daw.com - Christmas Edition

Dear Parents and Class,

I am all packed and ready for the trip back to Canada. The bus arrives to pick us up in just a little over 2 hours. I wanted to say how much I appreciate all of you and how wonderful you all are but I could not think of any way to do this. Instead, I thought I would write all of you a Christmas Blog.

Here are some of the pictures I took from our Christmas Crafts days this past week. I was pleased that everyone participated and got to take home some really neat Christmas crafts - I am being really quiet about this in case they are being used for presents to mom or dad.

Also, here is a link to a neat graphic movie I made of all the teachers in 5C - I think you will really be amazed at the agility of the teachers. This link expires on January 15, 2010.

To all of my students and their families, I wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy Prosperous New Year. Please stay safe over the holidays and bring back lots of stories to share with all of us in 5C1.

Harold Daw

daw.com - December 13

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Halle
Tuesday - Max
Wednesday - Faven
Thursday - Stephen
Friday - day 2, no current events

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

Thank-you to all for the wonderful holiday feast last Wednesday. I myself had so much fun that I forgot to get pics of the event. I know students went home full that day and filled with all the goodies from the feast. Your effort and kindness is always appreciated.

The biggest change this week will be with the homework. Students have homework on Monday and Tuesday only and the packet is due back in to me on Wednesday morning. This means students need to look at their schedules for the week. This is a must since I need to get it marked and prepared to return in Monday folders right after the holiday. I am also looking at my schedule to make this happen. It is also a good thing for students to not have too much homework this week since I know there are a lot of parties and other celebrations happening.

The only homework over the holidays is reading and this is a MUST. I am asking for 20 minutes ever second day and students will all go to the library this week to have books at home for them to read. If you are traveling I ask that books be a part of the packing list. It is VERY important that this be a part of the holiday plans as I am not convinced yet that students have really grasped all of the concepts of fiction reading they need. Students WILL have a reading blog entry to do the week they return from holidays so this is another reason to read - read - read. I have a special, 2 sided, reading log to go home with the homework folder on Wednesday.

Our in class experiment with growing grass under conditions of acid water has been very successful. Students will complete this on Monday and graph results over the 10 day period. I have put up some pictures of our work in this area. We also looked at sound pollution last week and will complete the unit with light pollution this week. Students have also had a first hand look at the project which is a personal service announcement. they will work on and complete this after the holiday and up to semesters end. There is lots of opportunity here for the more creative students in the class.

The last two classes for research will happen this week with Mrs. Robinson and Mr. Clarke in the library. This is in preparation for the research section of the PSA mentioned above. So far, students have responded well to the research skills being taught.

We will complete our math unit on fractions, decimals and percent this week with the final assessment about mid-week. We will also complete the next open response this coming week. I will not start the next unit until the new year.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be our cluster's annual Christmas Crafts. There are 16 crafts and students need to choose 4 over the two days. These crafts will go home with the students at the end of each day. Always promises to be a lot of fun.

Monday is the next Math Olympiad and students look ready. Good luck to them all.

Friday is a games morning. Students will be able to bring games from home and I have several here at school to play as well. After art in the morning, we will play some games until we leave for the Christmas program at Tai Tam. If your son or daughter wants to bring a game and teach it to a group of students, we would be delighted to have this happen. I will see that all is looked after at this end. All students need to bring a lunch on Friday except those on the lunch program. The cafeteria will not be selling lunch on this day. Please note this change as I would not like to see students go hungry. They will have lunch prior to our departure for Tai Tam.

Friday is also our last day to "Dress for a Cause" and it is red and green day. It costs students $20.00 and all money raised goes to the less fortunate in Hong Kong through the Operation Santa Clause program of the South China Morning Post and a couple of radio and TV stations. Students can also continue purchasing Candy Cane grams for $5.00 during lunch on Monday to Thursday.

Friday will see students dismissed early at 1:45 with busses leaving at 2:00. Please be aware that the police will be stopping all cars parking from 12:00-2:00 along South Bay Close. This is because we need to get 1200+ students back from the Christmas Assembly at Tai Tam and this is a lot of buses. These same buses will be used to transport students home. With the construction across from the school and renovations further along South Bay Close, there is not the room for vehicles to park and buses to return from Tai Tam. All students to be picked up by car will happen after the buses have left at 2:00. Please let your driver know if this is the person picking up students. The official announcement will come in the family letter from the office on Monday.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and prosperous New year. If you are traveling this Christmas or staying here in Hong Kong, please stay safe and have a restful and enjoyable holiday. I will be returning to Canada to be with my mom and also to participate in my nephew's 9th or 10th (I have forgotten now - my sister is going to kill me) birthday. I look forward to continuing right where we left off when we return on January 4th, 2010.

Thought you might get the same laugh from the picture at the right that I did when I first saw it. Sometimes, even the smallest things get a real giggle out of us and laughter really can have a calming affect. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - December 6

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Nikhita
Tuesday - Brock
Wednesday - Alex
Thursday - day 2, no current events
Friday - Christoffer

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids


As you can see by the picture at the left, we had a great time on Thursday and Friday with the students from the Shenzen Sinolink International School and their teachers. I made them a regular part of the class as much as I could and they all seemed to really enjoy it. It is important for students to be a part of this as sometimes our class is a little isolated and we don't always see the complete picture. I would also like to congratulate the four students who boarded these students for the two nights. They did their best and really showed what we are all about in 5C1.


I also want to congratulate all our budding musicians. In 5C1 we have 6 band students, 5 strings students and 4 choir students. This past week the band and strings had their holiday concerts and on Monday is the choir concert in the Church of All Nations. As you can see by the picture to the right, the band students looked quite relaxed after it was all over.

This coming week has a couple of special events. First off is our Annual Holiday feast on Wednesday. I know we could really use a few more parents to help with setup and cleanup. Please let me know if you can help. By now Mrs. Pushkarna should have been in touch with all of you about timing and food delivery. If not, it will be coming soon.

We are still looking for some parents to help us with our Christmas Crafts on Dec. 15-16. Please consider this as we a bit short this year and can really use the help.

Students also need any of the following for a special event this coming Friday: scraps of cloth, wool scraps, fancy paper, used Christmas cards (just the front picture is needed). They can bring this in any day this week and I will store it for them.

Next is some special days for the students. Monday and Friday are free-dress (Dress for a Clause) days in helping to raise money for the South China Morning Post Operation Santa. It is $20.00 for each day or more if you are so inclined. Monday is dress in red day and Friday is dress in green day. Friday at lunch will also see the start of the sale of Candy Cane grams. Students can purchase one of these for $5.00 to send to friends in the school. Each afternoon the Candy Cane grams will be delivered to the correct person. This sale goes all the way until Dec. 17 with the last Candy Cane grams delivered on the 18th.

This time of year is when the members of the HKIS community pitch in to help out those less fortunate. This years food drive for St. James Settlement is being run by the Cub Scouts. They are looking for canned goods, noodles, flour, bags of rice, baby formula and the like. Boxes are set up outside the office to help collect. As a class we talked about how we can help contribute to our community which is one of the Student Learning Results here at HKIS. I suggested that this is one way we can all help but that there should be something that students have to do to make them more involved. I admit I have no ideas at this time but as a family perhaps you can talk it over and see what comes up. I believe that all the food needs to be in the boxes prior to the Christmas break so the Cub Scouts can package it up and get it delivered.

We have completed all the pollution experiments in the lab. There is one that is continuing in the class and that is the growing of grass under conditions of tap water, acid water (vinegar) and half and half. We will watch the results over the next few days and see where it gets us. Students will then report this on their pollution blog which can be found on their Portfolio Websites. This week we start to look at the final presentation which is a research based project that will end with a Public Service Announcement. Two lessons this week with Mrs. Robinson, our librarian, and two more next week will set students up to complete this after the Christmas break.

Our writing unit on the essay is fully underway. We have primarily been looking at the writing of paragraphs with our thinking. Ideas are being generated through observation, reading of newspapers and from our own thoughts. This coming week students will have to complete the first essay on their own. It will be a personal essay on a topic of their own or one from some prompts I have given them. It will start with a plan (something we call an accordion paragraph) and end with a complete paragraph. This unit will overlap with our Public Service Announcement project in science in that their project will be written as an essay.

In math we continue to work on fraction conversion to decimals and vice-versa. We have spent a lot of time on unit fractions (1 is the numerator with any number as the denominator) as this is where the basic understanding starts. We have also looked at reducing fractions to their lowest form after conversion from decimals. Sometimes it is hard for students to get it all the way, especially with very large decimals. As the week progresses, conversion to percent will start and I am hoping that all the learning in decimals will pay off with a smooth transition since all a percent is, is a fraction where the denominator is 100. We will also have another exemplar to complete.

In reading we have some catching up to do. We missed many reading lessons last week with all the other neat events happening. I expect that this will not be too difficult for students. Book talks and response blogs are part of what happens this week and should be completed by Christmas break.

I wanted to share with you a conversation I had with a parent last week. It was over the "exceeds expectations" category on the report card. This category is there for the exceptional student who consistently shows effort and thinking above that of a regular grade 5 student. Because of the fact that very few students in grade 5 are consistent in their work or thinking, this level of achievement is very difficult to obtain. This is the way it is suppose to be. When the exceptional student shows up, this is the place where they will be assessed. What the conversation boiled down to is that the majority of students will be in the meets expectations level of assessment. This level is constantly changing as the year progresses and students get more and more sophisticated. The learning bar is dynamic since it is normal for progress and expectations to increase as the year moves on. There always has to be something more to shoot for.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - Novermber 29

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Pablo
Tuesday - Norika
Wednesday - day 2, no current events
Thursday - Sabrina
Friday - Christos

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend and that all our tummies are now full of those things that help us celebrate this special time of year. We had a Thanksgiving chapel with the whole school last Wednesday where many reasons for the holiday were explored.

This week is two big events happening. The first of these is the annual PFO book fair. The PFO and several professional book companies will have their wares set up in the library for both display and purchase. Our class day is Wednesday so if students want to bring some money to purchase books on this day they can. I have no way to predict what books cost as it varies quite a bit among retailers and the PFO. The amount depends on the kinds of books being purchased. Hard cover books are more expensive than soft cover books.

The second event will happen toward the end of the week with the annual SinoLink school visit from Schenzen, China. I believe I will have three students from the school attending on Friday with their sponsors from my room. It is a great way for students to interact with others from our neighbor China. there will also be special activities during the week to make the UPS students more aware of the Chinese culture and language. Should be a fun week.

The last two of the pollution experiments will be completed this week. The students spent last week looking at hard water and the pH of liquids. They then determined how this affects pollution and themselves. Some interesting conclusions were drawn. We will complete this on our Pollution Blogs this week.

For reading this week we will start our second book talks. This time they will be in the form of a Podcast which is a sound file of the students talking about a book. No video, just a voice file. I have an MP3 recorder in my room to help them with this. Watch for them starting to show up on their reading blogs prior to the Christmas holidays.

There are two concerts this week that involve students from the class. The band concert on Tuesday and the Strings concert on Wednesday. If you have some time to come and support our budding musicians, I know they will greatly appreciate it.

Since students will have special guests with them on Friday we will not have a Vocab Test this week. Students will have their regular vocab homework, but no test. This is different that what is on their homework organizer as I was not aware of this when I made up the sheet. I will remind student on Monday and again on Thursday.

We will complete another blog post on our learning blogs this week. It will be on the last unit of math which was on Division. Some students have already started this and one or two may have completed it. IF you need to get to the class list of blogs click here.

This weeks pictures are from our Aberdeen Field day on Nov.18. Hope you enjoy them.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - November 22, 2009

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - day 2, no current events
Tuesday - Zehra
Wednesday - Trey
Thursday - Simon
Friday - holiday - no school

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

This past week has seen the class fully involved in the science experiments for the pollution unit. We completed the particle detectors, completed the filtration of water and are in the middle of the oil spills lab. Some real neat learning going on in these labs. I think there are 4 more left for this unit. Each of the labs is designed to show a particular point in pollution and what can be done about it. Not every lab is a perfect solution.

This week we start unit 5 in math. This unit is on fractions, decimals and percent. Because the three are so closely related to division it is a natural move for the program. We will continue to look at division but this time as fractions, decimals and percent. The unit 5 webpage with games and other interests can be found here. The family letter will be sent as part of the weekly email. I expect to have the final assessment for the last unit in this weeks Monday Folders.

We have also completed out realistic fiction stories unit and started the unit on Essays. This unit will focus on taking the seed ideas from large ideas and really thinking deeply about them. These ideas can come from observations, personal thoughts or beliefs. One thing that will be stressed is how passionate the writer needs to be about the topic.

We had a great time at Field day on Wednesday inspite of the cold weather. Students were so active that I do not think they even felt it. I have put some pics up on the website along with the Sports Day photos. Have a look here. Thanks to Mr. Moreno for most of these pics.

This week is American Thanksgiving week. Students get Friday off and teachers will be doing work on the technology for next year's one-to-one program. I will be presenting several workshops using what we have done in class as some of the examples. Because of the short week there will be no Wordly Wise for the week. Instead students need to complete their pollution poister from their non-fiction reading and hand it in with all the Thinkmarks. The school's Thanksgiving chapel will be on Wednesday.

I would also like to begin asking for any plans you may have leaving early or arriving late for the Christmas Holidays. This helps me plan in advance some of the aspects of my class that must be completed. I prefer to do these with everyone here. It also helps me with advance planning for some of the events of the last week (crafts, assembly etc.). Please let me know as soon as possible if you have had to make any such arrangements.

This weeks pics are from our science labs. They really show some of the neat things we are learning in science.

As always, if there are concerns or other questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - November 15

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Lucas
Tuesday - Jennifer
Wednesday - Michael
Thursday - Tara
Friday - Jonas

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

We had a great time at Sports Day on Friday and I am proud to announce that 5C1 finished second in the grade. Everyone also seemed to really enjoy the afternoon and 'fun' seemed to be the opportune word. Our thanks go to the PE department. Here is a picture of the 5C1 Red Army Ants. Thanks go to Mrs. Park for the photo. I have scattered some of mine throughout this letter. There is also a video later in the post.We have a field day this Wednesday from 9:30 - 11:00 in Aberdeen. These are different from Sports Day in that the students have to organize the activities themselves. There will be lots of equipment for them to choose from. Students do not get a lot of opportunity for this so they are already excited about going.

Our math unit on Division will wrap up this week with the final assessment later in the week. Students seem to be doing well with this. We have covered two algorithms for math and this week we will look at what to do with remainders and some problem solving with division.

Our pollution unit is well underway now and we have started the first of 9 experiments. There are two more on the way this week and we will wrap up our first on when students bring back their particle detectors on Tuesday. You can look for students additional section on their Google Sites this week for the pollution unit. Should be some interesting insights there. If you have troubles getting to the sites here is a listing of the links. Your students names are in initials only.

By now students should be well underway with their pollution reading assignment. It is four books from the general collection and one specific to the section of Pollution they wish to make a poster on. I have outlined the specifics of their poster in their homework packet this week and will do the same next week. We have also discussed it in class. Remember, this is not in addition to their nightly reading but rather to take the place of. Students should be keeping track of their reading time and books on their reading log which is part of their homework packet every week.

Students will need some time on the computers at home this week as part of their homework is to complete their second reading journal blog. By now I expect that all students are familiar with this kind of operation, however, if questions arise please email me. The first blog entries were quite well done. The instructions for the blog and a scaffold of what to put in the blog entry are in their Google Docs. They have two nights this coming week to complete this. Students may not use the pollution books as their blogs - it must be the fiction books they have been reading since that is what we have been studying.

Students also need to complete the Unit 4 Vocabulary presentation on Google Docs. This is a file I have shared with all my class. They are to define the words, use pictures, find movies that explain the topic or what ever. All they need to do is leave their name as one of the collaborators of the project. They have two nights to complete this as well. When it is completed, I will post it on our class website which is located here.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - November 8

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Faven
Tuesday - Stephen
Wednesday - Claire
Thursday - Christina
Friday - Day 2, no current events

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

I am still looking for two families to supply turkeys for our annual Holiday feast on Dec. 9th. If you can help me out please let me know. You might also want to mark this day on your calendar as parents are invited.

We finished our Cultural Encounters unit last week and this week we move on to our Pollution Unit. Some of the students have already started by reading some of the non-fiction books I have on the subject in preparation for their poster project later this month. They are also taking notes on the books they read in the form of answering questions about our essential questions for the unit. This should be part of their regular nightly reading. This week we have a special speaker for our pollution unit. Should be some interesting insights. Students will also be bringing home a particle detector which needs to be hung or placed somewhere in the home where there is movement of air - it can also be outside as long as it is a place where the detector will not be blown away or get lost.

We started our math unit on division last week. This is a fast unit with a look at three division strategies and algorithms. The final assessment for the last unit is in the Monday Folders this week as is the remainder of the work for the unit.

If you have not already done so, have a look at your students reading blog. They now have their first reading response blog posted and from the ones I have already read, they look pretty good. In another two weeks they will post their next response. These responses come from the books they are reading at home and here at school.

We are also well into our unit on summarizing a story. At this moment we are looking at the 5 w's for the stories we read in class and also as we share reading. It is also going to be a part of guided reading for the next two months.

Students should complete their Realistic Fiction stories this week and will publish them on their website when completed. Have a look there to see it later in the week.

Students have now completed their camp webpage with goals, a story about camp and their reflection. They did an excellent job on this so have a look see. Links to their pages can be found here.

On Friday the students have their annual Field Day. Our class color is RED so I am hoping that students can beg or borrow lots of read garments to wear as part of this day. We will leave just before lunch, have lunch at the field in Tai Tam and then return in time for dismissal. Water bottles are important for this day.

I took a 3 minute video of students participating in Project Adventure as part of their PE this week. Have a look and you can see what they are doing. This is an excellent problem solving unit for students in PE. Kudos to Mr. Bilington and Mr. Watson for making this available to students.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - November 1

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Alex
Tuesday - Christoffer
Wednesday - Halle
Thursday - day 2, no current events
Friday - Max

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

A few quick notes first

1. After school activities begin this week. I have a list of the activities students are registered in, posted in my room.

2. Monday is a day 5 - students will start project adventure so they must have proper sneakers for PE. Please assist with this as it is a real neat part of PE and I am sure students would not like to miss this.

3. Please resume temperature checks every morning and complete the form. It wastes a lot of class time if I have to get students temperature checks done here at school. 22 students takes almost 15 minutes to complete. Please make sure this is done daily.

4. We will have our annual cluster seasonal feast early in December. For this I need three families to prepare Turkeys. If you could volunteer for this please let me know. More details later as we get closer.

5. Student pictures, for those who paid for packages, will be distributed on Monday to go home. If you are unhappy with the picture return the packet an I will see to a retake in January. Please make sure all pieces are in the packet when it is returned.

Camp was a great success and students will be talking about it for some time to come. So much to do and so little time was the typical response I got when we returned. My thanks to all the parents that attended and especially the ones who helped us overnight in the cabins. A big thank-you also needs to go out to the TAs as they are the real ones responsible for getting it all together. I have pictures up on our class website which can be seen here. I have also placed a video in this blog from the Water Sports Center which was one of the highlights. If anyone has more pictures or videos they would not mid sharing with me please feel free to send them along.



Students spent some time with the MacBooks making a book talk video. These videos are now up on their reading blogs. While not perfect (it was their first time), you can see the excitement about reading they have and how much they enjoyed the video components of the laptops they will be using next year here at HKIS. If you do not know your students reading blog address it is linked at our Grade 5 website here. I hope to continue this again after the Christmas break with another video on their reading.

Reading for the next several months will look a little different. The times are still the same - 30 minutes per night for a minimum of 6 nights per week. Students still need to be reading their choice of fiction books for their reading blog but there will be a book or two assigned per week about our next science unit on pollution. Students will also have to take notes on these books.

After two weeks away from homework I do expect it might take some getting use to again. However, it does resume to its fullest this week. With all the holidays and special events it was not possible to get the homework package out to students earlier than tomorrow. Some students may not get it all completed this week. They will have a vocab test on Friday so it will take the highest priority.

I am sending home two incomplete pieces of work this week with Monday Folders. I was hoping to use the time after camp to complete our personal profiles and time line projects. This was not possible and I do not foresee more time in the future. If students have some time at home they can complete these projects. They are not required to however. Students fall writing assessments are also coming home this week. Please remember to sign the Monday folders and have them returned by Thursday if possible.

This week will see us complete our current math unit on Geometry and move on to our next one on Division. Special games and other resources can now be found on our class website here. There is one piece on this page students are required to assist with - a math vocabulary presentation. It is a Google Presentation that I have shared with my entire class. Students can define the words, use pictures, find movies or whatever to help us better see and understand some of the unit vocabulary. The math Family Letter is attached to the email I sent out on Sunday.

Several students asked if they could bring their own laptops from home to use at school. I think this is a great idea for two reasons; 1) Next year this will be the norm - maybe not the computers they are using now but the same idea and 2) I plan on continuing with all the online applications we have started this year and any computer can access these. There is also the fact that we have only 14 computers in our room so not all can use them at the same time. I wanted to mention this here since I do allow it and think it would be kind of neat for the students. If student bring the electrical connection I can supply power strips to plug into.

I do want to share one observation I made while using the MacBooks; student's writing is both longer and more detailed with a computer. I am not sure why at the moment but this was very evident while we had the computers. Of course, it goes without saying that typing skills are a major part of this.

Whew! This is a long one and I hope I did not burn you out. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - October 18

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - at camp, no current events
Tuesday - at camp. no current events
Wednesday - at camp, no current events
Thursday - Nikhita
Friday - Brock

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Daily Good News
Science News for Kids
Time For Kids

Many thanks to all the parents who attended parent conferences. I was pleased to see you all and hope that you came away with a better understanding of your student and what is going on in our classroom.

Next is a great big congratulations to Nikhita, Sabrina and Christina for having their cover designs chosen for the camp booklet this year. Not bad considering only four were chosen. A job well done.

This week is camp week. We leave from school on Monday at 8:15 and arrive back at school on Wednesday about 2:30 or so. Students will have regular dismissal on Wednesday.

For Monday all students need the following in a day pack to be carried around with them all day; lunch, drink, snack, water bottle (full), swimming togs, change of clothes for after water sports, hat, sunscreen, water shoes and camp booklet (which they can pick up at school on Monday). They will not be able to access their luggage on Monday so please do not put anything needed for Monday in the luggage.

The camp packing list was sent home with the permission slips about a month ago but in case you need it here is the digital version.

Thursday we will provide pizza for lunch, so students only need to bring snack, drinks and desserts. I know they will really like this day. They also have a free swim period on Thursday so towels, suits and swimming attire will be needed. Great way to cool off from a long hot day.

Since the following week is a holiday there will not be a class letter for two weeks. There is no homework over the holidays but I have asked students to read everyday for this time period. I would also like to suggest that students read aloud once or twice a week as this helps with their fluency and expression. Please have students complete the book log as they finish a book. The link is in their email.

Friday is a half day and students are dismissed at 11:20. This means all that students need is a snack since they will be at home for lunch.

I do want to make it clear that Thursday and Friday are complete school days. We are moving along in our Math, religion and reading over these two days as well as completing projects in Cultural Encounters, websites and Writing. I do expect all students present for the day and a half. Students will also have PE (swimming) Music and Chinese over the two days. Thanks for your assistance on this.

As always please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - October 11

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - day 2, no current events
Tuesday - Sabrina
Wednesday - Christos
Thursday - student conferences, no school
Friday - student conferences, no school

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News - Served Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

I would like to thank all the parents who attended our colony day last Thursday and also for all the food for our Colony Luncheon. I hope the students showed you what they are capable of and what we have been doing in our Cultural Encounters unit. By the end of this week we should complete our last pieces of this unit.

The big event this week is Conferences. By now I hope that all of you have signed up for a slot over these two important days. Students are welcome to attend but not required to do so. If there is something specific you want me to address during these conference days please let me know in advance so I can be prepared. Otherwise, I will go over the first quarter's learning by each student.

Because this is conference week, it is only three days. Students have homework on Monday and Tuesday only. After this, because of camp and then a holiday, there will be no homework until we return on November 2, 2009. I will be sending home a reading log for the time after camp and for the holiday as I do expect that students will find some time daily for reading. This will prepare them for their reading journal entries which we have now covered in class. Each student has one due every second cycle of the 6 day calendar starting last Friday with Day 1.

This weeks Monday folders will have the last math assessment and also a writing assessment in them. While it does have a space for parent signature, I do not need them back since I have an digital copy of all the assessments. All of grade 5 uses the same form so it takes into consideration all teachers of grade 5. Please have the folders returned by Wednesday so I can have the ready when we return on Nov. 2.

Students will get their cabin groups on Monday and meet as a cabin on Tuesday to prepare a poster for the cabin. All students are in a cabin with others from the class. This was all we could promise as there are just too many considerations to get everyone where they would like to be. Hopefully students will be still be pleased.

Watch students Google Sites this week as we will put our goals for the next half year as new pages on our sites. There is an entire process I will take students through to end up with these goals. Then we can revisit them throughout the year to see how much progress has been made.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - October 4

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Simon
Tuesday - Trey
Wednesday - Zehra
Thursday - Pablo
Friday - Norika

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

http://gimundo.com/news/
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/pages/search.asp?catid=7
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,1888376,00.html

We have been busy preparing for our Colony Day this coming Thursday. It will start after recess about 11:30am and the colony luncheon will start about 12:20. There will be presentations by groups of students and a town meeting in which students will be given a problem and have to solve it. Should be an interesting event - hope you can all make it.

Students can bring a costume to school on Thursday for Colony Day. We have looked at pictures of what the possibilities are and gone over what they need to look for at home. Basically clothes back then were fairly bulky and loose (fathers shirts) and most wore socks to cover pant legs. Vests or jackets usually rounded off the outfit. Some of the trades people had aprons to protect their clothing. Shoes were usually black and similar to what today we call dress shoes. Women wore long dresses, again, usually bulky. Any hep you can give your student will be greatly appreciated I am sure.

For the luncheon I have asked all families to supply the following;

Students with last names A-J please supply a main course dish for 15 people. (we do have a microwave).
Students with last names K-N please supply a dessert dish for 15 people.
Students with last names O-V please supply drinks (no sodas) for 12 people (tetra-paks or cans please).

Please let me know if you have any questions about this or don't know what to send. We are not trying to make this authentic other than a time for the colonists to have a luncheon together after completing their presentations. Mostly I would like to ask parents to send food that will be enjoyed by Grade 5 students - I think you know what this means. Parents are welcome to stay and join the luncheon if they wish. We will open the grassed area if the weather holds out for us.

The students have now completed their first writing piece and it is up on their portfolio websites. I have made getting to all the students electronic work easier by putting links to it on a single page. Here is the page and you might want to bookmark it for easy access throughout the year.

http://sites.google.com/site/dawcomgrade5/studentblogsandsites-1

Our next writing unit will not start until later in the week and will be Realistic Fiction. I expect it to take a month or so.

We have also completed out first reading unit and now move on to learning about inference and synthesis. This unit will also see the start of Reading Responses which will be posted on their reading blogs. Students will have about two responses due per month. I have some lessons to go over first so students will start with the next day 6 rotation which starts on Friday.


I am concerned about the reading at home that students are doing. This takes two forms. First is the time being spent on reading. It should be 20-30 uninterrupted minutes per evening for at least 6 days a week. Presently this is only happening in about 15% of my students. Secondly, students are to be reading story (fiction) books as this is what we are learning about in class. When we move to non-fiction later in the year I will then give them the chance to read these books. All students have a library day once in the six day rotation but they can also go to the library at lunch and recess to return and sign out books. This means there is no reason for students to not have books to read at home. These books should also be at their reading level. Please help by finding the time for students to read every day and record their progress.

We will start the next math unit on Geometry later in the week when we wrap up our current unit. The family letter was attached to the weekly email I sent home on Sunday. Delete the one I sent about a month ago and replace it with this one. You can also get it on our school website under grade 5.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - Sep. 27

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Michael
Tuesday - Tara
Wednesday - Jonas
Thursday - holiday - no school
Friday - day 2, no current events

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

http://gimundo.com/news/
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/pages/search.asp?catid=7
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,1888376,00.html

What a fabulous week and finally a full five days. It was like Christmas morning all week long as the MacBook computers finally arrived on Tuesday. There still are some technical glitches to try and work through but over all the students have really risen to the challenge of this new resource. I will try to outline some of the events of the week.

We started off by learning what some of the possibilities of the MacBook are. Thanks to all the students for teaching me and each other as well. This was truly a collaborative affair. The school now has its own domain for Google Docs so I have changed over all students. If you have this bookmarked at home you will need to change the bookmark to:

docs.google.com/a/hkis.edu.hk

If you need help email me and let me know. From here we looked at how to share a document and work on it together. We did this with a presentation I had set up and it was a fun learning time for all in the class. Students have been using this sharing of documents to peer edit their writing documents. It has been a slick addition to the class. You can see examples on my video this week. We have also started to use Google Docs for our Cultural Encounters and this coming week will continue to add to our character sketches we are developing.

We added a second post to our Learning Blogs this time looking at the math we have done this year. I fed the students three questions they needed to answer on their blogs. This is really going to be a great record of each students learning. Please have a look at their posts when you have some time.

This coming week you will begin to see some of the students reading projects posted on thier reading blogs. I have taught them how to start with iMovie where they can video their own Book Talk. I will be moving to Podcasts this coming week and will expect one of each before camp. The students are really enjoying this.

I have emailed students a link to our Book Log. This happened two weeks ago and there are still a lot of students who have not been using it. As soon as students complete a book they must fill out the book log. The link is in their school email accounts.

This coming week will see us come to an end of our first writing and reading unit. The writing is almost published now and will be sent home with Monday folders when I have finished assessing it. We use the 6-Traits rubric to assess all writing in grade 5.

Colony day is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Thursday Oct 8 at 11:30am. Students are encouraged to dress the part of the character they have been given for this simulation. We will also have a colony day lunch that day in which I will be asking the following;

Students with last names A-J please supply a main course dish for 15 people. (we do have a microwave).
Students with last names K-N please supply a dessert dish for 15 people.
Students with last names O-V please supply drinks for 12 people (tetra-paks or cans please).

I will have all the plates, napkins and cutlery for the luncheon. I will even have coffee and tea for the parents. We will sit down at lunch and have a real luncheon much in the way as the colonists did back in the late 1600's to early 1700's. Since students will be dressed in colony attire, they can continue with the role play through lunch. Parents are invited to attend and if I could have two parents to help me I would appreciate it. The time is 12:15-1:00. Just email me to let me know.

Four your information, the Grade 4 and 5 parent coffee is this Wednesday from 8-9:30 in the 4th Floor Cafeteria. Hope many of you can make it.

This week has a holiday in the middle of the week and unfortunately it is on a Thursday. Because of this, students may need to study for their Vocabulary test on Thursday night. They can also do it on Wednesday night if they know they will be busy on Thursday night. Just how things worked out this week. Please keep this in mind as you plan your week.

I would like to congratulate Michael and Lucas who were elected as the class's Student Council representative and alternate. I also wish to thank all the other students who ran. It was a job well done by all. I was quite impressed with the speeches and posters.

We also had our classroom executive elections. Thanks to Sabrina, Christos and Lucas for a job well done and congratulations to Halle (president), Michael (vice president) and Max (secretary). These positions will continue for about the next 5 weeks of school.

Some neat interviews and work in this weeks video. Have fun viewing it. Quite long - over 6 minutes in length.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - Sep. 20

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Claire
Tuesday - Christina
Wednesday - day 2, no current events
Thursday - Lucas
Friday - Jennifer

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

http://gimundo.com/news/
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/pages/search.asp?catid=7
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,1888376,00.html

Students now have a link to enter the books they have read. This will be their book log for their year of reading. I sent an email to each of my students and asked them to keep the email until the end of the year. For each book they complete, an entry needs to be made to their book log. They might want to bookmark this form for future entry as well.

We are almost completely caught up thanks to the diligence of the students. The extra two pieces of homework this past week that included blogs have really helped with this. Thank-you for this assistance.

We seem to be well entrenched with the routines now so I will begin to expect these from students on a daily basis. Our broken start to the year has been hard for some students to remain with these. I am also thankful to all of the parents for keeping up with the daily temperature logs. This really speeds up the morning opening and start. Please continue.

Learning is a journey that does not start and stop at the doors of the classroom. Students will have to explore their own learning this year through reflections and blog entries. They completed their first exploration this past week and coming up is an opportunity to do this in math. Throughout the year they will be asked specific questions that have them critically look at themselves.

This week I expect to start reading projects. These will involve the students looking into characters, setting, and plot of the books they have completed. Should be some interesting outcomes from this.

I spent the weekend at a Learning in the 21st Century conference over at the Tai-Tam campus. It was very enlightening to explore what learning and teaching will look like as we progress through the next century. One of the most compelling ideas is that we are educating students for jobs that do not yet exist. It really made me stop and think. One other study session involved looking at defining 21st Century teaching. Just what does collaboration, technology infusion and creativity look like - and I mean in a very broad sense. It was quite exhilarating to be a part of these panels.

Student council elections are this week and permission forms must be in by Monday. There is no extension for this. Students running for election will have poster paper given to them on Monday, posters are up Wednesday to Friday with elections on Friday. Best of luck to all the participants. I do remember fondly my time in Student Councils throughout my education.

If you have not returned Camp forms could you do this ASAP. We cannot move forward with planning and organization until these forms are returned. Monday would be great if it is possible.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - Sep. 13

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - day 2 - no current events
Tuesday - Max
Wednesday - Faven
Thursday - Stephen
Friday - no school

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

http://gimundo.com/news/
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/pages/search.asp?catid=7
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,1888376,00.html

I want to thank all the parents who attended Back to School Night last Thursday. I hope I was able to answer questions you might have as well as show you what we do in the class and how I look after all the learning needs of your student.

You are getting a mixture of work home in this week's Monday Folders. I have completed marking all the work from Virtual school and also all the home and school work for the past week. The school packet is the same for both weeks as I just continued it from where we left off before Virtual School. Please remember to keep the work at home and return the folder and the title pages signed.

We start unit 2 in math this coming week. The Family letter was attached to the email about the weekly blog. The final assessment for Unit 1 will be in the Monday folders. Because I have a parent signature on the Monday folders I do not need you to sign the assessment. The next unit looks at algorithms of math that students are not use to but will be responsible for learning. It also goos deeper into estimating.

Wednesday is photo day fopr 5C1. This means that students need to dress nicely. All students must have their photo taken for the annual yearbook. There is also an opportunity for parents to purchase photo packages and I sent this form home last week. Forms, with payment, need to be returned prior to photo day on Wednesday. We will also have our class photo taken on the same day.

It is the time of the year again to start preparing for grade 5 camp. Permission forms, medical records, water sports authorization and volunteer forms were all part of a package sent home last Thursday. I would like the completed and returned by this coming Friday. All the grade 5 teachers are well into the planning stage for this annual outing. Grade 5 goes to Sai Kung Outdoor Recreational Center (SKORC) which is a magnificent place for our students. More on this as we get closer to camp. Just a reminder that Camp dates are Oct 19-21, 2009.

Starting tomorrow all students will need to keep their temperature logs updated daily. I am now responsible for this and will have to check every morning. If there is no temperature or the log is missing I need to send students to the nurse to have a temperature taken. This will take up a lot of valuable time so I would request that you make this part of the morning routine at home. Student should keep their temperature logs in their homework folders as that is where I will be looking for them each morning.

Dr. Kelsh gave a short presentation to the class on Thursday last week about a project the school is undertaking with the help of Kiva.org. These are microloans to women in developing countries. There is a website that gives information about this at www.kiva.org. The money we raised last Friday with free dress day will be a part of the school's effort to work with this organization. Since the loans are repaid, the money will constantly be used for helping women in their goal to improve family situations.

In a continued effort to catch up from the week we missed, there will be no Vocab test this week. Instead, I have added an additional homework item that will need to be completed. It involves a reading and a Blog posting. With this and a few other items in class completed, we should be right back on track by the end of the week.

Just a reminder that this week is a four day week. Teachers will be completing the marking of the writing prompt and attending a technology conference in preparation for next year's 1 to 1 laptop program on Friday.

Just a continued reminder to keep everyone happy and healthy. Washing hands is a first line response to the slowing of the H1N1 virus and many other illnesses.

Should you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - Sep. 6

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - no school
Tuesday - Alex
Wednesday - Christoffer
Thursday - Halle
Friday - Mr. Daw

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

http://gimundo.com/news/
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/pages/search.asp?catid=7
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,1888376,00.html

Basically speaking, this week will be the completion of last week. There will be some minor adjustments but I am confident we can pick up right where we left off. As a reminder - it is a Day 4 when students return.

Please remember we are still on daily temperature checks so have your student's temperature checked every morning and see that they take the form with them to show the school as the enter in the morning. This will speed things up considerably. These forms will always be available on the school's website.

Here is a list of what we will try to accomplish this week - all left over from last week.

Math - complete unit 1 and the first Open Response
Writing - complete timelines and first group of seed moments
Reading - continue with guided reading and comprehension activities
Cultural Encounters - two more blogs on reading we have done in class.

I would ask for your assistance in getting back last week's homework packet. I will get it marked as the week goes on and everything will be in next week's Monday folder. Please remember to return Monday folders so I can have them ready for the next time they go home.

Homework will continue as before. There was no way for me to get this to the class last Friday so I am hoping students can also make adjustments to complete this in the four days this week.

Congratulations to Christos and Claire who were selected by their classmates to be the peer helpers for 5C1. Also congratulations go out to Sabrina, Christos and Lucas for being elected to our class executive. The next elections are in about three weeks and each stint is about 5 weeks in length. All students will get a chance at this sometime throughout the year.

All students now have 3 blogs set up. I am sure they would be happy if you as parents were one of the followers. This will only work if you have a Google account. If you do not have one you can still see the blogs, but you will have to bookmark them. The format is the same for all students:

Learning Blog = 5c1(studentnumber)mylearning.blogspot.com
Reading Blog = 5c1(studentnumber)reading.blogspot.com
Cultural Encounters Blog = 5c1(studentnumber)culturalencounters.blogspot.com

Thursday is Parent Night and I am looking forward to meeting all of you. I do understand if prior commitments make this impossible. The office has sent out an invitation to all of your emails.

The media video this week is brought to you by the classroom.

I must admit that I am anxiously awaiting the return of the students. I guess this really has been a time when a teacher has no class. I miss them all and look forward to seeing them all again.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - August 30

Dear Parents,

Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Brock
Tuesday - Alex
Wednesday - Christoffer
Thursday - Halle
Friday - day 2, no current events

We have had a great two weeks and I am pleased that everyone has remained happy and healthy.

Our first unit of study for the year begins this Monday. The unit, called Cultural Encounters, deals with the settlement of the original 13 colonies of the USA up to the time of the Revolutionary War. The two essential questions for the unit are Why do people move? and What do people do when others don't think, act or speak the same way they do? Students will have the chance to work through several simulations that give them an idea of what it was like during this time. As we move through the unit they will be asked to become a member of a colony and act and think like this member. We will then prepare for a display as a colony. You might want to put October 8 on your calendar as that is Colony Day for 5C and we will put on a display and reenactment for the parents. We will also be having a special lunch at that time related to the colonists.

We should complete our first math unit this week. Every week we look at strategies to help students with problem solving and this coming week they will have their first chance to use these with two problems to be solved. Students will work collaboratively to work on closing locker doors and also a bunch of dancing students. This is part of our regular math program and we work on it weekly throughout the year.

We have finished the first two writing projects which were part of a mini unit on community. Starting this week we will look at the art of narratives. Telling a story from our lives is a great way for students to build stronger writing skills since the ideas are all from within and do not have be invented. There are two published pieces for this unit.

With shared reading, independent reading and comprehension now well in place we will start our guided reading this week. It is the final part of a regular reading lesson and involves small groups working with me on various subjects that will improve their reading over the year. The groups change frequently and are usually 3-4 students. Each student has an assigned day for library returns and sign outs but there time is not limited to this. They can also go to the library during recess and lunch recess to do the same.

We spent a lot of time on Friday setting up all the technology for my class. Each student now has access to their school email, Google docs and blogger.com through the internet. While we will do most of this at school it is important that everyone knows it is also available at home since most families have internet at home. Students will be setting up their first two blogs which we will use throughout the year - learning and reading. One of the first activities for our Cultural Encounters unit will be using blogs. As soon as these are all set up you might want to FOLLOW these blogs by signing up for them. That way every time an entry is made by your student you will be informed. Students also like it when they see who is following their blogs.

Students must now report their temperature as they enter the school in the morning. It would make things go a lot smoother if you could accomplish this at home and have the reporting paper with your student to show the nurse and teachers checking this each morning. We are no longer doing it weekly - daily starting immediately. The forms are on our web page at: http://dnet.hkis.edu.hk/ups/ - scroll down to find TEMPERATURE FORMS.

A reminder that every Monday all students work from the previous week comes home in a Monday folder. The folder and cover pages need to be returned on Tuesday but the work should be taken out and kept at home. Thanks for your help on this.

A parent asked me about purchasing a laptop for their student and I reminded them of the program starting next year. It is compulsory that you purchase through the school next year as there are copyright issues for the software. With that in mind, it would be best that you do not purchase this year knowing that another one will be needed next year. Let me know if you have any questions about this.

Our video this week is of the various activities in the classroom this past week. Enjoy it.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - August 23

Dear Parents,

Each day there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.

Monday - Norika
Tuesday - Sabrina
Wednesday - Christos
Thursday - day 2, no current events
Friday - Nikhita

It has been a great week and the students seem to be settled into yet another school year. Most of the routines of the class are in place and students are embracing them in their own individual way. I congratulate all of them for a wonderful week.

The biggest change coming this week is the weekly Vocabulary. I use a program called Wordly Wise which consists of 15 words with all the definitions. There are 5 parts to the program and students will do this each night as part of their daily homework. On Thursday night they will need to study for the test which is on Friday. The test is in two parts; 1) I will give them the definitions and they have to write the word for that definition and 2) sentences without the word are listed and students need to fill in the blanks with the words from the week. This is included in their homework packet I sent home on Friday.

We will also start our time lines this coming week so on Monday and Tuesday students will need to summarize an important event for each year of their life. For the younger years I have mentioned that they need to talk to their parents and take notes. If possible students can also collect pictures (photos, magazine cutouts, printouts from the computer, or drawings etc.) to put into their personal time lines. Please help your student out where you can for this very neat project. We will complete the project in class and this is just a data collection students are doing. Please note that students should only bring photographs that you do not want returned as they may need to cut them or reshape them.The instructions and papers for note taking are part of their homework packet I sent home on Friday.

The first of two writing prompts will happen Mon-Wed of this week. Students will have to complete a piece of writing based on a prompt given to them. It is marked by two teachers other than myself. If a student was here at HKIS last spring we will compare their scores and see where there are still teaching opportunities.

Reading this week will see us start our first shared reading and also guided reading. While the first is a class project the second is small groups that work with me. Reading lessons this week will continue to look at how students read and think while they are reading.

Our first unit in math - Number Theory is progressing very well. Students should be able to explain things like arrays, factors, factor rainbows and number models; mostly for multiplication and division. This coming week we move into divisibility rules, prime and composite numbers, square numbers and square roots. I will refer to square roots as unsquaring numbers and we will work with perfect numbers.

One new part of the classroom will be the introduction of Monday Folders. This is where I send home all the work of the previous week. Parents are asked to sign they received it. The folder is then returned the next day.

We had our first classroom elections and I want to congratulate Sabrina, Christos and Lucas as they were elected by their peers. All students will have an opportunity to partake throughout the year since there is a new election about every 6 weeks.

The pictures this week come from a community event we held with the other two classes in the 5C cluster. Students really had a great time.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw