Need a break from your break?

Here some really cool websites to check out over the break if you need a break from your parents. :)

We will be having our class Geo Bee after we get back from the break.  If you would like to go ahead and see what some of the questions may be like you can go to Geo Bee Practice.

Don't forget to keep up your math facts.  Keeping in theme with the Holiday Spirit you can practice it playing with Christmas Lights!

You can also READ, READ, READ!!!  After all it is the only way to become a better reader!

Have a WONDERFUL BREAK!!!!  I will see you January 5th!

Party Time!

Take a look at a few pictures from our party!

Plant and Animal Cells

Today students began their Cell Projects by reviewing items they brought from home that represented the function of each organelle.  Students did an awesome job of then deciding on which item they wanted to use as a group!  

Students can also use this cell website to study for their cell quiz on Tuesday!

Spain Park High School Holiday Performance

Fractions - A Whole New World

Today we continued discussing fractions.  I wanted to bring in more visual models of fractions.  Students were given a sticky note with 1/2 and asked to place it on a number line labeled 0-4.  The picture below shows where the various groups decided to place it.  You can see students labeled the 2, 1 and 1/2, as well as 1/2.  

After asking questions about number lines and fractions, we began to make a list of what we knew and consequently what we could figure out.  You will see this discussion created statements that were so powerful.  Students now know that fractions are PORTIONS of a WHOLE.  They also decide that 1/2 would be between 0 and 1.

Later I asked the students to decide which fraction was larger 1/3 or 3/4.  Again students used number line and area models to defend their answers.  We discovered that thirds are greater than fourths but that 3/4 is closer to a whole and therefore larger than 1/4.  

We did this same thing with 3/12 and 3/6 in which students discovered they could half sixths and when they did they created twelfths.  They also confirmed that the more pieces the smaller the quantity.  So ask your child what he or she knows about fractions!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - Author John Archambault Visits RES

Today we were privileged to hear some stories from John Archambault who writes children's books.  Many of them are inspirations from stories his grandmother told him when he was a kid.  He is most well known for his work on Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a book that most elementary students know and use as they are learning their letters. It was a lot of fun for the kids!

The Great Debate Continues - Citing Sources

Today I was very proud of the students as they reviewed their argument essay. We are looking for more evidence to support our opinions. In this search, we have discovered many articles and videos with information. However, we discussed never wanting to use someone else's thoughts, words, or ideas without giving them credit.

We spent our morning learning about plagiarism and citing sources. The students then went on to revise their writing to reflect where they had found the information and began creating bibliography pages in their writing!

Veteran's Day Program

We were privileged to honor past and current United States Veterans in our school program this week. What a great experience for students to see those who have served and fought to keep our country free!

Curriculum News for November

Spelling:
Students will begin Unit 14 in Spelling this week.  Spelling Homework is due on Tuesday, November 18 and we will test that day as well.

Writing: 
This week we have typed our argument essay into a Google Document on the Chromebook.  We will begin learning how to include evidence in our writing by researching for facts that support our opinions and how to correctly cite quotations in our essay.  We hope to be able to then revise and edit and publish our final piece before the Thanksgiving break begins!

Math:
We are beginning our unit on fractions!  Fractions are a fun unit but a unit that can cause students to question their mathematical sense.  Please continue to practice multiplication facts with them as this will help us explore and learn equivalent fractions.  For example 1/3 of 9 is 3 because 3x3=9. 

Reading:  
We will be working on main idea and summarizing using the November/December issue of Storyworks Magazine.  Remember you can access the magazine at Storyworks Magazine website and sign in using the code Wallis2014. 

We will also begin Lesson 7 in Vocabulary and that test will be on Friday, November 21. 

Social Studies:
Students are currently working on Chapter 11 in their American History book.  We have discussed the electoral college,  the inauguration of George Washington and the development of political parties.  We are now turning our attention to Westward Expansion.  Please be looking for the Chapter 11 study guide to be on your child's Google drive.  They will be able to access this from home as well as work on it in class.  This test will be next week Thursday, November 20. 


Other Class News:
We will begin a canned food drive next week (Nov 17-21) so look in your pantry this weekend for some cans to bring in!

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN SPIRIT NIGHT IS NOVEMBER 18!!!  Please be sure to bring the gold colored slip of paper to give to your waiter!

Progress reports will come home NEXT Wednesday, November 19. 

Students will not be in school November 24-28 for Thanksgiving Holiday Break!  Enjoy this time with your friends and family!

Candy Cane Run will be December 6.  Be looking for more information to come home soon.

Chromebooks are here!

Chromebooks are here and we are loving them!  Yesterday the Hoover City Schools technology team delivered the "books" to each students and made sure they were in working order.  They also helped students bookmark important websites such as our class blog and the technology help site.  This will be especially helpful to parents when the Chromebooks start coming home.

Today we are exploring a few more of the Chromebook features like sharing documents as well as ways that they will aid us in research.

First up, a Veteran's Day webquest that students used both Chromebooks, pencil, and papers to discover more about this historic and important day.  You can see what they were working on by visiting the Veteran's Day website that we used in class today.

Camp McDowell

Well, camp has come and gone and what an AWESOME time it was!  Here is a short camp video to see just a small bit of the experiences we had while at Camp McDowell.

Red Ribbon Week

We are choosing to be drug free and surround ourselves with information about how to stay healthy and make good choices!






Yesterday Spain Park High School's Teens Needing Teens (TNT) came. They are a peer helping group that came to sharedwith us a variety of activities they CHOOSE to stay involved in instead of getting involved with drugs.

  

Today two special agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration came and showed the kids what it was like to go to training and the special gear they sometimes have to wear. We also learned about their day to day activities and ways that fight criminals from spreading the usage of drugs.

 

Fall Into Math!

The weather has been changing so today we decided to FALL into math.  The kids participated in four math centers that reviewed and practiced multiplication, division, and volume skills.  They really enjoyed being able to move around and do something different to earn their Friday math grade. 

Our math centers today were:
1) Volume War - students flipped over two cards each with rectangular prisms and their dimensions.  Students calculated the volume and the student with the prism that had the most volume won! 

2) Salamander Multiplication - Students choose two factors to multiply and then cover that product with a colored playing chip.  First person to cover four products in a row wins!

3) FALL into multiplication and division - Students chose six math problems from various fall leaves to solve. Salamander Multiplication Game

4) Practicing and completing volume worksheet with Mrs. Wallis. 

Author Peter Larengis Visits RES!

We were so excited to have Author Peter Larengis at Riverchase today!  He shared with us about his struggle to find good ideas in writing. This is something all the kids seemed to relate well with! 

Mr. Larengis also told us about the adventures that have unfolded since he became an author. Did you know if you become an author you could ride on Air Force One all the way to Russia? 

One of the greatest things he shared were his writing drafts that were edited over and over again. The students discussed with him how editing and revising can make writing better. It was really fun for them to see what they do in class in the real world!

Check out more information about Mr. Larengis and his books at http://peterlerangis.com/

Scholastic News and Storyworks Resources

We will soon be getting our Chromebook laptops so today we discovered Scholastic News and Storyworks magazine digital resources. The links are below in the Language Arts Links. 

The student sign in password for Scholastic News is Wallis14.

The student sign in password for Storyworks is Wallis2014.

Check out the digital issues as well as the games, videos, and other resources that are now available to us!

Halloween Math

Here is a really cool website that provides math fluency practice for all four operations. It also happens to be Halloween themed!  Move your ghost by clicking on the arrows to catch the answer to the problem.  Be careful though!  If you catch three bats your game is over!  Happy Halloween!

Volume

Today we began to explore the world of geometry and more specifically volume. The kids did "quick images" of certain figures and were challenged to build what they saw after only a few seconds.

We discussed that with volume things are not always as they seem or are seen.

Students were then given the task to construct their own boxes to hold certain volumes of cubes. The question at hand is, is there a way you could find the number of cubes that would fit in any box without building it? 

October 14-17 Weekly News

***Our 5th grade t-shirts are coming home today! Please make sure your child wears this shirt on field trip days.  We will all wear our t-shirts on Wednesday, Oct. 29, when we leave for camp.***

Report Cards Go Home TOMORROW,  Wednesday,  October 15.

Parentology Meeting in Mrs. Tanner’s room October 16 @7:30.

 Red Ribbon Week is Oct. 27-31.  We will be gone to camp for the last portion of Red Ribbon Week so let's really make sure we participate on Monday and Tuesday, October 27-28

 

Monday, October 27^th        All classes will pledge to be drug free and sign a pledge.

                                                  8:15am TNT from Spain Park will present to grades 1-5

                                                “Sock It to Drugs” wear crazy colorful socks

Tuesday, October 28^th     Building a Drug Free Community- students wear red

                                                 Spain Park TNT Presentation to grades 3-5

 

Curriculum News

Language/Writing: This week will be working on adjectives and adverbs as part of our morning work.  Students have also used their computer lab time to log some practice time with adjectives as well as quotations and dialogue rules.

 

We are beginning our argument writing.  I introduced a question to the students this week, that we will continue to use this topic to learn how to write an argument piece.  The question I proposed is, "Should we have chocolate milk in our cafeterias?" Ask your child their opinion on this and see what their reasoning is behind their thoughts.  I was surprised to see that the majority of the class first voted to ban chocolate milk.  Now, we will begin to research some facts to back up our opinions and who knows we may end up changing our minds!

 

Math: Please see the separate post on volume and see what we began exploring today!

 

Vocabulary: We will be working on Vocabulary Lesson 5 this week.  Test will be on Friday morning during our Reading time.  

 

Reading: We are focusing on questioning with nonfiction expository texts.  This week our wonderful reading coach Mrs. Chiaramonte is with us.  We love it when she comes!

  

Social Studies: We are going to begin doing some research on Veteran's day and begin to prepare what and in what form the students would like to present this information. Try to discuss the difference between Memorial Day and Veteran's Day with your child.  Do you know any Veterans?

 

 

Let the debates begin!

All week we have been "warming" up our arguing skills. One would think fifth graders would not need help in this area. However, we are starting to discover that even when we have an opinion we need to base that opinion on facts. Today in our Storyworks magazine there was a great debate article on cursive writing. Students had to find evidence from the article to support teaching cursive in school and not teaching cursive at school. Ask your child which side they feel has more evidence! Also ask them what topics we have warmed up with.

Next week we will start to research our opinion writing. They are so excited to know what it is! 

To space and beyond!

Yesterday we spent more time discussing outer space and more specifically space exploration.  The kids got an up close, or as up close as you can get to a planet that is light years away, by exploring the Hubble Telescope website and its discoveries.  Take a look for yourself HERE!


I was really proud of the "teachable moments" that the students provided as we discussed various scopes and cameras which brought about discussion of the various rays that exists.  We also discussed the dated materials and how we need to pay attention to the most current information when researching.  However, we concluded that some space information may be older than we are because it takes years to collect. 

September 29-October 3

Today is an exciting day at Riverchase Elementary School!  It is Fall Festival Day!  We sure do wish it wasn't raining but we will make the most of it.  Today we are channeling our excitement into publishing our first narrative writing piece!  The students have worked VERY hard learning about leads, dialogue, and telling a "small moment" story from their life.  I am very proud of the way that they have revised, edited, and revised again!  I can't wait to read their final pieces!

We used the upper grades computer lab today.  However, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our Chromebooks in November.  Once we get them set up, students will be able to research and type their writing in the classroom as we are working!  If you have not signed the Hoover Engaged Learning Initiative agreements please go here to do so.

Other Curriculum News:

Writing:  If there is one thing I know about fifth graders, it is that they ALL have opinions.  Next week we will begin exploring argument and opinion writing.  This is a lot of fun for the kids.  We will learn that it is important to learn both sides of an argument as well as how to present this evidence in a convincing manner.

Reading: In conjunction with our writing unit, we will begin to study nonfiction text and their features.  This is a very important skill for fifth graders to be expose to and practice as they get ready for middle school text books and real-world print. 

Math: We are finishing our unit on properties of numbers, multiplication and division.  By the end of next week we SHOULD be able to move on to our geometry unit.  Please remember math IXL contracts are due October 7.

Science:  We will be finishing our earth and space science unit.  If you have not done so, ask your child about the fun experiments we have done with types of rocks and gravity!