminar).

We’ve had an exciting week in room 50:

• Math Olympics occured during Team Time, with a closing ceremony in the gym on Thursday afternoon, hosted by Mrs. Beckler.  Click on the video link below to see the YouTube video.  The students had such an exciting time working together for the Otto Olympians.  We received the Silver Medal…Congratulations!                                                            

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbPbiqoo5pg

• The students completed rounds 3-5 of Discovery and have begun to Battle the Native Americans and other colonies. Colonies also received their first supply shipment, which was determined by their sponsorship…private company or the government.  All colony members wrote their first journal entries about their beginning experiences.  I was impressed by how many students wrote about how they were learning about compromise and working with people they don’t always see eye-to-eye with.  It’s so much more than a Social Studies lesson!  Next week, they should complete Rounds 6-9 (out of 10 rounds), with the last round and final activites during the final week of the trimester.  Colony Members have done well learning their jobs and uncovering strategies to help their colony thrive.  Next week, the students will write their second journal entry.
• Lastly, the students have begun working with “Grammar Parters” each Wednesday, using lap tops and net books to practice their proofreading skills.  This takes the place of writing out DLP.  In other grammar news, we finished subject/object pronouns and reflexive pronouns, and will focus on comparative/superlative adjectives and adverbs next week.

Have a wonderful weekend!

We’ve begun long division, both with decimals and without.  The next week and a half will focus on refining these skills and practice moving the decimal, and estimating/checking if their answers are reasonable.  This includes practicing multi-digit multiplication and division in word problems.  Lastly, now that Math Olympics are finished, we will be working on mean, median, mode and stem/leaf plots during Team Time next week.  The chapter 7 math test is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th.  Retests will occur on March 11th, which is the last day of the trimester.

We began Junior Great Books on Tuesday.   This collaboration with Mrs. Leslie (a G.E. verbal seminar) focuses on Shared Inquiry and Discussion.  Our first story was Kaddo’s Wall about a rich man who learns a lesson about greed and selfishness.  Our current story is In the Time of the Drums about a boy who learns how rich he can become through knowledge of his cultural heritage.  The students do a few readings of each story, use post-its to jot down questions and comments about the focus skill, and actively participate in small group discussion.  Mrs. Leslie and I have been so impressed by the deep thoughts and ideas shared by these phenomenal students.  Junior Great Books continues through March 11th.  The students should be bringing their books home a few nights per week to reread and add comments/questions.