What’s Brewing with Brewer?

Yes, it’s been a LLLLOOOOOONNNNGGGG time since our last post, but we’re back and batter than ever!  I apologize for not writing sooner, but our class has just been so busy that time ran away from us! 

We completed the AIMS exams two weeks ago, to the relief of many of our students.  I am so happy to say that the students all tried their very best and seemed to do quite well. I am so excited to see the scores when they come back this summer because I am certain Canyon Ridge 5th graders topped the state!

Last week, our students began our Problem-Based Learning (PBL) unit.  You may have heard a little bit about it from your child.  Our unit is titled, “Go, Go, Gadget” and focuses on inventors and inventions. Students are trying to answer the essential question, “How can I invent a compound machine to make my life easier or solve a common problem?”  They will be completing several mini-projects in their quest to answer this question, including interviewing a community member, creating a human automation spreadsheet, researching and designing a multimedia presentation about the life of an inventor, and designing their own unique invention.  The students and teachers are all very excited about this unit and the activities it includes.  Please ask your child about the PBL unit and the project they are currently undertaking!

As the school year dwindles down to an end, I would like to take the time to thank you for you cooperation and efforts throughout the year.  Many parents have participated in parent-teacher conferences, classroom activities, served as field trip chaperones, donated time and resources to the classroom and much more.  Without you, the fantastic things we do in the classroom would not be possible.  Thank you so much for taking an active role in your child’s education!  (They may not know it now, but your child will thank you later too!)  Also, thank you for letting me work with your children and develop a relationship this year.  I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every child and I will be so sad to see them go upstairs next year.  I just hope they feel equipped with the tools and strategies they need to be successful in middle school, high school and beyond after their grueling year with the 5th grade teaching team!

Please enjoy the treats I have left you, including a video, a few photos and some quotes to live by.  Have a fantastic week!

Quotes to ponder…
“The goal of education is to replace an empty mind with an open mind.”  Malcolm Forbes
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Vincent T. Lombardi

Download Video: Posted by garylatman at TeacherTube.com.

5th Graders Hard at Work

We had such an exciting week full of fun activities…  I just don’t know where to start!

On Tuesday, the lovely ladies from Sun City Jazzercise came to dance with the students and teach them about the importance of exercise and good nutrition.  The kids had a blast doing the “Peanut Butter and Jelly” dance!  The pictures below show some of our terrific 5th grade dancers!

On Wednesday, Channel 12 News anchorwoman Kim Covington came to our classroom to showcase all of the great technology efforts going on in the Dysart School District. This story will air as part of the “School Solutions” series on Friday, January 25 between 5 and 7 a.m. 

And on Friday, the 5th grade language arts classes participated in geocaching. They used GPS units to locate several questions about reading and writing, which all served as clues to a final secret message.  They enjoyed spending their class period in the sunshine and learning language arts terms in a new and exciting way.

I will be out for the entire week of January 22, 2008 in order to attend the Florida Educational Technology Conference in Orlando.  I look forward to learning about new ways to incoporate technology into the classroom.  I am also a speaker at the conference with AverMedia, who supplies the district with our awesome document cameras!  I cannot wait to share all my new knoweldge with the staff and students here at the Ridge!  If you have any questions for me, please leave me an e-mail and I will get back to you from my hotel room!

Have a great week!!

12 News at the Ridge!

Jazzercise

Geocaching

Welcome back and happy New Year!  Our class has started off the new year and a brand new quarter in style with an amazing overnight field trip to the Lake Pleasant Outdoor Center.  The students, parents and teachers had an absolutely terrific time!  We would like to extend a very warm “Thank You” to all the parent chaperones who took the time to lead our groups and participate in the activities.  We hope you have gotten the rest you deserve!  We would also like to thank PTO for purchasing bagels and pizza.  The children enjoyed every bite!  Thank you, as well, to Mr. Dean for allowing us to go on such an exciting trip.  Finally, thank you to the parents for your cooperation and for entrusting us with your children and allowing them to go on an unforgettable adventure!  I hope your children came back with many fond memories, new friends and even some great pictures!  If anyone would like to share pictures from the trip, please e-mail them to me or bring them in on CD and I will add them to next week’s blog post and the 5th grade website.  I have attached some today for your viewing pleasure!

As the year dwindles down, we begin to think of the upcoming AIMS tests, which are only 10 weeks away!  You may see that your child’s homework looks a little different the next few weeks, in order to focus on the skills they need to be successful for this test.  Please help contribute to their success by becoming involved in their nightly reading and homework routines.  Have them summarize (orally or written) their reading to you each night and encourage them to review a little but every day in order to sharpen those skills we have covered earlier in the year.  You can check their homework for completeness and accuracy and help clarify any areas of confusion.  I will be happy to send home some additional AIMS review materials that may be helpful to you.  If you need them, just let me know!

Please remember that there is NO book report project and NO science buddy due in February in order to allow students to focus on the science fair projects and reports, which are due January 30.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!  Science fair materials are also available on the 5thgrade website under “Homework”.

Thank you again to everyone for making our field trip a success and have a great week!

Lake Pleasant Field Trip

This Week’s Podcast
NEW YEAR SURVEY: What is your New Year’s Resolution? (leave a comment with your response!)

If so, please leave a comment! I’d like to know this weekly blog is not for nothing!
I’m sorry for not leaving podcasts lately but I am still having some trouble with our host site. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon and I can make sure our weekly podcast is regular again! Until then, I hope you enjoy reading about our week rather than listening!
This week, students completed district benchmark assessments in writing, reading and math.  These tests closely resemble the AIMS tests and give us all a sneak peek at how students will perform on these tests in April.  The students did VERY well and showed a great deal of progress, of which we are extremely proud.  Way to go!  (Please feel free to ask me if you would like to know how your child performed on these assessments!)

The weeks continue to fly by, and we are now counting days (and not weeks) until Winter Break. Only 5 more school days until we are sleeping late, staying up with the grown-ups and just plain enjoying our time off.
Upon our return, book reports and science buddies are due, and only 2 days later will bring us to our long-awaited field trip to Lake Pleasant! I don’t think any of us can wait for that! (As if the joy of learning was not enough reason to make everyone want to come back to school!) What a great start to a new year!!!

Stay tuned next week, when we give our semester “wrap up”, summarizing all we have done and learned so far this year!

Only 2 more weeks until Winter Break!!  Can you believe it?! 

I know it is speeding by for us here at Canyon Ridge, but that’s probably because we have been so terribly busy here in class!  In science, we are currently studying the solar system.  We have been researching planets in order to write a report, which we will then transform into either a powerpoint or a travel brochure that will attempt to persuade others to visit our planet.

In language arts, we just wrapped up a unit on poetry and figurative language.  We spent last week reading a biography about Mae Jemison, a brilliant American astronaut.  We also viewed and commented on Voicethread shows which were created by other students across the country about Ms. Jemison.   We also participated in the district writing assessments. 

This week, we will begin an author study on Chris Van Allsburg, who wrote fantastic works such as Jumanji and The Polar Express.  We will also take the district reading and math assessments, which closely resemble the AIMS tests.  Please make sure your child gets extra sleep and an especially good breakfast on Tuesday and Wednesday, our testing days.

Please don’t forget that there is a MANDATORY parent meeting on Tuesday, December 11 at 4:00 or 6:00 p.m.  You only need to come to one session, but please make sure you are there on time!

There was no podcast this week due to district writing benchmark exams, but please enjoy our podcast from Friday, November 30.  Have a great week!

November 30 Podcast

Hello fellow bloggers! In lieu of a blog post this week, I have updated and added to our 5th grade website. Please check it out here! Good news, though – I am finally able to include our podcasts again!  (Please see the MP3 links below.)

Oh, and please keep your comments coming! I want and need your feedback to make this blog successful and helpful to you!

FIELD TRIP ALERT

Read about our Thanksgiving Feast!

This week’s podcast

Podcast: Week of Nov. 5-9

It seems like just yesterday we were starting off a new school year, and we are already halfway through November!  WOW!  Can you believe Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away?!  The 5th grade teachers have some absolutely terrific things planned to mark the special occasion; stay tuned for details!

This week, we continued our study of matter, experimenting with solids, liquids and gases, exploring density, and much more.  We also worked on making predictions in reading, based on text clues and our own personal knoweldge.  We read a thrilling cliffhanger called “The Fear Place”. 

Next week, we will begin studying poetry, looking at literary elements such as metaphors, similes, etc., and studying different types of poetry patterns, like haikus and limericks.  We will also try our hand at writing a few poems of our own.   We have also been sharing book reports, which have been terrific!

The entire 5th grade is also working on the character trait of trustworthiness.  It seems that sometimes our desire to evade the consequences of our actions tends to overcome our need to be truthful.  All of the 5th grade teachers would greatly appreciate your help at home by talking to your children about the importance of being honest and being a person of character, as this is an ongoing issue with a lot of our students.  Thanks in advance for your cooperation! 

Again, I am unable to post attachments this week.  While I continue to work on this, I hope you can still  enjoy the post without the treat of our weekly podcast.   However, if you want to see a terrific voicethread we are working on as we study matter, visit it by going to http://voicethread.com/share/18293/.  You can also leave a comment of your own on our voicethread!  (We love to see them!)

As always, have a terrific weekend (3 days this time!!) and we’ll see you bright and early Tuesday morning!

PARENT POLL:

How do you feel the adjustment to a departmentalized schedule has worked for your child?

a. Smooth and easy!

b. A little tough, but we’ll get used to it!

c. WHY do you punish us like this!!!

d. What new schedule?

Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

KIDS:

Here is a question for you…

We have spent a lot of time experimenting with matter.  What has been your favorite science experiment so far?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Happy November! Our students have worked so hard this week! We began swithcing classes this week and even the teachers are so impressed with the east at which students acclimated to this new change. It was so much easier than even we anticipated, which we are so happy to report!

On Wednesday, we participated in Pumpkin Math, where we rotated through 14 centers, estimating and measuring pumpkins according to several attributes, including height, weight, circumference and more. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the parents who donated pumpkins and items for this activity, and also to those who volunteered their time to make this day a huge success!

In science, we have been learning about the properties of matter. We have conducted several experiments, trying to answer questions such as:
What is matter?
Does air take up space?
If matter changes form, does it change the amount of space it takes up?
The students had a great time working with water, ice, marbles and more trying to find the solutions to the questions posed above.  We will continue our study of matter this week, learning about molecules, atoms and more.

Due to an error on our blog hosting site, I am unable to atatch any files to our blog post this week. Consequently, our weekly podcast from this week – as well as some additional treats for you – will appear as part of next week’s blog.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to talk to every parent last week during parent-teacher conferences. I hope you had all your questions answered and left feeling satisfied (and much more) with the quality of your child’s education this year. As always, please contact me if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Have a great week!

The first quarter is officially over and the fifth grade team is eagerly looking forward to continued learning as the second quarter begins.  This quarter, we will introduce topics including force, motion and simple machines in science, Native Americans and explorers in social studies,  number sense, data analysis and probability in math, and story structure, poetry, figurative language and comprehension in language arts.  We have a challenging curriculum planned and cannot wait to introduce our students to new ideas and content! 

As you may have heard, beggining in the second quarter, 5th grade students will switch classes for different subject areas, similar to the model followed by the middle school students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades.  Teachers will be able to focus on areas that coincide with their own passion and expertise, providing better instruction and much deeper learning by the students.  Both the teachers and the students are very excited about this new endeavor! 

On October 31, the fifth grade will take part in Pumpkin Harvest Math.  Each student will explore several math centers in which they will estimate, measure and calculate the height, weight, circumference and other attributes of pumpkins.  In order to do this activity, wew are asking that each student brings in 1 pumpkin by Friday, October 26.  We have also asked for donations or loans of other objects as mentioned in the letters that went home last Friday.  If you have any questions about this activity, please click on the link below to read the letter that went home.

Please remember that our class is also in need of Kleenex and Clorox or Lysol disinfectant wipes to help keep our classroom clean and germ-free as we enter the cold and flu season.  Any donations are greatly appreciated.  Thank you in advance for your contribution!

As we enter the new quarter, I want to take ths time to remind you of the 5th grade homework policies.  Attached is a letter that went home with our very first progress reports outlining these policies.  Please take a few minutes to read it over.  You are welcome to ask questions at your conference later this week.   I look forward to seeing you all at parent-teacher conferences.  Students are encouraged to attend, as it is important for them to be aware of and have an opportunity to discuss their progress.  Until then, have a terrific week!

Pumpkin Math Letter

Parent Homework Letter

This Week’s Podcast 

P.S… Here is something I thought you might enjoy…

Download Video: Posted by mjohnson at TeacherTube.com.

To those of you who check us out regularly, welcome back!  And to those of you who are new to our site, we are so glad you are here!  Please check out this and past blog posts to learn about the terrific things our students are doing this year. 

In science, we have continued our study of the nervous system by creating neurons.  You can see pictures of our creations by clicking on the link below.  We also watched a video about the brain, neurons and their functions.  We also used the digital cameras to take pictures of ourselves using various parts of our brains.  In math, 5th grade students are studying a variety of topics, including rounding, exponents, order of operations, and properties of multiplication and addition.  In social studies, we discused savings and checking accounts and we are also continuing our research on our historical figures. We will start creating our timelines next week.  In language arts, we are writing functional text and we also spent time sharing our book reports and projects.  It was so exciting to see everyone’s hard work!

I hope you all have a terrific Fall Break and come back rested and ready to learn!  Please remember to fill out the conference forms and bring them back on Wednesday for a Brewer Buck.  See you next week!

My Photo Book 10/5/07

Our weekly podcast