I was very proud of the 5th grade band students this morning! Great job guys! Proof that practice makes perfect!

Angelica and Matthew G. present this week's news!!

Just a reminder: 

• PTA Holiday Gathering is at 7:00pm Wednesday December 19th
• Winter Vacation begins Friday, December 21st after school and classes resume January 7th!

Class News

Please view to see what we've been up to in Ms. Hasan's Class!!

Happy Thanksgiving

It was wonderful meeting all of you during conferences last week. I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with joy!

I would like to extend a special thank you to the Depa family for a wonderful presentation for Veteran's Day! The students really enjoyed it!

Reminders: 

Wed. November 14th is the 5th Grade Activity Night from 6:45-8:00p.m.

Thursday November 15th PTA Presidents' Meeting 9:30 a.m. in the Admin. Building

Friday November 16th Progress Notes are sent home.

Class News 11/5/12-11/9/12 

Happy Halloween

I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of the parents that brought tasty treats, and lead awesome games for the students. Our class party was a ton of fun thanks to them! A special thanks for Mr. Benz for photographing the event.

Our Class News:

Introducing Student News

Each week I will be choosing two volunteers to report the weekly news: 

I am so lucky to have such a sweet group of students. Kasi (pronounced K.C) will be joining us November 1st!  

We learned how to reinforce our knowledge by creating math explanations using IPADs and computers.

For a visual representation of what students would like to learn about the Revolutionary War, they worked as a group to create their own google search story.

A Trip To Colonial Times!

Our Class Field Trip to The Colonial Times Reenactment

Courtesy of Barbara Frei 

Hello Windsor Wildcat Parents!

The Heroes have been busy the last couple weeks. With so many four day weeks the time just flew by! Here are the highlights:

• We have wrapped up our Science Energy Unit! Students had so much fun exploring the various energy transfers with hands on experiments, exploring the building for energy forms, and creating Animationish Rube Goldbergs! Please stay tuned for a YouTube Video that culminates our final activity. 
• The Revolutionary War Unit is in motion! The student's excitement is contagious! As you may know, they have all been assigned a character from the families of the Revolutionary War era. This week Student's played their role by writing letters to a fictitious loved one as if they were their character. In addition, we "aged" paper to depict the era, by soaking paper in coffee. It was a messy but fun activity! 

Still a work in progress: Our bulletin board outside our Room. 

• Next week, students will be creating a google search story, asking what they would like to learn about during our unit on the Revolutionary War. Here is an example of one I created: 

The student's search stories can then act as an introduction to their final projects.

• We are integrating Reading, Social Studies and Technology in the Heroes classroom. Students are reading a Historical Fiction about the Revolutionary War. Through Edmodo, students now have the opportunity to create and share video and written responses to their readings. We are working on the appropriate way to comment on others' writing to generate a discussion of strategies and ideas. 
• In WEX (our writing curriculum), students will be creating a polished narrative piece. It will be a wonderful way for them to use their awesome creativity. I look forward to reading their stories!
• It has been a few weeks now, since we have started Words Their Way (our spelling curriculum). I am very impressed with how well students have been receptive of not only spelling words correctly, but understanding the patterns within words. 
• In math, we are also integrating technology. The students are becoming the teacher, by creating video explanations of math problems and posting them on Edmodo to share with their fellow math classmates. My goal is to have students and myself create enough videos to support students who struggle. Aligning with Common Core standards, students may also master their knowledge by explaining their process to others. 

In this video, I am modeling how to explain a math problem. 

Hello Heroes' Parents!

You may have already heard, but the winning table was the Radical Readers! They chose for the classroom to receive an aquarium as a reward. They will also have the opportunity to name the fish and tend to their needs the first week of having them in our classroom. Hurray! They are a little bit scared from the trip, but I guarantee there are 3 Tetra in the aquarium :)! Throughout the year table-groups will have the opportunity to win more fish or a venus fly trap!

The students have been working very hard in Animationish creating their Rube Goldbergs. It has been a fun and tedious process! Ask your student how energy transfers are used in their Rube Goldberg!!

We are continuing to work on reading skills and strategies, such as, re-reading for understanding, writing summaries, and practicing fluency. Check out our new bulletin board to help us keep track of our goals and identify our strengths and areas of improvement. 

In Math, we are still going over methods of adding, subtracting, and estimating. Create opportunities for your student to estimate at home. For example, you may have students measure favorite objects around the house. Then ask your student to round to the nearest, ones, tens, hundreds, or hundredths! 

Have a Happy Wildcat Week, I know we will!!!

Scholastic Book Orders

I have already sent out an email regarding this information. Here is another reference for ordering Scholastic books online! Online orders are greatly appreciated. However, I will accept backpack orders as well. Thanks :-)

Scholastic Book Clubs Ordering Information
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: LH82B

Ordering online is fast and easy:

•  REGISTER at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
•  ENTER the Class Activation Code in red
•  CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks
•  SUBMIT the order to your child's teacher
•  EARN FREE Books for you and the classroom too!

Dear Families,

     
           Can you believe a month of school is already finished!?! October 1st students will discover who wins this month's fish/venus fly trap prize. The students are ecstatic! There is a speed race to the finish. Radical Readers and the Funtastic Wildcats are in the lead.

           In grammar, students are practicing their learning by writing letters to their friends. Besides writing letters, we are learning how to write a complex sentence, or a sentence that includes a conjunction, such as, before, while, although, since, or when. The students have a test on this weeks grammar tomorrow. However, students will have many opportunities to practice their new grammar skills in WEX, reading, and grammar assignments as the year progresses.

          To illustrate energy transfers, students are creating Rube Goldbergs with a program called "Animationish." Many students showed interest in making Rube Goldbergs at home. Watch this video to see what a real-life Rube Goldberg could look like! Wow!!

          For math parents, students are working on estimation and computation. Look out for a family letter from your student tomorrow.

          Thanks again for all your help and support. Feel free to leave comments or email me with any questions.


                                                                                    Sincerely,


                                                                                    Ms. Hasan

                                             

       

A wonderful week!

In Science, we continue to explore energy. We have been conducting Heat Energy Transfers. Ask your student what experiments they conducted this week!

Through WEX, we have been having a ton of fun expanding our writing. This week we learned the difference between a "telling" sentence and a "showing" sentence. I've been encouraging students to expand their writing by focusing on a single moment and using showing sentences to express information.

We wrapped up this week's Reading and Grammar lessons and began reading Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. Esperanza Rising is a historical fiction that tells the story of a young girl growing up on her family's vineyard in Mexico in 1920. As a series of unfortunate events unfold, Esperanza's family ends up having to move to the United States to work in crop fields. The story discusses issues of equality, social issues, and justice. Along with giving a picture of what life was like during the Great Depression. 

In Math, we are wrapping up Unit 1. This week we discussed squares and square roots, factor strings, and prime factorization. 

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Edmodo

We have begun using Edmodo as an education tool. This week, I taught students how to upload a word processing document (word, pages, etc). Now students have the option to finish their homework as a word document and attach it to Edmodo. If word documents are not available at home, students have the option to turn in homework by writing the information directly in the Edmodo text box. Next week all grammar and vocabulary homework assignments will be handed in through Edmodo!

We are all Scientists!

This week we learned that we are all scientists! Students usually depict a scientist as a man, wearing a lab coat, and carrying a beaker. We discover, we wonder, we think, we try, we observe, and we record. Therefore, we are all scientists! Please encourage your child to discover the world around them by asking questions.

Today we experimented on various energy transfers:

In Math, we have been learning about factors, factor pairs, and divisibility. Today we took a quiz to celebrate what we have learned thus far in Unit 1 of Everyday Math.

In Langauge Arts, we explored the tall tale of Davy Crockett, By Rosalyn Schanzer. We discussed such strategies as analyzing text structure, cause and effect, and think and compare. In addition, we have been working with subject and predicate in our grammar lessons. Our vocabulary words are advertisement, commenced, elected, fireball, impress, original, sauntered, and wring.  Encourage your student to use these words in a sentence.

The 5th graders will be going to Mrs. Conway's a.m. Kindergarten class every first Friday of the month to help with reading and various projects!! Today we had a blast! The Kindergarteners read to us and we read to the Kindergartens! Ask your student what books they chose to read!

Happy Friday!!!!

Happy Labor Day!!

It was so wonderful meeting all of my Heroes' parents last night at Curriculum Night! I look forward to working closely with everyone as the year progresses!

Welcome Back to School!!

Hello Windsor Wildcats! I am so excited to start the new year!