Following Iditarod and the Declaration of Independence

We started following the Iditarod this week and spent some time each morning catching up on where our mushers were at in the race and which checkpoints they had come to.  You can read a lot of information daily at www.adn.com (Alaska Dispatch News).  We definitely enjoyed reading some of these articles each morning.   Most interesting is Brent Sass getting disqualified for having an iPod Touch with him on the race.  Check out the website to learn why he was DQ’ed for it!  We were excited to make it in the Holland Sentinel last week as well!

This week we will be reading about the Declaration of Independence and continue learning about all the events that led to war with Great Britain and ultimately American Independence.  We will continue to work on a Patriot and Loyalist role play that is quite fun and humorous.  I’ll pass along some photos when we finish! 

 I can…

Describe the Declaration of Independence in kid language

Write to Inform.

Create situation and solution equations from word problems involving addition, subtraction, mult. / div. 

Dog Sled Building and the Ikidarod 2015

It was a super fun week.  It’s always great to meet with all of you parents during the student conferences.  I think about how positive those meetings are and love to see the kids do so well talking about their academic performance and behavior here at school.

The dog sled building was pretty unforgettable!  The kids did a great job adding and subtracting decimals for the official times today.  They all had to agree, I’ve never seen them so motivated to do math!  Stay tuned for the video I’ll create and post on our site.  It was a great Iditarod culminating event as we prepare to check in next week each morning and see what’s going on in “The Last Great Race” of the Iditarod 2015. 
Next week we will jump back into the American Revolution and the causes the really pushed the colonists to want separation from Great Britain.  Thanks again for the loaner tools.  It was so much fun! 

 I can…

Describe some of the causes that led the colonists to want separate from England

Write to Persuade.

Use multiple strategies to solve division equations using decimals

Iditarod and Ikidarod

I feel like I was just typing this newsletter.  This week was almost non-existent!  The kids read “Woodsong” in our reading series this week and next week we will read “Iditarod Dream” from the Harcourt Series and continue to learn more about the Iditarod from several different texts.  We will be following the race online each morning which begins on March 7th.   I am thinking about having our Ikidarod on March 6—13 depending on time and snowdays.

We are going have a dog sled building challenge.  Level 1 will be designing and building a sled at home with a parent, and level 2 will be bringing the supplies to school and building one with classmates here during a couple of building sessions.  Students may do both, as I would like to have all kids involved here at school, but want to allow them to go crazy at home too!  I am  in need of a one dog, dog sled for my Alaskan Husky and would be interested in paying a team some cash if they would like to sell me there sled to use and keep as an example for the future!  Nothing quite like a little cold hard cash as a motivator!  I will send home the description sheet next week, but basically the sky is the limit at home.  For designing and building sleds here there will be more guide lines.  I will be looking for some battery powered drills and a few small hand saws to borrow for the building sessions.  This will be a new adventure for us here at school.  I will be bringing my dog “Baloo” (Alaskan Husky) from home to pull and test the home and class built sleds, and we will do a human dog sled event as well.  We had a ton of fun last year and I apologize in advance for your kids all wanting to have dogs at home now!

Colonial Studies and Congrats on the Spelling Bee!

This week we will continue working on a few projects that we started earlier last week.  The kids chose to work on a colonial newspaper, do an iMovie news report, or design a fort for the French and Indian War.  We will be presenting this near the end of the week to our class mates.  We will also start reading from our Harcourt reading series about the Iditarod in preparation for following the race in March and our own iKidarod, that we did for the first time last year!  It was a ton of fun, we will do it a little differently this year.  More info coming soon!

Congratulations to Thadeus for first place at the Quincy fifth grade spelling bee and Riley for runner up!  It came down to just one word! 

CAMP MONEY:

Almost everyone is paid.  If you still owe for camp and want to break the payment up please let me know. 

I will be gone on Tuesday for a science training at the Van Andel Institute. .  The kids overall did a great job on our weekly reading assessment this week! Our class average was 91.3%! 

I can…

Describe some of the causes that led the colonists to want separate from England

Write to Persuade.

Use multiple strategies to solve division equations using decimals

Colonial Williamsburg / Unit 4 Math Test

We had some fun this week learning about Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.  We moved our desks around and made a little imaginary Williamsburg.  The kids did a walking tour of the historic town and completed activates that re-created life in Williamsburg.  We had planned to do more, but once again we had a snow, or ice day, so that changed our plans a bit. 

Next week we will be learning about growing tensions between early American colonists and the British.  The students will be creating a Loyalist or Patriot newspaper (persuasive writing) and we’ll end our week in a mock debate centering on the question “Loyalist or Patriot?” 

Also, next week either Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll take our Unit 4 math test.  The kids will have worked through a practice test here, and can bring that home to study. 

I can…

What were some of the causes that led the colonists to want separate from England

Write to Persuade.

Use multiple strategies to solve multiplication equations using decimals and exponents.

Harriet Tubman Reader’s Theater / Camp Pendalouan T-Shirts and Info!

The kids are pretty excited about our Harriet Tubman readers theater.  They have worked a little this week, and now it will be up to them to continue practicing at home or during recess.  I am hoping we can perform the reader’s theater some time in February for African American history month.   They can bring in props and costumes to help bring the story to life.  I will keep you posted on how it goes, I am hoping we could perform in the multi-purpose room.

I have also decided to do the Sturgeon Wristband Fundraiser after our persuasive writing studies to get closer to the actually Sturgeon Guard weekend coming this spring.  Hoping the kids will be more excited about it. 

I will send home the remaining camp balances and a sheet for marking your child’s tee shirt size so we can get the shirts order and coming soon!  Reminder the camp shirts are part of the camp cost so no additional money is necessary.   Please refer to the notes coming for more information.

I can…

Identify how early colonies in America were different.

Write to Persuade.

Use multiple strategies to solve multiplication equations using decimals and exponents. 

Math Tip of the Day:
Patterns in Multiplication by Powers of 10 Using Exponents 

Slavery Projects, Discovery and Delta Testing

Asking questions about images and presenting

Coming up with authentic questions based on images

Kids experience laying down on the slave ship

We have been working on our slavery projects here at school.  The kids presented their learning this Friday as they all did different projects related to the topic of slavery.  It is always interesting to see the direction each kid takes and their own personal creativity they put into their learning. 

We have been taking the Discovery tests this week.  They give us important information about how our kids are doing overall in comparison to other groups of kids around the country that take the same assessment.  Delta is a specific test to see which kids still need some refreshing on concepts we learned last year in math.

Next week, we will continue to learn more about African Americans and delve into their experience and how it has shaped the America we know today. 

I can…

Identify the causes of how slavery was instituted in the American colonies.

Write to Persuade.

Use multiple strategies to solve multiplication equations.