Wednesday

on 12/21/11 we had a math test :
On the math test we did :

• We added fractions
• We had story problems with fractions
• Placed fractions on a number line
• We answer multiple choice questions

In social studies we did:

• We did a migrating game that was about we had to pick a place in the room and we had to descided the place we picked and draw it and what we will change about it to make it feel like home. And we read about native Americans' origin stories, and we looked at a graphic organizer

but in PE we were laughing and we need to write a note to our families saying why we did not have PE

Tuesday

Science

• In science we where talking about the water cycle and wrote in a poster about what we know  about the water cycle.

Writing

• we were working in group to talk about the facts of Christopher Columbus and we were reading a book.

Future Posts

Hello Readers,

I have had requests for a continuation of our posts.  I apologize for the absence of news from Room 214A. 

In an effort to remedy that, my students will be taking turns posting, and it will begin today.

Thank you,
Mr. V

Monday

ART

• What we did in art was we did Christmas cards for our beloveded family because next week is Christmas, so Ms. Madden wanted us to make a card to someone in our family

READING

• What we did in reading was reading assesments-its a reading test to see what level of reading you are and the great news is that every one past a level
• next we did a cause and effect worksheet that told us what was cause and effect 
• then we did indepent reading that I say was really fun because you learned a lot

More about the food chain

We need to clarify our previous post because we have learned more about the food chain.

The food chain has four parts as a pyramid.  The first level is the producers.  The second level is herbivores.  The third level is carnivores.  The final level is decomposers.  Decomposers are bacteria, fungus and worms.  When an animal eats part of a plant and leaves some, the decomposers break down the rest of the plant and make it into soil.

We learned that if part of the chain breaks, it affects the entire chain.

Science

Today in science, we talked about:

• the human body and about the nervous system.  Specifically, we learned that nerves are connected to the brain.
• ecosystems and what they are.  They are places where abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) entities depend on each other.
• changes in our terrariums and aquariums, like the water in the aquarium decreasing and the plants in the terrariums grew.
• food chains.  A video said that the food chain is like a game with 4 levels that look likes a pyramid.   The first level consists of herbivores and where plants die and decompose.  The second and third levels include carnivores.  The fourth level includes worms, bacteria and bugs.

Recent News

In math we have been talking about angles.  We have been measuring the angles of different shapes with the angles of other shapes.  For example, we use a square and put the vertex of a rhombus into the vertex of the square, and we discovered that three of the rhombuses' angles fit into the right angle of the square, so we know that the acute angles of our rhombuses equal 30 degrees each.  Then we can use those angles to help us measure other unknown angles.

In sadder news, Perla and Katelyn left our classroom, and some of us were crying.  We didn't know that Katelyn was leaving until her cousin came to pick up her things because she was returning to the Dominican Republic.  With Perla, she left because she moved to a different place in Boston, but the bus wouldn't pick her up where she lived, so she had to go to a different school.

Today

In Writing, we were adding transitions words.  These are words that we use to help the reader understand the flow of our writing.  For example, we could use "first," "then," and "after that" to show the reader the order of our thoughts.

In Science, we discussed how we are going to improve our bridges next time.  One idea is to expand the bridges to cover the 12 inch gap and use the cable design.   To do this, one uses an acute triangle and cables or wires hang off the triangle and connect to the other acute triangles.

In Math, we talked about geometry, specifically about quadrilaterals, which are shapes that have four sides, four vertices, and four angles.  Some specific quadrilaterals are squares, rhombuses, trapezoids, and rectangles.  Since we are looking at the attributes of polygons, we also found synonyms for the word "attributes."  Some these include "characteristics," "features," "qualities," and "traits."

Bridge Challenge Continued

Dear Readers,

After a week of anticipation, yesterday we held our bridge competition.  Here is the link to the video of the tests: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU3Oc0oAtDw.  We have already started reflecting on our designs, and the students have begun to excitedly discuss how to make their bridges stronger for next time.

We would appreciate any feedback.

Sincerely,

Mr. V

Multiplication and Division

We have written story problems like:

• Natalie wants to buy 54 pencils for each student in her classroom.  There are 27 students.  How many pencils will she need to buy?
• Natalie has 100 apples, and she had 13 students.  How many apples does each student get if they get the same amount?

Can you figure out which is multiplication and which is division?

We also talked about mathematical symbols, like less than (<), more or greater than (>), and does not equal (≠).

In addition, we have discussed exponents, which mean a small number that goes on top of the big number.  For example, 21^3 = 21x21x21 = 9,261.


On Wednesday, we're having our test.

A few notes

Over the past few days, we've been involved in a number of projects, including:

• creating arguments and gathering supportive evidence for persuasive letters on the topic of euthanasia of stray cats and dogs;
• exploring and using multiple multiplication strategies;
• discussing the exact definition of "congruent" (i.e., besides having the same size and shape, does it also mean having the same orientation?);
• summarizing chapters to two or three sentences that provide the main topic and the most important details; and 
• learning about and practicing bike safety.

Showa Students' Visit and Building Bridges

Showa Students' Visit
We went to the entrance of the school and waited for the Showa students (Japanese college students).  Together we did origami (like Picachoo, cranes, and paper airplanes), asked each other questions (like "What's your name?" "What is your talent?" "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"), took a tour of the inside and outside of the school, and talked about other topics.  They visited because they wanted to learn about English students, and we wanted to meet them so that we could learn more about Japan.  We look forward to them returning in a few months.

Building Bridges
In Science class, we had drawn designs for bridges.  Then we started building them with hot glue and popsicle sticks.  During the building stage, we thought of ways to make the bridges stronger, like gluing sticks on top and bottom of the bridge.  Next week, we will test the bridges to determine how much weight each bridge will hold before it breaks.  Below are some pictures of us building the bridges.

Audience

Today in our Persuasive Writing, we:

• watched two different McDonald’s commercials that both had the same audience of children, but one was targeted toward little children and the other was targeted toward pre-teens.  We discussed what made them different.  What do you think?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eN9KP6lOZs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xl-NbmwK6U

• were writing a letter to Ms. Blake, our school principal, with the thesis statement of, “buy us white boards.”  We did this because we were learning about how to write persuasive letters to different audiences.

Bridge Building and Persuasive Ads

In Science Class, we are going to build bridges.

• We have a challenge to build bridges that span a 12-inch gap, and the only materials we can use are hot glue and popsicle sticks.
• Ms. Rosa, the science teacher, showed us how to use the hot glue gun because we might not know how to use it and because we don't want to touch the tip so that we don't get burned.
• We drafted how we plan to build them.  Then we talked in our group about our different plans.
• Next time, we will start building the bridges, so check back in to see our progress.

Here are some photos of us drafting our bridge designs.

During our persuasive writing time:

• we have been discussing advertisements, their thesis statements, their arguments, and their evidence to support their arguments.
• we have been thinking about products (like a clothes hanger and a loose leaf ring) that we want to advertise.
• we drafted our advertisements to persuade people to either buy or not buy our products.

This is Andrea's public service announcement telling people not to buy door stops because they are dangerous and they cost too much.

This is Katelyn's ad for a clear plastic container.  We should buy it because JayLo, Shakira and Katie Perry choose this clear plastic container over all other clear plastic containers. 

Art class

Today in art class, we:

• practiced blending colors, so that we could use dark, medium, light and very light colors.   We could control the way we color.
• were using blended colors to color our pictures, which we created by outlining with black crayons.

In persuasive writing, we watched a video, and the thesis statement was, "Don't smoke."  Their argument against smoking was that it would ruin your mouth with cancer your teeth would be yellow.  Their evidence was a woman who had mouth cancer and her teeth looked broken and yellow and some teeth were missing.

Tone of voice

Today we discussed tone of voice.  To do this, we made a poster of different feelings people have.  Then we acted feelings out by saying, "Hey you" with different emotions, like anger, sadness, and boredom.  The purpose of this activities was to practice our tone of voice with people.   Sometimes when we ask for something, we say it in a mean way instead of in a nice way because of our tone of voice.  Then it hurts people's feelings.  This game, though, made people laugh so hard that their lungs and cheeks were hurting.

Students should be paid to do their homework

For our unit on persuasive writing, we have been playing a game called Opinion Continuum.  This game involves students responding to a thesis statement, like "Students should be paid to do their homework."  Their response consists of standing somewhere along a line between two signs reading "Strongly Agree" and "Strongly Disagree."  Then we discuss people's arguments for why they are standing at particular points along the continuum.

So, yesterday we played this game again, and I gave the thesis statement above.  As you may imagine a large portion of the class stood near the "Strongly Agree" sign with one student more towards the middle of the line.  When I asked for students' arguments for their positions, I received responses like this:

"We should be paid to do our homework because it's hard work, and hard work deserves pay."
"We should be paid to do our homework because we deserve credit for our work just like other people who have jobs."
"We should not be paid to do our homework because we will get paid later after we get out of school."

I enjoyed these responses for two main reasons: they all came so naturally and they consisted of the basic parts of persuasion: thesis statement, argument and evidence.  After more time exploring persuasion, I have a feeling that these students will be experts, and woe the person who becomes the target of their efforts.

The verdict is in...

Alexander T. Wolf is guilty of murdering the two little pigs.  There were eighteen votes of guilt and fourteen votes for innocence.  The sentencing will be held at a later date, and Wolf plans to appeal the decision.

Thank you all for coming to our blog, for voting, for becoming followers and for commenting.  We hope that you continue to check out our activities throughout the school year.   We enjoyed having you participate, and we will think of other ways to make this site engaging.  If you ever have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know.

Thank you,
Mr. V

The judge needs your help to decide

Dear Readers,

Please act as the jury and help me decide the verdict of Alexander T. Wolf.  Read the evidence presented below, and answer the survey question to the right to indicate Wolf's guilt or innocence.

Thank you,

Mr. V

Prosecution:

• The wolf is guilty because instead of calling the ambulance, the wolf ate the two pigs.  The third pig was rude to the wolf.  The wolf got mad and blew the house down, but it did not fall.  I declare the wolf guilty.
• When the wolf tried to blow the third little pig’s house down, the police were taking pictures, and the wolf went to jail. 
• When the wolf blew the house down, the pig was in the ground, and the wolf should’ve pulled the pig up to check if he was alive.
• The wolf should’ve walked away.

Defense:

• Welcome Judge.  I want to present that Wolf is not guilty because he was sick and had a cold.  I present to you Perla.
• Thank you Noelia.  Wolf is not guilty because he was just baking a cake for his grandma.  He was so sick that he was sneezing a lot, and he couldn’t hold his sneezes.  Now Marielys.
• Wolf is not guilty because why would he leave the pig.  He might as well just eat it.
• The wolf got mad at the third pig because he was being really mean and talking bad about his granny.  He got mad and started sneezing.
• And that’s why Wolf is not guilty.  That’s all we need to say.

The Trial of Alexander T Wolf

Today we:

• copied arguments for or against the guilt of the Wolf.
• put the arguments onto whiteboards so that we can read them tomorrow at the trial.

Check back in tomorrow to find out how the trial ends.

Persuasive Writing

We know that persuasive writing is used to change people's thoughts.  For example, in our class we are putting the Wolf  from the Three Little Pigs on trial, and some students are defending him while others are prosecuting him.  Mr. V will be the judge, and we are trying to persuade Mr. V that the Wolf is either guilty or not guilty.  We need to give some evidence as to why he is guilty or not guilty in the case of the Three Little Pigs.

In the Outdoor Classroom

Yesterday in the Outdoor Classroom, we observed our plants from last week to see if they changed (like if they died or grew).

Andrea's plant changed by getting softer, more colorful, and larger.  The colors were purple, pink, yellow and green.

Katelyn picked a wheat plant, and she observed that it was cream colored, skinny and tall.

What is a successful student

Today we discussed what a successful student does and what he/she looks like.

A successful student:

• is responsible for his/her belongings.  One way to see this is that he/she will always have an organized back pack.
• always wears his/her uniform because it shows that he/she is a part of the school.
• is prepared everyday.   For example, a person who brings a pencil everyday is prepared.
• always does his/her homework because it shows that he/she is learning.

Today in Math

Today in Math, we:

• made flags with math vocabulary words so that we could earn 10 extra minutes of recess.  Each time someone used a math vocabulary word and the person who had that vocabulary word raised his/her flag we got one tile, and if we fill up the Vocabulary Jar, then we get 10 extra minutes of recess.

• were doing a game called Number Puzzles.  In the game, we work with tiles to make arrays with different dimensions and that fit clues.
• were talking about prime numbers (prime numbers mean a number with only two factors, one and the number itself, i.e., 17 is a prime number because the only way to make it is 1 x 17)

Our first day of Physical Education

Today in Physical Education, we:

• listened to music while we were playing a game of crossing the lines.  We went back and forth crossing the lines.  We played this game because we were following instructions not to bump into each other.
• drew pictures of what we like to do because at the end of the year Mrs. R-L is going to write letters to our parents about how well we did.
• stretched so that our muscles don't get tired and strained.

First day in the Outdoor Classroom in 5th Grade

This is a picture of Christian drawing a flower in the Outdoor Classroom.  He's drawing it because we are making observations in Science Class.  We also labeled and described the plants.  Each person made observations of different plants.

Below are pictures of plants that we are observing over the next few weeks.

The third day

Yesterday we:

• were writing down what we need to do to quietly get books from the library.

• were watching a video of the Twin Towers because it was the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  In the video, there was smoke and flames coming from one of the buildings
• drawing pictures that show respectful things like being responsible and doing the right thing in art class.  One example was a picture showing a person giving a pencil to another person who needed it.
• went to art and helped clean off the stage because if we are respectful and follow the rules then we can use that space as a comfortable work space.

2nd Day

Today we:

• saw three pictures (one of the Twin Towers, one of the Pentagon, and one of a Pennsylvanian field) because it is almost the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001.
• explored goals for the end of the fifth grade by visualizing someone we admired, and we watched a short clip from Rocky because Mr. V wanted us to be like Rocky who never gave up and kept trying even though he was tired.
• went to the bathroom because we had to use it, and we discussed the procedures for walking in the hallway so as not to disrupt other students from their work.

Our first day

Three activities we did today:

• We made a star on the rug today with yarn to show that we are stars and that we can help each other as a community.
• We talked about goals and how far we are going to go this year because we want to set up our goals for this year.
• In math, we did adding and subtracting to prepare for multiplication and division.