It is a short week…..so it will be short on work and announcements too!
No Spelling and No Wordly WIse this week. The math will be a small in class packet. The initial lesson will be in class and time will be given to begin working on the “Algebra and Coordinate Graphing” Packet. What is not finished in class, will go home as homework.
I would like students to really concentrate on the State Board this week. I would like to see 2 more journals completed before break. My goal is that they really have a break and family time and do not have the stress of overdue homework catch up time on their 5 day break. Please help them keep the mini goals we set by checking that they are completing Journal #3 for Monday/Tuesday and Journal #4 due this Wednesday. I am currently reading Journal #1 and #2 and will return these to them by Tuesday.
Valentine’s Day Party- yes, we have voted and we will give out valentines….but you must bring one for each student. Since it is a minimum day, our party will be small. We have planned to decorate cookies and cupcakes. I also have s small activity planned, if there is time.
Here are the decorating needs: (1 cupcake and 1 cookie is enough for each student)
2 dozen plain (no frosting) cupcakes
2 dozen plain cookies
various frostings- chocolate, vanilla, etc.. only 1 of each is needed
sprinkles- colors, shapes, candied hearts, small toppings
napkins
Please email me if you can provide 1 or more of these items. Please send it back on my update email.
Have a wonderful holiday Break!! Rest and relax….
Nikole
Welcome back to the weblog. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the sun. I know that I saw many of you at the Nixon Garage Sale. What an experience! Thank you Michael and Suzie for planning this and making it happen. It was such a rush to see many of the parents from the school helping out on that day- Thank you! Thank you! I cannot wait to hear about the successes of the day.
Now back to work…..I have decided to stop Wordly WIse for the next 2 weeks while we concentrate on the state board. I have attached the calendar to the previous email about the weblog update. I am trying to figure out how to attach it to the weblog….I will keep you updated.
As for the state board, there is much to be done on this project, but it is manageable. The journals have a writing limit- only 2 paragraphs for each journal are required, but 3 will be accepted- no more than that. It is a lot for me to get through if all 23 students write 4 to 5 paragraphs for each of the 5 journals- exciting but very exhausting…….so no more than 2 paragraphs are required.
Most students are already ahead of schedule and seem very enthusiastic about the project. It is a lot of fun and quite an accomplishment when they have finished. I will keep you updated if any changes to the calendar occur.
Math- this week in Everyday Math, students will be completing Unit 6- fractions and data anaylsis. The test will be on Tuesday. Then on Thursday, they will also be given the Mid-Year Assessment as an evaluation of skills already learned during the first part of the program. I will explain both assessments to them on Monday to give them time to review.
Upcoming Dates:
February 10th- small Valentine’s Day Party- Students can bring valentines if they bring 1 for everyone in the class. I will send home a class list on Friday. I am planning on decorating cupcakes with the class in the afternoon. I will be sending home a list of donations by the end of the week. Since it is a short day before a 5 day weekend, our “party time” will be short.:)
February 11th-15th- no school- President’s weekend
Cheers and enjoy the weather.
HI B2 Families,
It is a very short week and so is my update. There will be no spelling and wordly wise this week; only a small math packet.
The Nixon Spelling Bee will be held on Wednesday from 12:30-1:15 in the theater. It should be a lot of fun to watch the students try to spell words that I can barely pronounce! Good luck to all of the participants.
We will also begin the novel Morning Girl on Tuesday. The chapters are short and very poetic. During the unit, the class will have mini lessons on summarizing text. For the final activity, students will need to summarize and illustrate each chapter creating a beautiful book they can take home.
Have another great 3 day weekend! (no school Friday)
Here is the update:
Math Olympiad Test #3 on Tuesday.
Martin Luther King Assembly on Friday starting at 8:30. It is an amazing assembly that will leave your heart full. The 5th graders will be towards the end of the morning, so it is safe to come around 9:30 if you cannot attend the entire time.
Dr. Roy’s session #3 will be on Wednesday. Students will continue to work on the Periodic table and investigate the properties of atoms and molecules by studying the HONC rule (Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon bonding). He will be taking a short break until the end of January while he travels to see the Penguins in the South…..
Students are in Phase II of Galleons. The ships are now loaded with gold and racing home to Spain, but they must try to stay away from the English pirates who chase them to try to steal the treasure! The students take mini quizzes for points, draw lucky and unlucky fate cards and must guide their journey by navigating the waters using only longitude and latitude directions. It is a crazy and fun two weeks. Wish us luck! By the way, the journals that the class completed are amazing and I look forward to sharing the stories with you during Spring conferences.
Morning Girl is the next book of focus for the class. The delightful and poetic short novel culminates into a beautiful hand illustrated piece of artwork. We will begin this book towards the end of the week. The chapters are about 2-3 pages each, but at the end, we focus on writing summaries, highlighting vocabulary and illustrating the covers.
Check out the L.M Nixon Webpage. Sarah P., the computer lab teacher, worked on the web page over the long break and she did an amazing job. I especially like the art pages. Check out B2’s page- we are the Pink Panther Big Cats-Perfect!
Don’t forget it is a three day weekend and there will be no school on January 18th-enjoy!
Happy 2010 and welcome back. We are going to try to ease back into school with very little homework.
Chemistry with Dr. Roy begins on Wednesday. We will be covering topics including Acid/Base, Atoms and Molecules, Periodic Table, and Polymers. We will be following Dr. Roy’s visits with Mixtures and Solutions lessons designed by FOSS. This is a very exciting unit that fascinates the students.
Students will be Independent Reading throughout the month. They will begin letter writing and buzzing in small groups to discuss their current books of choice.
Happy Winter and Happy Holidays.
This week will be a relaxing time to wrap up more units as well as spend fun days together before we close 2009. No spelling, wordly wise or homework packets this week! We might find some closure work trinkling in, but it should be very small.
Highlights for the week:
Lifeksills award assembly on Monday
Happy Birds assembly on Thursday
Multi-cultural festival on Friday from 8:30-10:00 Featured booths will include St. Patrick’s Day, St. Valentines Day, Oktoberfest, St. Lucia Day, Star Festival (Japan), Diwali, and Christmas. The groups will be working together each day in preparation for our event. Please come if you can!
Friday is a minimum day so we will close doors at 1:20.
I want to extend a special thanks to out parent drivers/chaperones for helping us at our last field trip- Black Holes at DeAnza. I must say this field trip was amazing. I know I learned a lot and the students really loved the presentation. I would highly recommend you take your family to the Planetarium.
So the count down begins- 2 weeks or 10 days- which ever sounds better to you! We are winding down this week. Most of the homework is very manageable. I have eliminated Wordly Wise these last 2 weeks because we are already half way finished with the book. A rest is in order, especially after seeing the beautiful book reports. I am in awe of the dedication and quality of work these students have presented me last Thursday. Please take the time to come in and see them for yourselves. The projects are really quite entertaining- like a mini museum.
For the next two weeks, we will be working on small projects in the class. The first project is a small research report on the Age of Exploration. The focus of the lesson is to teach the students how to approach research with very specific purpose or “focus questions”. I think many times students feel very overwhelmed with a topic and have no starting point. So we are working on establishing focus questions that are designed to help them look for specifics in their research. The final write up should only be one to two paragraphs and include a cover page. They can also draw a picture for extra credit.
The second project is one of my favorites of the year, the Mulit-Cultural Project. When I intentionally put this together at my last school district, the goal was two fold. 1) to celebrate the diversity of our classroom- at the time I had a room full of 33 Fifth graders (no class size reduction) and 2) to have an activity to get us through that last day before a break! But now the Festival is really a “celebration of learning”. We really have so much fun learning about other cultures and traditions. Student form new groups based on interest and learn about the history, the customs, costumes as well as specialty foods. Then the groups decorate a booth and present to the class, parents and visitors. In the past, student have danced, sang and played songs on their instruments to special music. They have recited poetry and performed a tea ritual. Other students simply share what they have learned. Then we all “party” by sharing some of the specialty food they researched and brought as a booth item. (NO Feast- just a simple desert).
For the next two weeks, we will be dedicating class time to research and plan the event. The Multi- Cultural Festival is for everyone, so please mark it down on your calendar. The presentations will begin at 8:30 on Friday, December 18th. It should be finished by 9:30-10:00.
Students should be wrapping up the Science Unit, The Water Planet, this week. Currently, we are studying the weather and how to read a weather map. We have been looking at the National Weather Map online and predicting where there will be areas on rain, wind and calm. Together we have been making sense of High and Low Pressure Areas as well and wind patterns that develop from Cold Fronts and Warm Fronts. This is the last lesson of study in this Science Unit. This week, we will be reviewing and then the students will have an open science note test next week.
Our second Math Olympiads test will be given on Tuesday, December 8th.
December 10th is the De Anza Field Trip to the Planetarium. We are going to be watching a presentation on Black Holes- a topic of great interest to all ages, especially 5th graders.
Thank you to all of the drivers who volunteered to take us to De ANza.
I have down to drive and the number you can take:
Suzie- 5
Nitay- 5
John R.- 5
Jenny M- 5
Anya T- 3 (is that correct?)
That is exactly enough for all the students, meaning Aneta and I need a ride. Can you let me know if any of those numbers are not counting the front seat for adults?
I will email the parents on Tuesday to give them information regarding the trip. Thank you again and please let me know if I missed anyone.
Have a great week and stay dry—-the class looked and the weather maps and predicted rain!
Hope you all had a restful and wonderful Thanksgiving. I can hardly believe that we have only 3 weeks left to this school year- and of course, a very busy 3 weeks.
Upcoming field trip: De Anza Planetarium “Black Holes” – December 10th- from 8:30-noon. We need drivers and chaperones. The permission slip will go home this Monday.
Book Report Due: Thursday, December 3rd. We worked hard in giving a manageable time frame for the students. Hopefully, they are not feeling stressed by the upcoming due date.
Stanford Research Project notes will go home. The Stanford psychology department working with Professor Carol Dweck has requested that the 5th grade students help them with their research on different patterns of praise and how it affects students’ motivation. More information will go home once I meet with the department coordinator tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope during this busy time, you are able to find rest and enjoy the time with family. At my house, we will enjoy our first Thanksgiving together as a small family before we head to my sister’s house- (the real cook in the family). So, wish me luck- this is my first Turkey!!
***No homework this week. ** Enjoy family time and getting ahead on the upcoming book report- Due Thursday, December 3rd. I gave choice for the book report this time. Students can either choose to complete a diorama or trading cards. The diorama is very artistic, but can be very time consuming, so I allowed for an alternate project, the Trading Cards. It is not as time intensive for some students. Please speak with your child. I mentioned this to the class 2 weeks ago and have had the supplies ready for both since last Monday.
The class voted and unanimously agreed to have a small feast on Tuesday, November 24th. This culminates our two week focus centered around Thankfulness. The students wrote a paper on being Thankful and then were encouraged to think about a favorite dish they love during this time of year. Then, if they wanted, they could write out the recipe of the favored dish and bring it in on Tuesday to share. I made this part extra credit to take pressure off of some families during this busy time. The recipes will be copied and bound into a” 2009-2010 Class Recipe” book. I invite you to join us in the feast on Tuesday from 11:00ish until recess.
UPCOMING DATES TO PUT ON CALENDAR—-DeAnza Planetarium Field Trip, Cupertino, on December 10th. We will watch a presentation on Black Holes. We do need drivers and chaperones! The permission slip will be sent home this week.
Enjoy and rest!!!
P.S- bring back the signed Report card Envelope this week!!!
I am finding it very difficult to believe that we are already approaching Thanksgiving. I know that my family and I have so much to be thankful for this year. That will also be the theme of this weeks homework packet. We are going away from math in the packet and concentrating on thankfulness. The students will be given directions and an outline on writing a Thankful paper. I would hope that students will discuss this topic with you and give you opportunities to share all the reasons your family can be thankful for in your home.
In addition, we have discussed and voted overwhelmingly to have a “small” thanksgiving luncheon on Tuesday, November 24th. This will be considered “EXTRA CREDIT” and not mandatory in order to release the pressure of some families who feel very busy this time of year. Students, who wish to participate, are encouraged to bring their favorite holiday dish- from any holiday. I would like the student to cook it themselves……with supervision. Then on Tuesday, Nov. 24th, the students will share the story behind the dish, how they made and why it is special. At the end of the presentations, we will EAT! Parents are very much invited. Please email me if you have questions.
Math- we are concentrating on division and new strategies to solve long division problems. We should wrap up this week. In addition, we will take our first Math Olympiad test on Tuesday from 10:30-11:00.
Literature- students are still working on reading and responding to questions and dialogue in “Sign of the Beaver” and “The Ransom of Mercy Carter”. I love the discussions that result in the Tuesday book groups. These books will be finished by the end of November and then all students will complete a culmination unit.
Have a great week! Report cards will go home this Friday in a special envelope included in the Friday Folder. Please sign the envelope and return it to school the following Monday. You may keep the report card inside.
PS- PiE donations are being matched 100%. If you have not had a chance to donate- now is the time. This PiE pays for art, aides, computer lab instructor and all specialists. Thank you for supporting our schools!!!
