Division

Division has been a real challenge for the fifth grade math students in Room 204 this year. What I try to show them is the connections to areas of math they already know -- division is like repeated subtraction, or the opposite of multiplication. If you have a large number of objects, dividing is like putting them into groups. Instead of counting out objects one at a time into each group to find out how many belong, we can use shortcuts, putting five or ten or a hundred at a time into each group, and subtracting to see how many we have left. EveryDay Math uses a system called 'partial quotients', which in essence is similar to our traditional long division, but which lets students use multiplication facts they are comfortable with to arrive at an answer through repeated approximations. For some examples, along with other EveryDay Math algorithms, check here or here, or feel free to check with me. There are lots of new methods to do math these days, and some can be confusing for parents! For the most part, though, I think they are a great way to learn, and I wish someone had taught me how to divide this way! You can help at home by posing real-world division problems, playing the math games on the family letter, or just asking your child to explain how they solved a particular problem on their homework. Being able to give a clear explanation of a process is very important in math, and really shows you how much a student understands. Have fun dividing and conquering!

Essaying an Essay

To "essay" means to try, and students have been trying, lately, to write essays! It is a new and challenging writing form for most of them, and I am very proud of what they have achieved so far. We are working on building simple essays that advance a thesis (a thought or claim) and support it with details, examples, reasons, and other evidence. Today we framed our essays using "boxes and bullets" -- a graphic organizer that forms a simple outline. In the box is the thesis, while each bullet represents a supporting idea. Supporting ideas could show reasons why a thesis is true, describe times when a thesis is true, or explain ways how a thesis is true. In the next few days we will explore ways essayists organize their writing, find sources of information and evidence, and present their thoughts in clear ways. I look forward to seeing the final results! If you are able to attend our essay unveiling, held just before Thanksgiving, you are welcome to share in our celebration. More details to come soon.

Conferences and Fall Break

I hope to see you all in the next few days at parent-teacher conferences. Students are welcome to attend their conference, as well. We will have a chance to talk about your child's new report card -- another innovation by the district, although similar in style to what we have been using for the past few years -- as well as any questions or concerns you might have about his or her progress, behavior, etc. It's a good time to touch base after the first nine weeks of school. There aren't formal conference days set up for the rest of the year (we are on trimesters now, so there will only be two more report cards sent home), but feel free to call and schedule an appointment with me at any time. Conferences will be held between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm on Monday the 22nd and Tuesday the 23rd.

There will be no school on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday this week -- it's our Fall Break! I will be spending some time with my parents, who will be in town visiting from Oregon. They are planning to move out to Boulder next spring, but in the meantime I look forward to seeing them whenever they can make it out to Colorado. Hopefully the weather will improve.... Have a great Fall Break, whatever you and your family plan to do with the extra time off!

Science Fair

The Science Fair is an annual event for our school. Every student completes an experiment and presents their results both orally and on a display board. Experiments and presentations are judged by parents and community members, and prizes are awarded to the top scientists. We stress the scientific method as we prepare students for the Fair: scientists 1) ask a testable question, 2) make a hypothesis, 3) gather their materials, 4) decide on a procedure, 5) collect and organize their results, and 6) come to a conclusion based on their data. Good experiments have a variable -- a part of the experiment that is changed, while everything else is held constant. Without a variable, your project is probably a demonstration, not an experiment! The classic example is the volcano -- mixing baking soda and vinegar together to see what happens is only a demonstration of a scientific principle. It would not qualify as an experiment for our Science Fair. However, last year a student decided to test this question: what happens when you add another ingredient to the baking soda and vinegar? She tested three possible mixtures, recorded her results, and presto! An experiment which was interesting, thoughtful, scientific, and... won first place. Best of all, I think she came up with the idea on her own. Those tend to be my favorites. Of course, it is perfectly okay to get inspiration from science books, the internet, or your teacher if you don't have a question just begging to be answered. Good luck, and start experimenting!

The writing process

Just like the scientific method (ask a question, make a hypothesis, etc), there is a process writers go through to create pieces they are ready to share with a wider audience. Last Friday, students from Room 204 began the process by choosing an entry from their notebooks which they wanted to polish for publishing. The first step is planning -- thinking through a piece, gathering information, and deciding on the purpose and the intended audience. Next students will draft their entry, adding in new ideas and details, and skipping lines to leave room for later additons and changes. Students will meet in response groups to get peer feedback, then begin revising. We have defined revision as making changes to the content, the organization, and the ideas of the piece. Students may try a new lead, realize they need more descriptive details, or exchange verbs for a stronger impact. When revision is complete, we move into editing -- making a piece easier to read by fixing spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes. Finally, it is time to publish. Students write a clean copy of their piece, incorporating their revisions and editing changes, and are ready to share their piece with an audience. Celebration is the last step, and a very important part of the process. We celebrate by reading each other's pieces silently or aloud, and honoring the contributions of our authors. I look forward to guiding students as they move through the process, and seeing their final products! Already I have noticed growth in their writing from the begining of the year.

Museum field trip

We had a great time on our recent field trip to the Museum of Nature and Science to view the Titanic Artifacts exhibit and tour the rest of the museum. A big thank you to those parents and helpers to volunteered to chaperone small groups of students. It made the trip run so much more smoothly. Students really enjoyed the Titanic exhibit -- one security guard commented that this was the most engaged and interested group of kids she had seen so far! Students also visited the North American Indian Cultures Hall, and some chose to tour the Hall of Life, Gems and Minerals, Prehistoric Journey, Space Odyssey, and other areas of the museum. Since we've been back, several students have been writing about the Titanic in their notebooks, choosing to read books about TItanic during reading block, and even role-playing characters from the ship out on the playground! It was clearly a big hit. I would recommend visiting the exhibit while it is still at the museum. Check out the DMNS website for more info, and the listing of free days!

Parent resources

I found this great information about the power of parents in a child's education on the DPS website. It also links to other important parent resources. Check it out!

Building and Buddy Reading

We've been studying Native American cultures in social studies, and the students worked hard this week to build models of three types of Native American traditional shelters: a tipi, an Iroquois longhouse, and a pueblo. It was kind of a mess, but we had a lot of fun! We talked a lot about how each group needed different kinds of shelters, based on their environment and way of life. See what your child can tell you about these cultures!

Another exciting thing we have been doing is meeting with a kindergarten class once a week for "buddy time". Each fifth grader is paired with a kindergartener, and we plan to do all kinds of fun projects together this year. It started by helping the little kids get to know the cafeteria! Lately we've been reading together -- it's so great to see how helpful the fifth graders are with the little ones. They are excellent mentors!

For more pictures, click here, or watch the slideshow below.

Practice this at home...

We just finished our first unit in fifth grade math, and took our first math test. While most of the students demonstrated a good understanding of the main concepts of factors, as well as prime, composite, and square numbers, almost all of them need a refresher on place value. We will certainly work on this in class, but if you'd like to help your child at home, here are a few suggestions:

* Write down large numbers. Try to choose number with decimals, and zeroes. 300,507.52 is a good example. Then ask your child to read the number aloud to you, or to write it down in words.

* Read a large number to your child, and have him or her write it down for you.

* Using a number you or your child has written, ask her or him to point out the ten-thousands place, or the hundredths (pennies) place.

* Draw a place value chart with your child -- go from millions to hundredths. Use the chart to play place value puzzles. For example: I am thinking of a number with a three in the hundred thousands place, a seven in the millions place, a five in the tenths place, and the rest are zeroes.

* More place value games and information can be found online. Check out these websites: ToonUniversity, LinksLearning, Enchanted Learning, FactMonster, and FunBrain.

The more you can work with your child on these concepts, the stronger their understanding will be!

Testing

We will be doing benchmark testing in reading, writing, and math next week. These tests provide teachers with immediate feedback about students' strengths and needs, and give us a benchmark (thus the name) to which we can compare growth and progress over the year. We will take these tests three times this year. Next week's schedule will be: a math session on Monday, a reading session on Tuesday, and two writing sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. Please make sure your child is at school on time and ready for testing -- a full night's sleep and a good breakfast can work wonders! If you have questions or concerns about your child's performance, please let me know. We will be finished with scoring the assessment shortly after September 21.

Our daily schedule

Some parents at Back to School Night were wondering about our daily schedule. It looks something like this, although on any given day it may change slightly, depending on a variety of factors:

9:05 Specials (either PE, Art, or Music)
9:50 Math
11:15 Science or Social Studies
12:00 Lunch
12:45 Reader's Workshop
1:45 Writer's Workshop
2:45 Skills (spelling, grammar, etc)
3:15 Read Aloud
3:45 Dismissal

Please do try to ensure that your child is at school on time, and attends every day, as much as possible. Students who are tardy or frequently absent miss out on learning. If you know that your child will be unable to come to school, due to illness, an appointment, or other family needs, please let me know ahead of time. I can usually help students make up their missing work, or put together a packet of work they can do while they are gone.

If you have other questions, please let me know!

Welcome back to school!

Welcome back to school, and welcome to our online newsletter. I will be posting news and information about our class as often as I can, so check back here frequently. I won't use anyone's full names for privacy, so look for your initials!

It's been a great first week and a half. Our class is getting along well with each other, learning and practicing the expectations for behavior, and diving right in to our lessons. The fifth grade math students have spent some time working with arrays as models for multiplication and practicing their multiplication facts, and they are ready to start learning about prime numbers and divisibility. We also have a small group of students who are taking on the challenge of sixth grade math, although they have spent this week getting a refresher on some important fifth grade concepts. In social studies we talked about the importance of getting to know about ourselves before studying other groups of people, and so we are making timelines of our own lives. Some of the events on the students' timelines have showed up as entries in their writing notebooks as well, since we started our writing unit telling stories from our lives! Students have worked hard on focusing their writing on small moments, and expanding those moments using descriptive and sensory details. They are doing a great job, and they love to share their writing with the class. They also love to read, and they have enjoyed choosing independent reading books from our classroom library this week for checkout. Hopefully parents have also seen them reading at home each night!

I am expecting a great year, full of fun and learning. Parents, if if I haven't met you yet, please stop by sometime and introduce yourselves. It's always nice to put a face to your name. Thanks for all your support in getting your child ready for school!