Thursday, October 25, 2012

Welcome to our Blog! Read on to find out about many of the wonderful things going on in our classroom!
-Alites

Blue Ribbon School Store
By Chris and Logan

"Can I buy that Frisbee?" 
The fifth graders heard this phrase many times on Wednesday.  It was the grand opening of the Blue Ribbon School Store.  We raised a lot of money from selling cool things such as erasers, key chains, and slingshot planes.  The kids enjoyed selling and buying cool things. The school store will come back again at the end of November.        


Fish Dissection
By Stephanie and Kyra

In science lab, we dissected a fish. First, Ms. O’Neil cut open the fish. She told us where its lungs, gills, heart, stomach, intestines, and mouth were. The mouth looked like a cave. Next, we made fish prints with a choice of two different colors of paint. First we used paint brushes to paint the fish, then we put the paper on top of the fish and then we pressed down the paper onto the fish. There was our lovely fish print!  The fish we examined were about the size of a ruler which is about 30 cm. We had a great time in the science lab!


Making Meaning
By Brian, Steven & PJ

In Making Meaning, we are learning about text features by reading passages about sharks. We saw a trailer for Jaws, and then spoke about what we know about sharks. Did you know that the shortfin mako shark is the fastest fish? Then we read about how they survive in the ocean. We filled in a KWL chart about what we knew, what we wondered, and what we learned.


Tuck Everlasting
By Rachel and Becca

Last week we started a new book called Tuck Everlasting. It is about a bunch of families all connected by a forest that the Foster family own. So far we have met the Tucks, the Fosters and the Man in the Yellow Suit. Mae Tuck and her two sons Jesse and Miles have just "kidnapped" Winnie Foster.   Mae Tuck has this music box that Winnie’s mother and grandmother think belongs to elves but it is really just a music box. We really want to find out what the secret in the forest is.   We will be sure to let you know what happens!


Math
By Jared, Sanjyot & Michael

In math this week we wrapped up our chapter on multiplication and started division. In order to finish our chapter on multiplication we had to take a test on multiplication. The test included: word problems, estimation, exponents, and two digit multiplication. We have also done division fast facts. We are looking forward to an educational chapter on division.  

CNN News
By Caitlin and Emilie
  
Every day we watch CNN Student News for about 10 mins. The most covered topic has been the election. The reporters have covered the debates.   Most Americans seem to be worrying about jobs and the economy. CNN always has an interesting human interest story.  Today it was about this 14 year old girl that rebuilds cars.  Some of our favorites features of CNN News are the Shout Outs and Is this Legit?  The host ends the news show with boring jokes that he thinks are funny.  We don’t think they are all that funny.


Fun Friday
By Austin and Daniel
Every Friday at the end of the day our class gets a break from school work. Instead of regular work, we get to have fun!  The helper of the week picks an activity out of a mystery box. So far we have had extra recess, a Halloween craft, food craft and meeting with first grade buddies!            

This week we are making scarecrows! We are really exited!  The amazing part of Fun Friday is that everyone enjoys and loves it.  If you do not bring in your homework, you are not allowed to participate in the fun event.  Tomorrow’s fun Friday its getting closer by the minute.  We can’t wait!


Text Savvy
By Adam and Trevor

Text Savvy is part of our reading program.  First we preview and prepare. That means we scan the page and we determine a genre. We also examine text features and we set expectations for the text.   We also monitor for meaning by rereading the parts of the text. We determine important information and summarize each paragraph in our own words. We ask questions and make connections. Next we infer and interpret by thinking about the big idea and identifying the author’s purpose. We also envision and create a picture or movie in our mind. The last thing we do is… synethisize. We identify what we know about the topic, what the text is mostly about and how our thinking has changed.  

Ready, Set Write!
By Madeline, Sakina & Yunseo
  
 This week we worked on revising and editing our narratives. Each one of us had a totally different, terrific story. We each wrote a personal narrative that was special to us. The steps of writing that we are following are…. 1. collecting 2. choosing 3. drafting 4. revising  5. editing. We are almost up to the most exciting step…. 6. publishing!

One of the things we did to revise was break our stories into paragraphs. We also learned to switch paragraphs when we move to a different topic.

Example:
“ We only have two more minutes,” Joey said.
“ We should hurry up,” Alyssa replied.

As you can see, writing is very exciting!


                Kyra altered our class picture. 
            Look at how awesome  we all look!



 

 
 

Friday, October 19, 2012

Weekly Update with the Alites-October 19th

Welcome to our Blog! Read on to find out about many of the wonderful things going on in our classroom! -Alites

Election Propaganda
 Brian and Steph

In Computer Lab this week, we did an activity about the election. We looked at President Obama’s campaign commercials, and thought about how he used propaganda to influence voters. Then we did the same for Governor Romney. President Obama had a hilarious commercial about Mitt Romney cutting funding for Big Bird. It was meant to make Romney look silly and was a good example of propaganda. After seeing 4 ads for each candidate, most of the class remains undecided.

Making Meaning
By Sakina, Emilie and Austin

Every week we read Time For Kids. This week we used it to learn about text features and how to preview and prepare when reading an article. We also made posters.  Each of the groups got different topics to work on. We had to label the text features. Some of them were captions, pictures, words in italics, bold words, and carrots.   

Nowhere  But The Book Fair
By Madeline and Sanjyot

This week we went to go pick out the new books we wanted at the book fair. There were books of all genres. Boy books, girl books and mixes. There were dog books, cupcake books,  picture books etc. When we purchased our books we could donate money to help buy books for other libraries. The book fair is one of the highlights of the year!
 
Read Aloud
By Logan and Kyra


We have started a new read aloud called, Tuck Everlasting. This book is by Natalie Babbit. The characters in this book so far are Winnie Foster, Mae and Angus Tuck. The setting of this book  is in a small town called Treegap, near a forest, and takes place in the 1800s. So far,  Mae Tuck has set out  to meet her sons for a reunion. There is something mysterious about the Tuck Family! We are excited to read on.

Visit With Jack Gantos
By Adam and Becca

On Monday we visited the Jericho Public Library. We met Jack Gantos. He wrote the Joey Pigza books. He told us about how it takes a lot of drafts to publish his books. He shared his fifth grade journal with us.  We were able to ask Jack Gantos different questions like, “What was your favorite Joey Pigza book?” Getting to meet Jack Gantos was a big honor. Afterwards we were able to chat, eat munchkins, and mingle with Jack Gantos. We had so much fun! 


Music Time
By Yunseo, Michael, Steven

This is a special coverage of what we have done so far in music this year. We just took  a test on the words to the Star Spangled Banner. We are also singing a Calypso song from Trinidad called Water Come a Me Eye. We also auditioned for instruments to play in the concert.  Music is taught by the talented Mrs. Hussey. We will be sure to keep you posted.

Math
 By Rachel and Trevor


 In math this week we learned about exponents. We split up in groups and worked on a sheet to help us learn what exponents are. We played a game on the Smartboard where we were given an exponential problem to solve before time ran out. We all had a lot of fun playing this game. For example,  if the problem was 5 to the 2nd power, it would be 5x5 not 2x5. 

Also this week, we learned about multiplying decimals. We learned that if the problem was 2.5 x 3.7, we would have to put the decimal two spaces in from the product. We did a fast facts quiz to see how fast we could do them in 5 minutes. We had a lot of fun in math this week!

Squid Dissection
 By Chris and Daniel

 This week in science we dissected squid. It was fun but a little gross. We cut open its ink sack and wrote with the ink. We all saw the squid’s internal structure. The mantel is soft. The siphon takes in water and shoots it out. We can't wait to go back to science.

Writing
By Caitlin and PJ

 We have been writing our wonderful stories. First we wrote down the stories in our writer’s notebook, then we drafted them on lined paper, now we are revising. We replaced boring words with more vivid words. One of the words that Caitlin changed was small. Caitlin changed small to wee.  PJ changed the word said to plead.
 


Groups working on Time For Kids Text Features

 

 

 Mingling With Jack Gantos at the Jericho Public Library
 Squid Dissection in the Science Lab!



Thursday, October 11, 2012

Weekly Update with the Alites-October 12th

Welcome to our blog!  This week your children are the authors.  Read on to find out about all of the wonderful things going on in our classroom.
-Alites

National Holidays
By Emilie, Austin, & Sakina

On Tuesday we looked at a PowerPoint that our teachers made on national holidays. We created study cards.  All week we reviewed our holiday cards for our test on Friday. 
       Did you know that Election Day is always held the Tuesday after the first Monday in November? The reason is that on Mondays most people are always crazy. Also, did you know that Thanksgiving is on November 22nd this year?
                                            
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
By Chris & Trevor 
 
          Our class has just finished Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key and it was great. We all took a quick test when we reached the end of the book.  On Thursday, we wrote our own essays on how Joey changed from the start of the book to the end.  We began by making webs comparing Joey in the beginning of the book and again at the end.  Joey really transformed!  We had to turn in our books because they are getting signed by the author Jack Gantos who we will be meeting on Monday.

Making Meaning
By Logan & Kyra

         This week in Making Meaning, we have been focusing on text features in expository text.  We have been learning about captions, subtitles, text boxes, table of contents, glossary, the index and more. We have looked at articles on rainforests, tornadoes, and dinosaurs.  We created lists of the text features we found in the articles and shared them with the class.

Writer's Workshop
By Jared, Rachel & Trevor
 
This week in writer’s workshop we were discussing “Show Not Tell.” We played charades. Everyone got a scenario that they acted out for the class to guess.  For example, Caitlin pretended to be a baby in a crib, Trevor was a mailman and Jared was a doctor fixing a patient's leg.
The following day, we were given sentences like, “The pizza is delicious.” and we had to expand on it and describe it to make the reader want it. We had a lot of fun doing that!
Finally, we watched clips of Tom and Jerry and Charlie Chaplin because there were no words or sound in those shows, just animations and actions and they were really funny.


F.L.E.S
By Adam and Becca

          In FLES we are learning Italian. The teacher’s name is Mrs. Seymour. This week we learned greetings. We had to write a skit and perform it in Italian. We had to include 2 questions, a greeting, our Italian name, and a scenario. We learned breathing techniques. She used a bell chime to direct us when to start breathing. We had fun in FLES. Ciao!

Art
By Stephanie & Brian

     In Art, we are making Artist Trading Cards. What is an Artist Trading Card?  An Artist Trading Card, or ATC, is a 2½ by 3½ card. Each card looks different, based on the artist. We use paper with designs, metallic markers and pencils, glue, shiny little jewels, punchers, newspapers and magazines. It will take a few more weeks to finish, because most people are on their second card and we have to make six. Brian is doing his on his newly created country, Steph is creating a neon card, and Adam is creating circles.


Little Benderly Buddies
By Madeline & Sanjyot

     We each got paired up with a little buddy that we will have for the rest of the year. We meet with them once or twice a month. We do reading and writing programs with our buddies. We teach them how to spell new words. Sometimes we just play with them or do crafts. The first project we did with them was a get to know you project. We asked each other questions and wrote them down. If they did not know how to spell something we would help them. We also drew pictures of each other. We love our Little Benderly Buddies.


Math Class
By Steven, Yunseo & Michael

         In math class this week we learned about multiplying three digit numbers by three digit numbers. We learned about multiplication. We also learned how to estimate using rounding. Every day we have a math drill. If you are wondering what that means... it means that we have 5 minutes to compute products. It is very intense because we try to beat our personal best time. We also learned about magic zero and Mr.Smiley.

Computer Lab

Caitlin & PJ 

       Right know we are working on Presidential PowerPoints. We each have our own president. We have to write about their early life, education, positions held before the presidency and three major accomplishments as President.  Did you know that Bill Clinton plays the saxophone? Did you know that Andrew Johnson is famous for saying,“Senators, my blood,  my existence, I would give it to save this union.” 

Show Not Tell Charades

Scenario: Madeline and Rachel are at the carwash.

Scenario: PJ is an angry driver stuck in traffic. 


Scenario: Becca is pretending to be a dog begging for a treat from Stephanie.



Scenario: Trevor is delivering mail to Sanjyot. 

Friday, October 5, 2012

Weekly Update- October 5th

Dear Families,
Welcome to week two of our blog! Thank you to all the parents and students that posted comments.  Next week, your children will be the authors of our blog! They will give you the scoop about all the happenings in our classroom.

This week in math we began our unit on multiplication. Our students were a bit rusty on their facts at first, but they quickly came back to them after a few math drills! Practice makes perfect! Ask them about the math stations they participated in today.

During Writer's Workshop the children chose a seed idea to publish. Most students had five entries to choose from. The entry they selected had to be one that they want to further explore.  We will work on strategies such as "Show not Tell", "Leads", and paragraphing.

We are close to the end of our read aloud, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key.  Students will have a final test next week along with an essay about character change. Our author visit is quickly approaching on the 15th of October!

In social studies, we have been exploring the branches and levels of government. Using a hanger, students created a visual representation of the levels of government. We have been keeping up-to-date on election news through our Time For Kids magazine and CNN Student News.

In the science lab this week, Ms. O'Neil brought in hermit crabs and snails that she caught with a seine net. It was awesome! Many of our students picked them up and got a close up view! See for yourself in the photos down below!

Enjoy the three day weekend,
Alites
                                                              Good times in the lab!
                                                                Check this out, Trevor!
                                                           Look at the hermit crabs!
                                                               Check out my snail!
                                                                 It's getting away!
                                                                    This is awesome!
                                                       Want to have our snails race?