daw.com - April 27

Another great weak of learning and celebrating.  First off is the class presentation for CASTA this year.  Here is the video;

We had a great weak of a lot of things happening and now it is time for a bit of a break.  Remember there is no school on Monday or Tuesday as we celebrate May Day or Labor Day here in China.  We resume everything on Wednesday.

We have mostly completed our transformations unit with only the final assessment left and that is a performance assessment in the Science Lab.  It will be later in May.  It has been a great science unit and one that I am sure will start students on a life-long learning of Chemistry.

We also finished our current math unit and now we move on to the Coordinate Plane.  This is very important as it leads to all sorts of geometric learning later in Middle and High school.  It is not just plotting but also looking at the movement of shapes and lines with basic formulas.  There are also a lot of neat problems associated with this unit we will do in class.

Our last inquiry unit of the year is Trace and Commerce.  We will start with a game simulation of trading.  The game, called Settlers of Catan, is a great way for students to begin to see that our entire way of life us based on a trade economy.  I am sure you are going to hear about this around the dinner table once we get going.  There is also a reflection to do both halfway and at the end of the unit.

With such a short week, there is not much extra happening next week.  We have moved around several of our lessons to accomodate the short week but over all, we move on from where we left off.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the 4 day break.

daw.com - April 20

It has been quite a roller coaster week.  Not sure if sports was a go or not, find out that on both days it could not go, having a swim time for the team on Thursday, making Ice Cream and Butter and starting with eggs in vinegar, writing our first Literary Essay, finding area when one or more sides has a fractional piece to it, and a myriad of other things has made this week fly by.  We even had our first visits to the middle school in preparation for next year.

Next week sees us completing the current math unit on volume and area.  We have been working a lot recently on word problems and problems that require more than one step to solve them.  An example was a wall to be painted that has two windows.  What is the area to be painted?  We also revisited the area model to look at ways of proving our calculations are correct.  Quite enlightening for some of the students.

Our science unit on Transformations is also coming to a close with a look at chemical and physical changes.  Several experiments, some of the 'yummy' type have been done and we are writing them up with a modified version of a lab report.  Again, this will help students as they move forward in their science learning.  I am pleased to see some fantastic questions coming out of our explorations of matter and change.

Writing a literary essay is no easy feat.  It takes a lot of reading, note taking and then showing supporting evidence for a thesis statement.  So far students are on track with this but I do not expect that it will take hold the first time.  There are further opportunities until the end of the year to continue writing literary essays based on the books they are reading.  This will replace our reading blogs for the remainder of the year.

Of high importance is CASTA (Celebrate And Share The Arts) starting next Thursday.  As I write this I do not know when 5HD's performance time is, but as soon as I do, I will make sure that it is taken home in the daily planners.  Students have also made a CASTA shirt and need to wear it on Thursday as part of the celebration.  We will take in several of the performances for the day and also look at the other work around the school with a critical, but positive, eye.

I will be at the final MSIS (Math Studies in International Schools) course on Wed night, Thursday afternoon and all day Friday.  The sub will have plans to keep the learning alive and moving forward.  I am in the school for this course, just not in my class on Friday.

Next week is also Earth Week and the events are Beefless Monday, Trashless Tuesday, Water Bottle Wednesday, Save Paper Thursday and Lights off Friday.  Some of these are sure to bless your dinner table as we talk about them throughout the week.  I have indicated to students that everyone must be involved if we ever expect a significant change to happen to our planet.

I think this missive has gone on long enough.  Have a great weekend and I am already looking forward to seeing everyone again next week.

daw.com - April 13

Friday the thirteenth - black Friday.  Raining outside and flowers on all the trees.  Summer is just around the corner.  The class reminded me that it is about two months or one fifth of the school year left.

Next week are several events.  The first is sports day.  It will be on Tuesday unless the AQI is high and then it will be on Thursday.  Students need to remember to bring with them clothing and items for swimming, running and being outdoors. Hats, glasses, sunscreen, water bottles, swim togs and sneakers are the order of the day.

Next week we also begin our middle school transition time.  Students get an intro from the MS administration on Thursday, have a visit to a grade 6 class on Friday and get a look at the choices for music classes in MS also on Friday.  Should be a great start to transitioning the class to the middle school.  I will keep you informed of due dates for forms.

We have been quite busy reading about and learning about Literary Essays.  Next week we will start the first draft of our newest learning.  The introduction has the thesis statement, then there is the support of the thesis and finally a conclusion.  I expect to complete this prior to the May long weekend.  We will be publishing literary essays on our reading blogs for the rest of the year.

Our math has taken us on a pathway of three-dimension objects and their volume.  Now it is time to integrate fractions into this.  It can be challenging to figure this out but once again it is an example of why multiplication abilities are so important.  Base TIMES height or length TIMES width TIMES height are the two formulas we look at for volume.  Once again there is a lot of multiplication.

In science this week we looked at physical and chemical changes, displacement to measure volume, movement of molecules at different temperatures and finally how to model science experiments.  Next week we begin to look at how to write up a science experiment with a lab report.  While this is only basic, it is a good intro for students since they will be writing science lab reports for many years to come.

I want to thank all of you for your time and effort during student-led conferences.  I really feel strongly about these and the importance they hold in reflecting on our our year in grade 5.  I hope you gained a further insight into your students learning and also into the fabulous growth I have seen this year.  I cannot be more proud of the students for the work they have done this year.

If there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me and I will set up a time for us to meet.