Classwork: March 28th

Revisited Voice Work:
I corrected and turned back the voice work.  This week they are working to correct or complete any missing sections.

Chapter 8 Notes: Slavery

Cottage Art (still working to draw pictures using 2 point perspective technique)

Choice Piece #1: due Friday
THIS IS HOMEWORK!!!!
Students must write 3 choice pieces: narrative; informative essay; opinion essay

Word Journal #5:
con-  com-

Settler Presentations

POW: Marathon

Portfolio Evaluation: pick 3 pieces and write a reflective piece about why you picked them
a) best quality work;  b) where you learned the most; c) best teamwork



EARLY RELEASE
Tuesday through Friday 11:45

Classwork: March 21st!

HAPPY SPRING!

Reading: Ch 9 and Ch 7 of our Social Studies Alive Book; this includes notes.
Writing: Choice piece #1 (kids must write three pieces by the end of the year: 1 narrative story; 1 informative essay; 1 opinion essay).
Drawing: 2 point perspective building/cottage
Word Journal #4: circ- circum-  (find ten words using these prefixes, define prefixes, find 5 other words of your choice with definitions)
Group Project: students are finishing their research on a specific colony; then, with a group are creating a presentation; most are choosing slide presentation, but others are writing scripts for news programs, "PBS specials", or a time-travelling adventure.


GREENBELT PERMISSION SLIP
(see permission slip below)
We will need 3-4 parent volunteers this Friday.
Also, bring in pruning shears (hand held ones; not the long loppers) if you can.

Greenbelt Service Project

Friday, March 25th

Mr. Samson’s class will be participating in an action project this Friday, March 25th, from 1:15-2:30.  We will walk down to the green belt (the green space just south of Hansen’s lower soccer field) and work to clear the trails.  Students will be working to clear brush, cut back plants, and pick up trash.  The goal is to make the space and the trails accessible to students at Marshall and Hansen.  Students may be in contact with middle school students as this is a joint project with Marshall Citizen Science Institute.  Students will want to bring raincoats, rain boots and work gloves.  Students may be using pruning shears.  

I give permission for my student, __________________________, to participate in the Greenbelt Service Project.

PARENT/GUARDIAN SIGNATURE_______________________________Date_____________

⏯ I do NOT want my child using pruning shears.

MAJOR UPDATE!

I have reorganized the way we are doing both math and language arts.

We now rotate through stations for both subjects.  

MATH:  all of this work is kept in a math folder at school

STATION	Description of what they are doing at that station.
WW Word Work	Students are writing mind maps that define relationships between math vocabulary.
POW Problem of the Week	Students work to create solutions to challenging problems.
Mr. Jefts	Kiri's grandfather leads a small group, focusing on group-work and collaboration.
I Independent work	Students are given assignments when they work with me or with Mr. Jefts.  They use the “I” time to complete this work.  After finishing, students should correct their work, or work ahead on pages from their unit.
Mr. Samson	I deliver a lesson, then give an assignment.
Work Places	Work places are part of Bridges; games designed to reinforce math skills.

LANGUAGE ARTS: these assignments are kept in their Homework Folder

Mr Samson	We set goals, discuss assignments, and work on specific skills related to classwork.
Word Journal	Students are listing ten words with a given prefixes.  Afterward, they add any ten words from any source. The goal? 20 words a week.
Writing	They are using the writing process to work on their choice writing piece.  They should be quietly engaged.  Laptops are available.
Independent Reading	Students can read their choice of book, but should pick a book that helps them work on their reading goals (think word journal).
Buddy Up	Students work on their fluency by reading quietly to another partner.
Comprehension	One of two sessions where students finish their notes on chapter 6.

This week, we are putting finishing touches on our letters to the restaurants.

We continue to improve our writing through voice activities.

We are beginning a unit on colonization, including reading and taking notes on Chapter 6 from Social Studies Alive.  Students are also beginning a group project about an American colony (Spanish; French; or British).

Classwork: Feb. 22

Food and Nutrition Wrap Up.
1) Student Complete Human Body Packet
2) Students Finish Group Posters showing a system (including a paragraph description of one organ)
3) Opinion Letter: analyze 3 food items from a restaurant and write a formal letter stating your opinion about how healthy those food items are.
4) Test
5) Sugar Test: which cereals have the most sugar?  (please send in 1/2 cup of cereal)

Writing: VOICE WORK
We are learning about voice and including some ways to improve our writing:

• use vivid verbs
• add adjectives or adverbs (or take them out)
• use figurative language
• add description that engages that sense

 Math: wrap up of fraction unit
Post-assessment coming soon.

Assignments: February 8th

We are working big time on Food and Nutrition Unit.

We are making human body posters in teams.
We are researching what it takes to make a well balanced meal so that we can a) plan a menu for a day's worth of meals; b) analyze nutritional information from a restaurant in order to write an opinion letter about whether or not their food is any good.

We are plugging away at fractions.
This week we are making maps of a 30km river with landmarks at half-way, quarters, fifths, sixth, fifths and twelfths.  In addition, we are working on renaming fractions, converting improper fractions to mixed numbers (and back) and more.

Big news, on Thursday, we are doing our second of our two water quality field trips. 

Optionally, if your kid (probably 5th graders) wants to go to the South Sound GREEN Congress, they have an essay to write: "Why is clean water important?"

Classwork: week of Feb. 1

I have changed a few things, due to a class meeting discussion about work.

First of all, the students said that due dates were stressing kids out too much.  So, we are just working on things until they are done.  Kids who finish early with all their work will do learning contracts to extend their learning in content related fields.

Second, we aren't doing math groups by grade level any more.  There was too much of a mix up.  Instead, we are all working on the best problems from the fourth and fifth grade curriculum.  I am giving daily lessons (number talks and problem strings) and then we follow up with some problems on related content.

This week, we are starting the Food and Nutrition unit:

•  reading Food and Nutrition: take notes using the "Nutrient Table"
• label and color diagrams of the human body systems
• bring in three (or more) food labels containing ingredients and nutrition information.

 Please refer to the page on the entire unit:

http://mrshomework.blogspot.com/p/food-and-nutrition.html

Classwork: January 25th

This week we are:

Presenting our Explorer Projects
Finishing up our Explorer Maps
Working on an OPTIONAL Boat Project (poster or recycled material model)
Finishing Chapter 5 Notes about (you guessed it) EXPLORERS!
Reading "Island of the Blue Dolphin" excerpt and taking a comprehension test on Friday
Taking the MAP test for reading and Math
Reading aloud Around the World in a Hundrd Years  and taking notes about famous EXPLORERS!

In math we are working on double number lines to help us solve fraction problems.
Example:  what is 5/7 of 4900?  What is 5/8 of $56?