Monday, May 29, 2017

5B Classroom News: Week of May 22nd

Spiderweb Challenge
We did the spider web and this time we all made it through !! We think we made it through because we know each other better now than we did at the beginning of the year. Also, we know each others abilities better and what our comfort lines are.

                                                        -Ella and Sadie

The spider web challenge was easier this time because we know each other so we have built trust and we managed to do it!!!!!!!
-Gail Gardner









OQS Spring Concert on Thursday, May 25th
Last night we had the spring concert.  I think that we did a very good job.  This year we got to choose one of the concert songs and we decided to do You Can Count on Me.  We also did band and we played four songs.  One of them was called Gentle Winds and it took a lot of practice, but we did it. During one of the concert songs that was called Make New Friends, we got to play percussion instruments. -Kate  



Last night was AWESOME!! The concert was AMAZING!!! And it was fun! It was fun playing our instruments in the concert…..for the last time though.  
-Ali



Last night we had our spring concert. The whole class was in the band. We played a piece called Gentle Winds. It sounded really cool. We sang a song that we, and the other class, picked called Count on Me, and the movement were interesting.
-Sonya



Last night we had our spring concert which was our last concert.  My mom picked out a dress for me to wear, but I REFUSED to wear one.  My friend Ali went with “the casual”.  A lot of the girls and boys in our class wore nice outfits.  I just went with short pants and a long sleeved shirt.  I am very glad that it's over (no offense) but it was so stressful!!!  That is all.  Peace out.
-Lilly









Writing Narratives and Poes Using the Storybird App
In class we get to go to this amazing app called Storybird. We get to write our own stories. I love it so much.

            -Leiyah :)

Today we shared our Storybird stories.  They were funny and we enjoyed it.  I really like the Storybird app because we get to pick drawings and write about them.  I am excited to hear more of our stories.     
 -Kate
We did some stories on Storybird, like Kate said, and mine was about a stupid, fat, blue alien that saved the world from Green Guys with a flamethrower that he found and it’s called The Bobby that Saved the World.
-Brody

Today we shared our Storybird stories. They were funny. I liked Lilly’s the most. It was called The Friend Chain.  At the end there was a dark turn. The monkey was going to die soon. Everybody thought it was funny though. There was another one I liked, too. It was called THE BOBBY THAT SAVED THE WORLD.  It was funny and everyone was laughing to the point where they almost could not breath! It was written by Brody, so of course it was funny!! : ]
- Kendall

Today we got to share our Storybird books/stories.  I shared one called THE FRIEND CHAIN. Parts of it made people in my class laugh, but the one part where they burst out laughing was at the end where I introduced Ralph and I made him say that he was going to die soon.  The other stories that my classmates shared were pretty funny as wel,l and I can’t wait to hear more of them.                                                                                                -Lilly

I made poems on Storybird.  I will give you some of the words of my favorite poem that I made: giggle, green, and frogs.
      - Lochlan

Hey this is Nick here, I made a poem about I spit dragons!!

Today in class we got to read our stories in front of the class and my favorite was Lilly’s because it is really funny to me.
                          -Leiyah







Learning about the American Revolution
The book Woods Runner is about a boy whose parents got captured and his dad and his mom are playing chess with somebody to stay alive during the American Revolution.
                                                                                        -Gail


Fact Fluency
Students learned a new fact fluency game this week called Climb the Ladder to help them with their multiplication facts.











Sunday, May 21, 2017

5B Classroom News: Week of May 15th

SBAC Testing is over! The students were very focused this week on SBAC testing.  I could see that they worked very hard and did not rush through their tests.  I appreciate all of their effort!

Fractions in Math
In math, students are learning how to multiply fractions.  They played a game this week called Target One.  They were each dealt 5 number cards and had to choose 3 cards to form an equation with a whole number multiplied by a fraction that would get them as close to one whole as possible.  Their score for a round was how far away from one whole they were. After 5 rounds they added up their scores, and the partner with the lowest score was the winner.  Not only did this game strengthen their fraction multiplication skills, it also had them practicing their addition and subtraction skills with fractions.








Writing
On the Storybird app we get to make our own picture book, chapter books, and poems. We get to make all of the the books and poems on fun interactive pictures. We get to create our own covers and all the pages inside. All of the people in our class are connected so we can all see their work.

--Ella

Spider Web Challenge
On Friday, we headed to the woods to do the Spider Web Challenge. This is a team building exercise that the students attempted in the fall, but did not complete. They needed to use their communication skills to get everyone through a homemade spider web without causing the web to move too much. Also, there were only 14 holes to go through in the web, and they could only use each hole one time. It was early in the year and they were not able to get the task done in the time that we had. They had been wanting to try the challenge again. So... now that mud season is over, we went out to try again. I also thought it would be a nice way to celebrate the end of SBAC testing. I'm please to report that the students were successful! Many thanks to Mr. Clough for taking the students through this challenge. Their perseverance was amazing! Next week, I hope some of the students will report on the blog about this experience.













  



Sunday, May 14, 2017

5B Classroom News: Week of May 8th

Morning Choice Is a Big Hit!
The students are really enjoying easing into their morning with a choice activity when they arrive in the classroom.  It gives them a chance to socialize with a group of students while at the same time practicing a skill such as writing, computer coding, art, multiplication fact fluency and many others.  On most mornings they have up to 5 activities from which to choose.  I try to mix up the choices each day and we are adding new ones all of the time.

Lochlan, Evan, Sadie and Ella are using Hour of Code to do computer programming.

Leiyah, Ali, and Kendall practice their artistic skills using Play-doh.

Kate and Brody try to create dollar words to earn some Burke bucks.

Lilly and Sonya are classroom reporters today, writing posts for our blog.

Gail, Matthew, Nick, and Aiden are practicing their multiplication facts using our ipads.

Science:  Biome Presentations
On Wednesday and Thursday, students presented their biome projects.  There were slideshows, essays, tv commercials, informational videos, educational videos, news reports, dioramas, brochures, information booths, and posters. It was inspiring to see all of their hard work.  They were very proud to share what they learned and I'm very proud of all of them.


                                                       The Taiga Biome
 


The Tundra Biome

 

                                                            The Desert Biome
 


                                                          The Ocean Biome


                                               The Tropical Rain Forest Biome
 

 

                                                      The Freshwater Biome
 


                                                The Deciduous Forest Biome


Field Trip to See Shrek, Jr.
This week we went on a field trip to the Hartford High School to watch a play called Shrek.  It was really fun to watch.  It was also confusing because the middle school was doing the play, but it was at the high school.  That is what we did this week.
--Lilly

On Wednesday my class, 5B, went to the High School to see the the Hartford Middle School musical about Shrek and donkey. It was amazing!                                                                                                          
--Gail

On Wednesday we went to the Shrek play at the Hartford High School that was performed by the Hartford Middle School. My favorite character is the dragon because it was a really good part and her costume was really cool. My favorite song was Story of My Life sung by the fairy tale creatures.
--Sadie Clough

On Wednesday we went to a high school play called Shrek and it was awesome!  It was so funny and even though there were parts where they had a short period of time when they were supposed to be talking it was amazing and really interesting how they set it up. I am so glad that we got to go to it because it is fun and amazing how well they do it and set it up. I love to watch them and they make me want to do it next year when I get the chance.
- -Leiyah Fisher

We went to see Shrek the musical and it was really good and we got to see friends from other grades in the middle school.
--Ella


Writing using the Storybird App
In writing we set up Storybird accounts. Storybird is a website where you can type stories and add pictures. You can write a long or short story, or create a picture book.
--Sonya

We have done work on a website called Storybird where you take pictures drawn by other people and create a story based on the picture of our choice and Nick is writing about a fish with no friends who drives a car. Also, Brody is writing about Bobby a big fat blue stupid thing.         
--Evan



Reading:  Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen
In reading we are reading a book called Woods Runner about a boy named Samuel.
--Sonya
                                                             
The book Woods Runner is about a boy named Samuel who one day went hunting and he started to look at some smoke going up and it was right by his town. Then he came back and his house burnt down and most of the houses around his house. His parents got taken, followed by other kids being taken, and some towns people dying.
--Gail


Math Monsters
In math we are doing math monsters.  We solved a bunch of math problems and we got a sheet where if our answers were right then it would show a monster. Then we had to write a narrative. It took a long time.
--Brody Tyburski


SBAC Testing
We are doing SBAC tests right now.  They are sometimes hard and sometimes easy.  You have to focus on the test and think hard about it to do well.  So far we have done the math test.  Next week we will do the ELA test which has a lot of writing in it.
--Kate