Howitt’s Math Home

As we slide into the final week of elementary school I like to look around and take stock of where we are.  Although you have only been in fifth grade for one year…I have done it 7 times (if I include my own 5th grade class). So it is time for something slightly different. Now in our class it is no surprise that I am going to middle school math next year as you have all been helping clean out the room, pack old supplies and through out things I have held onto for far too long.

I have had a very enjoyable time with you and the students who preceeded you in this room and I will cherish the times we have had together.

The good news is that you may have a time to be with me again in 7th grade math assuming you are still here.

Thank you for the great year and see in the middle school.

What a great day we had with some wonderful weather.

From Soccer Day

A guest author!!!

Today we had the pleasure of having Ridley Pearson, author of books such as: the “Kingdom Keepers Series” and the “Peter and the Starcatchers Series”. He gave an excellent presentation today and made a great point about good authors nail the details. The details in writing are what capture or lose a readers interest. That is something that we have been talking about all year so it is wonerful to hear it from a writing professional.

Yesterday both the Pudong campus and the Puxi campus 5th grade students took part in the second “Spring Fling: Thinking Olympics”. This was a great chance for students to work in cross campus teams to solve task cooperatively while having a good time.

 I worked at a task that ended up being a little too complicated so I switched it up and had students work in groups to support and balance eachother. Many have done this activity in camps etc.

Using only themselves and their partner they began in a seated position and had to stand up keeping their backs together and not using their hand on the ground. Most did so very well with out being a “cheater cheaterson”

Here are some pictures from my station.

Good Morning SAS Parents,
Last week we started our grade 5 to 6 transition program by meeting with our “Rising 6s” in the LLH to discuss middle school, meet the grade 6 core teachers, and talk about the course selection process for grade 6. The students were told what their choices for specials and electives were, and then asked to go home and discuss these programs with their parents. Happily I’ve already been told by a couple of parents that that’s exactly what happened in their houses. Great Job Rising 6s!
On April 16 the “Rising 6 Parents” will have an opportunity to learn more about middle school in general and grade 6 specifically. All grade 5 parents are welcome to attend; our meeting will be held in the LLH and start at 10:00 following the elementary PTSA meeting. Dr. Roukema (middle school principal) and Dr. Rosen (middle school vice-principal) will both be speaking and available to answer questions, and grade 6 teachers and specialists will also provide information about their classes. Please join us for an opportunity to look forward to next year, gain valuable information about grade 6 and ask any questions you may have.
As I told a grade 5 parent yesterday – we can’t promise to be entertaining but we hope to be informative!
I look forward to meeting with you on Thursday and I hope you and your families have a wonderful weekend enjoying the spring weather!

Tags: middle school

As grade 6 rapidly approaches the students in 5CH, we took the time to work with macbooks to record video questions we want answered about this big and exciting change. In our school grade 6 is the beginning of middle school (Jr. High in Canada) so all of the students have some level of apprehension. Take a look at their blogs and see what they are wondering about…perhaps you can answer them!

What is nutrition? It sounds like some type of disease. Today we took the time to view a Bill Nye video as an introduction to the idea of nutrition but I still don’t feel like I have a good grasp of what this is all about. Can you help? Share some ideas about what you think nutrition is, why it is important and why do we even talk about it.

The Invention Convention is now over. The students did a fantastic job and many great inventions were created, some I think have great potential in the real world. Thank you for all your hard work.

This week and next we are going to be writing our next essay on another endangered species. The tree octopus. This animal is one of the least known of all the octopi. Like many animals, human activity has played a role in their struggle to survive.

Your first task is to read the source information, take some notes in your writing book, and look for ideas that you can write about. Remember, in our 5 paragraph essays you are looking to find three different ideas to talk about. The ideas you select should have enough information that each one can be turned into a well thought out paragraph.

Source Info

  It is time to begin the invention madness!  So all you little inventors, get those thoughts a bubbling. Now, we know that inventing is a process. You develop an idea based on a problem you want to solve, build a solution, test, report, rebuild and change, test again. Sometimes you are going to fail,sometimes have great success. What you really need though is to have an idea that you are excited about and a problem you want to fix. Remember that some inventions come from the most basic problems, like the desire to sleep on a train, or perhaps the need to blow your nose, or maybe just you need to let something else watch the baby either way it will all start with a problem and your original solution.

Good luck.