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
