A Field Trip to Chinook!

A Week in Review

December 10 - 14

 

 

Only ONE more week left until Winter Break! It's hard to believe that 2012 is coming to an end, the past 15 weeks have zoomed by! We had another full week of learning in Room 210. Here's what we've been up to:

 

Field Trip:

Our field trip to Chinook at Ringdall was a success! The 5th Graders were wonderful ambassadors for Medina Elementary and I was so proud of them! Equally impressive was the Chinook band, orchestra, and choir!! We're grateful to Chinook for inviting us to their concert.



Virtue Awards:
Angela C. for showing the virtues of CREATIVITY and COOPERATION! Angela is working diligently to complete a Social Studies project with her group. Her team really appreciates all of her hard work!

Audun K. for showing the virtues of FRIENDLINESS and PEACEFULNESS! Audun is always kind to everyone and gets along well with others. His gentle nature makes Room 210 a better place.

Vincent B. for showing the virtue of EXCELLENCE! Vincent has worked hard to ensure that he has 100% of his Literacy and Math homework completed and turned in on time! Way to go Vincent!

Reading:
We read Cougars by Patricia Corrigan in our Journeys curriculum. Our target skill was "main idea and details" and we worked to monitor and clarify as we read. In this nonfiction text, we discussed the author's purpose and focused on what the main idea was, as well as the details the author gave to support it.



Writing:
We started the week off by comparing narratives to memoirs. We brainstormed what makes narrative writing strong (i.e. vivid details, strong word choice, dialogue)  Students wrote rough drafts and begin revising and editing. Their final pieces should be done next week!

Math:
Students continued in their fraction unit this week. We learned some fraction key terms: "Least Common Multiple" and "Greatest Common Factor" and had many opportunities to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators.





Social Studies:
Our classroom has turned into the "Actor's Studio" this week as small groups of students continued working on their 'commericials' for their colony. The billboards are coming together beautifully as students are focused on their end objective which is to convince their classmates to 'move' to their colony.

Science:
The UW doctoral students were back in our classroom this week as they conducted student interviews. The student interviews were focused on the Landforms unit and students' overall feelings towards science. They also interviewed me while students were in Band/Orchestra; asking about what I saw as the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum unit. I enjoyed talking with them and look forward to our continued partnership in our Mixtures and Solutions unit.

Reading Buddies:
We had our last Reading Buddies session of 2012! We met to finish the backgrounds of our "Snowmen All Year" poem. The 5th graders have been excellent models and teachers to their second grade buddies in regards to reading fluency and technology leadership.





Enjoy this last weekend before break! And as always GO SEAHAWKS!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

December 22 - January 6 - Winter Break
February 9- Medina Auction