Thank you!

Today, Room 209 received a wonderful surprise... new books!  Thanks to the generosity of Burlington families and friends who purchased books at the Barnes and Noble fundraiser earlier this year, 10 books from the Massachusetts Children's Book Award (MCBA) list were delivered to our room today.

It was wonderful to see the students crowding around the table, vying to be the first to read the new books.  Many of our students have already read the five books required in order to vote in the spring for the MCBA winner and now continue to find the list a rich source of captivating books.

Thank you to Steve Levin, librarian at the Francis Wyman School, for organizing the Barnes and Noble fundraiser and fulfilling our "wish list!"

Let's Go Learn!

Learning doesn't need to stop when students get on the bus!  And the technology at Pine Glen doesn't stay at Pine Glen.  

One way we use our new "Bob-carts" in the classroom is by practicing and extending our math and reading learning.  Students use a website, www.letsgolearn.com, in order to engage in lessons specifically selected based on their performance on the Diagnostic Online Reading Assessment (DORA) and the Diagnostic Online Math Assessment (DOMA).

Students use the "Bob-cart" to extend their math skills.

Unique Reader and Unique Math are accessible to our students through any internet-connected computer.  Computer time and stations are limited in school and students are encouraged to log on from home and use some of their homework time to reinforce their math and reading skills.  Each student has his/her own individual user name.  Online time and lesson progress will show up on teacher accounts so we know how your student progresses through the program. 

Weird and Wonderful

The title of this post, "Weird and Wonderful," does not refer to the students of Room 209, but to the article they read earlier this week.  The most recent National Geographic Explorer featured an article on animal adaptations that meshed beautifully with both our Life Science review and Classification of Organisms unit.

In addition to reading the article and visualizing the extraordinary animals highlighted, we watched two short videos provided by National Geographic.   The first is all about underwater survival techniques with an emphasis on mimicry.


The second shows a number of different ways that the Thorny Devil has adapted for success in its habitat.



I apologize for the advertisements at the start of each video clip.  (In the classroom, I cue the videos up to begin after the ads. )

Math Decision Making

Today's math lesson was all about making choices.  Should we use mental math, paper and pencil, or a calculator to find the answer to an equation or problem?  

At first, students leaned heavily toward the far more "cool" method of using a calculator.  But then we counted off by threes and the race was on!  You can imagine the surprise when students were solving some equations more quickly using just their minds than their classmates aided by calculators!  That wasn't always the case, however, with some equations answered more quickly by those with paper and pencil or calculators.  

What we discovered:

• When numbers are easy to multiply, such as compatible numbers or multiples of 10, use mental math.
• When numbers are fairly small (1-digit by 2- or 3-digits), use paper and pencil.
• When numbers are large and you want an exact answer quickly, use a calculator.

We then practiced deciding which method would be best for a variety of problem-solving situations, with students holding up cards to indicate their choice.  We also learned that not everyone would make the same choices and discussed how we each approach problem solving in our own unique way.

Social Studies Alive! America's Past

Over the summer, Mr. Lyons and I wrote a proposal to bring our new Social Studies program, Social Studies Alive! America's Past, to Pine Glen.  This is the 5th grade continuation of the Social Studies program students used in 4th grade.  There were many reasons the Grade 5 team advocated for and eventually were granted permission to conduct a pilot at Pine Glen, including a more accessible text, more interactive materials and kinesthetic activities.

There is an incredible amount of work that goes on "behind the scenes" to bring this curriculum to life.  Many hours were put in over the past few weeks to prepare for lessons, create materials, and set up the scenarios in which the students participate.

Hands fly up to answer questions during a game.

If I ever wonder if it is worth the long nights of copying, cutting, creating visuals and other prep work, I simply have to recall our experience in class this past Wednesday.  Students had scoured maps and texts to come up with questions to stump each other the previous week.  On Wednesday, they played a game to test their geography knowledge and skills.  It was amazing to watch as they adapted the game to overcome obstacles (they instituted a time limit for answering to prevent hands from going up prematurely), supported each other in finding answers, and poured over maps to find answers.

In the end, I realized that they had taken control of their own learning and the best thing I could do was to step back and let them go!  The prep work to set the stage paid off immensely and our students were on their way to becoming life-long learners.

Being a Writer

We are now deep into our first unit of the program, Being a Writer.  During this unit we will work on the following four goals:

Building a caring community and getting to know each other as writers and readers:

As we share our writing ideas, we are learning to listen carefully to one another and to support each other in our writing.  As we move forward, we will be editing each other's work and giving constructive feedback.  Learning to be caring and compassionate in our interactions throughout the writing process is critical to helping our class grow as a writing community.

Getting ideas for writing from read-alouds:
Reading books by and about authors Jon Scieszka and Patricia Polacco has helped us generate ideas for writing.  Mr. Scieszka's works had us brainstorming how we could retell fairy tales from another perspective and Ms. Polacco's stories of her childhood helped us think about how ordinary (and not so ordinary) events in our own lives could result in stories.  Reading about Ms. Polacco and her family also reinforced the text-to-self comprehension lessons we are learning in Making Meaning.

Establishing procedures for silent writing time:
Professional authors know that writing takes time and dedication.  Many have a quiet place where they go to work uninterrupted on their writing.  We are building our writing "muscles" by extending the time we spend focused on our writing.  In this way, we can get our thoughts down on paper without disruption.  This can be a challenge for naturally chatty fifth-graders!

Writing freely:
During the first unit of Being a Writer, the focus is on building up a collection of rough drafts.  Many of these are incomplete pieces spurred by one of our brainstormed ideas.  We will return to these and our brainstormed lists of writing ideas over the course of the year, selecting those we want to expand and turn into published works.  We are also trying out new prewriting techniques such as starting with a given sentence, writing from a favorite quote/sentence, or making lists.

I am very excited about this year in writing.  We are already writing more often than in the past and drawing our inspiration from the work done by professional authors.  Being a Writer is a great addition to our writing program in Room 209!

Geography of the United States

Our first Social Studies topic explores what geography can teach us about the United States.  As part of the unit, students identify elements of maps and globes.  The picture below shows students experiencing the difference between relative and absolute locations as an introduction to latitude and longitude.

Can we figure out where we are on the map?

We have moved on to labeling features on maps and diagrams, defining geographic terms, and applying them to the geography of the US.  

Our learning has allowed us to use many skills.  The text focuses us on reading comprehension and attending to text points (bold, italic, and underlined text indicates something to take note of), games motivate us to use what we know, and role playing and kinesthetic activities get us up and learning with our bodies.

Social Studies vocabulary for this chapter: geography, climate, globe, latitude, longitude, geographic term, physical feature, compass, landform, isthmus.

While I Was Out

I was out of school on Thursday and Friday to celebrate the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, with my extended family.  The start of the new year is a time of quiet reflection on the year just completed and the possibilities for the year ahead.  It is difficult each year to take time away from my class just as we are getting "into the swing" of things, but also allows me some time to reflect on how we can make the year the best it can be.  I heard wonderful reports from the other Grade 5 teachers about my classes and how they worked in my absence.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I am so very proud.

One Pine Glen tradition that occurred during my time away was the Heroes' Assembly.  Thanks to Mr. Callahan, I was able to watch video of the ceremony and see our Grade 5 students standing proudly and singing out.  Bravo!

Place Value, Adding, and Subtracting

Dear 5th Grade Families,

We are beginning the year in math with the study of place value. Your child will be learning about very large numbers up to the trillions and for decimals with digits to the thousandths place. Together, we will read, compare, order and round numbers.

Place value is a vital concept when adding or subtracting mentally and when determining if an answer is reasonable.

You can help your child with place value; encourage him/her to read decimal numbers on labels or to identify the value of digits in larger numbers.

This week, your child will bring home number cards and directions for the "Place the Digit" activity. Please set time aside to do this activity together.

Thank you,
Ms. Marcus

Camp Bournedale

The 5th grade trip to Bournedale is approaching quickly!  For information on what to pack and other details, click on the Bournedale tab at the top of the page.  You can find the same information and more on the 5th grade wiki. 

For students who are not attending Bournedale, classes will be held as usual.

Dear Fifth Graders,

I hope you are enjoying the summer, I can't believe we start school in just two weeks. I am looking forward to meeting you and hearing all about the interesting and fun things you were able to do over vacation. I have had a great summer spending time with my children and making my very first trip to New Orleans, LA. I have also been busy getting our classroom ready. I have many exciting plans for the year and am eager for it to begin.

I hope to make fifth grade an exciting and memorable year for you. I want to make our classroom a creative place, filled with learning activities, challenging projects, great achievement and lasting friendships. If we work together we can make this a special year.

Here is a short list of supplies to start the year off. Please bring them on the first day of school, if you are able.

Pink Pearl or pencil-top erasers
1 or 2 chapter books of your choice for independent reading
A water bottle marked with your name on it - essential for hot days
3 containers of disinfecting wipes (not baby wipes) - we go through a lot of these!
3 boxes of tissues
3 packs post-it notes (3" x 3")
2 Jumbo Book Covers (such as Book Sox)

Finally, the most important thing for you to bring to our class on the first day is a smile! I am looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday, September 1st.

Sincerely,

Ms. Marcus