5TM Class Blog

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

Why is it that the holidays seem to go by so fast? I spent my vacation visiting family in Canada where I ate way too much chocolate and Christmas baking. I guess I needed the extra food to keep me warm as it was -58 degrees celcius. I actually missed the -58 weather by a few days and was lucky enough to be there when it was only -30!!!!!

Here are the updates for this week:

1). Please welcome Michelle and her family (parents are Larry and Christine) to 5TM. Michelle joined us this week from SAS Pudong and is already settling into the 5TM routines. She makes a great addition to our class.

2). Literature Circles – We are starting our third round of literature circles today. This time we are reading biographies (my favorite genre) which ties in nicely to Invention Convention as we are studying different inventors. Please remind your child to work neatly, proofread, and add as much detail to their work as possible.

3). Invention Convention – Students will be taking their inventor notes and begin writing their 5 Paragraph essays next week. We will work on writing catchy leads, thesis statements, transition words, topic sentences, supporting details, and conclusions. These essays will become their speeches that they will give to the class the week of January 25th. Students should also begin collecting materials to make a model of the invention that their inventor is known for.

4). Reading Olympics – Starting on Tuesday, January 12th, fifth graders will begin the Reading Olympics. Thisis a fun competition between all fifth grade classes that requires students to read books at their levels and complete a variety of activities to earn bronze, silver, and gold medals. Students can choose from a variety of books for each genre. Gold medals are earned for projects that are completed with excellence. For report card purposes, gold medals earn students a 4, silver medals = 3, and bronze = 2.

4). The next few months will be very BUSY for 5th graders. It is important that students work on projects each night and do not leave the majority of their work for the night before it is due. I will help students organize themselves to avoid stress and becoming overwhelmed.

5). An updated Emergency Phone Tree will be sent home today in the Friday Folder.

Happy Holidays! All the best to you and your families in 2010. School starts on Wednesday, January 6th (day 5).

Farewell to Danny! Best of luck at your new school…and best of luck to your new teacher

Students in 5TM have just finished their rough drafts of their personal essays. I will finish conferencing with each of the students 1 on 1 early next week so they can publish their work. A good strategy for students to use to edit their own writing is to read it aloud, but this can make for a noisy classroom if everyone is doing it at the same time. We have solved this problem with a simple piece of plastic pipe. Students can whisper into the pipe and hear themselves loud and clear. When they do this, it looks like they are talking on the phone. It’s quite a sight!

A couple of reminders for next week:

1). Our Secret Santa starts on Tuesday with a holiday card/poem/riddle. On Wednesday, Secret Santas are to give a snack or a treat. Finally on Thursday at our class party (10:15 to 11:15), a gift will be given and Secret Santas will be revealed.

2). Optional stocking stuffers can be brought in on Tuesday. Please make sure you send in enough for 19 students.

3). Invention Convention Research – students have selected their inventors and should be finishing their research over the weekend.

4). Early dismissal on Friday, December 18 (11:30).

1). Secret Santa – Information regarding the class Holiday Party and details about our 5TM Secret Santa have gone home in the Friday Folder.

2). Mathletics – This week, the students in 5TM started a using a fantastic on-line program called Mathletics. The challenges and games are set for their levels in math and students love challenging other students from around the world! What a great way to boost their skills in all the areas we have been working on this year.

3). For Passport Check on Wednesday, December 16th, donations of pencils, pens, and notebooks can be made for our Community Service Project.

4). A message from our fantastic SAS counselors:

Dear Puxi Elementary Parents,

The Elementary Counselors are busy talking about Kindness in the classrooms in December.  We would like to invite you to participate in our annual GIFT DRIVE for our local Children’s Home!

We will start collecting gifts on Monday, December 7th.  Here is how you can help:

•    Wrap up your toy or clothing item with wrapping paper, and label your present.  Indicate whom you would like to receive your present:  boy/girl and the age.  Make sure the gifts are new, or “almost new.”

•    You or your child may drop off the presents in the Elementary School.  Place them near one of the Christmas Trees in the main lobby of the ES.  The Eagle Leaders will collect and deliver the presents to the Children’s Home in mid-December.

Thanks & be sure to get your gifts in before December 16th!

Happy Holidays from the Puxi Elementary Counselors!
5). Holiday Shopping at the SAS EAGLE SHOP  Give a gift of SAS School Spirit to your family and friends this holiday season!

The Eagle Shop has so many great holiday gift-giving items. New items that just arrived are Stadium Blankets, Flannel Pants, Scarves, Sweatshirts, Sweatpants, Key Chains, SAS Pennants, Foldable Tote Bags along with many other SAS logo items. Come in early for the best selections! There is something for everyone on your list.

6). The traffic gods were on our side on Thursday when we took all the 5th graders to the Science and Technology Museum. Thank you to Angela, Alice, Susu, and Heather for chaperoning. Check out the slideshow on the “Photos and Slideshows”page.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our 5th grade Lunch Share a success. Everyone who was able to attend shared what they are grateful for, then everyone shared the delicious food that was sent in. There is so much to be grateful for. I am thankful to be part of such a caring and supportive community and that I get to teach 19 terrific kids everyday!

Hello everyone!

Here are the 5TM updates for this week:

1). Lunch Share – Just a reminder that our Lunch Share will take place on Wednesday, November 25 from 11:45 to 12:15. All parents are welcome to attend. Students will be bringing in a favorite family dish to share, and the feast is very tasty! Students are to hand in their recipes no later than the 25th. Please remind your child to be exact with the amount of ingredients in their recipes (example: rather than write ’sugar, they should write ‘1 cup of sugar’).

2). We are currently working on writing personal essays in Writing Workshop. Some students are still struggling with moving from narrative writing into personal essay writing, but we are making progress. This week students generated essay ideas by making observations (What I notice/What I think about it), rereading their narrative writing, and thinking of big emotions. Next week students will choose one of their entries and develop it into a 5 Paragraph Essay.

3). The students were fortunate this week to meet visiting author Sarah Brennan. Sarah is based in Hong Kong and writes fantastic children’s books, many of them about the animals associated with the Chinese calendar. You may have seen some of these books in your child’s backback in the last few weeks. Our library has many of Sarah Brennan’s books.

4). Have a great weekend! Let’s hope it warms up a bit!!

Dear Parent or Guardian:

On November 23rd our school will begin to conduct a very important study on the needs, attitudes, and behaviors of our students in grades four through twelve.

The survey is titled Me and My World and is a Search Institute Survey of Developmental Assets for Grades 4 through 6. It will provide our school and community with a wide range of information, such as how students spend their time, their perceptions of school and community life, and their participation in a wide range of risky behaviors. Most important, the survey will tell us the extent to which our students are experiencing Developmental Assets. Developmental Assets are the “building blocks” of positive relationships, opportunities, skills and values that young people need to grow into healthy caring, and responsible adults.

The survey results will help all of us as we seek to address the developmental needs of our youth; This perception data will be used to inform and improve our Health, Advisory, Counseling, After-School Activities (ASA), Community Service, and Student Government programs. The data can also assist in targeting opportunities for further parent and community involvement in an effort to strengthen students’ existing assets while developing areas of need.

Additional information

•    Students will be given and hour and a half in which to complete the survey during class time. The surveys are completed anonymously. No one will know how individual students respond to the questions.
•    All students within each classroom place their completed surveys into one envelope. The envelope is then sealed. All envelopes from our school are sent directly to Search Institute (Minneapolis) for processing. No one within our school community will review any of the completed surveys.
•    The final report will present findings by the total group, by grade, and by gender. No individual student data are reported.

If you have any questions about the survey please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s school counselor Kristina Anderson at Kristina.anderson@saschina.org or by phone at 6221-1445 ext. 2407.

It never ceases to amaze me how fast the days go by at SAS. With Halloween, Iowa testing and parent conferences behind us, I am hoping that life in 5TM slows down a little bit so we can have a “normal” week.

Thank you for returning your Student-lead Conference Feedback forms. The fifth grade team met this week and compared notes. The majority of the feedback was very positive, and we’re looking at the suggestions you made to see how we can improve the fall conferences for next year.

We had a series of funerals in 5TM this week as we said goodbye to “Dead Words” and hello to their “Live Relatives”. Students have taken words like “great” and replaced them with their live relatives: fabulous, spendid, extraordinary, phenomenal, etc… The students also learned that when they see words like “really, very, so, and extremely” in their writing, a dead word often follows! The class voted on the best dramatic performances and the honors went to Rhianne, Jahan and Katie (the best crier in 5TM).

This is what is happening next week:

1. Students will start writing personal essay seeds in their Writers Workshop notebooks. Lessons will be focused on making observations and writing about what these observations make you think about.

2. We will continue with our second Literature Circle. After looking at their work for the first LC, students know that they really need to explain their ideas in their work and PROOFREAD! In the LC meetings, students are practicing their skills in asking thoughtful discussion questions, making meaningful connections, summarizing succinctly, looking at the author’s writing style, finding interesting words, and explaining a piece of artwork they have created about a particular part of the book.

3. Passport Check is on Thursday

4. You will receive a notice in the Friday Folder about our upcoming 5th Grade Lunch Share on Wednesday, Nov. 25th. Please let me know if you have any questions. All parents are invited to attend.

Thank you for attending your child’s conference. I was impressed by how well the students can talk about their own learning and their ability to set SMART goals. It’s always a pleasure meeting with you. I hope this experience was valuable for both you and your child. Please complete the “Post-Conference Parent Reflection” form in the Friday Folder. This information will give me some ideas how to better structure these conferences in the future.

Coming this week…

1). Visiting author Sarah Brennan will be presenting to the 5th grade on Tuesday.

2). Literature Circles – All 5th grade classes will be participating in our first official “Risk Takers” literature circle. We just completed our practice literature circle with the book Al Capone Does My Shirts. As a fifth grade, we are encouraging the students to read between the lines, make strong connections with the text, and share their thoughts and opinions with others. If you get a chance, talk to your child about the book(s) he/she is reading.

New Time Lines for Report Cards this Year as Trimester System Comes on Line

As you all may know, this year SAS elementary schools will begin to operate on a trimester system rather than a quarterly grading system.  The dates for the end of the trimester are December 1st for trimester 1; March 12th for trimester 2; and June 10th for trimester 3.

With the exception of trimester 3 when report card go home on the last days of school, reports will go home approximately 2 weeks after the end of each trimester.  You can anticipate reports to be sent home on December 14 for this first trimester.

Our Fall and Spring Conference times have not changed and these conferences will focus on student progress and for some students we will begin to include student goal setting and student led conferencing as a part of the conferencing process.  Conferences are scheduled for November 5th and 6th and students will be dismissed at 11:30 on these days to accommodate the conference schedules.  We look forward to see you all at parent conferences!