Take me out to the ball game...........

Due on Thursday: Two paragraphs about an experience at ANY type of sporting event. This could even include a younger sibling's soccer game or watching something on TV! This assignment comes from Miss Moore, a UNI student in Mrs. Lockhart's class. As part of their personal narrative writing unit, they have been asked to think about the event and what they heard, saw, felt, etc. They will be using a thesaurus during the revision stage of writing to improve and enhance some of the words in their writing.

Projectile Motion Web Site

The students have anxiously been waiting for this address to be posted on the blog! This is the web site that we have used in science the last couple of days. The students have worked on changing one variable at a time while using the exact same object (a football) to launch from the cannon. They are free to explore other objects of larger masses to see if their results are similar to that of the football!

http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/projectile-motion/projectile-motion_en.html

Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Level II Participant Lessons this Week!

The Teacher Education Program at UNI is respected nationally and internationally as a high quality teacher education institution. A huge part of the teacher education preparation component is what the UNI students do at MPLS. This week our “UNI Friends” are teaching lessons that they have spent the past three weeks developing with the assistance of Mrs. Lockhart and myself. This is a perfect opportunity for our fifth grade students to really focus on their learning and their skill with the MPLS Guidelines for Success (Respect, Learning, Responsibility, Attitude and Integrity). We want our MPLS students adhering to the Guidelines for Success at all times, but we know that an added emphasis during these UNI Friend lessons can add a great deal to the learning of our MPLS students and UNI students. Please remind your child about the importance of the Guidelines for Success. Thank you for your support of this important process.

Projectile Motion

In science this week, the students have learned a lot about projectile motion. One class of fifth graders has used an online simulation game to test different variables. Since the other class has not used it yet, I will wait until they have before I post the URL for the simulation. Please look for that early next week! I know the students will really enjoy testing different objects and variables.

Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Time Line Sheet

For a writing project that we will be working on next week, the students have been asked to fill out a time line sheet about themselves. Events can include meaningful moments in their lives, for them personally or for your family. They all have the first event filled in! Their birthday! I showed them an example of my time line and had them recognize that I didn't have something written for EVERY year of my life. Rather, I chose the events that stand out the most. This will be due on Monday.

Silly Bands....Close to being banned

The latest trends for young students is always exciting to watch evolve. A number of students have taken a real interest in the silly band craze, and it seems like the "cool thing to do!" However, these silly bands are causing a distraction to a number of students. They are becoming "chewing bands" during class as well as feeling the need to rearrange them on their arms and/or necks. While we don't like to ban the students from participating in the latest craze, they are becoming a distraction to the learning process. If this continues, we will send a notice home indicating that the students will not be allowed to wear them during the school day.

Thanks,
Mrs. Lockhart
Mr. Nielsen

Math-Partial Sum and Column Addition

Today we will be exploring two methods of addition that students may or may not have been exposed to in the past, the partial sums method and column addition method. Research shows that greatest learning comes when we teach someone else. I light of that I am going to ask that the students attempt to teach you these methods at home tonight or tomorrow night. This could be just simply a show and tell by your child or they may get crazy and give you problems to complete and then check your work!

The two methods are explained in the Student Reference Book on p. 13.

Thanks for your participation in your child's mathematics learning.

Mr. Nielsen

Smile - It's Picture Day!

Reminder: Pictures are scheduled for this Wednesday, September 22, 2010. If your child needs another picture envelope there are extras in the office. Picture envelopes and money should be brought to school on Wednesday.

Literature

Sign of the Beaver is our first literature novel of the school year. The text of this book is very different from a lot of the books that they have read. There is very little dialogue between characters as it is a narrative text. We are not opposed to having a shared reading at home. This means a parent or older sibling can read a page aloud (while the student follows along- this helps with accuracy and fluency development) and then the student can read as much as they feel comfortable. Discuss what is happening in the text as you read. What new/different vocabulary words are popping out at your child? For each chapter, they should really try to find 2 words to record in their packet. Chapter titles need to be written for EACH chapter that they read. The title should encompass the main idea of the whole chapter, not an isolated event from the chapter.

Spelling - Week 4

This week there are five different spelling lists- your child has been given a list that is most fitting for them. This list was decided upon from today's pretest as well as the average score of the last 3 weeks of spelling. Please check your child's spelling notebook today as the list for your child is in the notebook.

Glogster............

Yes, it sounds like BLOG, but it's not! It's GLOGSTER! In science Dr. Stone and I have introduced the students to this private website where they will creating posters this year. Each student has been assigned a password and username (Lockhart's students will received their information tomorrow in science). They are going to be creating a poster that shares their knowledge of whirligigs. There are graphics that are available for them to use, but there is also a draw tool with which they can create their own illustrations. As the students know, I love to take pictures! They will have access to a large number of pictures that they will be able to download onto their poster as well. The flip camera has also been used in class, and they will be taught how to embed videos into this poster creation as well. Since this is a website with a membership for our class only, the public is NOT able to view these. Even though these are not open for public viewing, we have asked the students to use ONLY their FIRST name on their posters. When students finish them, they will be able to be viewed by other classmates and the teachers for feedback and comments. If you child would like to explore this glogster page a little more, please google "glogster edu" for the glogster educationpage. They will know how to log in from there.

Math Homework - Naming 100

Tonight students are asked to write 100 in as many different ways as they can. For instance 10*10, 500/5, 25*2*2, I would like them to spend only 15 minutes on this activity.

Mr. Nielsen

Math Homework - Unsquaring Numbers

Tonight the students have an assignment to "unsquare" a number. Basically the students are going to use a calculator to find the square-root of a number WITHOUT using the square-root key. We have learned this week that a square of a number is when you multiply the number by itself. Unsquaring the number will cement this concept. Students should look for a number that when multiplied by itself will result in their assigned number listed below. Each of the unsquared numbers has a 2-digit square-root. Please ask your child the process they used to unsquare the number. We will discuss their thinking processes in class tomorrow.

Mrs. Lockhart's class should unsquare the number 289
Mr. Nielsen's class should unsquare 961

Mr. Nielsen

Math Homework Assignment 9/7

If your child is in Mrs. Lockhart's homeroom their math assignment tonight is Math Journal p. 18. If your child is in Mr. Nielsen's homeroom their math assignment is a sheet called Goldbach's Conjecture p. 8. These will be reviewed in math tomorrow.

Mr. Nielsen

Spelling Lists- Week 3

Because of no school on Monday, the students took their pretest today. Since there wasn't a chunk of time to get all 30 test scored, they do not have their spelling test notebook. It will be sent home tomorrow. The list is as follows:
Long Vowel Sound: A
Words with the long vowel a sound can be written as: a, ai or ay

1. aim
2. holiday
3. paper
4. station
5. able
6. crayon
7. flavor
8. lazy
9. brain
10. anyway
11. remain
12. favor
13. rail
14. taste
15. trailer
16. lady
17. nation
18. relay
19. rail
20. radio

Challenge list: (those missing two or less on pretest) Compound words
Some words are one whole word, some are two separate words, and some use hyphens

keyboard

self-esteem

dining room

classmate

far-fetched

granddaughter

briefcase

self-taught

four-fifths

word processing

newsstand

quick-witted

pencil sharpener

well-known

thirteen-year-olds

textbook

self-employed

study hall

brother-in-law

three-fourths

Reminder: Science Whirligig Materials

Students are working on their garden whirligigs in science this week. A lot of them are extremely creative in their design plans! If you have any materials (colored tape, plastic bottles, old CDs) that your child may bring to school, please send them tomorrow! Thanks!!
Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Spelling Note

Tonight students will bring home their spelling spiral. This notebook is where students will complete their end of the week spelling tests. It is important that the pages are not torn out because the students will refer back to past tests throughout the year. Please have your child return the spiral to school on Tuesday. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Mrs. Lockhart

Science News

The students have been working on Whirligigs for the last two weeks. What in the world are whirligigs, you ask? Folded paper that spins and floats to the ground. What does this have to do with science? Variables.....air.......motion.......testing.....experimenting with change..........
The students have conducted many tests using different types of paper, different sizes of whirligigs as well as different weights. The data has been collected and shared with the class through discussion and writing. Now they are ready to create their very own Garden Whirligig. A list of materials was brainstormed during class this week. While Dr. Stone and I will be providing some materials for them to use, if they have something that they would like to bring to use on their own, or even to share with others, we are open to that. Since the goal is to use this outside, and it must move, the type of materials used has to be considered.
Plastic bottles
Duck tape
Electrical tape
Aluminum foil pans (or just foil)
Plastic paper plates and cups
This is just a list of examples......their items are definitely not limited to the items just on this list

The students will be designing their whirligig and building it next week. At the end of the unit, we hope to have them design a Glogster (a type of web page that is very student centered and it is created by them!) page that will so their depth of knowledge. Videos of pictures will be out soon on Animoto. I will send them through email.
Thanks!
Mrs. Lockhart and Dr. Stone

Swimming Reminder

Don't forget those swimming suits, towels and plastic bags tomorrow for swimming!