Week of Feb. 9, 2015
Last week the two fifth grade classes had a visitor
during our math class on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ellen Dorsey, WCSU math consultant, came to teach students the concept
of long division. We went from the
concrete level (using Cuisenaire rods and base ten blocks) to the area model
(drawing rectangles to represent the blocks) and finally to the US algorithm,
which is the traditional way that most of us have learned how to divide. This week we will continue to practice all of
this, as well as returning to our study of lines, line segments, rays, and
angles.
We continue our read aloud, Wonder. Recently, students were asked to select one character from
this book to create a collage about. Students used the Pixlr app and Morguefile
database to complete these projects. The
children had previously practiced using this technology by creating a collage
about themselves. They have also
compared a character from Wonder to a
character from another book, Each Kindness.
One of the characters in Wonder is a teacher named Mr. Browne. This teacher gives his students a precept
each month. The first precept is, “When
given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.” Our class has spent a lot of time talking
about this precept. Last week, we
created a Kindness journal that we will be using in the next couple of
weeks. We will be writing about things
we are thankful for and random acts of kindness we have performed. Students will also write about kindness acts where
they are recipients.
On Monday, students will draw a classmate’s name. They will do a random act of kindness for
that classmate each day during the week.
(This does not mean they will buy something for this classmate. We will be discussing examples of acts of
kindness on Monday.) On Friday, we will
reveal who we are and have a special “kindness” party. If you would like to help by sending in a
drink or food for our Friday celebration, please let me know.
If students want to bring in valentines, they are welcome
to. Please remember that they need to
bring in for everyone in the class. I’ve
attached a class list of names.
I just wanted to say that the fifth graders did a terrific
job selling the raffle tickets. We
raised $3,580. After subtracting out the
prize money ($1,000), we were within $68 of our total amount needed for the
Boston trip. Ms. Anastasia announced to
the students that she would pay the balance needed! Thanks Ms. Anastasia and thank you all
(students and families)! We can now
begin planning for our trip to the Boston Tea Party Museum and the Boston
Science Museum. We will be sleeping over
at the Science Museum on May 28th.
We will be limited on the number of chaperones that we can
take with us for the field trip. If you
are interested in chaperoning, please let me know by email or call me before
Feb. 16th. (email – eshedd@u32.org) If more people want to chaperone than we can
take, we will pick names and then you can pursue the background check. (Chaperones
will need to pass a level 2 background check).
Winners of the money raffle were: 1st place (Donna Murphy), 2nd
place (Cristin O’Donnell), 3rd place (Kristine Murphy).
Have a wonderful week!
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