HIVE5 Connection - Week of September 26

   Autumn is upon us, our weather is beautiful and the leaves turning...

Our group has maintained its lead in the Orange Ruler Fundraiser standings, so I simply commend and thank our students and families for this successful effort. As of Friday, September 30, the second place team is just $67 dollars behind, so we may want to set in for one final effort should that lead be important.  In any case, there is much to be proud of here!  

We had our first art class, with a focus on foreshadowing, led by Mrs. Liz St. Andre (and five other moms -joined our class).  Jamba juice was provided as a reward to the students for their Orange Ruler efforts.  Mrs. St. Andre gave a wonderful introduction to this zany art approach that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Drawings are in progress and the plan is to provide brief respite in art over the next two weeks so the artworks can be completed and provide some mental rest at times when the studies may wear on.

Curriculum to Calendar:

HW Packet & Literacy Sheet links for the week: Homework Packets

I. Writing:  

Homework was bent around the Expository or How To writing assignment's First Draft, which was due today, Thursday, for sharing in small groups in class.  Tomorrow, Friday, the groups reconvene to focus on the constructive feedback process.  We have emphasized that writing is a process and that we are more concerned about editing and revising than final copy.  Nevertheless, students will have a chance to choose a piece of their own from the four assignments thus far for further editing. 

II.  Mathematics:

To confirm what you may have read in your child's planner this week, no math homework was given on Tuesday to provide additional student time for their writing. The weekly homework packets were collected, selected math problems checked in teams, and assignments checked off for completion.  A double-sided sheet for lesson 13 was the only sheet sent for homework on Thursday, due Friday. 

Students who had completed all of their work this week were provided extra math enrichment sheets, which may be turned in by Monday. 

Math scores from last Wednesday's District test were entered into into the Gradecam system

Also, On Wednesday students took a multi-lesson quiz and practiced reporting corrected problems as objective-based scores, and tabulated these into Standards' based forms.

III. Reading.  

We continue on our Journey with Wonder.  It's a great glue for the classroom community.

In our non-fiction science reading, students practiced and discussed cause and effect, and the connections between questions and speculations.  

All students also took their District reading pretest, and students with higher reading needs were given the more heavily diagnostic Fountas and Pinnell reading comprehension assessment on Wednesday and Thursday. Both tests have been uploaded into digital tracking systems. 

There is a lot of extra interest and love for threatened animals being generated by some really healthy group discussions on the topics.  Saskia and Lauren spontaneously created  a sign up sheet, which already has approximately 25 signatures from students in class (plus their teacher's), with the goal of expressing interest and support for threatened species.  On Thursday I gave the girl's space in our community time to begin discussion on the theme and encouraged them to carry this farther.  They also elected this subject of study in the elective part of their computer lab time this week. Let's see where this leads us...

Just 1/3 of students completed last week's Reader's Response homework, and for a number of reasons, I'm going to revise this procedure to widen the response time window and it have it more usefully connected to learning by providing opportunities for sharing, and making the writing about the books we read connected to our classroom culture.  Therefore, there is no reading response homework Thursday.  Current plans are to reintroduce the activity when we have whole class computer access next Tuesday. 

IV.  Connections

Here's some helpful topics for conversation with your fifth grader this week:

A. Connecting with our U.S. Geography focus this week, talk about the physical features of our area and country in geographical terms like tributary, bay, estuary, and gulf.  

B.  Does reading Wonder have an impact on how we are relating to our classmates this year? 

C.  What animals and animal habitats have you been reading this week? 

D.  For math, create opportunities to try questions like:  About how many offices do you think are in this building anyway? How did you calculate that?  From the garden boxes with yellow roses, how many small bouquets of flowers do you think you could make?

E.  How does the Bohemian folk dance or electric slide go?

F.  What are you reading personally this week?  

F.   What home studies is your child pursing of their own interest? Can these be shared at school? We discussed Ben A's interest and knowledge of wildlife this week and he brought in a blue-jay's feather.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Bradley Hagstrom 

HIVE5 Connection - Week of September 19

I Calendar - 

Monday - Week 4 homework packets handed out; due Friday.   

District Attendance policy form handed out to students; they are due with parent signatures on Friday.

Letter writing homework for Ms. Chantell, the dance teacher,  explained in the Appendix at the foot of this post. The letter is due Tuesday to me and I give it Thursday to Ms. Chantell. 

Wednesday - There wasn't new math instruction today and there is no math homework, unless the previously assigned pages of 38-39 and 42-43 were not completed on Monday and Tuesday. 

Homework change:  If students did not complete in class their fictional writing piece following one of the four style options given to them and modeled after Demitri Martin example stories, then they should complete their story today in their black and white composition journals. 

Thursday-  Students should have finished their fiction writing piece yesterday.  If there story was unfinished, they should finish it tonight in their composition books. 

As a reminder, students should complete the Reader's Response for the week this evening. There is link in the link menu at the top right side of the blog. 

Thursday evening is also the last day for Orange Ruler Run invitations. 

Friday - Did your student answer the Reader's Response questions for Week 4 yet?  The link is under the "Helpful Links" at the top right of the Blog. If not, these should be completed by Saturday. 

II.  Content & Connections

In Reading we are working on Annotating text, particularly focusing on connections and speculations, as well as confusions and connections.  Students continue to read non-fiction science texts on animal species and conservation.  Ask  your child about their present animal.

We also began selected Reading Comprehension (Fountas & Pinnell) Testing and Conferring in the reading workshop.

In particular this week we have been focusing on annotating text with questions and wondering.

In Social Studies we are still putting together the basis of coordinate points of the GPS by developing our knowledge of how latitude and longitude are read and work together. You could talk about far away places you have been to in relationship to the equator and talk about patterns between location and weather that you may see, or ask those questions about a place you've always wanted to visit together. 

In Mathematics there is a new rounding technique.  It's not much loved yet, but it does make place value central to the practice. We are also continuing to develop our knowledge of the metric system and adding decimals in word problems.  There is also this business of adding tenths and hundredths and stuff, with idea of becoming familiar with bundling and decomposing values, and thinking and talking about  decimal fractions fluently.

In writing students have heard four model stories by Demitri Martin equivalent to four writing formats for fictional writing.  Students will be writing a fictional piece based upon one of these models and began brainstorming Tuesday.   Ask your child what format they are using and what story model it follows.

Appendix

A.  Informal Letter Writing Assignment

Letter to Ms. Chantell due to Mr. Hagstrom Tuesday.  The letters themselves are to be given to Ms. Chantell Thursday.  They may be hand-written or typed.  

The letter should include:

Student Name & Date  ( You may leave out your address, which is normally included).

A salutation (greeting): "Dear Ms. Chantell,"

Three paragraphs with the following content (feel free to use these sentence starters):  When I first heard about the program...  2.  After two classes in the program...  3.  My goal for the end of dance class is...

A closing:  "Sincerely,"  "All the best,"   "Thank you!"  etc.  

And a signature:

If you need help with formatting, try: Writing a Friendly or Personal Letter

HIVE5 Connection - Week of September 5

Dear Families,

    In the first 6 days of the 2106-17 school year, we have been building community, learning expectations and routines, working as a team, and began to learn our subject matter.  We are off to a solid start and the students present themselves respectfully and are engaged and I think content.  It's good to note we are sharing laughter and the class environment is positive.
     In math we have begun the new Eureka curriculum are working with place value, exponents, decimal numbers, efficient problem solving, and applying concepts to word problems.  We focus especially on problem set up, cooperative work, and sharing our problem solving strategies.
    In reading and writing students experienced read alouds, including from Wonder, and edited stories from Demetri Martin's This is a Book.  There were class and partner discussions, and journal writing entries connected with our reading material.  One focus has been on reading fiction embedded with multiple perspective, including Martin's "Bee Sting," which students found was very humorous and unique.  Today, Friday, students tried their hand at writing their own multiple perspective stories, and this was really more difficult than it at first appears.
  Students also read Japanese Tanka poetry and thought about the special qualities and features of our area that they could share with people from other far away places. And last week we shared a childhood story called Guillermo Jorge Manual Jose in Spanish and English as a springboard to connect with how objects and events, and memory interconnect and relate us back to our families.
     We have also begun a social studies unit on U.S. geography focusing on hemispheres, continents, oceans, and describing location with latitude and longitude.
     Finally we began to explore and organize the class library together and students began checking out class reading materials. Students have begun taking their agendas home and I'm having them begin to write readings in them as this may be a starting point for conversations at home.

     Note also that we had a class meeting with our Dancing Classrooms Teacher.  We also set the schedule for dance lesson program and we actually will begin Monday at 12:55, and our class will meet in the music portable building for approximately 40 minutes.  The students were not privy to the Monday start up time since a meeting to determine the schedule was after school today, Friday.

     In sum everything is going very nicely and I feel really good about our start.  Please continue to encourage your child to read 20 - 30 minutes a night, and hopefully considerably more at times, depending on homework, home schedules, and everything else our children immerse themselves into...
    I have decided to begin my web presence with Blogger given it's ease of use and access, but I may need to use connect for some communications, documents, and privacy.  I'll inform you as a useful structure develops. The name of the Blog is HIVE5G, based on Hagstrom IVE 5th Grade and is accessible currently with public access at http://hive5g.blogspot.com/.   Next on my list to set up is the Reading Homework on-line Reporting access, which a couple of families have already asked about.  Thanks for your patience as I continue to set-up systems in a step-wise manner consistent with instructional priorities.

    Additionally, keep an eye out for communications on Curriculum Night, Art Docent Volunteers, and Classroom Volunteers.  Several of you have offered help and this is much appreciated.

    Have a wonderful weekend!

     Mr. Hagstrom