Studying Owl Pellets

Our class has been learning about owl pellets and how to study their contents.  Students have learned what they are, who produces pellets, and how they are produced.  Many were surprised to learn that these small, sausage-shaped objects do not pass through the intestine of birds and are very different from droppings.  These pellets contain the undigested parts of the birds’ food and are coughed up, or regurgitated.  Owls can produce two or sometimes three of these pellets every 24 hours.  The students have extracted most of the solid remains (bones, teeth, insect head parts, wing cases, seed husks, etc) and we will begin to attempt

Take a look at this!

identification of these parts this week.

Checking out the Bone Chart

Look at what we found!

Working together to find some bones

March 13th Newsletter

Week of March 13, 2015

        In math our class has continued our work on angles.  Students have learned about the various types of angles (acute, obtuse, right, straight and reflex).  We have identified the various angles in two dimensional shapes, worked with protractors to measure and draw angles, and learned about lines including intersecting, parallel and perpendicular.  Additionally, we have continued to work on the concept of long division that we began with Ellen Dorsey, WCSU math consultant.  This work has used Cuisenaire rods and base ten blocks for the concrete level.  We have also practiced the area model (drawing rectangles to represent the blocks) and finally the US algorithm, which is the traditional way that most of us have learned how to divide.    

          During the writing block students have been busily working on the post assessment for our study of the informational piece (the research report).  We finished these on Friday morning.  Students were asked to select a topic that they have previously studied or feel that they know a lot about.  I have been amazed at the progress that everyone has made!  From effective leads and transitions to elaboration and craft, students have all shown wonderful growth in their work.  Our next unit of study will be the opinion piece.  We will complete our pre assessment of this genre next week.

          For the past few weeks our class has worked with Ms. Dunkling on Friday afternoons learning a variety of Colonial dances.  We will be working with Ms. Dunkling on most Fridays, integrating Music with our Social Studies themes for the remainder of the year. 

          In Technology, students have started learning how to create a presentation in Google. We are learning skills as we create a presentation about our research topic for our informational pieces.  Soon, we will be creating presentations about “kindness”, part of our recent focus that ties in with our read aloud, Wonder. We have also focused on how to select websites for research.
          On Friday afternoon we will be examining owl pellets.  Be sure to ask your child about this fascinating activity!

          Have a wonderful weekend!

           

Feb. 9th Newsletter

 

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 28^th.

          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. 16^th.  (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:  1^st place (Donna Murphy), 2^nd place (Cristin O’Donnell), 3^rd place (Kristine Murphy).

          Have a wonderful week!

Jan. 16th Newsletter

 Jan. 16, 2015

 This week has been a busy week for us!  On Friday, we participated in our January Nature Journaling.  Last time, Karen taught the class about the different animal track patterns (walkers, gallopers, bounders, and waddlers).  This week we went outside looking for animal tracks and the focus was on “questioning.”  Students sketched, wrote about, and jotted down questions regarding the various tracks they were able to find.  We were amazed at the number of track sets we found in the woods behind our playground. 

Thursday, was our first day of the five week Winter Wellness program.  Whether participating in skiing at Bolton, skating at the Civic Center, or one of the other activities, everyone seemed to have a wonderful time!  Thanks to all the parents that were able to join us.

In writing, we continue our work on informational pieces.  The focus this week was on writing leads.  We looked at a variety of ways to provide an introduction that helps the reader get interested and understand the subject.  Beginning with a question, series of questions, dialogue, surprise, and action were a few of the types of leads we looked at.  Each student was able to practice writing at least two leads for their informational piece.

Students have worked on setting goals in literacy for the third quarter.  Some have included specific genres to read, while others are focusing on the number of books/pages they would like to complete.  We have also been working on a new reading assessment that includes an oral reading fluency component, a reading engagement section, and assesses students’ comprehension skills.

            Have a wonderful weekend!

Dec. 19th Newsletter

Dec. 19, 2014

This week has been a busy week for us!  Instead of me writing about our week, I asked students to work together during Friday’s writing block to write a paragraph or two about an event that took place this week.  They worked in groups of three or four to explain each event.

          We have been typing our “I Am” poems based on a book called Wonder.  Students have published it on a website called Edmodo.  We share our thinking and ideas about the book.  Everyone comments on each other’s poems and gives them our thoughts.  This has been hard work, but fun. (Lauren, Riley, Elahna)

          On Wednesday, K-6 had Gifts for Giving all day long with breaks.  Every student got to make four gifts for their family.  They made gifts from materials like nature to metal.  After the kids finished their gifts, they got a candy cane.  Once they finished their gifts, they wrapped them, and then went back to his/her classroom. (Katrina, Jacob, Connor)

          On Thursday, we went caroling to nursing homes around East Montpelier, Montpelier, Barre, and Northfield.  We went to four different nursing homes.  The 4-6 Chorus and grade 5 went caroling.  When we were done singing at two nursing homes we went to Pizza Hut for lunch.  Then we finished the other two nursing homes.  We all loved seeing their faces! (Madison, Mia, Jayden)

          On Friday morning we split into two groups for Nature Journaling.  We went outside and looked at different types of tracks.  For example, a deer is a walker.  The group that went to the left saw fresh turkey tracks.  The group on the right saw coyote tracks.  Also, the group on the left saw stray cat tracks with bird tracks as they came out of the woods.  This was lots of fun! (Charlie, Billy, Jackson, Trevor)

          Have a wonderful weekend!