Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Order of Operations Rap

When we begin 
We begin together 

(Parentheses) first now 
 Please be clever 

 Exponents² come right next in line 

 Then Multiply x and Divide 
 At the same time 

 Now Subtraction - and Addition + 

 Walk it out with computation 

 It’s the order of operations 
 It’s the order of operations 
 ations, ations, ations, a, a, a+ 

 Order of operations 
 ations, ations, ations, a, a, a+

Order of operations 
ations, ations a, a, a+


Originally
 created by Ron Clark



Thank you,

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Classroom Rules

This week we spend some time in groups coming up with the 5 rules we felt were most important. Then we put them in order. 

We presented our rules to the class. We told them why we picked the 5 rules and why we put them in the order that we did.


Here are some of our rules:





Thank you,



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Patterns and Sequencing

We are working on patterns and sequencing this week.


We learned about Arithmetic Sequences and Geometric Sequences. Then we learned about Triangular Numbers, Squared and Cubed patterns.
Triangular Numbers
1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, ...
Squared Number Patterns
1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729,
Cubed Number Patterns

Homework: 

Read for 30 minutes
Complete pattern review worksheet

Thank you,

Monday, August 22, 2011

New Things

A couple of new things are here on our class blog. 


On the right side you will now find a lesson plan calendar, that shows the standards we are covering in class and what you are expected to know. You will also find links to class notes from some of our daily lessons. You can use these to go back over what we did in class to help you with your homework or just to help you understand it better. 


Please check them out. 

Thank you,

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Day 7-Thursday August 19

TODAY WE BEGGED TO KEEP READING!!!

After going to library this morning, we were given some time to read and when that time was up we begged to keep reading. :-) 

Tomorrow we will have a sub. Ms. Taylor-Stevens will be taking her daughter to college at New Mexico Tech
 where she will be studying to become an Engineer. 

Homework-Read for 30 minutes

Thank you,

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Day 6-Wednesday Aug 17

Today was a good day, we got to go to computers for the first time. The computer lab has changed a lot from last year. We will have to remember to be quiet so that the echo doesn't disturb our learning.

Holistic and 6 Traits writing rubrics-We started to learn how our writing is graded in class and by the state. We used the same rubrics to try and grade sample papers to see if we could begin to understand how our writing is graded and what we need to do to score high enough to show that we have mastered the grade level writing standards.

During math, we started to define our vocabulary words-we used a cool site to find the definitions and examples-Math Dictionary for Kids

Another good site to help us learn our math vocabulary -
Math Words

During reading, we continued to read the book Frindle. Today we read the chapter called "The Big Idea." First we read it as a class, and then we reread it with a partner. We practiced writing summaries that included the main characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. Then using the W.I.N. strategy we wrote summary paragraphs about the chapter.




Homework tonight is to read for 30 minutes.




Thank you,

Monday, August 15, 2011

Day 4-Monday August 15

Wow, were we tired this morning. Yawning and droopy. Remember that you need to get the proper amount of sleep to be the most successful each and every day.

What we did today:


Writing
We started to work on the 6 traits of writing. We are going to know those traits really well by the end of the year.

Some of our questions today:

What are the writing traits? 
  • The traits are the qualities of good writing.


What are the 6 traits?
  1. Ideas and Content
  2. Organization
  3. Voice
  4. Word Choice
  5. Sentence Fluency
  6. Conventions
We also reviewed the Writing Process.

Steps to the writing process are: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Publishing


Math
We started to discover some of the important math vocabulary words. These words will help us to better understand what the math problems are asking us to do.

Some of our new math vocabulary words are:
  • Acute Angle
  • Hypotenuse
  • Polygon
  • Range
  • Scalene Triangle
  • Volume
We will be adding more math vocabulary throughout the year till we know all of the ones for 5th grade.

Reading
We started a new class read aloud book-Frindle by Andrew Clements

This story takes place in a 5th grade classroom. It will be interesting to see how the class in the book is similar and different to our class.


We also started to read our 2nd Science Newspaper-This will help us to become better readers of Informational Text, as well as better Scientists. We are reading about the Animal Kingdom this week. 

Homework:

Read for at least 30 minutes. Record in your B.E.A.R. Binder. Then you and your parents sign that you read. Remember to bring your B.E.A.R. Binder to school each day.


We will be adding math homework next week, so enjoy just being able to read each night.


Thank you,

Friday, August 12, 2011

Day 3-Friday

Wow, we have finished our 1st week of school (OK, really only 3 days).

Today we took a math placement test to see where we are in math after our long summer off. It was really hard, haven't thought about math all summer. Made our brains do some good exercising.

We also started to put together our reading and writing notebooks. We also had our first writing assignment--a letter to our families about the first days of school.

We talk a bit too much (will have to work on listening more during class, and saving the talking for recess)

Homework is to read for 30 minutes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (total of 3 days of reading=90 minutes)

Have a great weekend. See you Monday for Great Gathering. 

Remember to be in line when the 8:30 bell rings.

Thank you,

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Day 2

Wow, Day 2 is finished already.

Today we did a lot of organizing. First we started to create our B.E.A.R. Binder. B.E.A.R. stands for Bring Everything Always Ready. We hope to have the binder completely finished by Monday.
  • We will bring our B.E.A.R. Binder home every night and then back to school each day. 
  • We will treat our B.E.A.R. Binder with care (we will take care of it).
  • We will use our B.E.A.R. Binder to help us stay organized this year.

Homework Calendar-To keep track of our work

BEARy Important Stuff Folder-Where our work and important papers can be found.

Other important pages-Money pouch, lunch menu, communication.


We also worked on our Science Newspaper-It was all about the Plant Kingdom.

Hard at work reading all about the Plant Kingdom.

We're READING!


Homework tonight is to read for 30 minutes and have our parents sign our reading log that is in our new B.E.A.R. Binder. Thank you,

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

1st Day of School

Welcome Nanooks to your 1st day of 5th grade.Today we learned about the construction on campus and how things would be different for the next couple of weeks.


We received out Social Studies books and got started learning right away. We even had a short quiz on what we had read.

The Expectation Assembly was really good. We learned about the character traits-trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.

Our homework is to read for 30 minutes. Remember to get our parents to sign the paper saying we read and bring it back to school tomorrow.

Thank you,

Who am I?

Please click below to complete the class survey: Who Am I? Survey

Thank you,

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Welcome to Our Class Blog

Welcome to our class blog-Nanooks Online. 


It will be an ongoing interactive journal of what is happening in our classroom. It will allow us to share what we are learning about, and doing here at school. It will be a daily (or almost daily) recap of our day at school. 


Parents will be able to see what we did at school that day, students who are absent can begin to make up the work they may have missed, and best of all, the blog will be entirely written by you, the students. 


This is a tool we can have a lot of fun with. It is a 21st century skill-maybe unlike anything you've used at Nash or home before. We will also be able to give comments and feedback on our work. 


People all over the world will be able to see what we do. Do you have relatives or friends who live outside of Tucson? Well, now they can see what you're doing. Communication will be 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and all over the planet. The possibilities are endless.


We also have a twitter page that you can follow. Please check out the link to follow us on Twitter, and have a look around to see all the wonderful things already here.


Let's have a great year of learning.


Thank you,