Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Pics

I've taken so many pictures of these adorable children of yours!  It's time to put some up on the blog for everyone to enjoy!  Here are the kids on the first day that the new playground opened. Thanks for all the fundraising efforts!






Thursday, October 30, 2014

In Working with Words, we have been learning about parts of speech.  A fun way to practice this is to complete Mad Libs.  You can print many for free from the internet.  The kids are totally engaged and asking for more everyday.  This afternoon, Spencer wrote his own.  Feel free to try to solve it with your child:

On a ______________(adjective) day, it's really ______________ (adjective) to _________ (verb) in a ________________ (noun).  It is really fun to ________________ (verb) ______________ (adverb).  Pack your backpack with _______________ (plural noun), _____________ (plural noun), and _____________ (adjective)  _______________ (plural noun).  Bring it to the closest ________ (place) and open it up so you could ________________ (verb).  You could play with your favorite _____________ (adjective) _____________ (noun).

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Blog Entries

Morning Meeting by Ava and Grace


At morning meeting, we do greeting, games and last, we share summer artifacts.  The sharing schedule is Monday - Millinda, Maggies and Buzz, Tuesday - Eme, Spencer and Jordan, Wednesday - Ryker, Alessandro and Jake, Thursday - Will, Caleb and Grace, and Friday - Sydney, Kevin, Jayden and Ava.  One of our greetings in class is the handshake greeting (when you shake your hands and greet each other).  Another greeting is the rolly ball greeting.  You say the person's name and then greet them and roll them the ball.  The last greeting is the high five.
Some of our games in our morning meetings are silent challenges, when you have a task that you have to complete but you have to be silent.  Another game is Cold Wind Blows - students wit in a circle with one chair missing.  The student in the middles says, "The Cold Wind blows for anyone who likes ice cream."  If you like ice cream you have to switch chairs and move at least two chairs over.

Blog Entries

Science News by Will and Caleb



Good evening fellow scientists!  Today we experienced what happens when you put Grape Nuts in seltzer water.  Our theory was "The Grape Nuts will sink, bubble and dissolve."  What really happened was the Grape Nuts started bouncing up and down while bubbling.  This happened because the bubbles lifted the Grape Nuts and when the bubbles reach the surface, the bubbles pop once again and the Grape Nuts sink.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Blog Entries

Silent Challenges by Jake and Alessandro



You are probably wondering what a silent challenge is.  Well, a silent challenge is a contest to see how well we can cooperate together.

We have broken many records this year.
Grouping together by shirt color - 59.9 sec.
Lining up in birthday order - 1:51 sec.  beat the old record of 3:43
Grouping together by favorite summer activity - 1:27
Colored Dot game - 1:05 We need to beat the old record of 42 sec.

Blog Entries

Gym Report by Jayden and Buzz



Before we do anything at gym, we stretch.  Today we learned how to dribble the soccer ball.  We play different games at gym.  We also run around.

Blog Entries

Art Arrangements by Eme and Maggie



In our most recent art class we drew realistic portraits of ourselves.  Ava and Grace enjoyed drawing portraits of themselves.  Ava said, "I love Art!  It is awesome!"  Eme feels that art is the only place where she can be more creative with her drawing.  Some kids did projects they hope to do again this year.  Millinda said, "I hope to draw abstract."  Sydney said, "I hope to draw plants and animals." As you can tell, Art is a very creative place.

Blog Entries

Recess Report by Ryker and Spencer

Today at recess, most people played soccer.  Other people relaxed or played wall ball.  Ryker jammed his thumb playing soccer.  He went to the nurse and got it iced.  Spencer played goalie at soccer.

Blog Entries

Tonight we have some guest blog authors:

Hopes and Dreams by Sydney and Millinda

Our class has been working on our hopes and dreams for fifth grade for the past few days.  Our hopes and dreams include:
"To get better at writing." - Grace
"To learn how to divide decimals." - Will
"To get better at reading." - Eme
"To get better at writing and math." - Maggie
"Being confident through a math test." - Jake
"Getting better at reading one book at a time." - Alessandro
"Reading a variety of different books." - Sydney

Our class's goal is to achieve our hopes and dreams by the end of fifth grade.  Some of our ways to achieve our goals are...
"Being quiet after a test." - Millinda
"Listening to the teacher." - Jayden

Setting a goal is important because after you achieve your goal you feel really proud.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Welcome!

Welcome new parents of 5MC!!!
First of all, thank you so very much for filling out that massive pile of paperwork that came home last night!  We've never had such an outstanding return rate on the first day of school!  Mrs. Pamboukes personally came down and thanked us for the various health forms that were returned.  It really makes our jobs easier not having to nag children about them.
Secondly, we are just having a ball with your kids so far.  It's been really hot in the classroom, but they are still working hard at whatever task we ask them to accomplish.  The beginning of the year is filled with learning and practicing routines, and working on cooperation so that the rest of the year goes smoothly.  It's fun getting to know each of these children and watching how they work together.
Feel free to ask your child about the silent challenges, summer learning, and timelines they've been working on.

Our special schedule this year is as follows:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Art *rotating special day
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - Gym
Friday - Library

Thanks also for all the school supplies you sent in with your children, along with the boxes of tissues and Clorox wipes!  We appreciate it!

Gratefully,
Mrs. McGuigan and Mrs. Carr

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Persuasive Writing

We have begun a new writing unit of study on Research-Based Persuasive writing.  To kick it off, we have talked about the controversy surrounding chocolate milk being served in the cafeteria.  Students read an email from Mr. Shea about whether we should ban chocolate milk or not.  We then learned to not form an opinion on the matter until we researched the facts.  Naturally, the next step was to research the nutritional value of the chocolate milk and compare it to white milk and to other beverage choices.
At this point, students were able to form an opinion on whether they thought chocolate milk should be banned.  They formed a thesis and supported their thesis with two or three reasons based on data.  Students then wrote letters to Mr. Shea to let him know what they thought about serving chocolate milk.  We are finishing up our letters and then we'll begin doing a little research on a different topic that they are passionate about.

Important Dates to Remember:
5/15 Gundalow field trip (permission slip sent home today)
5/29 Boston field trip
6/9-6/13 Environmental School at Seacoast Science Center

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Circus News

Hello parents of the 5MC classroom!  I'm sure your kids have come home very excited and telling you about the circus!  Gary the Clown dedicates his time for two weeks a year helping kids learn circus skills.  As a fifth grader, your child is able to be in this year's circus if they have good behavior, do their homework, and read 30 minutes each night.  This year's circus will take place in the gym on Friday, April 25th at 9:15.  - by Rory L.

Circus News

You may walk by the gym and you might hear screams of joy.  That's because we are enjoying revealing our talents.  We all love doing the trapeze, spinning plates, or doing stilts (except for Aidan).  Everybody enjoys spending time with Gary and having free time.  We all enjoy learning new stuff to then perfect.  Everybody loves Gary and they all respect him.  So overall, we all think he is awesome!
-by Marcello S.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Writing/Boston

Our little writers have been extremely busy working on their informational books on the American Revolution!  When they are done, most will have completed five different "chapters" in their books on their particular topic.  Each student became the resident expert on a subject and their goal is to teach the rest of us all about it.  I've been very impressed with their ability to sustain their energy throughout the tasks of reading and researching, note-taking, and then writing a chapter at a time.  This is the first major research that they've done on a historical topic.  We will be preparing to share them in some fashion, around the time of our trip to Boston on May 29th!  Stay tuned for more information about that field trip.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

5MC Update

Our maple syrup project is going great, thanks to all of you and to Mr. Whisler, of course!  This week we've been checking on our maple trees in the New Franklin yard.  The kids have been making observations about the weather and how much sap has been collected each day.  Mr. Whisler already has many bottles of syrup; we're just waiting for the labels to be ready from the printer and then we'll start selling.  It's very exciting to have the kids involved in this maple business.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Hello!
It's been a while since I've added to the blog.  The time in fifth grade is flying by like crazy!

In math, we just finished up Topic 5 on dividing large numbers.  The kids have done very well with the standard algorithm.  Be on the lookout for the Topic 5 tests to come home.  Please review with your child, sign them and send them back in.  I keep them for their portfolios, which you will get at the end of the year.  We have now begun combining Topics 6 and 7 on multiplying and dividing with decimals.  They are learning the skill of estimating the answer first, then ignoring the decimal and multiplying, and then putting the decimal back in.  This teaches better number sense than simply counting the number of places the decimal point is moved and then plopping the decimal point in the final answer.  They will learn that trick too, but only after they've practiced good number sense.

In writing, we are adding all our final touches onto our Personal Narratives before publishing.  The kids have added some fun elements to their stories like a Dedication page or an About the Author page.  We will soon be having some sort of a Writer's Celebration to show off our stories to our parents.  We'll keep you posted on the date of that celebration.

In other news, our maple project will be picking up steam soon here.  The students have met with Randy Whisler, a parent in Mr. Fleischer's class, a couple times now.  They have learned how to identify a maple tree and how to tell if a maple tree is large enough in diameter to tap.  The tapping of the trees is somewhat based on the weather.  Since this has been such a cold winter, we may be looking at the end of February or beginning of March to actually tap the trees with Mr. Whisler's help.  Students will be coming up with a company name and logo for our maple syrup project soon.  Please continue saving and sending in your (rinsed out) gallon jugs for us.  We will need 300 milk gallon jugs (approximately 3 per tree at 100 trees).  Thanks for your continued help in this fun and exciting project!