Harris Burdick Gone Missing

This week we have been working on solving the mystery of Harris Burdick. We've been making tons of fun stuff. On Tuesday we got to find a picture and put together a fun drama scene in the dark using flashlights ! And today we got to make a bulletin board or go to the computer lab and work down there also on Ask.com,Google maps,Harris Burdick.com And a whole bunch of other things in order to finding clues to find Harris Burdick. We also did a fun thing were we took a magazine and cut off pieces and put them on a page and we took a paper dog and hid it in the picture. This week was very fun and im very sad that school is  almost over. And if you want to see the storyof what we think happened scroll down.




The story of what we think happened to Harris Burdick








One day a person named Harris Burdick walked into a publishing office and showed a man named Peter Wenders Pictures that Harris drew and gave him 14 pictures and told him he did it him self. He said, "very good I'm blown away!" He asked if he could see the story for these pictures and Harris said "sure!" And he left but the next day no one saw him ever again.But you know how when you have a really good drawing and when the person passes away the picture costs more $ (money)? what if Mr.Wenders KILLED Harris Burdick, sold the pictures, and got tons of money for it?


By, Katie

Fritz the Dog

We are finishing our year in language arts with an author's study of Chris Van Allsburg! Chris Van Allsburg is famous for such titles as Jumanji and The Polar Express, which have both been made into notable movies. He is known for "leaking his stories onto the pages" both through the words and his world famous illustrations, making inferences a key part of understanding his stories. We are finishing our study of The Wretched Stone and it is completely playing with our imaginations! We have created a classroom tree and are about to create a classroom book based on the book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. We are having a blast and loving the imaginative stories!

One of the parts we've enjoyed the most about our study is finding "Fritz the Dog" in every single story Chris Van Allsburg writes. Some are especially tricky to find! If anyone has a dog who looks like "Fritz the Dog" (or just has a dog of any kind) above and would like to help our class with a TOP SECRET adventure, contact me right away! It would include the dog coming to school during an afternoon!

MCA roundup week #1

Great job 5th grade! Reading MCA IIIs have just finished and all of your hard work paid off! I saw students using our "Secret Strategy," looking for evidence to support your answers, reading each passage twice, and double checking your answers carefully. I am proud of you and hope that you get to see that you passed the goal of a higher test score this year!

Next week and the week following, we will have two days of computer-based math MCA IIIs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Remember to bring a calculator, head phones (many students are still without headphones-needed for the computer-based test! Please bring by TOMORROW!), and #2 pencils (not mechanical pencils). Get plenty of rest, a healthy breakfast and lunch.

Parents, we test at 1:45 in the afternoon, so next week would not be an ideal time to schedule picking your child up early for any reason!

Hoppy Spring Break!

I hope you all enjoy the *brief* break in the action. I will be gone next week through Wednesday, so if you call my room and cannot get ahold of me, that is why. We have a terrific guest teacher during this time-a well-seasoned veteran! And they will be making an adorable motivational bulletin board for our upcoming MCA tests! We've been working so hard to prepare for testing that we'll give ourselves a little pep talk!

I will not post this week's grades until next week so more students can turn in their late work :) They know who they are as I already wrote their names on the board. Enjoy extra time spent with your family! I'm so thankful for each of your children in our class and am already beginning to miss them as I think of next year! Agh! This is all going too quickly!

Bug and a wish

I learned that I could work as a team and get my work handed in. I learned that I could get really good at art and be an artist. I learned that if I follow directions and practice alot I can get a good grade on my MCA test.

The highlight of this week was learning that if I practice enough I can get a better grade on the MCA test.

I wish I could change the schedule to have more art. I really like art because it gives me a way to express myself. I'm looking forward to learning how to be an artist and how to paint and draw pictures.

Reported By: Tatyana

3 Quarters Down, One to Go!

Report cards came home today so be sure to look at it with your child, sign the envelope and send back by Friday! Please call or email me with any questions concerning grades. I'll be more than happy to go through those with you.

Also-with somewhere between 2 and 8 kids gone from our class each day for the past week, we're doing out best to sanitize everything, but sickness is spreading quickly! You may want to sanitize those doorknobs and handles!

Our new way of doing spelling and our brawn match with Mrs.Woods class, By: Cole Hay

This week we started a new way to do spelling. We get three work sheets a week we get two on root words and another on a review we learned the root words trans and sub.Then on Friday we take a review test we get ten words and we have to use them in a sentence and at the end of the test we get a extra score word or we can use that word to get ten for ten in case we got one wrong. Also this last Friday we took a recess break outside and Mrs.Woods class was out there with a kickball so we challenged them to a brawn game it was a very equal match we both pushed hard but in the end it was a draw.
By Cole H.

March Theme and a Few Changes

March themes (yes, there are TWO language arts themes this month!):

• figurative language and 
• MCA test prep.

We are just finishing a brief review of figurative language and today's study on idioms made us "crack up!" In mid-April, we will begin state standardized tests. In order to build in some test-prep to our daily work, we have already been using our new reading logs. In addition to this, we will have a few changes in our schedule:

A few changes:

• Daily 5-I can't believe the time has come, but it's official. I have pulled the pin on the Daily 5 as we get ready for testing. I had planned this back in September, but am startled by how quickly time is passing! For room 206 kiddos, this means no more read-to-self, or work-on-writing, no more rounds and no more book bins. What will we do instead? We will rotate through 6 stations each week, focusing on a different test-prep skill each time. 
• Spelling-I am sure there will be shouts of victory about this one: NO SPELLING CHOICES FOR THE NEXT 5 WEEKS! 
• Back to Our Roots-in place of spelling and in order to help students prepare for words they may not understand on a test, we are launching a Greek and Latin Root Words study. Each week they will get 2 root words and 2 practice pages for homework. Each Monday and Wednesday, I will introduce a new root word, give them brainstorming time to figure out it's meaning and a list of words. Thursday is a review page and review games, then Friday will be the test. The test will be similar to a spelling test, but with a twist!
• Beyond testing-What will we do after testing if there is NO Daily 5? If your child gives me their absolute BEST effort and BEST energy to prepare for their MCA tests, I am working on a fun unit that will involved bringing to life something from a book...stay tuned!

As your child's teacher, I am looking forward to these changes and I think your child will enjoy them too! Thank you for your support from home-the reading logs have shown some terrific discussion that you have had with your child! 

January Post-Taylor

This week we started science with Mrs.Cody. We had a sub on Tuesday. We just got done studying cause and effect. Now we are learning about sequencing events using first, next, then, last. this week was fin to me.we had to ran around decks and put comic in se

We finished our math book. We had a test on mrs.Cody. i'm looking forward to learning life science.we made 3D snowflakes . it was funbut hard. tn tear we finished balto and the great rase. it was a good book but i didn't undersand it. balto and the great rase is not that long.

Taylor

The Oreo Turns 100!

 

Happy Birthday, Oreo! Who has not enjoyed this wonderful cookie? I had no idea that the Oreo had been created so long ago! In order to celebrate "Milk's Favorite Cookie," we will be doing some experiments on Friday. We will hypothesize our outcomes and then experiment, use some math equations, "sandwich" our findings with a writing project, and our grand finale will include a fun (and a bit messy) art project. Our winner will be selected by some esteemed guest judges (one traveling from out of state for the occasion...no, it is not Stephen :) )

Winter Snowflakes!

 Today, we are going to make a project with a shoe box and a paper bag.Also, this whole month we are going to talking about poetry.This week, we also made... 3-D SNOWFLAKES! Here's the instructions: First,you take a square piece of paper and fold it in half.Next,you cut 3 lines toward the middle,but don't cut to the middle. Next,unfold it and tape the cut ends into a tube back and forth,back and forth,until you don't have any paper left.Next,repeat these steps 5 more times. Then, staple all of the ends together.Lastly, hang by a string somewhere and enjoy this fun winter project!
reported by: Kaden

Genre Tickets

Our classes latest project has been working on genre tickets. Genre tickets are little multi colored tickets with each genre on one of the tickets. two genres have been left out on accident so the class has not read all of the genres but we have read most of the genres. If you turn in five tickets tickets you get a McDonalds meal. If you turn all of the tickets you get a Sub Way meal! All of the tickets are due on Jan 31 if you want the prize!

Reported by Ryan

February Newsletter

Language arts:

This month we are moving from studying non-fiction into a poetry unit! We will be studying features of poetry then we will make our own poetry books featuring original works by each student.

Also-because I am such a benevolent teacher J, I have extended the deadline of our genre tickets project! Prizes will still be given through this month for reading 5 and 9 books. This is, however, a graded project, so do check up on your child’s progress!

Art:

We have a special guest coming to share a fun art project just in time for Valentine’s day! In order to participate, your child will need:

·         A shoebox or similar sized box

·         A paper bag

·         Glue

Time to Restock!

As we begin 3^rd quarter, check with your child to see if he/she needs a replacement for any of the following. I have had a growing number of students needing to borrow my supplies because theirs have disappeared or are used up!

·         Spelling/writing notebooks (1 for each)

·         Pencils

·         Glue sticks

·         Scissors

Work Check

Just a reminder for our 3^rd quarter: spelling choices/reading log entries (4/wk) are due each Thursday. Late work will be accepted for one week then will remain an F. The biggest reason grades changed last quarter was due to whether or not students remembered their Thursday work. Don’t forget to check our class blog for links to spelling and reading homework in case it is forgotten!

Books to read in 2012

This week ALA (American Library Assosiation) announced all sorts of book award winners! All of the books look good to me because I love to read but it looks like not all of them would be appealing to most people. 2012 Newbery Award winner "Dead End in Norvelt" looks very good. It's about a boy who is grounded until he helps his elderly neighbor by doing a very odd chore. Then of course, my favorite book "Wonderstruck" won the Schneider Family Award. It is a story about two people, a boy and a girl. The boy's story takes place in the present day and is told in words but the girl's story takes place fifty years ago and is told in pictures. They are both deaf and they have a connection. The boy is on a bus going to a childrens hospital but something happens and he gets lost in New York and eventually meets the older version of the girl and thats when the connection comes in! You can see many more award winning books here!


Reported by Catherine

classroom involvement opportunities

I have had a few parents express interest in helping out in our classroom. I have a few needs to offer and if you are interested in taking up these projects, please give me a call:

1. classroom library-We have our books just on a shelf, however we are working on our genre project and I think it would help the class if we could organize the library into genres. I would give you a list of the genre's and the supplies to categorize the books.

2. spelling tests-I would like to try something different. We have 3 spelling groups and I would love to try to get 3 groups testing separately at one time. Normally I give all 3 tests at once but have to fly through and just say each word. I would like for the students to hear their words in context of a sentence and give the students who need it more time to finish. I would need 2 people from 1:00-1:30 on Fridays.

3. blog posting-each week, 2 students write posts for our classroom blog. It would be wonderful to have a parent with strengths in English to work one on one with them to edit their writing pieces while we do our guided reading groups Thursday afternoons.

The following times work best for room 206 for most situations:
10:30-11:00
12:30-1:00
1:00-1:30
possibly 2:30-3:00

My heart behind classroom help is to give you time to get involved with the students. I would rather increase their contact time with someone who can help them rather than have someone make photocopies or grade papers. If you have been wanting to get involved, let me know what you have in mind and we will work out a schedule.

Report Cards...!

Yes, report cards came out today! Agh! Some kids beamed with stories of how much money they'd get when they got home, others looked a little down with some lower grades. Here are a few things to remember:

1. All envelopes need to be signed and returned by Monday
2. Grade trends-I've noticed that the main source of grade changes from 1st to 2nd quarter was simply whether or not students turned in completed assignments. Here were some of the game changers:
1. turning in spelling choices
2. turning in completed spelling choices
3. turning in reading logs
4. turning in completed reading logs

what's the difference? Each week when I assign reading logs and spelling choices, I write how many entries they must complete in parentheses next to it. It looks like this on the board:

Spelling: choices (4)

Reading: log (4)

Each day, I emphasize that they must turn in 4 entries on THURSDAY. A lot of kids have been turning in only 2 or 3 entries for our reading logs, which only gives them 50% (F) or 75% (C) for the week. We talked through that again this week, so hopefully that helps them!

Thank you!

A huge thank you to Hunter and his family for donating a Minneapolis Star Tribune to our classroom! We have been using it to focus on previewing a text, finding the main idea, cause and effect, and sequencing. What a useful and real-life tool!

As your child's teacher, I hope you each know that I sincerely appreciate all that you as parents invest into your children. It carries over into our classroom and makes a difference. Thanks again to each who have volunteered in our class, donated materials, or given input and feedback. They have all been helpful tools in my first year here!

What We Did This Week

This week we learned about topic and main idea in Reading and World War II in Social Studies. A highlight of this week was that we got to make comic strips.  Also, just to let you know, we are going to stop going to Social Studies and start going to Science in Mrs. C's class.  On Thursday, we had a man from the southern part of the state come and show us exotic animals.  There was a lemur, an owl, a monkey, a California King snake, a skunk, and a kangaroo.  My favorite was the monkey.  Its name was Peanut.  I wish he would have brought an alligator.  Maybe he will bring one next year.

Posted by, Tristan

What's New in Room 206?

This week we are learning about converting fractions into decimals, decimals into percents, and fractions into percents. We also talked and did a little work on graphs in Math. In Social Studies we talked about World War 2 and watched some videos on it. I wish we could do a few more projects and fun stuff  on Friday. I interviewed one of my friends and I asked her, "What would you change if you were the teacher?" She said, "I would change a couple of things like, more fun stuff in daily 5 and more art projects." We also had a person come in and teach us about animals. I think alot of people enjoyed the animal presentation.

Report by, Kenzie

Genre Tickets Countdown!

There are only 12, count them TWELVE days left to earn either of our two prizes for our genre tickets! Parents, here is a refresher course:
1. Student read a good-fit book and finish it
2. Student take an Accelerated Reader quiz on the book and pass with an 80% or higher
3. Student turn in ticket
4. If students turn in 5 tickets they get a coupon for a free McDonald's meal deal and if they turn in all 8 of them, they get a Subway meal deal! Thanks to McDonald's and Subway for the coupons and grants!

Deadline for earning prizes: January 31st
*All students must complete the project this spring, but will not receive prizes past 1/31/12. Project began prior to Thanksgiving break.

Speller's Choice Links

"Josh, what do you have for homework today?" Mom asks
"Uhhhhh..." As Josh watches his friends trundle down the sidewalk with hockey sticks in hand, he does what many kids (shouldn't) do. "Nothing?" He finishes.
"Really?" Mom's eyebrows raise in surprise, "let me see your backpack. As she sorts through, she find the agenda log listing Josh's spelling and reading assignments for the night and asks where those are.
"Oh...I left it at school." Josh sheepishly admits. Mom tries to call Josh's teacher, but she is gone for the day. She's frustrated and wishes she had a master copy of the homework so she could be sure her preoccupied son got his work done!

I know some of you have been here before! Spelling seems to be the most frequently forgotten homework task in our classroom. They may remember the Spelling Choices sheet...but they forgot their words...and you can't write your words without a copy of them! I think I have solved this problem. Here are your child's unit lists on googledocs. Email me if you have any problems getting to these! I hope this makes life easier for you all!

Pink: here, here, and here
Green: here, here and here
Yellow: here, here, and here

An Exciting Week

This week in in Math we have been working on converting fractions to decimals, converting fractions to percents, and Bar and Circle Graphs. In Social Studies we learned about World War 1 and the 1920's and '30's. In Daily Five we wrote a sensory paragraph, comprehension cards, and journal entries.
 On Tuesday we went down to the computer lab and took a Star Reading Test, we took Accelerated Reader Tests, and we did Storybird. Story bird is an online site where you make up your own stories with pictures and words!
In Science-content Reading we finished our Solar Energy unit. We are doing "Genre Tickets", and if we read five differnt genre of books we get a free Mcdonald's meal, if we get all of our genre tickets done we get a free Subway meal!
The best part of this week is when a local professional artist named Mrs. S came in and we did an art project. She taught us how to paint an outdoor scene.
reported by: Joe

Reading Log and Speller's Choice Links!

we began our new reading logs in room 206 and I borrowed them from a new friend and fellow fifth grade teacher. If there are questions or confusion at all, please call or email me and we'll talk through it! Just so you are aware, I selected sheets and photocopied them back to back in a 4 week rotation. If your child forgot his/her log, ask them which week they were assigned then use this key to know which pages in the pdf file to use/print:
Week 1: pages 1 and 9
Week 2: pages 7 and 8
Week 3: pages 4 and 6
Week 4: pages 2 and 3

And here is the speller's choice sheet that the kiddos should keep and reuse each week! This is also borrowed from a wonderful colleague and our whole fifth grade team uses this. Here are the guidelines:
your child needs to choose four different choices and complete 1-2 of them each night. Check our homework policy to find out when your child needs to turn in both reading logs and spelling choices.

Currently January

Currently Miss Davis is:

• Listening to: music that references sunshine, beaches, palm trees, sunblock...did I mention sunshine? Fifth graders, what would you infer that I am wishing for right now? 
• Loving: The Book Drive! Oh my Stars! I am so thrilled to have received 25 donated books and the chance to submit a wishlist of classroom books! What books would you like to see in our classroom?
• Reading: for my "grown up" side, I am reading My Antonia by Willa Cather. It is an absolutely beautifully written book! For my "kid" side, I am reading the ever popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. I've got to find out what all the hype is about!
• Thinking: I'm really excited for our guest artist coming in on Friday!
• Wanting: sleep. and dark chocolate.
• Needing: sleep!
• OLW (one little word to sum up the "main idea" of my life right now): Amazed. 

Back to School!

We are back to school in room 206 and excited for a fresh start to the year! One of those changes is starting our classroom blog! We will use this as a sort of "Classroom History," where the room 206 kiddos get to work on their writing skills as well as make history! I also will use the class blog to send updates and upload documents for parents to use! Thanks for dropping by!

here is a model of a classroom reporter post:

After a terrific holiday break, room 206 is back in action! We began the year by introducing our language arts theme of the month-Main Idea. In order to learn how to best find the main idea, we're using non-fiction text features to "steal" the main idea! We're sneaking in (previewing the book) and stealing as much information as possible using the acrostic T.H.I.E.V.E.S.

T-Title

H-Heading

I-Introduction

E-Every first sentence of a paragraph

V-Visuals and Vocabulary

E-End of chapter questions

S-Summary

We have added some work to our Daily 5 routine and next week we will try out a new reading log. With only a few short months until MCA testing, we really want to buckle down and practice our comprehension and vocabulary skills.

We also painted Winter Birch Trees to display down in the main entry bulletin boards. It was lots of fun to play with the painter's tape, watercolors, and "snow!"

Though we don't get to sleep in and wear PJ's until lunch, coming back to some fun things was a great welcome!