Archive for December, 2014

Fiesta Mexicana for Friday, December 19

Friday, December 19th, 2014

Today was our Mexican Fiesta! We started by making farolitos (little lanterns) out of paper and reading a book called The Christmas Giftfeliz-navidad.png

We then started our own Los Posadas. We went to the office and library, 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 Cascabel. We then went outside for sparklers!

We came back in to take a whack at the piñata. It didn’t last long enough for everyone to take a swing, unfortunately! 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 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!

Class activities for Thursday, December 18

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

Spelling: We made spelling mini posters to review rules for making plural nouns.

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

Reading: Today was a reading skills and AR practice day.

Writing: Students continued to draft their adventure 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 Friday, January 16. Students should be working on their draft now.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

Math: None today due to Marshall Music band testing.

Homework is to practice math for 15 minutes or more using MobyMax or Khan Academy.

Science: We finished a district life science test today.

Social Studies: Students completed the chapter 5 test about explorers and their routes.

Notes:

  • Our Fiesta Mexicana is Friday, December 19 from 11-2. View our volunteer list here.
  • Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
  • Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
  • View grades, report cards, behavior, assignments, and attendance online.

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

Class activities for Wednesday, December 17

Wednesday, December 17th, 2014

Spelling: None today.

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

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.

Writing: Students completed prewriting conferences today. They also created their website and started to draft the first page of their story.

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 Friday, January 16. Students should be working on their draft now.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

Math: We practiced dividing by one-digit divisors today. Students also used MobyMax to practice math skills.

Homework is to practice math for 15 minutes or more using MobyMax or Khan Academy.

Science: None today due to extra time with math.

Social Studies: Students completed a reading challenge to review what we’ve learned in chapter 5. Homework is to finish notebook pp. 31-32 and to prepare for tomorrow’s test.

Notes:

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

Class activities for Tuesday, December 16

Tuesday, December 16th, 2014

Spelling: None today.

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

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

Writing: Students continued to prewrite today to plan the main character, places, main problem, and possible endings to solve the problem of their adventure story. 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 Friday, January 16. Homework is for students to finish prewriting by tomorrow.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

Math: We practiced modeling division by solving problems that involved sharing money. Students also practiced division skills using Khan Academy.

Homework is to practice math for 15 minutes or more using MobyMax or Khan Academy.

Science: None today due to extra time with social studies.

Social Studies: We learned about some of Mexico’s traditions today and we made a Nacimiento village scene in our showcase.

Notes:

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

Class activities for Monday, December 15

Monday, December 15th, 2014

Spelling: None today.

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

Reading: We practiced reading skills using MobyMax and also had art during this time.

Writing: We began our next writing project, 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 Friday, January 16. Students should be thinking of adventure story and character ideas at this point.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

Math: Not much today due to extra time with a science experiment.

Homework is to practice math for 15 minutes or more using MobyMax or Khan Academy.

Science: Students modeled how a clinical trial would work to test medicines. We learned that scientists have a treatment group that tests a medicine, and a control group that just gets a placebo (not medicine). Homework is to finish analysis 1-4 on pp. 14-15.

Social Studies: None today due to working on our science experiment.

Notes:

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