Learning, a Half Marathon, and a Birthday!

A Week in Review

January 21 - 25

 

What a fantastic week of diligence and focus in Room 210! It may have only been a 4-day week, but with all of the amazing learning and critical thinking discussions, it definitely felt like a full 5-day week, wow!

 

 

Virtues Awards:

Ben Y. has earned a Virtues Award for showing COMPASSION and KINDNESS by helping another student who needed it. Thank you Ben!

 

Katie C. has earned a Virtues Award for consistently showing DILIGENCE and EXCELLENCE. Katie is an exemplary model of what it means to be a successful student!

 

Reading:

We finished our Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. biography! We were captivated by his dedication and determination in peacefully seeking equal rights for African Americans. We dug deep into our own lives and made connections as to how WE could show some of the same virtues that Dr. King did in our school and in our world.

 

 

Writing:

The "I Have a Dream" speech is still one of the most amazing speeches ever given and it continues to live on and as we pass Dr. King's message on to the next generation. We combined with Mrs. Bethel's class and viewed his speech, listened to his message, and thought about how it impacted them. Students wrote response paragraphs describing and explaining what they could do to carry on Dr. King's message.

 

 

 

Math:

Unit 6 Measurement was a short, but challenging unit. Students worked on compound units of measurement (i.e. 1 gal and 5 quarts = ____quarts?). Students also investigated elapsed time and used the 24-hour clock to solve problems. Today we took a practice test and students were taught a new study method: "CSI". No, not the CBS TV Show, but "Color, Symbol, Image". This routine is a way for students to remember vocabulary or key concepts by using color or drawing a symbol or image to depict the concept. Students were sent home with a worksheet for this routine to help them STUDY for the test on MONDAY!

 

Social Studies:

Critical thinking is our school wide focus at Medina. Socratic Seminars are a method for extending our learning and using our critical thinking skills. Students were put into two groups (inner circle and outer circle). The inner circle holds a discussion while the outer circle listens and makes observations that they share after Socratic Seminar. The question, "Why do we study history?" was posed to the students. I was so impressed with their thoughtful responses and the quality of conversation. Students were very respectful and discussed the importance of studying history so that history doesn't repeat itself, especially with something like slavery. They also said that it's important so that we know where we came from, how our country was founded and so that we can learn from our mistakes. It was a very thoughtful discussion and I was so impressed with their focus.

 

Science:

We finished Investigation 1 of our Science unit, Mixtures and Solutions. We learned that in order to separate a solution (which is a special kind of mixture where one material dissolves into another) you have to use evaporation. When evaporation is used on a saltwater solution, the result is that salt crystals are formed. We then put a 3-part mixture together: gravel, powder, and salt and came up with our own way to separate the 3 materials. The results will be finalized on Monday, when they can observe their investigation.

 

A note from Mrs. Hatlestad 

I am truly grateful to have all of these wonderful students in my classroom and that teaching them is my "job". A job I much love. Thank you for the birthday wishes and treats. Your thoughtfulness and kindness are truly appreciated. A special thanks to our wonderful room moms, Karyn and Deena for the morning birthday celebration we had today (complete with Krispy Kremes for all of us, as well as a coffee just for me). Thank you for the class gift, I'm excited about my new running shirt and socks!! Now that my half marathon is over, I can enjoy jogging again without the extra pressure! :) Many of you have asked about the Tinkerbell half-marathon I ran last Sunday, so here are the details real quick: the race took place in the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland. My sister ran the race with me. We did get to run through the park before it opened! The race had a 5am start time, so that runners could do this! Throughout the Park, there were characters and employees cheering us on. You could even stop to have your picture taken if you wanted to, but for me the lines were too long and I wanted to keep on going.:) I met my two personal goals, 1) to run the entire 13.1 miles and 2) to finish in under 3 hours. Thanks for the good luck wishes and positive thoughts, they got me through miles 9 and 10! :)

 

Enjoy your weekend and again THANK YOU for letting me teach your children each and every day.

 

~Mrs. Hatlestad

 

Upcoming Events:

28-Jan - Smart with Art Winter Session begins   

9-Feb - Auction

18-Feb - Mid-Winter Break! (through Feb 24)

I Have A Dream...

A Week in Review

January 14 - 18

 

 

 

Reading:

We finished our class read aloud, I Have a Dream, a biography about Dr. Martin Luther King, JR. Today, students used a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast our read aloud with My Brother Martin. Read alouds allow Mrs. Bethel and I intentional opportunities for teachable moments. We often model our thinking for students, demonstrate reading strategies, and pose higher level thinking questions to students. It is one of my most favorite times during the day.
 

Writing:

Students were introduced to an new graphic organizer this week as they began brainstorming and writing a rough draft to an expository prompt. This series of expository writing lessons are intended to review the concept with students and solidify the foundation they need for writing strong persuasive essays.

Social Studies:

Chapter 8 has proved to be emotional, challenging and difficult to feel settled with; as students are learning about Slavery from the perspective of West Africans.  Students met in small groups to discuss three major dilemmas that enslaved Africans dealt with.  Together, as a large group we debriefed and discussed all the possible scenarios of what choices we might make, how we would react, respond and deal with these atrocities. 

 

Math:
We are currently underway with our “mini” unit of Capacity, Volume and Weight.  In this unit, students develop some important relationship in measurement. They begin by using what they know about length and area to develop a formula for volume. Then students change the length or the area of a figure and predict how the volume will change. Students compared volume and capacity, and mass and weight. We looked at the Metric system as well as our Customary Units of Measurement (gallons, quarts, pints, and cups).

Science

What is the difference between a mixture and a solution?  What types of mixtures can you separate with a screen?  How about a coffee filter?  How would you separate salt and water as a mixture?  These are all driving questions for our students this week in Science.  5^th Graders worked together this week to determine that Evaporation was one way to separate a mixture!  This unit is tying in quite nicely to integrate with Math!  Keep thinking in terms of measurement kids! 

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all that he accomplished and sacrificed for us…enjoy this 3 day weekend (I’ll see you bright and early Tuesday morning). 

 ~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:
Monday, January 21^st:  No School in honor of MLK Day
Thursday, January 24^th:  Heritage Project Part 3 (Essay about Grandparent)
Thursday, January 24^th:  Poetry in Motion Assembly 8:30-9:30AM
Saturday, February 9:   Medina Auction
Thursday, February 14^th:  Valentine’s Day
Monday, February 18^th – Friday, February 22^nd Mid-Winter Break



Happy New Year!

A Week in Review

January 7 - 11

 

Virtues Awards:

Jack Don. has earned a Virtues Award for showing the virtues of DILIGENCE and JOYFULNESS. Jack is always hard at work and he does it all with a smile! Keep up the good work Jack, you're an excellent 5th grade leader!

Ben Y. has earned a Virtues Award for showing the virtue of DILIGENCE! Ben demonstrated critical thinking with his thoughtful responses and focus on excellence during Social Studies!

 

Reading:

We spent our first week back reviewing routines and using reading strategies during independent reading. We discussed critical thinking and what that looks like when we read. We know that critical thinkers ask questions, so we took time this week to jot down the questions we were asking ourselves during independent reading. We shared them in small groups. Asking questions about the text deepens our comprehension.

 

Writing:

Students became comic strip authors this week! Students were given a writing prompt that guided them to create a comic strip depicting an event from their winter vacation. The students were very engaged in this writing lesson and I'm very proud of how focused they were

 

Math:

Our fraction unit has come to an end. We spent Monday and Tuesday reviewing the major concepts from Unit 5: Adding and Subtracting Fractions. On Wednesday we took the end-of-unit assessment. One of the biggest challenges for students was demonstrating the decimal equivalent to a given fraction and we focused heavily on that during our review.

 

Science:

We started our Mixtures and Solutions unit by administering the pre-test on Monday. Kari, from the University of Washington, was here to oversee the assessment and collect the data. She'll use the test to compare results with the post test we'll give at the end of the unit.

 

Social Studies:

We used the "Question Formulating Technique" or "QFT" to start Chapter 8 Slavery, in our History Alive! curriculum. Students viewed a focus picture and read a statement based on the picture and used their critical thinking skills to generate questions. Then, students worked in groups to sort their questions into open-ended and closed questions. As a class, we chose the top three questions from each group, the ones that we thought were the most discussion worthy. We'll use those questions to guide our focus in this chapter as we read about three specific dilemmas that the West Africans faced.

Thanks for another great week of enthusiasm and excellence. I hope you have a relaxing weekend. Go Seahawks!!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:
1/16 - STAR Reading and Math test
1/21 - No School in observance of MLK Jr. Day
2/4 - 5th Grade "Human Growth and Development" class begins
2/9 - Medina PTSA Auction
2/18-2/22 - Mid-Winter Break