daw.com - May 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 - Simon
Tuesday - Pablo
Wednesday - Kaori
Thursday - Maxwell
Friday - Norika



Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.

Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

I want to give a big THANK-YOU to all the parents who volunteered for the Hong Kong walkabout last Tuesday. It was a great success due to the volunteering of your time. I offer this on behalf of all my students who also had a great time.

Here is a list of events coming up in the next two weeks. Some of these are strictly for your information, others may require your attendance.

May 31 - class variables Olympics - all projects due, blogs must be complete.
May 31 - Visit by astronaut
June 1 - Grade 5 Variables Olympics finals. One from each category from our class will compete.
June 2 - Human Growth and Development unit begins.
June 3 - Peer Helpers pizza lunch (just Christos and Claire)
June 3 - Music rehearsal for entire class - year end assembly song
June 3 - Lit Circle #3 - all reading up to required chapters need to be completed
June 4 - Grade 5 Fling at the Aberdeen Marina Club
June 7 - Class pizza lunch
June 8 - Poetry Cafe, Year End Awards Ceremony (I think this is also Yearbook Day)
June 9 - All final class materials will come home
June 9 - Final Lit Circle - book needs to be completed by this date.
June 10 - Half day - dismissal is at 11:30 - report cards are carried home

We are coming to the end of our first part for the Variables unit. Students should now have completed their project, written it up on their blog and be ready to compete on Monday. One student from each category will go on to represent 5C1 in the grade Olympics on Tuesday. Lots of fun.

We are fortunate to have an astronaut from the American Space program visit us for a talk on Monday. It will be interesting to hear his views on the program and his background in becoming an astronaut. These are usually highly intelligent and motivated people who have undergone an amazing training program to get to where they are.

We are in the midst of two projects at the moment, both of which I expect to culminate this week. The car construction project for our variables unit and the Hong Kong Walkabout photo essay project. Both promise to have some interesting outcomes. I will have these on display at our Poetry Cafe on the 8th of June.

I want to thank all of you for assisting me in getting all the students library materials back. I have been told by Mrs. Robinson that 5C1 is clear so that is one thing to cross of the end of year list. With the library undergoing major renovations this summer I am also sure it is a relief to Mrs. Robinson.

Wednesday is our Human Growth and Development unit. Students will be grouped by gender and shown two instructional videos on the material. They will write down questions they have on index cards anonymously and then in the afternoon, Dr. Kelsh will answer the boys questions and Yvonne our school nurse will answer the girls questions. It is a perfect time to introduce this unit as it is a yearly health unit in middle school.

This week students have assigned reading to do at home as part of their daily reading. I cannot offer them school time to read their Literature Circle books in time to have their meeting on Thursday afternoon. All students took home their books on Friday with the assigned chapters so they should know what to do.

On Monday you will receive and keep the Monday Folders - no need to return them anymore. From now on as I get work marked I will send it home in students homework folders to keep you up-to-date with your students progress and assessments.

As we head to the end of the year, please let me know if you need to meet with me and I will send out some times. If you are leaving early please let me know ASAP so I can have all the report cards and materials ready to go home on time. Thank-you to all who have already informed me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - May 23

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 - Tara
Tuesday - Jonas
Wednesday - Zehra
Thursday - Trey
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

Hong Kong Walkabout Take 2 will happen this Tuesday and the weather looks much better for this day with only intermittent showers during the day. Looks like an umbrella will be a necessary tool for the day. Students will need either a lunch or lunch money for the day and also an Octopus card to help ferry them around town. The regular plans will be reviewed tomorrow with only one group making changes due to some changes in their group plans. Students have planned three rests during the day in which they will do some writing in preparation for their photographic essay. Students will also need to have digital cameras for the day. If they could be cleaned out of other pics it would make it easier to download when we get back to school. This is a highlight of the school year and one that I think students will really enjoy.

Library books are all due back on Monday. With the major renovations happening this summer in the library, they want to have all books and materials packed up by the end of the school year so they are asking for all books back now. I have a listing in my room that I will keep reminding students of. The first class to get all their materials back will get an ice-cream party compliments of the library staff - mmmmm - anf Hagen-Daz too. It should be noted that the library will be closed all summer due to renovations.

We will complete the forth memoir this week and get it published. Students have been keeping copies of these in their poetry and memoirs books they have created for our Poetry Cafe on June 8th before our awards ceremony. There is one more memoir to complete prior to the end of the year but this will not be completed until we finish the Hong Kong Photographic Essay.

By now students should be well along on their Variables Olympics project. They should have finished testing two variables, and this week will see these on their blog. Please remember that the instructions are located here (at the bottom of the page as a PDF file). If possible, blogs should include pictures as well a charts of their experiments. Instructions for the blogs are in each students Google Docs accounts. We will have the class competitions on Monday May 31 and the winners in each category will go on to the grade level Olympics the next day. I am looking forward to seeing their projects.

We will start the next science project in class this week. This time teams of students will have to design a car that meets certain requirements. The overall goal is to have the car go the farthest down a ramp. All materials will be supplied for them in school and will be materials like straws, pins, note cards, tape, and other office supplies. This is the final assessment for this unit and promises to be a in interesting event.

Our math unit is continuing and we are looking at what makes up a 'fair' game. This week students will play several games in an attempt to see if they are fair to all players and if not, why not. There will be a time this week I will ask if students can bring in games to play but at the moment I am not sure what days this will be. We also continue to look at probability and ratios.

I am more than two thirds complete the initial DRA testing. While this takes a long time it has confirmed what I have felt all along in showing the growth in your students reading this year. I will begin the few second tests I need to do later in the week.

We are also continuing on our last literature circle books. The students second book talk will be this Friday. It is interesting to listen to some of their discussions as they bounce ideas and concepts off each other and also listen to what others have to say. It also provides an opportunity for students to gain further insight they may have missed in their reading and provide it for others.

This is just a reminder that permission forms and cheques for the Grade 5 fling are due in by this Friday. Please be careful making out the cheque as it is not made out to HKIS but a parent who is a member of AMC that is inviting us. Thanks for your attention to this detail.

I want to thank Tara, Maxwell and Christina for their time as the class executive and welcome the last one for the year - Faven as President, Norika as VP and Alex as secretary. I hope that this opportunity for leadership has provided all students a glimpse into what it is like. I am very proud of all of them and the work they have done this year.

It is now time for students to start collecting all the digital work they want to keep. During the summer the O: drive will be re-formatted and all work erased. If there is something there that students want they should bring a thumb-drive to collect it and move it to a computer at home. Most of it will work on their lap-tops next year since it is simple word/excel/powerpoint files. All blogs, websites and Google Docs will remain as student property since it is their account and password that opens it up. Those moving on I will help to move the work should they want to keep it. All they need to do is let me know. Otherwise, their account is deleted over the summer.

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

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - May 16

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 - Christina
Tuesday - Lucas
Wednesday - day 2, no current events
Thursday - Michael
Friday - no school




Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

This week is only a 4 day week and so there is only three nights of homework. By now, all students should be well on their way to completing their first tests of a variable related to the section and contest they chose. Monday will see students putting up their results and Tuesday is preparing for the second variable test. Each variable changed should have a minimum of 3 tests to make the data valid. All students should be keeping record of their test findings and putting it on a chart on their blog. I did forget to include the due date for the projects - May 31 is when students need to bring their Variables Olympics projects to school for the class competition where everyone particiaptes. The winners of these competitions will move on to the grade level competition next day.

Tuesday is our final trip to the MS for transition and students will be paired up with a current grade 6 student and there are various activities that need to be completed. We will have lunch with our buddies at the MS on Tuesday.

The next and final unit in math is on Probability, Ratios and Rates. This is kind of a neat unit where we look at what makes something fair and what are the chances of either winning or completing something. Later in the unit we will play games to determine if they are fair or not. We did one last week and it was determined that since it is completely luck, it must be fair since everyone has the same chance at luck. The parent letter for this unit was in the email sent home. You will get the final evaluation of the last unit in the Monday folders this week.

I had a number of people last week ask about the math assessment sheet. This is the form at the front of the final math assessment. Please remember that it is a complete assessment of the unit and not just the final test. We also grade the work from student journals, exit slips and some of the oral work we do in class. The problem solving is a combination of the exemplars and the open response that students do.

One thing I need to let everyone know is that it is time to prepare for final grading and reports. In order for me to do this it is now very important that work be completed on time. There is almost no room for me to give extensions any more as I have to get things graded and then I will begin final reports. Please see that everything that has deadlines be followed a closely as possible or it may not make it on your students report card. I thank-you in advance for this.

Our walk about is a go now with only one group without a parent helper. I am working on some arrangements for these girls and if nothing pans out then either Mrs. Lee or myself will go. I think students are really looking forward to this and so are a bunch of parents.

That is about it for the week. If you want to meet with me before the end of the year let me know or if you have questions please feel free to contact me. Have a great week.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - May 9

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 - Max
Tuesday - day 2, no current events
Wednesday - Faven
Thursday - StephenFriday - Claire

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

There is a huge change in the homework for next three weeks. This is because it is time for our annual Variables Olympics. This project is entirely done at home. Except for the Math Study Links, all other homework will be based on the Variables Olympics. This is a good chance for students to see what doing a project at home is like since there will more like this in middle school. Here are the details;

1. All information is located on our webpage here - I would suggest this site be bookmarked.
2. Homework is on student's Google Site Variables Olympics web page. They are all blog entries.
3. Homework assignments are in their Google Docs and are complete with due dates.
   
4. If possible students should keep track of their progress with pics to be uploaded to their blogs.

As this is at the end of the year, I must insist that due dates be watched very closely. It is now very difficult for me to extend dates as I have time constraints for reporting students progress. Please stay in touch with me if there are time problems.

We will complete our math unit this week with the final assessment later in the week. Students will also have an open response to complete. Our next unit will start next week and take us to the end of the school year.

Since our Hong Kong Walkabout was postponed last Friday, we will postpone the assignments until we have completed this day. At the moment I am not sure what the plans are but I am hoping to have it rescheduled for later this coming week. I will stay in contact with you throughout the week as we make decisions. The students were quite disappointed about the cancellation on Friday.
We have a new math challenge that the students are working on. This time they have to use the five numbers 3, 7, 9, 14 & 17 to equal all numbers from 1 to 100. They cannot use the exponent 0 this time nor can they combine numbers (ie. 3 & 7 to make 37) but all the other rules are the same. Although I have not taught anything about factorials (!) they are using them in this challenge and I am glad to see it.

I want to thank Zehra, Nikhita and Christoffer in their roles as class executive. We have elected a new executive which will start on Monday. The new students are Tara, Maxwell and Christina. Congratulations to them.
If any of you know that you might miss some days at the end of the school year please let me know so I can make sure all is ready for your departure and your students move to middle school. Just send me an email.

During the summer months the school will moving its computer system over to a Mac system in preparation for the 1 to 1 laptop program in the fall. It would be a good idea for students to transfer any work they have in their :H and :O drives to a computer at home. This is accomplished easily with a thumb drive or USB drive. They can start this anytime now. The :O drive is erased every summer in preparation for the new school year. Middle school students will not have access to the drive that is here in the UPS so the move is essential unless there is nothing there they want to keep. All their blogs and Google Docs will not be affected since they are on-line.

All our pictures this week involve water. Some are from our buoyancy experiments and others are from our capacity through displacement lesson in math.

As we head to the end of the year I know some of you might want to meet with me. Please let me know and I will gladly arrange a time we can meet. In the mean time, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Harold Daw

daw.com - May 3

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 - none assigned
Tuesday - Brock
Wednesday - Alex
Thursday - Christoffer
Friday - Halle

Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids

First off some kudos to the students: Christos and Michael for shaving in the name of Childhood Cancer victims. Here is a before and after picture.


The big event this week is the Hong Kong walkabout. Please make sure students have the following items for this event; octopus card ($100.00), hat, umbrella, water, sun protection and sunglasses. All students need a lunch as there are none being provided. Either students can bring a packed lunch in their backpack or they can purchase lunch en-route. Any student that has a digital camera should bring it along. Please clear all pics off it before they go out as it makes it easier to download when we get back to school.

Today we are at the Aberdeen field for the last field day of the year. Appropriate gear for the day, a snack and water are all needed.

We will continue with our new math unit this week as we look at geometric solids and their properties. There will also be an open response later in the week.

The memoir unit is going well and there should be a second one completed this week. We are keeping these in a book so that parents can see this when it comes time for our end of year Writer's Cafe in June. Our poetry will also be in this book.

Reading this week will see students complete their Lit Circles with a blog entry and a summary. We will begin the last lit circle for the year next week. I will also start DRA testing this week as a summary of the students year in reading.

Four our science unit we continue with the boat lab and move on to the flying lab. These have had some interesting discussions in class and I hope at home as well. Students are learning that by changing only one variable at a time, a set of results can be obtained that can be graphed. Not all the graphs we are making are straight line either - some are elliptical and giving rise to interesting math discussions. We will also go over the Variables Olympics project this week as it begins next week. Please note the entire project is a homework project and will be reflected on their weekly homework starting next week.

I hope all of you are able to make it to the party on Thursday and I look forward to seeing all of you that can make it. The party is a family affair so please bring the family. It is being hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Chen in the 6th floor lounge, starting at 4:00pm.

As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. As we head to the end of the year I will make myself as available as possible should you want to meet with me about next year, summer work or review of this year. Please contact me and we will set up a time.

Regards,

Harold Daw