MrHowd.com

Spelling: Students completed a spelling and skill test today.

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

Reading: Students completed a STAR Reading test today.

Writing: Students continued to draft their story websites today.

Our next writing project is a Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook. Students will write a fiction adventure story with choices that the reader can make. Each choice can change how the story turns out.  Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. See below for more details.

This project is due Monday, January 21. Students should be drafting at this point.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

• See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
• Here are some good student examples:
  • William’s Roanoke Adventure
  • Abel’s Aztec Terror
  • Katie’s Lost Statue hunt
  • Nancy’s Under Water Adventure!
• Look at an Underground Railroad Choose Your Own Adventure website.
• Look through the Underground Railroad Interactive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
• Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
• View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
• Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
• Find a complete list of resources here.

Math: We practiced estimating the product of decimals by rounding, then multiplying. Homework is to finish Journal P6-2.

Science: None today due to our math skills practice time.

Social Studies: We started to learn about early English settlements in America.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 1
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 8): 1

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade online to see if your student moved their magnet.

Notes:

• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance online.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.

Today was our Mexican Fiesta! (Pics here.) We started by making farolitos (little lanterns) out of paper and reading a book called El Regalo de Navidad (The Gift of Christmas). 

We then started our own Los Posadas. We went to the cafeteria and the office, and they wouldn’t let us in for shelter, but parents in our class finally gave us shelter and we started our fiesta! We sang Noche de Paz (Silent Night) and El Rodolfo El Reno De La Nariz Roja (can you guess what song that is). We then went outside for sparklers!

We came back in to take a whack at the piñata. It lasted long enough for almost everyone to take a swing! Then we headed back to the room to eat. The menu included:

• Mexican-style tacos on corn tostada shells;
• Spicy shredded chicken eaten with torn flour tortillas;
• Nopalitos (prickly pear cactus!);
• Pepinos (cucumbers with lemon juice and salt);
• Mexican hot chocolate (hot chocolate with cinnamon); and,
• Buñelos (fried flour tortillas with cinnamon and sugar).

Later, we played the Dreidel game and “Toma Todo,” a Mexican top game much like the Jewish dreidel. Students start with ten beans, then take or put in beans as the top says. The person with the winning amount of beans could select a Mexican pop.

A grande-sized thanks to the parents who helped prepare and serve food today at the fiesta, and for all the generous donations–we had more than enough food and everyone had their fill!

Feliz Navidad!

Spelling: We reviewed rules for making plural nouns. This will be the skill tested on Monday’s spelling and skill test.

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

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles; some groups worked on questioning and visualizing as reading strategies.

Writing: Students continued to draft their story today.

Our next writing project is a Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook. Students will write a fiction adventure story with choices that the reader can make. Each choice can change how the story turns out.  Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. See below for more details.

This project is due Wednesday, January 23. Students should be drafting at this point.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

• See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
• Here are some good student examples:
  • William’s Roanoke Adventure
  • Abel’s Aztec Terror
  • Katie’s Lost Statue hunt
  • Nancy’s Under Water Adventure!
• Look at an Underground Railroad Choose Your Own Adventure website.
• Look through the Underground Railroad Interactive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
• Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
• View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
• Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
• Find a complete list of resources here.

Math: We learned rules for multiplying decimals by 10, 100, and 1000. Homework is to finish Journal P6-1.

Science: We received new science books today.

Social Studies: We learned about the Columbian Exchange, which is the flow of goods, animals, plants and ideas between the Old and New Worlds after the time of the explorers. Homework is to finish the Columbian Exchange map started in class.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 8): 0

Coming soon: Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at ParentVue to see if your student moved their magnet.

Notes:

• Our Fiesta Mexicana is tomorrow, Friday, January 4 (new date) from 8:45-noon. Sign up or view our volunteer list. Family members are welcome to attend!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Coming soon: view grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.

Spelling: We learned that spelling difficult words can be made easier by using memory devices:

• believe: don’t believe a lie
• piece: piece of pie
• friend: friend to the end

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

Reading: Students received new Literature Circles books and planned their reading schedule.

Writing: Students started to draft their story today. They began with the first page, which usually describes who the main character is (You are a mountain climber…) or where they are (You are standing on the deck of the Titanic…).

Our next writing project is a Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook. Students will write a fiction adventure story with choices that the reader can make. Each choice can change how the story turns out.  Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. See below for more details.

This project is due Wednesday, January 23. Students should be drafting at this point.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

• See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
• Here are some good student examples:
  • William’s Roanoke Adventure
  • Abel’s Aztec Terror
  • Katie’s Lost Statue hunt
  • Nancy’s Under Water Adventure!
• Look at an Underground Railroad Choose Your Own Adventure website.
• Look through the Underground Railroad Interactive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
• Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
• View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
• Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
• Find a complete list of resources here.

Math: Students completed a division test today.

Science: Students completed a science test today about  body systems, genetics, traits, and survival.

Social Studies: Students completed a test today about about explorers.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 8): 0

Coming soon: Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at ParentVue to see if your student moved their magnet.

Notes:

• Our Fiesta Mexicana is Friday, January 4 (new date) from 8:45-noon. Sign up or view our volunteer list. Family members are welcome to attend!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Coming soon: view grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.