The End!

What a great year!

Thank you to everyone for a fantastic school year.  I will never forget this class: The Presidential Debates, the amazing book shares, the incredible small moment stories, the zillions of math sheets and the incredible scientific observations and conclusions they made were all OVER THE TOP!

Have a fantastic summer Room 14.

Good luck in middle school.  Please email me and keep in touch.

~Ms. Mandel

Monday, June 21st

Last Monday!

All of the students’ book shares this month were amazing!  I asked them to make this the best one yet and 99% of the kids did.  Wow!

The students did a great job helping me clean up and out the classroom today.

After that, we made a crazy thing from 2 polymers.   Ask you students about it.  We had a lot of fun!

Field Day was a great success.  Thanks to all of you who had a hand in it.

Finally, I want to apologize for sending the students home with so much stuff.  As I clean out the classroom, the students see so many things they like.  I would have thrown them away if they did not take them.  I give you permission to toss them after the kids forget about them!

Tomorrow, I will send home report cards as well as a list of books at each student’s individual, independent reading level.  Please look for them.

Monday, June 14th

After a great trip to Camp Orkila, we returned to the classroom for a semi-normal day.

We started with some great book shares from Anita, Ruby, Leif and Anna.

In math today, we worked on the formula for finding the area of a circle.  This was a OPTIONAL homework tonight.  The unit assessment will be on Wednesday.

Finally, in the afternoon, Jill Mount taught us a little about Cartooning and Comic Strips.  The students developed characters and began designing a comic themselves.  It was a lot of fun.  Thanks for all the great art lessons you have taught this year Jill!

I sent home a number of papers tonight.  Please look for them.  One was a reminder of our class potluck at my house tomorrow evening.  I hope you can make it.  The second, was a letter to you describing my employment changes for next year.

Tomorrow we will have a field trip to Golden Gardens – rain or shine!  Please send your student with a sack lunch and some good walking shoes.  It should be a fun day!

Tuesday, June 8th

It seemed like such a brief day…

We met in Writer’s Workshop with those who were writing in a similar genre.  We discussed our story/project ideas and helped each other think of important details to cover in our independent writing projects.

Then we met with our kinderbuddies.  We are almost done with two copies of our “How to be a Good Buddy” booklets.

In science, we opened up our hay infusion that had been stewing in the hot sun for 4 weeks.  It didn’t smell as bad as we thought it might!  We looked at it carefully under the microscopes.  Some people found microorganisms that had locomotion.  Others declared that they saw nothing.  There were in fact, many different living microorganism in the mixture.

After lunch, many students silent read while other selected book share activities.  I thought this might take 15 to 30 minutes…IT TOOK US 90 MINUTES!!!  But the good news is that many people got caught up on their reading!  I can honestly say that many of these book share projects are pretty creative and if done right, they will be outstanding to see!  Please remind your student that this should be his or her BEST work of the school year.

At the end of the day, we had a visit with the Seattle Public Library.  The librarian spoke to us about the summer reading program.

Then we had all of the 5th graders meet to talk about Camp Orkila…we should be ready!!! Any last minute questions?  Please email me…I will try to respond before I go to bed tonight.  Hopefully everyone is ready and excited.  I know I am!!!  The weather report predicts rain for ALL DAY tomorrow.  Please pack the sleeping bags in plastic garbage bags.  See you at the school at 7:30 am tomorrow morning!

Monday, June 7th

Today we got back to our regular routine.

In Reader’s Workshop, we discussed our books and decided on what we would read for the next week.  The reading groups won’t meet again until next Monday.  By the way, students should bring their reading books to Camp Orkila and continue reading daily.

In Writer’s Workshop,  we started a new unit of independent writing projects.  We discussed many different genres of writing and them we chose which one we would like to spend the next couple of weeks doing.  After that, we began brainstorming the next steps in prewriting.  If the student chose a narrative genre, then he or she began exploring the characters in great depth.  If the student chose a non-fiction genre, then he or she began making a list of questions that he or she can research to find out more information.

In math, we worked with cylinders – finding the diameter and circumference.

Next, we discussed packing for camp again.  A reminder:  students are expected to CARRY all of their equipment!  There is a great deal of walking from the bus to the ferry and from the bus to the camp.  Please be sure that each child can lift and carry his or her luggage unassisted.

Finally, we had our last science assessment.

Friday, June 4th

We started the day with teh Loyal Heights Variety show! We have some incredibly talented students in class.  Olivia, Abby and Florence sang.  And Anna danced.  It was really fun.

When we returned to the classroom, we finished our On Demand Writing Assessment.

After lunch, we looked at 3 different micro-organisms with our microscopes: volvox, blepharisma, and vinegar eels.  They were fascinating!

Finally, we ended our day catching up on much of our work.  Many students still need to choose bookshare activities for their June bookshares.  I am expeting that the work is teh BEST they can do.  Therefore, their project should display reading work we have been working on in Reader’s Workshop, and it should take a while to complete.  If it only takes the student an hour of work time to complete, it probably isn’t their best work so far this year.

Have a great weekend!  If you are attending the M’s game tomorrow, I will see you there!

Wednesday, June 2nd

In Reader’s Workshop, we have been looking at social issues in our texts. Today, I asked the students what they could have done to change the life of the character in their book.  They looked at what constraints might needed to be changed to make a difference.

In Writer’s Workshop, we looked at exellent examples of student work that scored highly.  Tomorrow we will begin our on demand assessment.  The last one of the year.

In Math today, we wrote algebraic expressions and interpreted line graphs.

In Science, we looked at a small piece of Elodea under a microscope.  We determined that it had life because we could see cells!

Finally, in F.L.A.S.H. today, we discussed miscarriages, birth defects and prenatal care.

Homework tonight is to read and explore what social change they can make in the social issues they are reading about.  And also, 10.6 math sheet: Interpreting Tables and Graphs.

Tuesday, June 1st

We started with Reader’s Workshop today.  We met with our groups and reflected on our progress.  Most groups were surprised at how much reading they did last month.  They concluded that the groups pushed them to perform beyond where they probably would have gone if they were on their own.  YEAH!

In Writer’s Workshop we looked back at Small Moment narrative stories.  On Thursday we will have our last writing assessment.  Today and tomorrow we will look at great examples and make plans for our best writing of the entire school year!

Ms. Bartlett returned this afternoon to finalize her lesson on pendulums. 

Then we looked at our last science assessment and we went over the correct answers.

Finally, in F.L.A.S.H. we began discussing pregnancy and child birth. 

On big thing that the students were questioning is what defines “sexual activity.”  I stress that they should refer to you (their parents or guardians) for the answer to this question.  I know different people define “sex” differently.  I want to make sure that the stduents’ values are taught bythe parents or guardians.

Homework tonight is to finish Ms. Bartlett’s work, think about our Small Moment Stories, and a worksheet called “What’s My Rule” in math.

Friday, May 28th

Yeah, it’s Friday!

We spent all morning working hard in the classroom – with NO BREAK! 

In Reader’s Workshop, we met with our groups and extended our thinking beyond the pages.  We are working very hard to make inference when we read.

I have been assessing indiviual students on reading levels.  Many students are raing their levels.  The hard work is paying off!  Please make sure to encourage students to read regularily over the summer.  Research has shown that students can drop up to 2 reading levels if they don’t read daily for 2 months.

In Writer’s Workshop, we planned out what we will do throught the end of the school year.  It was decided that we will spent next week preparing for and taking last our On Demand Assessment.  Then we will begin indenpendent writing projects where we choose our own genre and topics to write long about.

In math we had a great lesson with Ms. Bartlett on pendulums.  The students experimented, recorded and graphsed the time and length of pendulum swings.  Then they looked at if the arc size would effect the swing time of the pendulums.

This was the last school day of the month All calendars, math sheets and Think Tac Toes were due today.

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Thursday, May 27th

So we have reached the end of the month.  All monthly goals are due tomorrow.  Specifically, math sheets should be done and Think Tac Toes should have 3 in a row.

Today we read everyone’s President essay.  There were some really great arguments in  those papers.  They are posted on the stairwell.  I hope you will get a chance to stop by and read them.

After that, we looked at all of the papers we have written this school year in addition to a couple we wrote last year!  Then we reflected on our growth as a writer.

In math today, we played a really fun game called Name that Number.  You can play it at home: http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/educators/em_games

Finally, in F.L.A.S.H. the last couple of days we have been talking about the Reproduction System.  In these lessons, we have identified the sex organs of males and females as well as discussed the functions of each part.

Tomorrow ALL library books are due back to the school.  Mr. Harvey will be conducting an inventory of the library on Monday.