A Week in Review

May 27 - 31

 

Our short week has come to an end, but we packed a lot of learning into it! We also won the Box Top popcorn party for 5th grade and enjoyed our treats on Friday, courtesy of the PTA! Thank you to everyone that was able to donate Box Tops!

 

Virtue Awards:

Rose H. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of HELPFULNESS and SERVICE. Rose is always willing to help organize our class Science materials, pick up the floor, or assist a friend. Her friendly and helpful nature are appreciated!

 

Reading:

Our read aloud, Johnny Tremain continues to align seamlessly with our Social Studies curriculum. We worked this week to infer the character's feelings as they spy for the Patriots, as well as understanding the danger they put themselves into. In the book, we learned how the British were preparing for their battle at Lexington and Concord and we are approaching the historical ride of Paul Revere as seen through the main character's eyes.

 

Writing:

We've begun our final student-teacher writing conferences with "Our Favorite Pet" persuasive essays. These 1:1 conferences, give me a time to set goals with students, give focused feedback, and occasionally reteach a writing strategy. Students are working diligently to publish their final drafts.
 

 

Math:

This week we focused on dividing fractions and using the algorithm to help us solve these equations. We learned WHY flipping the second fraction (the divisor) and then multiplying works, as well as when it is appropriate to divide straight across. We spent time working through word problems and determining which operation to use (multiplication or division).
 

 

Social Studies:

Chapter 12 of our History Alive! textbook focused on the Declaration of Independence. Students learned about Thomas Paine's book, Common Sense and how that text persuaded many colonists to become patriots and fight for our nation's independence. We also read the first part of the Declaration of Independence and interpreted its meaning.

 

Science:

Our Water Tolerance investigation has come to a close. We examined the plants in all four environments, measured them and even removed them from the soil to study their roots. We learned that the "wet" environment was the most successful environment overall, but that the barley plant tolerated the other environments better than the other plants.






5th Grade Play:
Rehearsals for Reviver: Philadelphia are well on their way. Students are rehearsing daily, memorizing their lines, and beginning to gather props/costumes for the play. Our evening performance will be Wednesday, June 12 at 6pm and our school performance will be Friday, June 14 at 1:30. We hope to see you at one of these shows!




Thank you for another great week. There are only 2.5 weeks of school left!! Wow! We still have a lot of learning going on in our classrooms as we wrap up the school year.

Have a fabulous weekend,
~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

 04-June- Community Thank You Breakfast 7:30-8:30
07-June-Medina Elementary Family Night at Safeco Field
12-June 5th Grade Play 6:00pm
14-June 5th Grade Play 1:30
17-June - Medina Family Lunch BBQ: 5th grade at 12:10-1:10

18-June - End of Year All-School Assembly 8:30-9:30am

18-June - Field Day 12:15-2:15pm

19-June-5th Grade GRADUATION and Last Day of School (school ends at 10:10)

Looking Ahead:
03-September - FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL as 6th GRADERS!
23 Dec-03 Jan, 2014 - Winter Break
17-21, 2014 Feb - Mid-Winter Break
7-11, 2014 April - Spring Break



Memorial Day Weekend

A Week in Review

May 20 - 24

 

Dear Families in Room 210,

 

The Band and Orchestra concerts were awesome! The students and teachers have been working hard all year, it was evident in the wonderful concerts! It is hard to believe that there are only 3 1/2 weeks of school left! Wow! This year has flown by and we still have so much to do and learn. Here's what we've been up to this week:

 

 

Virtue Awards:

Khushaal K. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of self-discipline and responsibility. Khushaal is always focused, on task, and hardworking! He is an excellent role model for his peers.

 

 

 

 

Reading:

We read a biography this week, James Forten by Walter Dean Myers. We learned through our reading that James Forten was a young African American who fought on the side of the patriots during the Revolutionary War. We used the sequence of events target skill and summarizing strategy to help us with comprehension.

 

 

 

 

Writing:

We worked in pairs to revise and edit our persuasive essays. We focused on word choice and sentence fluency and most importantly ensuring that we have sound arguments with plenty of supporting details. Students are now working on final drafts and individual teacher conferences.

 

 

 

Math:

What a challenging week! We learned how to divide with fractions, it was tricky!! While we learned the "formula" for dividing fractions, we also worked hard to understand WHY it works. We also practiced  our fraction skills: adding, subtracting, and multiplying!

 

 

Science:

The UW students were back filming our Day 6 observation of our water tolerance investigation. Students were surprised to learn that some of our plants actually grew in the "dry" environment! The "wet" environment had the most amount of plants that had grown. We measured our tallest plants and so far it appears that the barley is consistently tolerating all of the environments.

 

 

 

 

Social Studies:

In our History Alive! textbooks, we read chapter 11 in order to gain more information on the reasons colonists chose to be patriots or loyalists. We took extensive notes on our graphic organizers. These notes will be essential in helping us to plan, organize and write our final writing assessment of the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5th Grade Play:

Rehearsals have begun for our 5th grade play, Reviver: Philadelphia. This year we have two plays. Our class has combined with Mrs. Kaminoff's class to put on a show about the Constitution, while Mrs. Bethel and Ms. Keenan's classes have combined to put on a show about the 13 colonies. The performances will be June 12 (evening, time TBD) and June 14 (day, time TBD).

 

 

 

Garbology:

The City of Bellevue presented an interactive workshop to us on Wednesday. Students reviewed the 4 R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rethink), examined different everyday items and how long they last in a landfill, and tested their learning with an ending activity where they sorted items into categories: trash, recycle, reuse, compost. They were very engaged and respectful to Ms. Franzen, our presenter!

 

 

 

 

Remember there is NO SCHOOL on MONDAY in observance of Memorial Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for another great week of learning! With ALL of the MSP tests behind us, we can get back to focusing on the important learning that takes place in our classroom each and every day.

 

Enjoy your three-day weekend,

~Mrs. Hatlestad

 

Upcoming Events:
27-May-No School in observance of Memorial Day
04-June- Community Thank You Breakfast 7:30-8:30
07-June-Medina Elementary Family Night at Safeco Field
12-June 5th Grade Play (evening, time to be determined)
14-June 5th Grade Play (day, time to be determined)
17-June - Medina Family Lunch BBQ: 5th grade at 12:10-1:10

18-June - End of Year All-School Assembly 8:30-9:30am

18-June - Field Day 12:15-2:15pm

19-June-5th Grade GRADUATION and Last Day of School (school ends at 10:10)

Looking Ahead:
03-September - FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL as 6th GRADERS!
23 Dec-03 Jan, 2014 - Winter Break
17-21, 2014 Feb - Mid-Winter Break
7-11, 2014 April - Spring Break
 

 



Testing, Testing, 1, 2...

A Week in Review

May 13-May 17

 

Dear Families in Room 210,

Two down, one to go! This week, we completed our first two MSP tests (Math and Reading). Thank you for helping your child prepare this week! We take our final MSP (Science) on Monday! Students should get plenty of sleep, eat a healthy breakfast and bring a snack to school. The test will begin promptly at 8:15am.

On Tuesday we went to the Seattle Children’s Theater to see Crash. It was a great show put on by a talented cast. Students enjoyed seeing their performance and the Stage Manager personally said that the kids were the smartest, most responsive, and best audience so far!

Virtue Awards:
Jack Don. has earned a Virtue Award for demonstrating the virtues of enthusiasm and diligence. Jack is ecstatic about the 5th grade play, he's working hard to learn his lines, and willing to help others learn theirs. Thank you Jack!

 

MATH:

This week we continued Unit 9: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions. We learned how to cross simplify fractions before multiplying, this important step makes the fraction equation easier to solve. We learned that you can’t always cross simplify and how to continue solving a problem when this is the case (that stumped some of us).


 

 

SOCIAL STUDIES/COMPUTER LAB:

We put the finishing touches on our “Colonial Boston: The Struggle for Independence” slide show. Students wrote a short narration describing their StoryPath character and the reasons they were a loyalist or patriot. Then they recorded their lines. The amazing Ms. Benay put the show together adding: their narrations to their pictures, background music, slide transitions, and then burned a copy for our class to watch. We will celebrate our hard work next week by watching the show. THANK YOU MS. BENAY!

SCIENCE:

We studied water tolerance with the UW students back to video tape our lesson and record our thinking. Students planted barley, pea, corn, and radish into four containers. We created four different environments for our plants: dry, moist, wet, and very wet. We added no water to the “dry” and “moist” containers and we added 40 mL of water to the “wet” container and 80 mL to the “very wet” container. Next week, the UW will be back to video tape and record our observations as we study which is the best environment for these plants.

 

WRITING:

We continued drafting our persuasive essays this week. Students are focused on building strong arguments and writing rebuttals in order to produce a well-written persuasive piece. We analyzed the actual assessment rubric to determine what areas we need to focus on in our practice essays and we used a self-editing checklist to ensure we had all of the elements of a persuasive essay included (sound reasons, supporting details, rebuttal statements, and a call to action).

I am continually impressed with our students hard work and focus during the MSP. They are taking it seriously, trying their best, and really making a conscientious effort to “show what they know”. I appreciate and admire their dedication to their learning.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

20-May-MSP SCIENCE

20-May-Band & Orchestra Concert (1:30 assembly; 7:30 pm concert)

22-May-Garbology Pacific Science Center (in our classroom)

27-May-No School in observance of Memorial Day

07-June-Medina Elementary Family Night at Safeco Field
12-June 5th Grade Play (tentative date, time to be determined)

19-June-5th Grade GRADUATION and Last Day of School

Happy Mother's Day

A Week in Review

May 6 - 10

 

 

Dear Families in Room 210,

 

 

I definitely feel appreciated this week! Wow! Thank you so much for the flowers, treats, candy, gift card, and fish!! We have a new class pet, a beautiful Beta fish. He doesn't have a name yet, but we are brainstorming and searching for just the right one. He is the perfect addition to our classroom.

 

I enjoyed reading all of the cards and letters expressing your appreciation. Thank you for allowing me to teach your children each and every day, it is a job I much love. I am so very grateful to teach 5th grade at Medina Elementary.

 

 

Virtues Award:

The students and parents in Room 210 have earned this week's virtues award! You demonstrated the virtue of gratitude by writing heartfelt notes and taking the time to say thank you. Your thoughtfulness is truly appreciated.

 

 

 

Reading:

We are almost done with Crash and we are hooked! Students were given thought-provoking questions as we dug deeper into the book. We discussed who was the better friend to the main character and used evidence to support our thinking. We crafted responses to share what we would say to the main character if we were able to meet them, explaining to the character what we thought was their greatest strength and their greatest flaw. We will finish the book together on Monday and see the play on Tuesday!

 

 

 

Writing:

Cats? Dogs? Fish? Which is the best pet to own and why? We began pre-writing and drafting our rough drafts for a persuasive essay. This assignment is the lead up to our final writing assessment of the year, Patriot or Loyalist. Students will write a persuasive essay, using sound reasoning, rebuttal, and a call to action to convince their reader to see their point-of-view.

 

 

Math:

Unit 9 Multiplication and Division of Fractions is off to a great start! We worked to multiply fractions by fractions and whole numbers by fractions. We also used visual representations to help us "see" what it means when we multiply fractions.

 

 

 

Science:

Our UW graduate students were back to administer the inquiry assessment for our Environments Unit. The assessment took three days, students conducted an investigation to determine if isopods prefer light or dark environments (they prefer dark). Students also identified the variables in the experiment, wrote scientific conclusions, and planned a new investigation. All of these elements will be assessed on the Science MSP (5/20), so we will use this inquiry assessment as one last preparation.

 

 

 

 

Internet Safety Presentation:

Stefanie Thomas, a representative from the Seattle Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force shared the importance of Internet safety with our 5th graders. She emphasized the importance of keeping all personal information (phone numbers, age, full name, school) off of our profiles. The reality check for students was when she demonstrated how in 20 minutes, a person can figure out where you live or attend school with just a few pieces of personal information on a profile. Students were encouraged to friend only those people they actually know and to have user names that are not their own name. She also explained what cyber-bullying is and how it is against the law. She explained to the 5th graders that when they put something in writing, they need to imagine that their parent or teacher is standing over their shoulder, would they push send if they were? It was a fantastic presentation. 

 

MSP:

We continued our MSP practice sessions this week. We looked at producers, consumers, and decomposers. We also reviewed test taking strategies and practiced using the online tutorials in order to familiarize ourselves with the MSP tools (highlighter, sticky notes, etc.) Our first assessment is MONDAY for Math!!

 

Thank you for from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to express your appreciation for the work we do every day in Room 210. I can't think of a better place to be. 

 

I hope you enjoy this beautiful Mother's Day weekend.

 

With heartfelt thanks,

 

~Mrs. Hatlestad

 

Upcoming Events:

Upcoming Events:

13 May-MSP Math

14 May-Crash field trip to SCT

15-May-MSP READING

20-May-MSP SCIENCE 

22-May-Garbology Pacific Science Center (in our classroom)

27-May-No School in observance of Memorial Day

07-June-Medina Elementary Family Night at Safeco Field

19-June-5th Grade Graduation

19-June-Last Day of School

We've Got Talent!

A Week in Review

April 29-May 3

Dear Families of Room 210,

What a wonderful beginning to May! The weather is beautiful and so much was accomplished this week! On Friday, we wrapped up the week with the School Talent Show. I was so proud to see so many of our students participating and having a wonderful time displaying their many talents! Please read below to see what else we’ve been up to! J

Virtue Awards

Declan gets this week’s virtue shout-out for showing SERVICE and DILIGENCE. Declan helped keep our classroom library cleaned and organized, as well as receiving a perfect score (100%) on his math test!

Angela gets this week’s virtue shout-out for FRIENDLINESS. She is a kind and thoughtful friend to her classmates. Thank you for promoting a positive classroom, Angela!

 

 

READING

This week, we began reading Crash by Jerry Spinelli. This book aligns with our anti-bullying curriculum, Steps to Respect. It is also the play we are going to see on May 14th at the Seattle Children's Theater. As we read, students are given higher level thinking questions to guide them in analyzing and discussing the book. While some parts are humorous, it is a book that deals with the serious issue of bullying.

WRITING

Our writing this week integrated with our reading. We practiced reading questions carefully to ensure we understood their meaning. Then we practiced using the question as a sentence starter to ensure we're answering the question and we challenged ourselves to use meaningful details from the text, Crash, as evidence in supporting our thinking. Using evidence and key details from the text is an important skill students need.

 

MATH

This week in Math we wrapped up Unit 8: Algebra, Functions, and Graphs! All week we have been practicing and studying hard! Parents, thank you for helping your child prepare for their test this week. We already dove right in to Unit 9: Multiplication and Division with Fractions, starting with multiplying a whole number by a fraction. 

SCIENCE

Our isopods are here! Students have been informally observing them, we will start our first investigation with isopods next week! We have continued to monitor and adjust our terrariums, while keeping meticulous notes in our science journals.

 

SOCIAL STUDIES

Loyalist or Patriot? Families met to decide whether or not they wanted to stay loyal to Britain or claim their independence. The result left our class almost split down the middle! Students completed their Struggle for Independence Assessment and we move forward into the Revolution!

 

 

MSP

This week students watched video tutorials on how to utilize tools and how to take the MSP practice tests on the computer. The more they familiarize themselves with the tools and format of the tests, the better they will do come test-days!

 

Another successful week of learning and fun is done! Thank you for all of your help preparing your child for this week’s assessments and ensuring their success! Please enjoy the sunshine this weekend, you deserve it!

Have a wonderful weekend J

~Mrs. Hatlestad

Upcoming Events:

03-May- Talent Show-6pm

13-MSP MATH

14-May-Crash Field trip at SCT

15-May-MSP READING

20-May-MSP SCIENCE

22-May-Garbology Pacific Science Center (in our classroom)

27-May-No School in observance of Memorial Day

07-June-Medina Elementary Family Night at Safeco Field

19-June-Last Day of School