Kids Blog!

Math classes today were blogging away! They had to create a page illustrating and explaining how to complete a math concept. The students were encouraged to pretend that they were the teacher and were teaching their concept to a student. Students should upload a creative image to show their concept. Mrs. Haddox was so impressed today in the lab! Keep those ideas coming! Mrs. Haddox gave us a detailed sheet outlining what she expected and a rubric to show how she would grade us. Later, our friends will log on and solve our problems.

Mrs. Haddox created a mess today! She showed us how different liquids can be denser than others and create layers. We learned that baby oil is lighter that corn oil, and that water is lighter than corn syrup. We loved how the different layers were formed in the clear bowl!

We concluded our work for this week's reading of Good Night, Maman in Language Arts today. Many good points were brought up in discussion. It's is so important to learn about this time in history. We all need to think and learn from choices that were made in the past. We are truly enjoying this story.

Homework:
Math: PSSA folder, study for 15 minutes over the weekend and get the folder signed. Complete vocabulary examples up to rectangle; (204) page 643, 2 and 4
Language Arts - Study your spelling words and review Born Worker. Quizzes will be on Tues. Read through page 138 in Good Night, Maman.
Social Studies - Travel Journal assignment for an African country of choice is due on March 14th.
FRIDAY FOLDERS ARE COMING HOME. PLEASE REVIEW THE PSSA INFORMATION!

A Member of Our Team!

Our team had a very special visit at McD's Cafe from Mr. Crider, Kate's dad, who shared his interesting experience on the USS Enterprise in 1969. He first helped us to realize the dimensions of the massive ship by relating it to our school grounds and building. We were amazed at the size! Since it's an aircraft carrier, he told us about the pilots, the tests they must go through to prepare to fly the planes, and the ability of the planes to go from 0 mph to 150 mph in a matter of seconds. His experiences on the aircraft carrier and the places he's been were so exciting to hear about. He brought pictures, his helmet, his 12-caret gold sunglasses, and the book Top Gun for us to see. He also encouraged us to work hard in school, learn to think, and be open to doing new things. Finally, he shared our next chapter in Good Night, Maman. Just like the characters in the story, Mr. Crider experienced the difficulty of communicating with people in other countries who speak a different language. He said that people always find a way to understand each other, and he's made many friends on his travels. We thank him for visiting our team USS Enterprise today! He IS a member of our team!

Also, today in Language Arts, we read The Born Worker! We compared and contrasted the two main characters, Jose and Arnie. Although they were related and about the same age, there were significant differences in their character. We enjoyed the story.

Math classes received their PSSA folders today. They are to review the materials inside nightly for 15 minutes. We will be adding materials to the folder throughout this week and next. Remember to have your parents sign the cover sheet! We also reviewed converting numbers to decimals, fractions, and percents. Tomorrow we will continue with this lesson.
Tomorrow, Mrs. Haddox will demonstrate how matter can float on each other in our Science Lab. We will hypothesize and draw conclusions as she conducts the experiment!

Homework:
Language Arts - Study your spelling! Review your vocabulary by completing practice page 112. Be prepared for your discussion groups tomorrow.
Social Studies - Visit the links on our blog. Your new Travel Journal assignment is due on March 14th.
Math - Page 360, 14-23. Complete examples on your PSSA vocabulary sheets 1 and 2.
Study for 15 minutes and have your parents sign your folder.

SARRIS CANDY ORDERS ARE DUE TOMORROW!

Success is in our Grasps!!

We are on the road to success! We took our last Math Benchmark this morning. Mrs. Haddox was pleased with our review yesterday and is confident that we did quite well! After this Benchmark, we will be reviewing our Math concepts to prepare for the PSSA test. Students will receive a packet tomorrow that they are to review each night for 15 minutes. Parents: your son or daughter will be bringing home a PSSA packet to review nightly. The packet includes some definitions and concepts that will be covered on the PSSA test. Please encourage your son or daughter to review the material inside for at least 15 minutes. When they have completed their studies, please sign to indicate that you acknowledge their time spent. Thank you for your cooperation!

This afternoon we created inspirational sayings to encourage the 5th grade when they take their PSSA tests.

In Social Studies, we continued to learn about Africa. We also explored a new website that has been posted in the links section of our blog. At this site, we can compare the United States to other countries in the world. Today, we looked at the featured country of Canada and the African country of Chad. It was very interesting.

Homework:
Language Arts - Study spelling.
Be prepared for McD's Cafe tomorrow by reading through p.92 and completing your role.
Social Studies - Study your new study guides and visit the links on our blog.

In Like a Lamb!

March came in like a lamb today! It was so beautiful and sunny! Spring feels like it's on the way!

Our Promethean Board came in handy today as we worked through a lesson on action and linking verbs in class. Our slides gave us many tips and tricks for correctly identifying and using the two types of verbs. Some were pretty humorous. A link has been posted on our blog for further practice with verbs.

We continued our study of Africa today, and proved our knowledge of vocabulary relating to the geography of the continent. Soon we will chose a country to visit through research.
Math classes enjoyed a fun review game called PROVE THAT PROBLEM! Students worked in groups of two to complete math problems. The first group to complete the problem correctly received two points. Each student who completed the problem correctly received one point. We also had to prove our answers at the Promethean Board and explain how and why we got our answers. Mrs. H was really impressed! We will find out the winners tomorrow!

Homework:
Language Arts - Complete grammar page 56 as a graded homework assignment tonight. Study your spelling list. Read through page 92 in Good Night, Maman. Be prepared with your role on Thursday.
Math- Students complete their Prove their Problem packet and "prove" their work.

Mutiply and Divide!

In Math today, we reviewed finding the missing angles in quadilaterals and triangles. We also reviewed multipling and dividing decimals! Oh, how we can forget! Remember that you need to put whole numbers over 1 when you multiply and divide. When you divide, you need to multiply the reciprocal of the fraction. Tomorrow Mrs. Haddox promised us a fun review game!! :)

We continued our study of the geography of Africa today. Using a map we labeled major bodies of water, several of the countries we will be taking a closer look at, the Equator, and Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Take time to explore the links section of our blog to learn more about African landforms and The Sahara Desert.

Mrs. McIlvaine shared the good news that we were very successful on our Benchmark #3 Test. We will be taking a closer look at our answers later this week. One of the skills that we applied on an open-ended response on the test is comparing and contrasting texts. This is our skill for the week with our new story, Born Worker. Today we reviewed the skill and will continue to practice.

Homework:
Math (204) page 273, 8-15
Language Arts - Share Family Times and complete trace +2 for your new list of plural nouns. Read through page 92 in Good Night, Maman and prepare your role for Thursday.
Social Studies - Review your kidblog and comments, revising if necessary. Study your vocabulary words and your regions map. Quiz tomorrow. We'll move on to part 2 tomorrow.