Sooooooo Lucky!!!

 

Well, originally students had an absolute mountain of homework to get done.  They have had a good bit of classwork from yesterday and today that was to be assigned and due on Monday.

(not really – if they had been working diligently on it yesterday and today they should have been mostly if not completely finished)

However, we didn’t get to finish one of our final rotations today, which meant a full third of the class did not get a chance to get on the computer to do their discovery ed assignment or do animal research.  As such, I have scrapped all of the proposed homework for the weekend.  It will instead be due on Tuesday after we get that last rotation done on Monday.

EXCEPT of course, for reading logs.  Students should make sure they read each and every night (including Saturday and Sunday) and get their reading logs signed for each day.  So Monday they should have multiple signatures.

 

 

so, tl;dr

READ READ READ, and get your reading log signed!

 

Have a great weekend,

 

-Mr. Potter

We got a TON of stuff done today.

 

We started off talking more about base ten, and different ways of describing numbers.  We can say 3 tens and 4 ones, 34, or (3 x 10) + (4 x 1).

It became very obvious that many students are not very familiar with mathematical vocabulary.  Some are still struggling with describing basic numbers and operations.  They can DO simple operations, but can’t explain what they are actually doing or why.  We will continue to hit these concepts until I feel students are concrete on this.  Math constantly builds upon itself, and a shaky foundation will spell trouble as we explore more advanced concepts.

We talked a LOT about character traits.  On last night’s homework, many students got confused with feelings and character traits.  We wouldn’t really say that ‘happy’ is a character trait.  Even the meanest of mean characters are happy occasionally.  What we might say instead of that is a character is ‘cheerful’ or ‘bright’.

 

Next I  started reading The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart to the students.  I really enjoy this book, and the students seemed to enjoy the beginning as well.  We will read a little bit of it each day, and use what we read to practice writing summaries.

Students started another character trait chart to examine a character from the book, Reynie.

 

After that, we started a little newspaper worksheet about ourselves.  Tonight they should finish this at home.  If they would like, they are welcome to put a real picture on it.

Read All About Me

 

Students also began a short piece about a ‘moment’ in their lives.  The point of the writing is to really EXPAND that moment.  Don’t just tell us “One time I fell down”.  Instead tell us everything about that moment: what did it look like?  What did it feel like?  What were you thinking?

 

Finally I spent a good amount of time doing MCLASS assessments while students worked independently.  It will take a few hours to get these done, so we will have a good bit of time to work independently each day for the next few days while we knock them out.  These assessments will give me a good idea of where students are with their reading fluency and comprehension.

 

Before we left for the day we talked briefly about our seeds, and watched a time-lapse of some seeds germinating.  Can you believe that some of our seeds have already started to sprout?  I couldn’t believe it when I came in this morning.

 

so, tl;dr

As far as homework goes, there’s not much as students had a good amount of time to work independently today-

All about me Newspaper: Read All About Me

Read for 35 minutes, and get your reading log signed!

 

Have a good one,

 

Mr. Potter

Can you believe that we are already at 19 paws?  That is insane.  We will have our first medal by the end of the week!

Our students have been doing a pretty good job at meeting expectations so far.  We have  a few issues to address regarding talking behavior, and appropriate behavior when Mr. Potter is not around (lunch, specials) but in the classroom things have been going very well.

This morning we talked a good bit about character traits.  Character traits are adjectives that we use to describe the qualities and personality of the characters in the stories that we read.  We read a short book together, entitled Lilly’s purple plastic purse.

Next we talked about how Lilly’s actions and her thoughts and feelings tell us quite a bit about her.  Authors will rarely tell us straight out that a character is ‘nice’ or ‘smart’ or ‘shy’, but they will tell us through their actions and thoughts.  We filled out a chart relating her actions to her thoughts and her feelings:

LillyChart

Tonight students should do the same thing, but for Mr. Slinger.  They should identify 3 different actions performed by Mr. Slinger, and then determine what he was thinking when he performed these actions (the why) and then what he was likely feeling during that time.  Then use this information to derive some character traits for him.

Chart traits 2

 

They should also have their letter to me to turn in.  It should include:

A paragraph introducing themselves.

A paragraph telling me about their family

A paragraph  telling me what they like

And a paragraph asking me any questions they might have

 

Next we started our gardens!  Each year I like to make some little gardens with students as we talk about ecosystems and the life cycle.  We planted some carrot, tomato, radish, cucumber, and corn seeds.  Last year we had a nice enough harvest that we made little salads in the classroom.  Hopefully we will have a good harvest again!

 

At the end of the day today, we went to the computer lab and took a STAR test.  This test will give me a good indication of where the students are in their lexile (vocabulary and reading) levels.

 

so, tl;dr

FInish letter to Mr. Potter!

Tell me about Mr. Slinger: Chart traits 2

And as always, read for 35 minutes and get your reading log signed

 

Have a good one!

 

-Mr. Potter

Two days down and nobody is in the hospital, so I consider that a win!

Today we talked a good deal about expectations and how we should act in groups.  We did some fun skits where students pretended to be ‘good’ groups, and then pretended to be ‘bad’ groups.  Everyone was a *tad* too good at the bad group “acting”, which is a little suspicious!

 

Today I wrote the students a letter introducing myself, and telling them about my family, and what I enjoy doing.  Students then started a letter to me telling me about themselves, their family, and the things that they enjoy doing.  They should also include any questions for me.  These letters will be due THURSDAY.  I’ll take them home over the weekend, read them, and then write them a letter back!

 

Students also received a neat little word ladder to work on.  If they have any questions about vocabulary, they are welcome to ask parents for help on it.

WordLadderJuly28

After that we took a quick math assessment that will help me figure out where the students are in regards to understanding mathematical concepts.

One thing that students will learn quickly in my classroom is that being able to DO a math problem and being able to explain HOW  they did a math problem a certain way are two very different things.  I am in NO WAY interested in processes when it comes to math problems.  I am interested in underlying conceptual understandings.  This will be a challenge for students to begin with, but will lead to deeper understandings in the long run.

 

Finally  we took some notes on the base ten system.  We essentially re-discovered how our number system works today, and took some good notes on it in their math journals.

Base 10

 

At the end of the day we did a little something called the toothpaste challenge.  We squeezed as much toothpaste as we could out of a tube, and then tried our best to get it all back in.  It was good fun, and led to us all smelling minty fresh.  We used this to talk about how the toothpaste is a lot like our words.  It is really easy to say something, but almost impossible to take it back.  We need to choose our words and our tone carefully with one another, and make sure that we are always being kind.

 

And before you knew it, it was time to go!  Students did get a correct reading log to begin filling out, as well as a letter asking about food and allergies for parents to fill out.

 

So, tl;dr

Read for 35 minutes and get reading log signed!

Finish word ladder:

WordLadderJuly28

Letter to Mr. Potter introducing yourself/asking any questions you have is due Thursday.

Food letter (can be found on the main page)

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

 

 

 

 

A brand new year!  And it was a fantastic first day.

We spent the better part of the morning going over expectations in the classroom.  We know as a class and as individuals what we are expected to do, and how we are expected to act.  Now that we are in 5th grade we will be given a good deal of freedom, and a good deal of responsibility.  It is important that we make good decisions regarding that freedom and responsibility.

We played a quick game to see how well we know our classmates.  I was surprised how well students could identify each other simply by a short list of their favorite game/TV show/Book.  And those we didn’t know so well, we got to know a little better!

Next we talked about the basic structure of our number system, and why when we get to that wonderful number 10, we put a 1 and a 0 together, and all of a sudden, it means something totally different than just 1 and 0.  Ask your student if they can explain to you what the 1 and the 0 mean in the number 10 (ten).  (hint: It’s the number of tens, and the number of ones)

Before we knew it, it was time to go to Lunch, and then quickly to specials, and recess.  Today we ended our day on negative 6, which means we got 6 extra minutes of recess!  The students did an absolutely fantastic job today getting things done, and doing them well.

Finally, we did a little team building exercise called Save Fred.  It gave us some great opportunities to talk about how a good group should act and how we should act in order to be a part of a good group.  The students seemed to enjoy themselves, and I hope they get a chance to tell you about it tonight.

 

Tonight, students should finish their Save Fred sheet, and read for 35 minutes.  They should ask parents to sign their agenda, stating they have read for 35 minutes.  Normally I will have a reading log for them to get signed, but I printed out the wrong reading log somehow, so I apologize for that.

 

They also took home a mountain of paperwork to get signed and filled out.  I know it is a lot, and that parents have more homework than the students tonight.  Sorry about that!

 

so, tl;dr

Finish Save Fred Sheet

Save Fred

Read for 35 minutes and get agenda signed

Fill out mountain of paperwork (parents)

 

It was a good first day, and I am looking forward to tomorrow!

 

-Mr. Potter

Long time, no post!

State of the classroom:

So we have spent our last real week of school finishing up some projects, and taking a bunch of last minute, last chance assessments.

We’ve been working a lot with our economics unit and students have been researching possible careers, and the COSTS associated with the education needed for those careers.  It has been very eye opening for many of them.  Ask your student what career they are interested in, and how much they can expect to pay for college…….

 

Tomorrow is our last real day of school!  We will finish up some projects, and then we have graduation practice in the afternoon.

 

A reminder:

Graduation is 9am on Monday.  Students should come to school as normal (bus, walk, carpool, etc).  We will then move as a class to the gym.  Parents/family should be in the gym by 8:45 as we will be walking in promptly at 9.  You can park in the lot next to the gym in the morning.

 

If you have any questions or anything you would like to discuss, please call or e-mail me.

 

Have a good one!

-Mr. Potter

So we are spending a good amount of time in math fixing some things, and a good amount of time talking about things that we will see next year in sixth grade.

Specifically we have been talking about exponents and radicals.  Today/yesterday students took a good chunk of notes on radicals:

RadicalsNotes

 

We talked about how saying something like the square root of 4 , or √4, is equivalent to raising 4 to the 1/2 power.  Tonight students have a number of problems to do where they equate roots with raising numbers to fractional powers (radicals) and finding a number of square and cube roots themselves.

RadicalsHomework

 

We spent a LOT of time today talking about how competition can be great for customers, and not so great for businesses.  So does that mean that competition is good? or bad?  We had some good discussion about how competition can protect customers and work for them, as businesses are forced to either produce better or cheaper products.  At absolute worst, competition provides customers with choices and options.

Tonight students have a new chapter of Wally to read:

WalnutsChap8

 

They were also supposed to have some questions to answer, but honestly I forgot to hand them out.  So lucky them!

 

That means tonight is very very quick:

Do some math problems: RadicalsHomework

Read some Wally: WalnutsChap8

And get your reading log signed!

 

 

Tomorrow we have our scepter celebration.  It’s a surprise, but it will involve eating and playing games.  It should be fun!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Did I mention we are not done yet?

 

So we have started talking about exponents and radicals!  A constant problem with students is they forget that 3^2 is 3 * 3, and instead mistakenly believe it means 3 * 2.  So today we chanted over and over “3 squared is not 3 times two”.

 

Tonight for homework students have a set of exponent problems to solve.

Exponent Homework

We are also trying to pinpoint some weaknesses we have individually in mathematics and get those sorted before we leave for middle school.  For this, some students also have some subtraction homework to do tonight.  Those that have this homework know who they are.

Subtraction Homework

In Language Arts we are quickly reviewing a lot of strategies and things we talked about during the year.  Our reasoning is getting MUCH better and today we took a quick assessment with a non-fiction text where we had to explain our answer choices.  Overall I was very happy with the student’s performance on this.

 

We then spent a good amount of time talking about economy, and Wally and the Walnuts.  Many students are confusing the idea of money (a medium of exchange) with what the money represents (standard of value).

In our story, everyone trades in Walnuts.  That is the standard of value.  It’s something that everyone uses as a standard to determine value for barter and trade.  In the U.S. it was gold up until a little while ago.  Hence, the ‘gold standard’.  In our story we have a ‘walnut standard’.

Now we don’t carry bricks of gold around with us, and they got tired of carrying around buckets of walnuts in the story.  So they develop a medium of exchange to represent the buckets of walnuts.  They use little pieces of wood with ‘W’s on them.  In our country we use little pieces of paper and metal with pictures of dead presidents on them.

 

Tonight students got a new chapter of Wally and the Walnuts to read, along with two questions to answer:

1.  What is competition?

2.  Is competition good or bad?  Give at least two reasons for your answer.

 

WalnutsChap7

 

so, tl;dr

exponents!

Exponent Homework

subtraction if you need to!

Subtraction Homework

Read W&TW next chapter:

WalnutsChap7

Answer two questions about it:

1.  What is competition?

2.  Is competition good or bad?  Give at least two reasons for your answer.

 

And as always, read!

 

-Mr. Potter

 

 

Two down, one to go!

And we are keeping this short and sweet around this time:

Science EOG is next Tuesday, the 12th!

 

As such, we spent today doing a LOT of review.  We looked at some old EOGs and went over our review packets.  This weekend students have a released science eog to finish:

g5scipp

 

And as always, read!

 

Have a good one,

 

-Mr. Potter

Just study!

 

And read!!

 

Tonight students took home their math journals, as well as their manilla folders full of review sheets.  They should be looking specifically at the problems they have missed, and concepts they are not quite 100% on.  Tomorrow is the big math day!

 

Tomorrow: Math EOG

Thursday: Language Arts EOG

 

Next Tuesday: Science EOG

 

Get a good night’s rest, and eat breakfast!!

 

-Mr. Potter