daw.com - December 11

Great news from the class - for the second year in a row 5HD won the World Air Toss championship.  The trophy is once again proudly displayed in the classroom with our name prominently displayed for all to see.  Congrats to the all the students - they did an amazing job.  I was also impressed with the sportsmanship they showed not only to the second place team but all the teams that were part of the competition.

This week's current events are as follows;

Tuesday - Sonya
Wednesday - Andrew
Thursday - Stephanie

We will forgo the Friday current events as we have a school assembly for the first part of the morning.  If students cannot get to Newsela then I have emailed them three other sites that might be of help.

This week we have to say goodbye to two of our classmates - Sonya and Sangwoo.  Sonya is returning to Korea and Sungwoo is moving to Germany.  I am sure I speak for the entire class in wishing them all the best in their new adventures.  We all hope they stay in touch with what is happening.  I have made up a memories book for each of them and students will leave messages and wishes.  I will make sure they get them prior to dismissal.

As my Christmas gift to the class, there will be no homework other than Current Events this coming week.

There is a lot happening next week so please take note.  On Monday we have the HS science students coming to review the student science fair experiments.  This is a great way for some interaction with the HS and ES as well as assisting my students with some (almost) peer to peer assessment.  Then on Tuesday is our Science Fair from 11:15-12:15.  You should have received your invitation today through the daily planner.  The goodbye counseling lesson for Sonya and Sangwoo is scheduled for Wednesday.  The ES counselors do an excellent job of this. Thursday is our annual Winterfest.  This is a time when there are fun activities, we watch a movie and then have a buffet lunch.  A really fun day for everyone.  Friday is a half day with students having a whole school assembly first thing in the morning and dismissal is at 11:30.

I expect to complete the current math unit on Fractions early next week and will be giving students the final assessment.  We then move on to a really short unit on data that will extend the work we have done with our Prove It unit on graphing and the collection of data.

One thing some of the students have indicated to me is a lack of things to do over the holiday.  With this in mind I have created two projects they can work on if they so desire.  They are attached to the end of this blog.  One is a calculation of the 12 Days of Christmas and the other is the Great Chocolate Caper.  Use as needed.

I want to take this time to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.  It should be a time for family and celebration.  Take the time to do both so that when we return in January, everyone is re-energized and ready to go.

Harold Daw

12 Days of Christmas

Great Chocolate Caper Student Pt. 1

Great Chocolate Caper Student Pt. 2

daw.com - December 4

To start this week off I have a request of my parents.  As the holiday approaches it has been my experience that some of you will leave early.  If this is the case could you please let me know as soon as possible.  There are lots of assessments happening the last week of school prior to Winter Break and I want all students to take them.  It is better than waiting three weeks and taking them after the break.  Thank-you in advance for this help.

This week's current events are as follows;

Tuesday - Jungle
Wednesday - Arianna
Thursday - HaeWon
Friday - Sveva

Please remember that the current events replaces the homework rather than being an add on.

This week will be the last week of homework for this year.  At this announcement the entire class erupted in a raucous cheer.  Of course, it did not take them long to notice that this is because when we return from Winter Break it is a new year - and homework will resume with a change to the weekly routine.  There will be no homework at all next week as my Christmas present to the class.

As I write this blog post most of my students have indicated that they have completed their science experiment.  It sounds like they all had a great time and a few discoveries were made along the way as well.  We have already started to create the tri-fold board and next Monday we start writing the Lab Report.  We will continue with our regular process of a first draft, one peer edit, one teacher edit and then final draft.  Students must bring their Science Experiment booklets next Monday to start the Lab Report.  This booklet is also part of the assessment as it reveals the process they were suppose to undergo to complete the project.

A quick recap of the current projects includes a realistic fiction writing piece, science lab on paper airplanes, novel study of Sign of the Beaver, continued work with suffixes and a look at word sums, a look at decimals relating to fractions also the addition of fractions, and finally a problem of equally dividing snacks up among a class.  As you can see, we are a busy community and one that is always learning.

Sometime this coming week you should get an email from our homeroom mom about the Winterfest.  This is an annual activity we do in grade 5 that involves three things.  The morning will have a time where students can participate in a number of activities, then there is a buffet lunch and finally a movie.  This all happens on Dec 17th and families have been assigned foods to supply for the buffet lunch and also asked to donate some cookies or cupcakes to decorate.  Every year the grade 5 students look forward to this event.  I also have a special activity for students on the last day prior to winter break.  A really nice way to wrap up a great semester.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me and I will gladly set up a meeting with you.

Harold Daw

daw.com - November 27

We seem to be right on track with the current events and I am really pleased with what I have seen so far.  Students have found some great articles to report on and they have tried to make connections as to how this event impacts someone around the world.  Remember that one of the objectives of this program is to work our way up to the Impact unit at the end of the year by looking at current news and happenings around the world. Here is next week's schedule;

Tuesday - Claire
Wednesday - Henry
Thursday - Kevin
Friday - Elgin

Since Newsela.com is not blocked here in China, here are three other websites that students might find helpful.  They are also welcome to use newspapers, magazines or other information sources you might have at home.
BBC Newsround
Dogo News
Scholastic Magazines

Any assistance you can offer your child I am sure will be greatly appreciated.

Next week students will start their science project experiment as their weekly homework.  They have spent some time in class formulating a question, researching some information about their experiment, developing a hypothesis, creating a materials list and making up a procedure.  When students do their experiment they are expected to keep track of the results.  It is also a good idea to take photos of their work as they do it so they can display these when it comes time for the science project fair on Dec 15th.  In class we will start to do the writeup of the lab and also prepare for the showcase.  The experiment is entirely done at home as a homework assignment.  There will be no other homework next week other than this and those involved in current events.

As I prepare to complete the end of semester reports, I have been doing some informal testing in writing, reading and problem solving.  If at any time you want to know anything about this, please let me know as I would be more than willing to meet with you.  Obviously, I am hoping to see some real growth since the start of the school year.  I will be in touch with you should I not see this or see that it is not where I expect it to be.

We completed our last round of literature circles this week and will return to these with new books starting right after Winter Break.  Students got a taste of what they needed to read and learn from the reading in order to talk about the books in the discussion time.  The only written assignments for this is completion of think marks that involve FAT questions, making connections, a look at the setting and changes in the characters.

We have also completed our Biography Sketches and I was pleased with both the research he students did and also the final write up.  They did a first draft, edited and revised it and finished off with a final draft.  We move on to Fiction writing next with a look at realistic fiction first.

Our math unit on Fractions started off by looking at unit fractions (fractions where the numerator is 1) and how this can help solve problems with other multiples of this fraction.  We will then move on to comparing fractions and also making equivalent fractions as we get ready to add and subtract fractions next week.  There are a lot of manipulatives we use in this unit so students can both see and prove various algorithms.  Our problem solving has taken us to a running race with students that start at different times and places.  Should have an interesting finish.

Last thing is a reminder that November reading logs are due in on Monday when I will give students a December reading log.  Please help to remind your student about this.

I you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.  I will gladly set a time up to sit down with you and discuss these.

Harold Daw