Hello,
We had our first library class of the year and about a half an hour later we went to our first Chorus gathering. In between the two specials, we placed drops of water on coins. Our initial predictions for how many drops would stay on a penny varied between two and ten. Our results showed anywhere from 20 to 40 would stay on before spilling over. We discussed surface tension and how the water molecules "stick" together. We will try another experiment tomorrow and then we should have a better idea of how the water strider "skates" on the water.
Our first homework club will start on Thursday. The class voted to make it a movie club. The idea is to make and watch movies. It seems like a great subject to study. We can make use of our abilities in art, writing, acting and teamwork. I also thought I would show some classics like The Wizard of Oz. Ultimately, it is their club, so they will decide what direction that it takes. It will work like last year's clubs, in that we will do homework for forty five minutes and then use the remaining time for the serious fun. It is scheduled to go until five, but I am flexible on pick up times. I am generally here until six anyway.
Homework clubs give me a little extra one on one time with kids. There isn't nearly enough instructional time in a school day, in my opinion, and even less time to connect with a student with where they are at. These clubs help me do that. I've got to see if I can get my apple laptop running. I'd like to be able to keep our work off of school computers so I can download any movie software that I'd like.
We switched for math for the first time today, too. I'm keeping fourteen members of our homeroom and picking up four others from Mrs. Palopoli's classroom. Four students from our homeroom go to her, and four go to other teachers. I'll be writing the math homework that I give out onto our homework calendar (at the top of the blog). I'm sorry that it won't apply to everyone. I'll label it as Shea Math. I didn't give math homework tonight though. I generally only give homework on what they know, and I still need to find that out. We are halfway through the chapter one pre-test. This first chapter should be pretty easy, but like last year, it's going to get tougher very quickly.
Open House this Thursday from six to seven. Hope to see you there. I guess you've all met me at this point, but you can check out the new set up.
Fundraiser at Orange Leaf tonight until 8:00. 15% of proceeds are going to HBS. I've never been there, but I've heard that it serves up great frozen yogurt. I'm on my way now.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Monday, September 16, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
We beat the rain
Hello,
Our field trip to the Jr. High stream went well. We got back to HBS about a half hour before the downpour. It was a hot walk back, especially in my Arctic Sport Muck Boots, but we survived.
The kids spent a good twenty minutes observing the water strider's habitat. They made notes about the stream, the plant life, the sights and sounds. In groups of two or three, they wrote down their claims on what a water strider eats and how it is able to walk on the water. Then the nets and trays were passed out and the groups captured some of the insects and were able to study them more closely. The goal was for the groups to find evidence to support their claims. If the evidence that they found didn't support their claim, they needed to make a new claim.
The plan was for the groups to reconvene this afternoon and come up with a little presentation to the class. They needed to announce their claims and then present their findings that supported those claims. Once again, I changed the schedule based on the vibe of the class. Afternoons after a field trip are always a little rough, but a mini-power outage at the school had kids in very strange moods. Some were excited, some were anxious. I didn't feel that they were in a good place to continue with our day's investigations. I tabled it for tomorrow.
After art class, we had a short silent reading period and then I showed them a couple videos on size. You can check out the links here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXf7AJZ73A
I think you will find them interesting and will give you something to ask your child about. That is the main purpose of this blog: to foster conversations between you and your child. Talking with them about the things we do in school helps cement some of the knowledge, but also places an importance on their education that we can't do alone. It sends a clear message that you are aware of their learning, interested in their learning, and that you are a learner too. Thank you for that.
Have a good night.
Please remember that I generally run out of here like a scalded bird on Fridays, so I'll write again on Monday. Hopefully we'll have a club announcement by then.
Mr. Shea
Our field trip to the Jr. High stream went well. We got back to HBS about a half hour before the downpour. It was a hot walk back, especially in my Arctic Sport Muck Boots, but we survived.
The kids spent a good twenty minutes observing the water strider's habitat. They made notes about the stream, the plant life, the sights and sounds. In groups of two or three, they wrote down their claims on what a water strider eats and how it is able to walk on the water. Then the nets and trays were passed out and the groups captured some of the insects and were able to study them more closely. The goal was for the groups to find evidence to support their claims. If the evidence that they found didn't support their claim, they needed to make a new claim.
The plan was for the groups to reconvene this afternoon and come up with a little presentation to the class. They needed to announce their claims and then present their findings that supported those claims. Once again, I changed the schedule based on the vibe of the class. Afternoons after a field trip are always a little rough, but a mini-power outage at the school had kids in very strange moods. Some were excited, some were anxious. I didn't feel that they were in a good place to continue with our day's investigations. I tabled it for tomorrow.
After art class, we had a short silent reading period and then I showed them a couple videos on size. You can check out the links here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXf7AJZ73A
I think you will find them interesting and will give you something to ask your child about. That is the main purpose of this blog: to foster conversations between you and your child. Talking with them about the things we do in school helps cement some of the knowledge, but also places an importance on their education that we can't do alone. It sends a clear message that you are aware of their learning, interested in their learning, and that you are a learner too. Thank you for that.
Have a good night.
Please remember that I generally run out of here like a scalded bird on Fridays, so I'll write again on Monday. Hopefully we'll have a club announcement by then.
Mr. Shea
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Short post
Hello,
I'm going to keep this short. I have a staff meeting and then need to rush out of here.
We had a good day. Students finished up the NWEA MAP math exam. We did some bar modeling in math. Basic addition and subtraction facts were getting in the way more than the bar models. We need to be able to add a one digit number to another number without counting. Rocket math addition will start tomorrow for a majority of the class. Some kids are advanced enough to be doing other challenges at this time. As long as the field trips aren't cancelled due to weather, we will begin switching for math on Monday. Four students will be going to Mrs. Palopoli's class and four of her students will come to our class.
We studied our spelling words for the week, using them in sentences and doing a practice test. We did an easy logic problem together and then tried one on our own. Slightly more difficult logic problems were given for homework. They require some patience and, believe it or not, logic.
Some kids were talking about 9/11/2001 so I took a few questions about that awful day.
We heard some funny stories about bad inferences. Tomorrow we will get to claims and evidence.
Sorry, but I have to run.
Have a great day.
Mr. Shea
I'm going to keep this short. I have a staff meeting and then need to rush out of here.
We had a good day. Students finished up the NWEA MAP math exam. We did some bar modeling in math. Basic addition and subtraction facts were getting in the way more than the bar models. We need to be able to add a one digit number to another number without counting. Rocket math addition will start tomorrow for a majority of the class. Some kids are advanced enough to be doing other challenges at this time. As long as the field trips aren't cancelled due to weather, we will begin switching for math on Monday. Four students will be going to Mrs. Palopoli's class and four of her students will come to our class.
We studied our spelling words for the week, using them in sentences and doing a practice test. We did an easy logic problem together and then tried one on our own. Slightly more difficult logic problems were given for homework. They require some patience and, believe it or not, logic.
Some kids were talking about 9/11/2001 so I took a few questions about that awful day.
We heard some funny stories about bad inferences. Tomorrow we will get to claims and evidence.
Sorry, but I have to run.
Have a great day.
Mr. Shea
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Testing Day
Good afternoon,
It was a day of testing. We started off nicely with a Gary Larson Farside comic and some juice box science. We used a Far Side comic of a python leaving Snow White's cabin with seven big bulges in his body. We talked about what we could observe and what we could infer from the picture. All inferences needed evidence to back them up. Inferences could use other inferences for evidence.
I thought of the juice box science this past weekend when thinking about a follow up to our "Does air take up space?" lesson. Everyone got a juice box and had a chance to play around a bit with getting the liquid out. I heard lots of great observations and inferences. Our science minds are growing.
My usual joke at 9:45am is that we've had such a rigorous morning, it's time for a break. We have a morning recess every day just forty minutes into our day. I think it is ridiculous, but I couldn't change the schedule. I think we should eliminate this break altogether, but I stand alone with that opinion. Fourth grade went to one recess a day this year, but not fifth. I like to make hay in the morning when the kids are the most fresh. In fact, I would ignore the morning recess if I didn't coincidentally also have that as my recess duty on most days. We'll make due. I'm sure the kids like the extra play time. I'm still trying get our class schedule out to you and I will as soon as I can finalize the read aloud, snack and silent reading times. Special Education and RTI just finished compiling their schedules. With those times in mind, and back to back math and literacy blocks, it is very tough to schedule anything else with any sort of consistency.
After morning recess, our kids went into the computer lab to take the NWEA MAP Math Test. It went pretty well. I know they took their time on it, because a vast majority of the class were called back to finish shortly after our afternoon physical education class. After morning recess, our day pretty much was testing, lunch, recess, gym, and testing. The afternoon testing session blew my plans up, so I didn't assign any homework. Everyone should get their regular reading in.
Field trip permission slips went home. We will be visiting the stream behind the Jr. High. If it rains too hard on Thursday, we'll go on Monday. Thank you for getting those field trip permission slips back to me.
Have a good night. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea I
It was a day of testing. We started off nicely with a Gary Larson Farside comic and some juice box science. We used a Far Side comic of a python leaving Snow White's cabin with seven big bulges in his body. We talked about what we could observe and what we could infer from the picture. All inferences needed evidence to back them up. Inferences could use other inferences for evidence.
I thought of the juice box science this past weekend when thinking about a follow up to our "Does air take up space?" lesson. Everyone got a juice box and had a chance to play around a bit with getting the liquid out. I heard lots of great observations and inferences. Our science minds are growing.
My usual joke at 9:45am is that we've had such a rigorous morning, it's time for a break. We have a morning recess every day just forty minutes into our day. I think it is ridiculous, but I couldn't change the schedule. I think we should eliminate this break altogether, but I stand alone with that opinion. Fourth grade went to one recess a day this year, but not fifth. I like to make hay in the morning when the kids are the most fresh. In fact, I would ignore the morning recess if I didn't coincidentally also have that as my recess duty on most days. We'll make due. I'm sure the kids like the extra play time. I'm still trying get our class schedule out to you and I will as soon as I can finalize the read aloud, snack and silent reading times. Special Education and RTI just finished compiling their schedules. With those times in mind, and back to back math and literacy blocks, it is very tough to schedule anything else with any sort of consistency.
After morning recess, our kids went into the computer lab to take the NWEA MAP Math Test. It went pretty well. I know they took their time on it, because a vast majority of the class were called back to finish shortly after our afternoon physical education class. After morning recess, our day pretty much was testing, lunch, recess, gym, and testing. The afternoon testing session blew my plans up, so I didn't assign any homework. Everyone should get their regular reading in.
Field trip permission slips went home. We will be visiting the stream behind the Jr. High. If it rains too hard on Thursday, we'll go on Monday. Thank you for getting those field trip permission slips back to me.
Have a good night. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea I
Monday, September 9, 2013
Week 2
Hello,
I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I forgot to write on Thursday that I don't write anything on Friday. There isn't usually any weekend homework (outside of regular reading) and I generally leave the school pretty close to the end of the day. My brain is usually spent. I come in on Sunday to tie up the loose ends, correct work and prepare for the coming week.
Monday is our usual Library day, but only every other week. We'll have to make sure that upcoming Monday holidays don't make it so we go a full four weeks without making it there.
I doled out class jobs today. We will be finalizing the duties of each position and determining salaries in the next couple of days.
Some things don't change from grade to grade: I forgot to pass out the field trip slip at the end of the day today. We are going over to the Jr. High to do a study on the water striders in the stream. The fifth grade team just scouted it out tonight after school today. They aren't the easiest things to catch. I think we needed more youth holding the nets. We'll be over there for about an hour and a half Thursday morning. Look for the slip tomorrow. Rubber boots are recommended. Water shoes would be okay as well. It is super difficult to catch anything from the shore. Waders would work as well, but most of the stream is well under a foot deep.
We talked today about making inferences. An inference is an educated guess based on the available evidence. We make inferences based on our observations and our previous experiences. If I smell hamburger cooking, I infer that I'll be eating burgers for dinner. It might be tacos, in which case, my inference would be wrong. Many television comedies are based on an incorrect inference. We'll be discussing this more tomorrow. I wanted them to think about it for homework, but I didn't require them to write anything down.
We also worked on our Writing Territories. This is a term given by writing guru, Nancie Atwell, referring to the range of things that we do and write about in our everyday writing. This includes genres and subjects of thing that we've written about, would like to write about or feel qualified to write about. Last year I called it our Idea Book. I'm placing more emphasis on writing what we know this year. I think the kids will have an easier time drafting and rewriting if they are more passionate and knowledgeable about their subject matter.
I'm thinking about starting up at least one club next week. Stay tuned.
My wife and I are staying down at her family cabin in Georgetown this week. I'll be trying to leave the school by 5:00 for the next few days so I can enjoy the ocean before dark.
Phys. Ed tomorrow. Please make sure your child has sneakers.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I forgot to write on Thursday that I don't write anything on Friday. There isn't usually any weekend homework (outside of regular reading) and I generally leave the school pretty close to the end of the day. My brain is usually spent. I come in on Sunday to tie up the loose ends, correct work and prepare for the coming week.
Monday is our usual Library day, but only every other week. We'll have to make sure that upcoming Monday holidays don't make it so we go a full four weeks without making it there.
I doled out class jobs today. We will be finalizing the duties of each position and determining salaries in the next couple of days.
Some things don't change from grade to grade: I forgot to pass out the field trip slip at the end of the day today. We are going over to the Jr. High to do a study on the water striders in the stream. The fifth grade team just scouted it out tonight after school today. They aren't the easiest things to catch. I think we needed more youth holding the nets. We'll be over there for about an hour and a half Thursday morning. Look for the slip tomorrow. Rubber boots are recommended. Water shoes would be okay as well. It is super difficult to catch anything from the shore. Waders would work as well, but most of the stream is well under a foot deep.
We talked today about making inferences. An inference is an educated guess based on the available evidence. We make inferences based on our observations and our previous experiences. If I smell hamburger cooking, I infer that I'll be eating burgers for dinner. It might be tacos, in which case, my inference would be wrong. Many television comedies are based on an incorrect inference. We'll be discussing this more tomorrow. I wanted them to think about it for homework, but I didn't require them to write anything down.
We also worked on our Writing Territories. This is a term given by writing guru, Nancie Atwell, referring to the range of things that we do and write about in our everyday writing. This includes genres and subjects of thing that we've written about, would like to write about or feel qualified to write about. Last year I called it our Idea Book. I'm placing more emphasis on writing what we know this year. I think the kids will have an easier time drafting and rewriting if they are more passionate and knowledgeable about their subject matter.
I'm thinking about starting up at least one club next week. Stay tuned.
My wife and I are staying down at her family cabin in Georgetown this week. I'll be trying to leave the school by 5:00 for the next few days so I can enjoy the ocean before dark.
Phys. Ed tomorrow. Please make sure your child has sneakers.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Day Three
Hello,
We jumped into the first few pages of the fifth grade Math in Focus books. It wasn't too tough...place value. I did a little algebra with the early finishers.
We did some review on the parts of a paragraph. From the looks of the homework, we'll need a lot more work on this. Margins, indentation, topic sentence, supporting details and conclusion are the biggies to know.
I introduced some atom/molecule stuff but I wasn't overly pleased with my presentation. I was scientifically accurate, but probably need to be a little more kid-friendly. They'll get it, but it may take a few lessons to wrap their heads around. We didn't get to my planned experiment so we'll tackle that in the morning.
My fifth grade team decided on how we are going to group. It looks like most of our homeroom will stay with me. We are going to take the students with the most advanced skills and send them to Mrs. Palopoli's room. Mrs. Palopoli will only keep her most advanced and then evenly distribute the rest of her kids into the other three classrooms. For our class, it basically means that if your child had me for math last year, they will now have Mrs. Palopoli. If they had Mrs. Viola or Mrs. Smith, they now will stay with me. There may be some exceptions. We will be giving the end of fourth grade test tomorrow to give us another data point before making decisions. Please contact me with any questions.
I used the NOVA Elements app in class today. It has a good interactive periodic table. This should be a fun and educational unit.
I have a basketball tutoring session at five, so I'm going to run. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
We jumped into the first few pages of the fifth grade Math in Focus books. It wasn't too tough...place value. I did a little algebra with the early finishers.
We did some review on the parts of a paragraph. From the looks of the homework, we'll need a lot more work on this. Margins, indentation, topic sentence, supporting details and conclusion are the biggies to know.
I introduced some atom/molecule stuff but I wasn't overly pleased with my presentation. I was scientifically accurate, but probably need to be a little more kid-friendly. They'll get it, but it may take a few lessons to wrap their heads around. We didn't get to my planned experiment so we'll tackle that in the morning.
My fifth grade team decided on how we are going to group. It looks like most of our homeroom will stay with me. We are going to take the students with the most advanced skills and send them to Mrs. Palopoli's room. Mrs. Palopoli will only keep her most advanced and then evenly distribute the rest of her kids into the other three classrooms. For our class, it basically means that if your child had me for math last year, they will now have Mrs. Palopoli. If they had Mrs. Viola or Mrs. Smith, they now will stay with me. There may be some exceptions. We will be giving the end of fourth grade test tomorrow to give us another data point before making decisions. Please contact me with any questions.
I used the NOVA Elements app in class today. It has a good interactive periodic table. This should be a fun and educational unit.
I have a basketball tutoring session at five, so I'm going to run. Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Day Two
Hello again,
We started working on our explorer maps this morning. We are only putting down some of the baseline facts that we need (oceans, continents, etc.) before we pull these out for later use. Many kids needed atlases for help, especially with spelling. Continents and oceans should be solid knowledge by now. This unit should help with that.
Ask your child what a water bear is. I learned about them on my trip out west. It is quite a fascinating creature. Look up tardigrade to learn about this creature that can survive real extremes.
We started our 200 tournament. We only have five contestants left. I was not very impressed with the addition skills. I saw lots and lots of counting. We need to work on that. We should be able to add a one digit number to any number without needing our fingers. My team meeting on math grouping is tomorrow. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we should be grouping by the beginning of next week.
I gave them a review quiz on there, their, they're, its, it's, too, to and two. I'll let you know tomorrow how they did. I will work with kids with poor showings during our small group times, but we really need to get past these things.
The class put together a list of class jobs. I'm determined to start up our class economy this year. Look for job applications for homework tomorrow.
I'll get our schedule out to you in the next couple of days. Our specials schedule is Chorus on Monday, Phys. Ed. on Tuesday, Music on Wednesday, Art on Thursday, Band on Friday, and Library on every other Monday.
Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for reading.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
We started working on our explorer maps this morning. We are only putting down some of the baseline facts that we need (oceans, continents, etc.) before we pull these out for later use. Many kids needed atlases for help, especially with spelling. Continents and oceans should be solid knowledge by now. This unit should help with that.
Ask your child what a water bear is. I learned about them on my trip out west. It is quite a fascinating creature. Look up tardigrade to learn about this creature that can survive real extremes.
We started our 200 tournament. We only have five contestants left. I was not very impressed with the addition skills. I saw lots and lots of counting. We need to work on that. We should be able to add a one digit number to any number without needing our fingers. My team meeting on math grouping is tomorrow. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we should be grouping by the beginning of next week.
I gave them a review quiz on there, their, they're, its, it's, too, to and two. I'll let you know tomorrow how they did. I will work with kids with poor showings during our small group times, but we really need to get past these things.
The class put together a list of class jobs. I'm determined to start up our class economy this year. Look for job applications for homework tomorrow.
I'll get our schedule out to you in the next couple of days. Our specials schedule is Chorus on Monday, Phys. Ed. on Tuesday, Music on Wednesday, Art on Thursday, Band on Friday, and Library on every other Monday.
Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for reading.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)