Archive for December, 2010

Class activities for Thursday, December 16

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Spelling: None today due to extra time with math.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: None today due to practicing for the 5th grade musical.

Writing: None today due to art.

Our next piece of writing, a fiction piece, is due Monday, December 20 (new date). Students should be revising at this time.

Math: We learned that there are are least three ways to determine the sum of angles of any polygon:

  1. Draw the polygon and split into triangles. Count the triangles and multiply by 180 degrees (the number of degrees in a triangle).
  2. Draw a triangle. Keep adding on triangles until the number of sides is equal to the polygon in question. Count the triangles and multiply by 180.
  3. Count the number of sides and subtract 2. Multiply by 180. This is the math pattern that leads to the same result as the drawings.

Science: We reviewed the last activity and homework questions from last week about an experiment designed to examine the cause of Pellagra, a vitamin-deficiency disease.

Social Studies: We reviewed the homework from last week about the routes of various explorers.

Behavior Update:

  • Yellow magnets: 0
  • Orange magnets: 0
  • Red magnets: 0
  • STAR Awards: 0
  • Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Class activities for Wednesday, December 15

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Spelling: None today due to working on decorating our showcase (see below).

El Nacimiento

El Nacimiento: This December, we will be looking at how Esperanza, the Mexican girl from our shared reading story, Esperanza Rising, would have celebrated holidays in December. Mexico has many more days of significance during December, January and even into the beginning of February, than we have in the US. Today, we learned about the primary holiday decoration in Mexico: the Nacimiento (the birth or the nativity).

This scene is usually placed in a prominent location, and can be as large as an entire room. The Nacimiento contains various people, animals, cacti, mountains, lights, cellophane waterfalls, mirror ponds, houses, and Spanish moss. There could be as many as 200 different figures in the display. Ours is in our showcase (see right); Esperanza’s was in her hallway. Visit MexConnect for other holiday traditions in Mexico.

Do you have a family tradition you would like to share? Please feel free to share a note and the class can compare your tradition to others they have heard of.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Students started reading magazines in Literature Circles today.

Writing: Students worked on revising today.

Our next piece of writing, a fiction piece, is due Monday, December 20 (new date). Students should be revising at this time.

Math: None due to practicing for the 5th grade musical.

Science: None due to working on our showcase decoration.

Social Studies: None due to the Holiday Shop.

Behavior Update:

  • Yellow magnets: 0
  • Orange magnets: 0
  • Red magnets: 0
  • STAR Awards: 0
  • Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Have more than one SnapGrades account to check?

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

If you have other students in Grand Blanc Schools, you have more than one SnapGrades account to log in and out of. Did you know that you can check all your student’s accounts from one page?

Just make sure to use the same email address and password for all your SnapGrades accounts. Then, when you log in to one student’s accounts, you can switch to another account from the menu at the top left. Get more details at mrhowd.com/grades.

Class activities for Friday, December 10

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Spelling: None due to a character education lesson from Mrs. Alexander.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: The class finished reading their monologues, focusing on speed, tone and volume.

Writing: We read Twilight Comes Twice, by Ralph Fletcher, and looked for how he used details in his story.

Our next piece of writing, a fiction piece, is due Monday, December 17. Students should be revising at this time.

Math: None today due to STAR Friday.

Science: We watched a video about pellagra, a vitamin-deficiency disease. We also learned how the investigating scientist designed his experiments to discover a cure. Homework is to finish the Analysis questions on pp. 9-10. The video is below:



Social Studies: None on Fridays.

Behavior Update:

  • Yellow magnets: 0
  • Orange magnets: 0
  • Red magnets: 0
  • STAR Awards: 0
  • Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 3

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Class activities for Thursday, December 9

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Spelling: None due to a character education lesson from Mrs. Alexander.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Several students read their monologues to the class, focusing on speed, tone and volume.

Writing: Today was a drafting and revising work day.

Our next piece of writing, a fiction piece, is due Monday, December 17. Students should be drafting or revising at this time.

Math: We learned that the sum of angles in a triangle is 180 degrees. For quadrangles, it’s 360 degrees, for pentagons, it’s 540 and for hexagons, it’s 720. Each time an angle is added, the sum of angles increases by 180 degrees. Homework is to finish an angle review page.

Science: We reviewed our last experiment about solving problems.

Social Studies: Homework is to read pp. 60-66 and to complete Notebook p. 32.

Behavior Update:

  • Yellow magnets: 2
  • Orange magnets: 1
  • Red magnets: 0
  • STAR Awards: 0
  • Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 3

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet. Need help with SnapGrades?

Notes:

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.