Mr. J's Family Visits, Buddy Rooms, Pendulums, Writing

Today was an awesome day! My family made a surprise visit to the classroom. Kari, my wife brought Ava and Luke in to visit. Luke was a little fussy, but Ava enjoyed conversing with your kids and reading a book with Mommy to them. The students thought it was funny that Luke only wanted to be with Mommy and didn't want anything to do with me:) Later we had our buddy rooms and the kids were all paired up with first graders. I think they all had a great time. For next week Mrs. Weathers and I hope to do a science observation with the buddies on sunflowers. We hope to find around 30 sunflowers before next Thursday. If you can help out with that in any way, please let me know! Pendulums. The pendulums we made out of washers was a huge success! Our key questions was: How can you make the pendulum swing faster? The most popular variable were adding more washers and shortening the height of the pendulum. You should have your child explain to you our findings! Writing: Because of the visit from my family and the buddy rooms, we have only two stories about 9/11 ready today. Here's a little background. Emily Sussell was a sixth grade student who attended school across the street from the Twin Towers when they were hit. The kids story picks up when Emily and her mom "...left the school--just as the south tower collapsed. They ran to escape the smoke and debris." Find the links to the left to hear to historical fiction stories filling in the details of this event.

Homework, Math, Writing, Science, Buddies, Points

Hello C6 Families, It's been a few days since I updated the blog so many new things are happening to let you know about. Homework: Today I'm sending a homework packet home with your student. The cover has a checkoff page to track completion. The packet is due Tuesday of next week. My philosophy on homework is that it should be independent work that students can complete on their own. I'm fine with parents helping and in fact encourage it. It just should be "doable" for them. There is a website that I want them to spend 30 minutes total time on (not 30 min. per night). The only thing that might be challenging is the reading comprehension page. I'm going to go over that more tomorrow in class so don't stress about that tonight. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. Math: The first two weeks are a review of 4th grade math. Last week we reviewed area and perimeter. This week we are working on multiplication strategies. It would be wonderful if you have your student "teach you" how to do the partial products strategy today. We will also be working hard on strategies and memorization of the basic math facts over the next few weeks. As you go about the rest of your day with your student you can look for ways to have them practice multiplication. For example If you travel 3 miles to school each day. How many miles do we travel in one week? One month? Writing: In a social studies magazine we read a really neat article about a 6th grade girl named Emily who was attending school during the attacks. She gave an account of her experience. We used this story as a springboard for our writing this week. Students wrote a response to the article using personal connections. Then they wrote descriptive stories as if they were Emily in the moment that she evacuated a school that was right next to one of the towers as it crashed down. Some of these stories will be posted tomorrow on the blog. So look for that. Science: In science we started an investigation on pendulums. Students are working in teams to answer the key question: How can I make my washer swing faster? They were given 18 inches of string, a washer, a meter stick and tape. Tomorrow they will continue work on changing variables, making predictions, observing, and drawing conclusions. Buddies: Tomorrow we are meeting with our buddy room: the first graders in B2 (Mrs. Whethers) class. Students get to keep the same buddies for the whole year and share a journal with them. Classroom Points: I have started a rewards program to help keep students managed. They can earn points for classwork, homework, respect, and being on task or attentive. They can earn points for classroom rewards as well as individual awards. If you want another way to gauge how they are doing in school, ask them how many points they earned today. A good score is about 20 points. They earn points in increments of 5. FYI: I've allowed for comments to the blog if you want to comment on anything or ask questions, offer ideas, clarify etc. Please keep in mind this is a school blog and