Missing In Action

Hello everyone-

Between preparing for last week’s Destination Imagination tournament after school, and being out of town the week before, I have been missing in action on this blog a little bit.

I haven’t heard from anyone, so I hope you have all been keeping track of your homework via planners, and that students have been communicating with parents.

I am sorry my posts have not been very up to date lately, but that should be improving again.  Roving Reporter articles that haven’t been posted will be, and the brief week-and-a-half sabbatical from Roving Reporter articles will be coming to an end.

(Please remember, if there is ever something not posted on the blog that you are looking for, you should email me because this will allow me to update it for you even sooner!)

Take Care,

Ms. Morris

Updated Roving Reporters

Updated Roving Reporter news is coming soon!

Homework for Friday February 1, 2008

There was no homework today.  Students should be at 20% of their A.R. goal by next Friday.

Late slips did not go home today due to the snow days and conferences.  Any missing and late work from this week that is not completed will be listed on next week’s slip.

I am sorry that I have not been doing as well with updating homework over the last couple of weeks, but with all of this winter weather we have been having I am sometimes eager to leave school as soon as possible so I can get home before dark! (Or before even more snow.)  Please feel free to email if I miss a day and you have any questions.

First Day Back From Break

This morning, just like yesterday morning, many of us got up and put the same clothes on that we had put on yesterday before we found out that there was no school on our intended first day back, due to fog. I was even going to come to school later in the day to work on some things, but found the visibility was too low!

So today, Tuesday, we finally made it here. I stood by the door excitedly waiting to see the students after two long weeks (and one day) away. Soon they came bursting through the door with hugs and stories, and new Christmas presents to show. We were one student shorter (plus another, who was absent) but it seemed that everyone was glad to be back to school to see their friends, and learn again!

Before going to band students worked on writing about what they did over winter break. Many students looked like they weren’t quite awake yet. Others were too distracted by being in the same room with their friends after two weeks, and found it hard to focus, but we got started anyway.

After our morning writing time was band. After the wonderful concert before break, band students are hard at work again. They are also learning more all the time!

After band was gym, and it sounded like students had fun learning about badmitton. They admitted, though, that this sport is a challenge. They also said that badmitton rackets make good banjos. (I guess you had to be ther).

After gym we returned to the classroom for math. Math tests from before break were handed back for corrections, and students were also required to work on some fraction review problems, and vocabulary review, because many of them volunteered that they has their brain turned off for all of break! The fractions seemed to be a breeze, anyway, for many, though we strugled to remember how to find the fraction of a group. Vocabulary review proved to be harder.

After math was Reading. We talked about the genre of science fiction and read a play called “The Book That Saved the Earth,” which is a science fiction play set in the future. Different students took parts, and some even made up voices to use. Tomorrow the rest of the students will get a chance to read a part.

After reading we began Language Arts. In Language Arts we reviewed the writing cycle. We also reviewed possessives and labeled some possessives around our classroom and our school (including Ms. Morris’s head). Nick was really creative and labeled the city’s water.

When we were done with Language Arts it was time for recess and lunch. Recess was indoors, which was disappointing after a long break, but I am sure everyone was glad to just see their friends and talk. Plus as slow as some students were moving by the time recess came, I think they might have rather stayed in class! (Just kidding, I think after a long break they may have been wiped out by a half day of school!)

After lunch was A.R. time. Some students had difficulties because they needed new library books, but the library was not open. They tried to find books in the classroom to read instead. I also read aloud a couple of pages from the book “Girl’s Like Spaghetti” which is about the difference an apostrophe can make.

Next was Social Studies, but I did not hear about what happened. I was busy teaching Science to Miss B.’s science class. We did the same thing my class did wheh they returned which was to put some ice cubes in a beaker on a stove. We then turned the stove (burner) on and observed what happened. Let me tell you–fifth graders as a class seemed to find boiling water very entertaining. We observed closely like good scientists and wrote down our observations and the times they happened. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to watch the water boil completely away.

After this it was the end of the day. The whole class picked up trash. Then we stacked chairs, had planners signed, went to our locker and lined up. After this we went downstairs, and all of the students said goodbye as they went home.

by,
Ms. Morris

Missing Homework Posts

Last week’s blog was almost empty of homework postings. I apologize. On Tuesday I was in a rush to get home due to the horrible snowy weather (after my after school meeting), and both Thursday and Friday I had commitments directly after school at other locations. I hope that you were not too inconvenienced. Please feel free to email me and ask when information is not posted on this blog that you are interested in.

Roving Reporter Articles should be posted this evening. I am sorry for the delay on that, as well.

The blog site is currently looking a little different. The host site, edublogs. is changing things around. I am hoping we will get our “categories” list back. If not, you may soon see a new layout when you look at our class blog. Thank you for being patient as of late, and please keep coming back for information!

Ms. Morris

Atom Project Help and Information

Hello Students and parents-

If that atom project is getting you down, here are some links to online periodic table resources that can give you information about elements if you need them for your atom project.

You will find the paper periodic table from science class, along with other materials from science class (like notes) should be sufficient to help in most cases. But if students and parents want additional information, or another source, here some are.

(Note: I have not thoroughly checked all of these out for 5th grade suitability of links, etc. I think they are fine, but please monitor your student).

Again, these aren’t necessary and students can complete this project just with knowledge from class.

http://www.webelements.com/webelements/scholar/

http://www.chemicool.com/

http://theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/

http://www.dayah.com/periodic/

Here are a couple of brief links online about making atom models, but students really should have all of the information they need from class, or should be able to come in and ask me a question. This is mostly in case you are having a personal panic and would like some additional thoughts on the matter. Let me know if you have questions

http://education.jlab.org/qa/atom_model.html

http://van.physics.uiuc.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1295

Happy atom model making!

Sincerely,

Ms. Morris

Blog Problems

Hello-

I just wanted to update you on what was going on in case you’ve been having problems with our classroom blog this week.  Apparently the site that runs this blog has been having some heavy traffic, and some problems and has been really slow. It has also been down a fair amount.  It is supposed to be fixed soon.  I just wanted you to know, because there have been a couple of days that I haven’t even been able to get on to post homework.  In fact, I was going to post this message a couple of days ago, and when I tried to post it, the site wouldn’t do it.

Hopefully we will be up to full speed soon.  In the meantime feel free to check the homework hotline on my phone for homework information.  Also if you ever are looking for information and don’t find it here, please feel free to email and let me know!

Have a great day!

-Ms. Morris

Information Update

First of all, thank you to all of you who sent treats or assisted with ourharvest party in some way. There were delicious brownies, fruit, eggs,

Conference Forms and Book Orders

Hello-

Conferences are coming up soon, and I just wanted to remind you all to fill out those conference request forms and get them back to school so that I can start assigning times!  Make sure to list siblings on your forms and I will try my best to coordinate with the other teachers for your family.

 Also–book orders are out, and they are Due back next Monday, October 29.

I emailed parents, or you can ask me more about it, but you may now order book orders online with a credit card, as well as ordering them by bringing money in to school.

Harvest Parties for 5th grade are this Friday.  I believe ours will be at 11:30 am, but I will keep you posted.

Science Tests were returned today in class and students were told how they could improve their grade if they were not happy.

That is just a little information about important news in fifth grade today!

Homework Updates

If you would like to see what is posted on our planner board each day, and what students should have written in their planner each night, you can look online to see homework updates each day.  I will do my best to post these every day, though I will probably  sometimes miss a day.  I don’t mean this to be a substitute for planners, however, I hope it will be a good additional check to help parents and students work together on being organized for fifth grade, and prepared with what they need for class!  If you ever have questions about what is posted, please feel free to email me!

-Ms. Morris