Photos from the first week of school

The top two are pictures of our science Goop experiment. We are working on learning the characteristics of a scientist. The next picture is a reading activity where the students graphed their prior knowledge of the various reading strategies we will be using this year. The last two pictures are making student folders on the first day of school!

8-26-2011

Reading assignment: Read 20 minutes and fill out the reading log.

Writing assignment: 1 paragraph on the stresses and surprises of fifth grade, so far. Make sure your first sentence introduces the reader to the topic of the paragraph. Spelling counts! This is due Thursday of next week.

What a great week. I hope the rest of the year continues on this same path!

8-25-11

Happy Birthday, Abby!

I told the kids this morning...I woke up so excited to come to school today! Response from one of them...WHY? Why, because there are such great things coming their way. We are so busy in our little amount of time together each day. They really have to be on their toes to keep up. They are also learning that they need to be able to do a group activity and have fun, and then use self-control to calm down afterward ( a hard skill)!

Reading: Each day we do a word of the day called "Daily Vocab Review". We also read a short story and answer 4 comprehension questions (Daily reading review). If 90% of them get the questions right then we watch a short 2-3 minute video clip on whatever topic we read about. They seem to be really enjoying that. They are doing well! We've watched the clip all 3 days this week. We used the thesaurus today to find synonyms for our vocabulary words. This was finished in class.

HOMEWORK: Writing assignment- most important things

Science- We added, "scientists need to follow directions", to our list of skills scientists need to have. They followed step by step instructions to create a mystery substance. Let's just say some of them didn't follow the directions :) They then made their first lab notebook entry describing what they did and saw. They will leave all of their lab notes in the notebook and I will grade them once a quarter. They asked for the directions to the goo, so it is listed below.

Scientists have to follow directions:
1. Pour 1/2 cup of glue and 1/2 a cup of water together in the
bucket.
2. Add 2 drops of food coloring.
3. In a separate container mix 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon
of borax powder.
4. Stir the glue mix with the borax mix.
5. Knead it until it becomes dry. The longer you knead the
less sticky it will become!
6. Stay in your group and play with your mystery substance
until further instructed!

REMEMBER: read 20 minutes and reading log are due every day with a parent signature!

8-24-11

Wow, today flew by! We have so much to do and so little time! We got our new vocabulary words today. The test will be next Friday. They are written in the back of the reading notebook. They are also posted on the wiki. The link to the wiki is on the right side of the blog page.

In science we are learning about the characteristics of a scientist. We did 2 small experiments today. Tons of fun! I think I'll like teaching science!!

Homework today:
Reading log- read 20 minutes each night and fill out the reading log. A parent signature is required to get credit!

Writing- they wrote "most important things" in their planners today, but we didn't get to it. I told them to cross it out, but in case they forgot....

I sent the following note home with the kids today regarding science equipment that we need. Thanks in advance!

Dear fifth grade parents,
I will be teaching your child science this year. In order to help them learn, I will be doing MANY experiments. In order to do these I am looking for a hand in finding supplies. If you have any of these things readily available at home, and if you are willing to part with them, please send them to school whenever you can. I do not want you to go out and buy things. Just look around the house and see if you have extras! Thank you so much for your help.
Your partner in education,
Mrs. Haugen
* Cupcake liners * tin cake or pie pans
*funnel * sand (a bucket full)
* bendable straws * small glass aquarium
* various types of rock * sandpaper of various grit
* measuring spoons/ cups * egg cartons
* clear plastic cups * small paper cups
*toothpicks * playdough or clay
*rock salt * ice cream bucket with lids
*goggles or safety glasses * notebooks with lined paper
*paper towels *white vinegar
*cooking oil * baby food jars
* stop watch * craft sticks or plastic spoons

First day of school

What a busy day! The kids had lots of things to accomplish in the organization area today. We labeled folders and notebooks. Each folder has a side for things that need to go home, and a side for things that need to be kept. They may be feeling a little overwhelmed today. It will get easier each day! They were very well behaved and I was very impressed. It was one of my favorite "first days" yet! There is no homework today! The kids checked out books and are able to begin at home reading. It isn't assigned yet, because they don't have their reading logs. We'll get those tomorrow or the next day.

Our first unit in science will begin tomorrow. It is "The characteristics of a scientist".
We will begin reading tomorrow as well. This first reading unit deals with the fury of nature.

Please feel free to call or email if you have ANY questions!

How many minutes should a fifth grader read?

How many minutes should a fifth grader read each day? That question comes up a lot in the first couple of weeks of school...

Most fifth graders would like the number to be...HMMM...like 5 minutes a day. Sorry kiddos, the correct answer is more like 40-45!

According to the former president of the International Reading Association, Richard Allington, in his book about struggling readers, there is a direct relationship between reading volume and reading test scores. For example...a fifth grader that reads an average of 40 minutes per day is likely to score in the 90th percentile on reading assessments. They read an average of 2,357,000 words in a year. A fifth grader who reads and average of 13 minutes a day is likely to be near the 10th percentile on the same test, and read only 51,000 words per year.

That is a HUGE difference! Where do you want to be (students)? Where do you want your kids to be (parents)? Practice makes perfect, in sports, occupations, and yes...reading!

Let's get ready to excel in reading my soon to be fifth graders!

Summer post #5

I'm sitting here on this rainy, thundering day working on activities for school. I went to school this week and got our room all ready to go. The desks are arranged and the bulletin boards are set up. This is always an exciting time for me. Each year is like starting a new job. I am so excited to meet all of my new students and see all of the students from last year. Next week, Mrs. Dickman and I are going to the "teacher store" in Ankeny to buy some new stuff and do some planning for fall!

Reading update: I hope you are all reading like crazy in your free time. I know I am. My son made fun of me the other day. I was laying in bed at 6:30 a.m. reading a book. Once I get into a good book I can't put it down. Remember to bring back that summer assignment I handed out at the end of last year. If you read the number of books on your sheet, you can trade it in for a new book for you to keep! I've been buying them here and there this summer and have a good selection for you to pick from!

One more month of vacation to go. Enjoy yourselves and I look forward to seeing you all soon!