The Week: 10/27 - 11/1

Halloween is this week!
We will have a short class party on Thursday afternoon.  Please do not send snacks.  They'll get plenty that night!

Conferences
Conference forms went home.  Please find this in your child's backpack and return it!

Challenge of the week.
Here is a pile of paper that I have been grading this weekend.  I notice that many students are turning in incomplete work.  Every paper must be neat, not wrinkled, and with a complete heading.  Please use regular notebook paper for work with a complete heading.  When I have multiple assignments, it is hard to tell which page I am grading unless it is printed on the paper.  Headings must include, in this order:

• Name
• Subject
• Assignment (Exactly as written on the planner)
• Date

On Monday, I will be returning papers to students to fix and turn back in!  Your next progress report may show a lot of missing assignments.  Please find these, check the headings, complete them and turn them back in.

Returned Papers
Graded papers are returned to the student pass-back folders.  When you get your papers, please read my comments and look at the score that you got.  If you did not get a score, please find out why.  Incomplete work needs to be completed and turned back in.  Please save all returned papers in your binder.

Binders and Planners
Binders and planners need to be with students at all times.  Treat them like you would your cell phone.  Do not leave work at home, even if you are still working on it.  Keep everything in your binder so you can get it when you need it.  Binders must be brought in to class every morning and taken home every afternoon.

Tests
Parents must sign and return all tests.  I do this so that you have regular feedback on how your child is doing.  I don't like surprises at conferences.  Signed tests count as an assignment in the grade book.

This Week:

Math:  We will work on visual models for multiplication.  What does a visual model look like?

Reading (Literature):  We will begin Bloom's Taxonomy and learn how to ask and answer higher-level questions.  There will be some pages in your child's General Reference notebook.

Reading (Informational):  Using the Science textbook, we will work on strategies to read informational text, including note-taking skills.

Science:  I am splitting Science into two segments, content and skills.  For content, we will continue learning about animals using the Science textbook and other resources.  For skills, we will begin a study of measurement, and how to make empirical observations- that is, anything you can put a number on.

Writing:  We will write formal letters of recommendation for other students using formal register, and a business letter format.  Each student will get a classroom job and earn a salary.

Social Studies:  With everything else we are learning, Social Studies will be limited to geography studies that is done mostly as homework.

Homework:

Your child should be spending 50 minutes each night on homework.  Each week, there are three homework packets that go home:

• Spelling:  The pre-test from Monday must be attached to receive credit.  Please spend a few minutes each night studying these words.
• Big Idea Science:  Do one page each night.  Answers to questions must be matched with a sentence in the text.  I call this "color matching".  If question #1 is circled in orange, then there should be a sentence in the paragraph underlined in orange that answers the question.
• Geography:  Please write answers in complete sentences.  It's a good practice!

Grades:

Grades are now online.  I'll send home passwords this week.  If you want one right now, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.  http://home.comcast.net/~erich-schneider/grades/

Vocabulary
We completed a vocabulary review in class.  You should be reviewing this at home over the weekend!  Parents, if you have trouble with any of these words or assignments, please let me know!!!  Students may use any resource at their disposal to find meanings for these words.  You should know more than just the dictionary definition!

• cell
• kingdom
• species
• vascular plant
• invertebrate
• vertebrate
• rectangular array
• distributive model

  

  Distributive Model

• adaptation
• herbivore
• carnivore
• omnivore
• consumer

The Week: 10/21 - 10/25

I had to change the theme.  The white on black was killing my eyes.  What about you?

Are you interested in peeking ahead at what we're learning?  Take a look at my lesson plans.  (I'm still learning the program, so it won't be perfect right away.)
http://planbook.com/student?t=1016552&k=Mustangs

Have you looked at this blog?  Drop me a quick e-mail and say hi and tell me what you find useful, or what you'd like to see more of.  eschneider@rsd7.net

Here's the planner for the week.  Your child should have a page that looks just like this in their planner!

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Red Ribbon Week:
Margaret Scott Elementary is celebrating Red Ribbon Week from Friday, October 25 through Thursday, October 31.  Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country.
http://redribbon.org/

• Friday, 10/25- Be proud!  Wear school colors red and black.
• Monday, 10/28- Follow your dreams.  Wear your pajamas.
• Tuesday, 10/29- Be active!  Wear your favorite sports jersey or team colors.
• Wednesday, 10/30- Be YOU!  Wear wacky or crazy socks!
• Thursday, 10/31- Dress for Success!  Wear what you want to be when you grow up.

MATH

Do you need an extra copy of the ABC Models worksheet?  Here's a link to it.  You can find things like this in the Resources section of our class web page.

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Mystery Bottle

The question for this week is, "How in the world does that mystery bottle work?"  Your assignment is to create a scientific report describing your conclusions.  Using everything you know (and no, you cannot destroy the bottle to examine its interior) to make your best guess and support it.

Don't worry.  I will teach you how to do this and give you examples.

Here is the scoring guide for your report.  We will add details to this as we work on the assignment this week.

• Superior (6):  Your report is not only complete and makes sense, but you have added research and made a working model of your idea.  It includes everything below.
• Exceeds (5):  Your report is complete and makes sense.  You have added something to extend your understanding that is not required to meet.
• Meets (4):  Your report is complete and makes sense.  Headings are used to separate your sections.
• Assignment heading is complete.
• Observation is labeled and describes, in complete sentences, what you saw before doing any tests.
• One question is asked that can be answered by testing.  The question is answered somewhere in the report.
• A hypothesis gives a possible answer to the question.  For this project, your hypothesis should include a written paragraph, and a drawing with labels.
• The experiment or work section is complete:
• A table neatly lists both experiments and results.
• At least ____ experiments are listed.
• You analyze your information.
• Each experiment is explained:  "When we _____, _____ happened.  This tells me that ______."
• A conclusion answers your question.
• A paragraph describes your idea in words.
• A drawing clearly shows your thinking.
• Labels adorn your drawing.
• Developing (3):  You included all of the headings above, but left out information.  It is mostly complete, but may not make connections from one idea to the next.
• Emerging (2):  You have some information from the experiment we did.  There are headings on your paper.  At least one detail makes sense and shows understanding.
• Beginning (1):  You wrote a report with some headings.  It has something to do with the Mystery Bottle.

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Vocabulary:
Every week, we pile on a list of words that we have learned.  Every time one of these words is used, we get to add a rock to our jar.  (Help me remember to do this!)  On Friday, I send home a list of words from the week to study.  We've been studying them all week.  This is just the last push to learn them for Monday.  Every Monday, we will have a vocabulary quiz.  They will look different each week.

• hybrid
• algorithm
• catastrophic
• projection
• decomposer
• ecosystem
• exposure
• hydrated
• Significant
• Drake
• Elaborate
• Oblivious
• Margin

The Week: 10/14 - 10/18

Welcome back to me!  After what seems to be an eternity of recovery, I am returning to what I do in real life: teaching fifth grade.

Plan on seeing a few changes in the next couple of weeks as I prepare to launch you into middle school next year.

I like to try new things.  One thing that is new for me is an online lesson planning tool.  An interesting feature is that I can share my plans online.  Take a look:
http://planbook.com/student?t=1016552&k=Mustangs

Progress reports will go home on Tuesday.  Please review this, sign it and return it to school.

Homework so far this week:
Science:  Big Idea 1-5.  Think of three tests you can do to the mystery bottle.  So far, you should have:

• OBSERVE:  Write what you saw, heard and sensed.
• QUESTION:  We asked a lot of questions.  Write the one question that you really want answered.
• HYPOTHESIS:  State what you think is in the bottle.
• TEST:  This is where you write your tests.  Make a t-table showing test and result.

Social Studies:  Geography 6
Language:  Spelling packet.  Be sure to staple your pre-test to the back of this.

Vocabulary (Quiz on Monday!!!)

·            Growing Pattern:  A number pattern that grows instead of repeats.  A growing pattern can be an A, AB, or ABC pattern.  (Actually, it could even be more complicated than that!)

·            Tedious:  Boring but necessary.  Something that takes several steps that are easy to do, but must be done a certain way.

·            Tedium:  The time when things are tedious, or when something is tedious.

·            Opaque:  You can’t see through it.

·            Endangered:  When an animal is nearly extinct.

·            Veterinarian:  A doctor that works on animals.

·            Fatal:  Deadly

·            Analyzing:  Looking at something to see what’s wrong (or right) with it.

·            Feisty:  Full of fighting energy.  Likely to cause a fight.

·             Bestiary:  A book of information about animals (beasts)

Other random things:

MYBH stands for Make Your Brain Hurt.  Sure, today was easy, but it will get harder.  I promise!