Mayberry/McFarland/Begley Newsletter January 30, 2015

Reading Workshop

This week, we did a great lesson about what to do when two sources of information give you different information about the same topic.  Our discussion included tips for close reading, trying to figure out how both pieces of info could be accurate, questions to ask yourself about the sources, and internet reliability.  Several students are already employing the strategies in their research work in class.  It’s been so interesting to see them having a conversation with a partner when they come across this issue, using the strategies we talked about.  Next week, kids will be taking their research and developing their own main ideas about the animals they’re studying.  From there, we’ll make Keynote presentations on the iPads — we’re just waiting for a 5th grade class to finish up with the iPads.  Each child will be doing a live presentation using self-created Keynote slides to guide the teaching.

    Please note that your child has brought home a fat packet of past reading logs attached to a grade sheet.  We were awed by the amount of reading kids have logged in all that time!  And, especially taking into consideration that many kids read more than they log, that’s a lot to celebrate!  It’s fun to see it all in one spot.  The grade your child’s logging earned reflects logs handed it from mid-October through last week.  Be on the lookout for some changes to the back of the reading log in the next few weeks…

Writing Workshop

You saw photos from the work kids are doing today — lots of activity!  The kids are really into this one, and it’s satisfying to see where we started with this unit and how far we’ve come.  We’re past the deadline for this unit, but the extra time has been worth it.  I’ll be meeting with your child over the next two weeks to grade the project using the rubric we created earlier in the unit.  Lots of growth, good learning, and memories attached to this unit!  We’ll display the posters after vacation, and hopefully you can stop in sometime and see the work before writers bring them home.  I’ll let you know when they’re up!

Math

Students continued to hone their skills with partial products this week. We also worked on accurately measuring to the nearest 0.5 centimeter and the nearest ¼ inch. One of the reflections they needed to make was to explain what the expression - “measure twice cut once” means and why is it good advice.

    I have posted a partial products tutorial on my web page for students to access (and parents) when doing homework. While this is still a new mathematical process it may be helpful when your child stalls out doing math homework.

Spelling

This week we spent some time reviewing the homophones of you’re/your and it’s/its.  Students practiced using the appropriate homophone in sentences.  Due to the snow, we will continue Unit 17 next week.  Homework will come home, as usual next Tuesday, and the test for this unit will be next Friday.

Theme

This week we created circuits that included a motor and learned the purpose of a switch in a circuit.  Students also made predictions about what items might be conductors or insulators and then tested the objects and recorded the results.  They used the results to make generalizations about what types of materials are good conductors.  Next week we will construct parallel and series circuits, before moving on to static electricity.

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, February 2nd - Read logs due  / Sneakers for P.E.

Tuesday, February 3rd - Study link due / Bring recorders for music

Wednesday, February 4th - Early Release

Thursday, February 5th - Spelling due / ABL

Friday, February 6th - Study link due

Report cards will be arriving home today with your child.  Please keep the enclosed reports (math fact progress, report card, and reading log assessment), sign the envelope, and return it to school next week.  Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Dena

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of January 19th

Reading

Students have begun researching an animal to culminate and synthesize the nonfiction reading strategies we've been working on.  They started creating research maps, a special way to take notes by categorizing information they read from multiple texts.  The brain better remembers information when the information is categorized.  This can be done in more than one way.  Sometimes, we read a section or two of text and reflect, thinking, "What is this section mostly about?"  Maybe it's about the special body parts an animal has.  So we would then create a category on the research map with a heading, "physical adaptations."  And then we'd use bullets to list the ways in which that animal's body helps it to survive.  When we read another book, we might come across different adaptations, and we would add those to this category.  Another way to take notes using the research map is to start by anticipating the categories we might encounter before we start reading.  For example, we might predict that we will learn about an animal's habitat and what it eats.  So, we can list those two categories and then begin reading.  We would add details about those categories as we come across them in our research.

Using categories and bullets helps a child with note-taking while researching in many ways.  One way is that it helps to avoid copying sentences and paragraphs from books, which can be a waste of time and may not have much meaning for the reader.  Categorizing also demands that the child thinks about and makes connections between details and between sources.  Plus, we use colorful markers to write the category titles and big construction paper -- and that's fun!

Writing Workshop

The kids worked all week on the final drafts of their informational writing.  I was impressed by the focus and care the children displayed while doing this sometimes tedious work.  Perhaps equally as exciting (to me) is how well kids are using and applying the concepts of "pros & cons" and "compare & contrast;" connecting independent clauses with commas and conjunctions; and how they roll their eyes playfully when they come to me and say, "I need some advice on this part of my story," and I say very seriously, "Oh, I hope you're not writing a story, because the project we're working on is informational writing."  It may not seem like a big deal to the average bear, but it's important that we know what kind of writing we're working on.  

     They are excited to display this work on their posters, which we should be able to begin on Monday or Tuesday!  I worked on mine Saturday afternoon (trying to stay at least a few steps ahead of those 9 and 10 year-olds!), and I'll be demonstrating tips on organizing space, lettering, and the all-important tape vs. glue debate.

Math

Students learned to multiply large numbers this week using the partial products algorithm. They also did a lot of estimating their answers as a way to anticipate where their final answers should be, we refer to this as a ‘ballpark’ estimate.

Please continue to encourage your child to use their IXL account at home. I check the IXL usage report each week and award a homework pass for every five hours spent working on strengthening their math skills.

Spelling

This week we spent some more time working with tricky endings - or/er/ar and al/le/el.  Students participated in an activity in class that required them to use their visual skills to discern which word was spelled correctly.  Many students have reported using this strategy with success on their spelling tests.

Theme

This week students started learning about electricity.  Students first started by sharing prior knowledge and noting questions they had about electricity.  I have made a matrix of the questions so that as we start to discover the answers, we can record them.

Students also participated in a talk science activity that lead them to discover that in order for electricity to flow, you need a complete pathway or circuit.  We spent two days reading nonfiction books related to electricity to build a rich knowledge base, so students would truly understand the science behind the experiments we will perform next week.  They also watched a Bill Nye video on current electricity.
Finally, I have exciting news to share!  I was awarded a Foundation 51 grant for 24 Snap Circuit kits.  I am hoping that I will be able to order them quickly so that we are still able to utilize them in this unit.

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, January 26th - Read logs due / Sneakers for P.E.

Tuesday, January 27th - Study link due / Bring recorders for music if you have your own (new ones will hopefully be in!)

Wednesday, January 28th - Early Release

Thursday, January 29th - Spelling due / ABL

Friday, January 30th - Study link due / Report cards go home

Hope you had a great weekend!

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of January 12, 2015

If you would like to be notified whenever I post to our class blog, please click on the space to the right, “Follow by Email.”

Reading Workshop

Don’t tell Mrs. Begley, but I’ve been sneaking a little science into reading workshop this week!  I have an enormous collection of nonfiction books about animals, and the kids have been setting themselves up for what categories of information they can expect to encounter when reading a factual book about animals.  We’ve talked about adaptations, life cycle, food webs, etc.  Soon, we’ll be diving into a research project where they’ll research an animal from a number of sources, and they’ll need to synthesize and categorize what they read.

Writing Workshop

This week, students asked for mini-lessons about how to write introductions and conclusions for their informational projects.  I also offered an optional mini-lesson about how to use quotes in their projects.  Many students opted in for a chance to exceed the expectations for this part of the project; you may have seen the summary sheet titled, “How to Use a Quote,” in your child’s homework folder if s/he wanted to pursued that at home.  I think the highlight of the week, though, was having editing help from middle school students on Thursday (for the Mayberrys) and Friday (for the McFarlands).  We are lucky to have willing and able (and cool) writers right down the hall to partner up with us and nail some spelling errors!

     Next week, we will begin final drafts of our writing.  Each child will create a poster to display the writing.  By next Friday, January 23rd, please have your child bring to school a regular piece of poster board: http://www.staples.com/Staples-White-Poster-Boards-10-Pack-22-x-28-/product_247403.  The typical size is about 22”x28.”  The color does not matter to me.  Have your child keep both sides clean, just in case we need to use the back!  The one I brought in to use for demos is probably considered foam core, because I will be standing it up to show them how to do some lettering, etc., but they don’t need foam core.  Have your child write her/his name neatly in small letters in the bottom corner before bringing it to school.

Math:

This week we kicked off unit 5 in math. This unit has a heavy emphasis on learning to multiply larger numbers. The goal is for students to become proficient with solving problems such as; 76 x 59  and 873 x 8. As you can well imagine, being fluent with basic multiplication facts will play an important role in this unit. 

     Our first step this week was to work on extended multiplication facts (like 30 x 80, 

700 x 600, etc…). On Thursday and Friday students learned to play Multiplication Wrestling which is a pivotal step in learning to do partial products. I will post a video tutorial for partial products on my web page so students and parents can access the steps to support homework in the coming weeks. 

Spelling:

This week we learned patterns for the /oo/ sound - oo, u-consonant-e, ue, and ew.  We also reviewed some common homophone pairs, which are starting to show up more regularly on tests.

Theme:

This was a fun-filled week in science!  We used pan balances to determine how the force needed to separate two magnets changes as the distance between the magnets increases.  We graphed our results and practiced writing conclusions about our findings.  We also built electromagnets and searched for hidden magnets inside of sealed boxes.  And of course, we learned about temporary magnets and how to create one by induction.  The one I sent you a photo of held on for 24 hours!  Next week we will start learning about electricity!

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, January 19th - No School 

Tuesday, January 20th - Read logs due

Wednesday, January 21st - Full day  / Sneakers for P.E.

Thursday, January 22nd - Spelling due 

Friday, January 23rd - Study link due / Poster board due for writing workshop

**Report cards will be sent home Friday, January 30th**

Hope you had a great long weekend!

Dena

McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of January 5, 2015

If you would like to be notified whenever I post to our class blog, please click on the space to the right, “Follow by Email.”

Reading Workshop

This week, our focus has been to build experience with nonfiction by reading only nonfiction texts in reading workshop class.  We’ll continue this for the next few weeks.  Students are welcome to continue this nonfiction immersion at home, but they may also read fiction at home.  We’ve expanded our classroom NF library collection, and students got excited to see a wide variety of titles while they sorted the new texts by type: narrative NF, expository, and biographies.  We talked about the fact that not every book is “just one kind.”  Your child should be able to identify what type of NF a book is.  See what’s in the book baggie over the weekend and ask!

Writing Workshop

If you’ve asked your child what s/he is working on in writing workshop this week, you may have heard some sophisticated words: independent clauses and conjunctions.  We are working very hard to identify and fix run-on sentences by using a conjunction and a comma to separate two independent clauses.  We are also trying to limit our sentences to no more than two independent clauses.  This is pretty technical work.  We started with direct instruction, focusing on only one sentence at a time.  Your child should have brought home a MUG Shot Sentence Organizer this week (MUG = Mechanics, Usage, Grammar) that shows some of this practice.  Then, I had students read some fourth-grade-like writing that needed this kind of help.  They talked with partners about some ways to revise the work, using their new knowledge of independent clause, conjunctions, and commas.  Today, kids revised their own writing.  Lots of run-on sentences were saved with the use of the comma-conjunction duo!  And there’s a new rule around here: You can’t use a comma unless you know the reason it belongs in the sentence.  This is to avoid a serious condition many young writers suffer from: Comma Crazy.  It is treatable with extra doses of grammar instruction and lots of old-fashioned practice.  Its symptoms are similar to Apostrophe Fever.  Don’t get me started on that…

Math

This week students jumped back into our decimal unit with review of skills covered prior to the break. On Friday they took the end of unit assessment. Progress profiles will be sent home by the end of next week. Our next unit in math involves multiplication of larger numbers. Being fluent with multiplication facts will play a major role in being able to successfully navigate this unit. Please continue to check in on your child’s multiplication fluency as we move forward. 

Spelling

This week we reviewed the patterns for the /ow/ sound - ou and ow.  We also looked at “roughie toughies,” the exceptions to the rule where the ou pattern doesn’t say /ow/.

Theme

In science we jumped right into our Magnets and Electricity unit.  I am using a combination of Talk Science probes and the Foss kits to engage the kids in activities to build knowledge about magnets and magnetism.  We’ve learned that magnets can attract or repel one another without touching.  We tested objects around the room and discovered that only items with iron, steel, cobalt, and nickel are attracted to magnets.  We crushed up Total cereal and used a magnet to extract some of the iron found in our food.  Finally, we hypothesized whether or not magnetic force could pass through objects that are not magnetic.

     With a lot of the Talk Science probes it gives the kids an investigation or question to answer, but leaves the experiment design up to them.  It’s been fun to watch them tackle the problem in different ways and think of more “what if” questions.  We are, however, working on how to use scientific evidence to support our hypotheses.  I’m trying to help them move from, “I just think that’s why it’ll happen,” to “I know from experiments earlier this week that two magnets can stick when something nonmagnetic, like paper, is in the middle.”

     Here is a Youtube link to one experiment we did this week:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRK15XSqtAw&index=9&list=PLayKagtOn2GJqjidYMQJBN-6rearQ0G_v

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, January 12th - Reading logs due / Sneakers for P.E.

Tuesday, January 13th - Study link due

Wednesday, January 14th - Early Release

Thursday, January 15th - Spelling due / ABL

Friday, January 16th - Recorder notices due

**Report cards will be sent home Friday, January 30th** 

Earlier this week your child brought him a notice about recorders from Mr. Saunders, the music teacher.  Every child must have a recorder for music class, and every child must return the form to show what her/his recorder plan is.  On the form there is a spot to mark whether need to buy one or if you already own one.  If you are purchasing a recorder, please send a check payable to GMS for $5.  You can send cash, but please be aware that we cannot make change.  Money is due next Friday.

Have a great weekend!

Dena