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 - Christoffer
Tuesday - Halle
Wednesday - Max
Thursday - Faven
Friday - Stephen
Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids
This week is Stanford 10 week with all testing happening the first two hours of each morning. On top of this, grade 5 students also write the OLSAT test on Tuesday. All students in the school write the same tests at the same time and on the same day. There is no make-up time so it is important that students stay healthy and are in attendance every day next week.
There is no way to study for these tests as it is a general knowledge test that is normed across students of equal age. It is also important that you understand that these tests are not included on any grading done in the classroom. You will receive the results of the tests in about 8 weeks from the end of the sessions next Friday.
Students need to get a good sleep the night before and should eat a healthy and complete breakfast before coming to school. I would also like to ask that we take a good look at daily snack since I have noticed an increase in snacks like dried soups which are generally filled with sodium and MSG neither of which is too healthy. Please try to keep on top of this as it has long term positive effects.
This week also sees our schedule changed significantly. Art class and two PE classes have been canceled. There will only be three days of math and we will also complete our non-fiction projects and present this during this week. Chinese is one of the few classes that has not been affected and will still happen on Tues, Wed, and Thur. as per our regular schedule.
Last but not least, there will be no homework this coming week but I am asking that students stick with their reading for 20-30 minutes each night.
For our Civil War unit this week we will spend some time with all the other grade 5 classes learning how to march and drill as the soldiers did in boot camp during the start of the Civil War. Sometimes it is really neat to see what they look like as a large group - there are 207 student in total in grade 5.
I have asked each student to bring 12 lycee packets so we can make some Chinese Lanters for the new year festivities. I would like these here at school by Thursday please. If you find you have extras I can usually use them since a few will get lost between home and school. Thanks in advance for this.
As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Regards,
Harold Daw
daw.com - January 24
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 - Christos
Tuesday - Nikhita
Wednesday - day 2, no current events
Thursday - Brock
Friday - Alex
Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids
We are well underway with the Civil War unit. You can follow some of the work we are doing on your student's website. A listing of the links is located here. This coming week will see the first entry in out Journal/Portfolio as well as the completion of our first written report on the causes of the Civil War and Life before the Civil War. Students have had one lesson on report writing and there are two more scheduled this coming week. We will also start watching a video called
The Blue and the Gray. While it is a Hollywood creation, it is fairly accurate. We do not watch all of it but rather the parts that give students ideas and concepts for their journal entries.This week will also see us prepare for the Stanford tests next week. Grade 5 has a short 5 lesson unit on how to read a test and take a test. It has always proven both relevant and successful. One of the more interesting problems students have is incomplete reading of instructions or questions. This is one of the concepts addressed in this unit.
For math this week we will continue looking at order of operations. I have had students learn a quick way to remember this. PLEASE EXCUSRE MY DEAR AUNT SALLY - if you take the first letter of each word you get PEMDAS which is the order for mathematical operations - Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication and Division and last is Addition and Subtraction. It is fun to watch them rehearsing this in class. I really feel it is a great way for students to internalize this important concept. We will also move on to Negative Numbers later in the week. There are resources on our class website for all these concepts if your student needs help. You can find them here.
I have now completed about 20% of the Science Project video taping. The rest will happen this week. I am hoping to find a way for students to link this on their website for their portfolio. The biggest wall to this is usually the size of the video when it is digitized. I am working on this and will keep you informed. The pictures this week are of the students presenting.Please keep students reading at home. This is important now as the students will find that there is much more reading for the Civil War unit that is done at home. They should record all their reading on the reading log which is the first page of their homework packet. 20-30 minutes per night is best when it is possible.
This week the second session of After School Activities begins. If you student has signed up there is a listing in my room to remind them and also tell them which room it is being held in. I can show this to them if they have forgotten.I have noticed an increase is students forgetting Chinese folders, homework and homework folders at home. This is not a good habit and would like to ask your assistance in this. Please ask your student to think about what day it is today and do they have everything needed for their schoolwork. It is a quick 15 second stop and think time - and all this needed. Thanks in advance for this assistance.
As always, if you have a concern or question please let me know.
Regards,
Harold Daw
daw.com - January 17
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 - day 2, no current events
Wednesday - Pablo
Thursday - Norika
Friday - Sabrina
Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids
This is the roller coaster of blogs as there are a lot of ups and downs to cover this week.
First off is my thanks to all the parents who offered me best wishes for my new position at International School Beijing. I am really pumped about this.
Next, we had to say goodbye to a classmate this week as she and her family are off to Korea. I have asked her to send pics of her new school and life in Korea. I will be sure to share these with the class.
Following this is the addition of two new students starting Monday. The class seems quite excited to welcome these two new students and I am really looking forward to meeting them. One is coming to us from Australia and the other from the USA. I know the rest of the class joins me in welcoming them to HKIS.
Thanks go out to Claire, Pablo and Trey for the great work they did as the class executive. The past 7-8 weeks have run quite smoothly due to their assistance. A job very well done.Congrats go to Jonas (General Lee), Sabrina (General Grant) and Stephen (telegraph operator) as we begin our look at the Civil War. The rest of the group will be assigned a side on Monday morning and as the week progresses there are even uniforms to make it seem more realistic.
Yes the Civil War study has begun. The first couple of weeks we will look at the causes of the war and throughout the study a focus on the people will be our primary interest. There are lots of
simulations for this study and I will endeavor to make as many as possible a regular part of our class. I am sure you are going to hear much about this at the dinner table these next 10 weeks. Just a reminder that all students need to have their Civil War portfolio journals back at school on Monday.Our writing unit will coincide with the Civil War unit and cover Report Writing, Journal Entries, Letters, Editorials & Persuasive Essays. Most of this will end up on the students website so keep a close eye there for some really neat writing.
Reading will also work hand in hand with the Civil War unit. Students will have several pieces of reading to do and then responses to these will be posted on their reading blogs. There are also some homework pieces for reading that will show up throughout the unit. Many students will also want to read some of the historical fiction pieces we have in the library that are about or involve the Civil War. This is a great way for students to become more familiar with this time in US history.
There are several students who have moved reading groups and as a result, their library day changes. I will inform them of this on Monday and it will start with the new cycle on Monday as well. Luckily there is no one on Monday who changes.We start our next unit in math on Monday and attached to the parent letter is the family letter for this unit. The unit continues with some previous work on Exponents and then moves on to negative numbers. While a lot more theoretical, I think students will have a great time with some of the neat activities in this unit. It starts off with a website look at the powers of 10. You can visit it here. We use debits and credits to look at positive and negative numbers.
This week we have a special speaker on Wednesday from Crossroads. It is someone that the students have heard before and the response was so great we brought him back again. I am sure he will get the same response as before.
For our Chapel this week we will watch the Video of Nic who was the disabled man who spoke to
the middle and high school earlier this year. The video is much more age appropriate for our group of students and has many great points of his life. Should be an eye opening video for the students to view.This letter seems longer than usual but there is so much happening I guess it is bound to be that way. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Regards,
Harold Daw
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