A Week in Review

September 24 - 28

 

 

Dear Families in Room 210,

 

What a week! Between football talk (replacement refs, Seahawks 2-1, Husky Nation) and Walkathon excitement, we managed to fit in a lot of learning! Let's start with celebrating our Virtue Award winners!

 

Virtues Awards:

Matthew C. for consistently showing the virtues of RESPONSIBILITY and SELF-DISCIPLINE. Matthew always has a positive attitude and is ready to learn!

Tim P. for showing the virtues of FLEXIBILITY and COURTESY when he willingly switched lunch helper days with a classmate even though it mean that he'll have to wait until November to be a lunch helper. Thank you for setting such a wonderful example of these virtues!

Reading:
How do readers ensure that they understand the author's message? That was a question we discussed and analyzed this week as we talked about what "fix-it" strategies we use when meaning breaks down and we get confused. We also thought about punctuation and how that can help us understand as well as how we figure out unknown words. We actively looked for places we used these strategies during our independent reading time. We were focused and thinking critically about what good readers do to make sure that they are understanding what they are reading. This important work lays a foundation for when we are reading required readings (now and in middle school) and the text poses challenges for us.

Writing:
Our Writing Workshop time this week has continued to focus on memoirs. We looked at different memoirs and analyzed the "voice" that each of the author's wrote with. We found evidence in the memoirs that showed us the "writer behind the words". We also created timelines of important and memorable events in our lives and from that timeline we selected one to write about. This event will become our memoir and our first writing assessment. Students will take their piece through the entire writing process (brainstorm, draft, revise, edit, publish) independently.

Math:
Unit 1 is DONE! This first unit allowed me to see how each student works in math, their confidence level, and their ability to problem solve. Students took the end-of-unit assessment on Tuesday.We went over the results as a class and discussed the problems that were tricky. We also took a pre-assessment for our next unit, "Perimeter and Area". We connected literacy and math together in a fabulous lesson led by Mr. Kealhofer, our student teacher, on exponents. He used the book One Grain of Rice by Demi. Students were asked the question, "Did the main character make the right decision to ask for only 1 grain of rice to be doubled everyday?" We watched a "Brain Pop!" clip on exponents to solidify our learning.

Social Studies:
We wrapped up our geography unit and took our end-of-unit assessment. Students worked hard to study and show what they know on the test. The assessment measured their knowledge on geographic terms and physical features of the United States. Knowing these physical features will help us in our Science unit!

Science:
What can you create with craft sticks. earth material, cubes, rulers, and trays? Why a model of our school playground! As we started our Landforms Science unit, students worked in pairs to create a model of our school playground. We discussed three Science vocabulary words that were key to the lesson: model, boundaries, and structure. We also organized our Science Journals so that we have a specific place to keep our notes and vocabulary words/definitions.

It was another fantastic week of learning in our classroom. We voted on our Walkathon country and agreed on Ireland. We also voted on a name, "Lucky Charms". (A special thank you to Karyn and Deena, our room moms for helping out with the Walkathon banner!) The students were enthusiastic and motivated to learn. I appreciate their friendly and social nature, keeps me on my toes and makes learning fun!

Happy Friday,

Mrs. Hatlestad

Important Dates:

1-Oct - DI and Sponge language programs begin

2-Oct - second money/pledge collection for the Walkathon
5-Oct - Leadership Camp Field Trip

9-Oct - third money/pledge collection for the Walkathon

10-Oct - Walkathon/Spirit Day + Crazy Hair Day - 12:00-3:00 PM

11-Oct - All-School Pajama Day

 



A Week in Review
September 17 - 21

 

 

This was a fantastic week for Room 210!  It seems like we have this “school” thing down to a science now; kids are working well with the routines in the classroom and our community is running like a well-oiled machine!  We continued to work hard with diligence and focus!

 

Virtues Awards:

Ben Y. for showing the virtues of RESPONSIBILITY and ENTHUSIASM! Thank you for taking your learning seriously and for your excitement about everything! You make our classroom a happy place!

Reading:
Don't be a book hog! Students learned to keep a record of their reading interest and a list of books they want to eventually read. This makes way more sense than stacking a load of books on our desks (or our night stand) but it also ensures that we'll remember what we planned on reading next. We analyzed characteristics of fiction and nonfiction and also worked in teams to analyze different texts, sorted them into genres, and used evidence to support our reasoning. Students are continuing to take the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) and have been very focused during independent reading, it truly is a magical time in our classroom.

Writing:
Is your story a "watermelon story" or a "seed story"? We focused our week on how good writers zoom in and focus on one part of a story or experience they want to share instead of giving a laundry list of events. For example, we analyzed two pieces of writing, the first piece wrote about many events from a vacation, in the end the writing seemed more like a list instead of a descriptive narrative that captured the reader's attention. The second piece took one event from the first story, zoomed in and described with fantastic detail and wonderful imagery the event. Ask your child about the lady wearing curlers, running around like she was having a heart attack! We challenged ourselves to brainstorm seed stories and began writing them.

Math:
What are PEMDAS and Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally? Why they are an acronym and a pneumonia device that help us remember the "Order of Operations" of course! Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract! We practiced solving parenthesis and writing equations to solve word problems using parentheses. We also solved comparison and combination problems, practiced with factors, solved multistep word problems and studied the Properties of Multiplication (Commutative, Associative, and Distributive).

Social Studies:
We've wrapped up our geography lesson this week with a focus on geographic terms that describe land and water as well identifying the physical features of the United States. We ended the lesson by creating a HUMAN MAP! Students used their bodies to represent the physical features of the US. Using kinesthetic movements such as these, will help us remember the physical features of the US.

Science:
We concluded our gummy bear experiment by writing our conclusion. We discovered the answer to the scientific question, "Do gummy bears dissolve faster in vinegar or water?" with the answer, "vinegar". When we returned to school on Monday, the gummy bear in vinegar was completely dissolved, leaving the vinegar yellow and allowing us a perfect opportunity to write our first scientific conclusion of 5th grade. We will start our Landforms unit next week!

 

Curriculum Night: 

Thanks for all the support for Curriculum Might, we know it’s a long week and a long day, and so appreciate you taking the time to join us!!  Thank you to all the volunteers who have signed up for jobs in the classroom or within the school.  Lastly, a huge “Shout Out” to Deena E. and Karyn O. for stepping up as our Room Parents!  If you have any questions or concerns about our curriculum, please don’t hesitate to send an email or ask!

 

Happy Friday!

 

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Important Dates:

·         Monday, September 24^th – Try DI for the day & Smart with Art begins

·         Tuesday, September 25^th - 1^st $ turn in day for Walk-A-Thon pledges

·         Tuesday, October 2^nd – 2^nd $ turn in day for Walk-A-Thon pledges

·         Thursday, October 4^th – Enrichment Curriculum Night

·         Friday, October 5^th – Camp Terry (all day field trip)

·         Tuesday, October 9^th – 3^rd $ turn in day for Walk-A-Thon pledges

·         Wednesday, October 10^th – Walk-A-Thon

·         Thursday, October 11^th – Pajama Day!

 





A Week in Review

September 10 - 14, 2012

 

Another GREAT WEEK is in the books for the 2012-2013 school year! We'll start off by giving a shout-out to Katie C. for earning the first Virtues Award from our classroom! Katie received a Virtues Award for showing the virtues of ENTHUSIASM and HELPFULNESS! She is a role model in our classroom and for our school!

Here's what we were up to this week:

Reading:
"Buzzzzzing" was our focus during Reading Workshop this week. Students were given a focus during their independent reading time, following their reading, they met in groups of three to talk ("buzz") about their independent reading book in relation to the focus that was given. The students had thoughtful discussion and were hard at work to deepen their comprehension and reading skills. Students are also in the midst of DRA (Developmental Reading Assessments); we’re hoping to conclude this oral reading fluency, comprehension and inquiry assessment by the end of the month.  I plan to use this data to best address reading strengths and goal areas. 

Writing:
Ideas, ideas, ideas - that's what a writer needs in order to begin. We brainstormed ways that writers get ideas, we tried a few new techniques, too. Ask your child how an index card with a hole punched in it or a "Things I Hate" and "Things I Love" list can help generate ideas. We also read about famous authors (like Roald Dahl) and learned where they keep their ideas - in their Writer's Notebooks of course!

Math:
Our learning in Math this week continued to focus on multiplication and division word problems. We also worked on function tables and writing equations that included a variable in order to identify the "rule" of the table. We unscrambled multiplication tables and used mathematical thinking to identify and write our own word problems.

Social Studies:
Students worked in teams to answer geography questions and identify specific locations on a world map. We studied latitude and longitude, ask your child what movements did we use to help us remember which lines are which on a map/globe.

Science:
"What is the Scientific Procedure?" was a question we explored in a joint lesson with Mrs. Bethel's class. Mrs. Bethel and I co-taught a Scientific Procedure lesson that focused on reviewing the parts of a science experiment and then we conducted one as a class in order to write our own procedure and conclusion. A special thanks to Mrs. Kaminoff and Ms. Keenan for sharing the lesson with us!Ask your child to tell you if "Water or Vinegar dissolves a gummy bear faster?"

Steps to Respect:
We started our anti-bullying curriculum this week, too. Our lesson focused on "intentions" and how to find out what someone's intentions are instead of assuming the worst. We discussed how sometimes misunderstanding someone's actions, by assuming the worst of intentions, can lead to unnecessary problems in friendships.

Thank you for another great week! We are an enthusiastic and focused group, I couldn't be more pleased with how much learning is already happening in our classroom!


Important Upcoming Dates:

§  Monday, September 17^th:  Family Chess Night

§  Thursday, September 20^th:  Curriculum Night

§  Friday, September 21^st Walk-A-Thon “Kick Off” Assembly

§  Wednesday, October 10^th:  All School Walk-A-Thon

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday for Curriculum Night!

~Mrs. Hatlestad



 

Today, We Remember...

As a tribute to the memory of 9/11, students in Room 210 read the book, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. Students reflected on the amazing and remarkable feat of the man, Philippe Petit who's life long dream was to tightrope walk between the 'Two Towers'. Kids vividly described the traits and virtues of the main character in this story; something that Philippe thought, said, felt and did. Our class was able to identify the traits and give evidence from the text. Next, they used this skill independently while reading their own independent reading book.

We honor the memory of all those affected and touched by 9/11 and that fateful day - Mrs. Hatlestad & the Students of Room 210

 

Welcome to 5th Grade!

Our Week in Review

September 7th, 2012

Mrs. Hatlestad - Room 210

Welcome!

What an amazing first week, in my twelve years of teaching, this is one of the best first weeks of school yet!! Thank you for entrusting me with your child’s learning, I am looking forward to getting to know each of these wonderful students! In our classroom this year, we have an amazing teaching intern, Adam Kealhofer! He comes to us from Iowa, where he is studying at the University of Northern Iowa. He will spend 8 weeks with us and then move over to 3^rd grade and spend 8 weeks in Mrs. Mitchell’s classroom. I am looking forward to working with him, teaching him, and learning from him.

Weekly Reports:

Every Friday I will to send home a weekly report for your student. The weekly report consists of three different categories; Behavior, Study Habits and Work Completion. This is a great way for you get a feel for how your child is doing in class. Please make sure to sign the form and your student will return these to me Monday morning. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask.

Homework:

I am proud to say that our students worked diligently on their homework this week! WOW! Even if your student was grumbling about the large amount of  assigned work this week, they produced quality work!

 

Our Specialist Schedule for each week:

Monday: Band/Orchestra 1:15-1:55

Tuesday: P.E. 10:25-11:05

Wednesday: none

Thursday: Band/Orchestra 1:55-2:35

Friday: Art 8:50-9:30

**Library check-out and Computer Lab are TBD....stay tuned!**

 

Our Week in Review:

Assessments, assessments, assessments! That seemed to be the theme as the students completed many pretests for me so that I can begin to learn about who they are, what they know, and what academic goals to set with them!

 

Math:

We took a basic facts (multiplication & division) fluency test, a 5^th grade math inventory test and started our first Math Unit: “Multiplication and Division Word Problems”. We worked on reading and solving comparison word problems as well as using the algebraic notation of using letters to represent the “unknown” in a word problem.

 

Literacy:

Routines, routines, routines! We’ve learned how to check out and return books in our classroom library. We now know the “Guidelines for Reading Workshop” and the importance of reading the entire time and showing respect to other students who might be conferring with the teacher. We discussed “Reading is Thinking”, “Ways Readers Choose Books”, and the difference between “Easy, Just Right, and Challenging” books. We created class posters and hung these in the library to reference throught the year.

Social Studies:

We worked together cooperatively to create our own "Class Constitution"(picture above). We have a preamble that states our purpose and we wrote "Articles" which are the laws that will protect our rights as learners and citizens in Room 210.

Our first Social Studies lesson focused on the basic skills of geography. We learned the importance of grids and how to use one when finding locations on a map. We learned that they help with accuracy and make it easier to find locations. This will lead into learning about longitude and latitude next week.

Science:

The 5th Grades at Medina Elementary are participating in a study with the University of Washington. Graduate students came today and administered a “Landforms” pretest in all of the 5^th grade classrooms. At the conclusion of the “Landforms” unit students will once again complete this assessment and we will compare the results. More will be explained at Curriculum Night. J

 

Once again, I want to welcome you and your student to 5th grade! Throughout the year you’ll receive newsletters and general information from me and the school. If at any point you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask (email or phone). I’m really enjoying getting to know this group. I look forward to seeing you again on Thursday evening during our Curriculum night. Time(s) for 5th grade are TBD.

Happy weekend to you all!