Week of June 1 - 5

Here's a look at the highlights for this week (things may change as the week progresses, so check back from time to time for updates):


* A reminder to check out the unit blogs for pictures and more specific information about the projects and assignments in each subject.

You MUST have your lines memorized for the play!!!!

Homework Due Dates:
Monday: Interviews Completed

Tuesday: Math Review Page

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday: Interview Poster; CBA: DREAM Act Letter; Final Book Club Reflection (Yellow Page)

Monday:

• Play Rehearsal 9:30-10:50
• Library Checkout
• Brief time to work on Interview Project
• Work time on CBAs and Review of Interview assignment expectations.
• Science: Identifying mystery objects.
• Last two groups will present their "survival packs"
  

Tuesday:

• Math Unit 10 Test
  
• The rest of the time in the morning will be for working on the interview projects
  
• In the afternoon there will be a work session. CBAs, Final Reflections, and Interview Projects IF the CBA and Reflection are both done and turned in.
  
• During the morning and this work time Ms. Melissa will be calling students out to record them reading parts of their Migrant Project Reflections.
• We'll get rolling on the Survival Game if everyone works hard during the work time.
  
• Play Rehearsal from 2:00 to the end of the day.
  

Wednesday:

• Play Rehearsal 9:20-10:30
  
• Special Puppet Show Assembly
  
• Come prepared with ideas for Friday's celebration. We'll spend a few minutes talking about what we want to do and then we'll make the final plans tomorrow.
  
• We'll continue with the survival game today, trying to catch up to the Japanese Class.
• There will be some more work time for students to get work done.
• Science we'll be looking at the live cells of an onion under a microscope.
  

Thursday:

• Depending on where you are at with your interview posters, we'll either use the time before ROE to work on that, or to begin the new math unit (Sr. Hester will be taking over again)
  
• Roots of Empathy
• We'll also make the final plans for our celebration tomorrow after our poster sharing.
  
• In the afternoon, again, we'll have a final work session for students to complete all the assignments due tomorrow.
  
• Play Rehearsal 2:00 to the end of the day
  

Friday:

• Poster Sharing Session. 10 students will set up their posters around the room and the rest will circulate and look at posters and ask questions for 10 minutes. Then we will rotate and another set of 10 will present for 10 minutes, and then the last 9 will go. We will then come together and have a brief discussion about what we found interesting, and what this helps us understand about immigration to the U.S.
  
• We'll then celebration with an "Immigration Celebration" (keep in mind, if you did not show up prepared with your poster completed this morning you will be asked to go to another room to finish and you will not participate in the celebration...so get your work done well!!)
• The afternoon is still to be decided, but I'm trying to come up with something fun to reward you for all the hard work you've done the past few weeks.
• Congratulations!! After today you will not have any more big assignments. This does NOT mean you can check out of school. There are still two more weeks that you will be expected to work hard in class, but you will be through with all large projects!!
  

Just for fun...Ms. Melissa as a 5th Grader :)

Click on the photos to see them larger

My 5th Grade Class

Can you find me?


My Soccer Team

6th/7th graders plus little ol' 5th grade me

Spending Time with Friends

Safety Patrol

Can you find me?

Tutoring

If anyone is interested in any summer tutoring, before heading off to middle school, I will be available most of the summer. Please email me at naylorm@seattleu.edu if you would like to set something up. This may be particularly helpful in math since students will be transitioning into English math. In an email, please let me know the name of your child, the subject(s) you would want support in, and how frequently you'd want to meet. I've really enjoyed working with everyone in this class, and want to see them all succeed in middle school!

-Ms. Melissa
naylorm@seattleu.edu

Week of May 26th - 29th

Here's a look at the highlights for this week (things may change as the week progresses, so check back from time to time for updates):


Students will be pulled out periodically to work on the 5th Grade Play. I would like to encourage you to go to the JSIS 5th Grade page (click on the link) to listen to and practice the songs. Students should have their lines memorized this week!!

* A reminder to check out the unit blogs for pictures and more specific information about the projects and assignments in each subject.


Homework Due Dates:
Monday: NO SCHOOL

Tuesday:

Wednesday: Math: 10.9 Area of a Circle; Immigrant Interview Questions Due; Service-Learning (Migrant Project) Reflection Due;

Thursday:Book Club "Survival Pack" Due and Ready to Present

Friday: (Monday Unit 10 Test); Reading Wheel Due

Monday:

• No School

Tuesday:

• Math 10.9 Area of a Circle. On Friday we learned about pi and how to find the circumference of a circle using the diameter and the radius. Today we will learn the equation for finding the area using the diameter and radius.
  
• Then we'll be brainstorming interview questions and talking about what makes a good interview. We want to get some interesting information, so we'll talk about what kinds of questions get us the best information (hint - open ended versus yes/no).
  
• In the afternoon we'll have some time in our Book Club groups to work on our "survival packs." By the end of today groups should be finalizing their list of objects and beginning to either collect the objects or write the descriptions of the objects. Check the literacy blog Tuesday night to see the sample "survival pack" I made for Crossing the Wire.
• There will also be some time to work on Reflections and CBA research.
• In science we'll continue investigating different objects and samples at the microscopic level.
  

Wednesday:

• Young Authors
  
• We'll have more time to work on our "survival packs." You should really be writing/typing at this point.
  
• Today I will talk to students about the CBA - DREAM Act paper they will write. They should hopefully have enough research now to at least start the pre-write graphic organizer I will give them today.
• We'll be learning about how to prepare slide.
  

Thursday:

• Math: Review of pan balance model for solving algebraic expressions
  
• Roots of Empathy...our last visit with Baby Rosie :(
  
• If there's time, students will work on their CBA research.
• Most of the afternoon will be spent watching the "Survival Pack" presentations from the six book groups.
  

Friday:

• Math: Review for the Unit 10 test on Monday
  
• We'll have time to practice our interviews with other students, and talk about strategies for note-taking during an interview.
  
• We will also watch part of a documentary about different immigrant experiences.
  
• The afternoon we'll have work time for CBA writing.
• Since many students will be out today for patrol, we'll have some fun activities for the afternoon for those not of the field trip.
  

Announcements

Change to the Schedule
Students completed the end-of-year math assessment for the district on Wednesday morning. Because of this exam, our normal lessons got pushed back by a day. Therefore lesson 10.7 will be taught on Thursday and 10.8 on Friday. There is NO math homework Wednesday night, and they will do 10.7 Thursday night instead.


Volunteers Needed!!
We are still looking for a few parent volunteers to help out with the whole school Young Authors event on Wednesday May 27th in the morning. If you are interested in helping out please let either Ms. Nani, Señor Hester, or Ms. Melissa know. You can also contact Ms. Lucy (1st grade English) directly, since she is coordinating the event, and will have more details about exactly what is needed from you. Thanks so much to all our parent volunteers for everything you do for our school!

Thank You!!
We would like to send out a big THANK YOU to Taliya's mom, Felicia Gittleman, for coming and speaking to the class about her career as an immigration attorney. The kids were very engaged and asked some really wonderful questions. They really got a lot out of your visit, and they expressed how much it meant to hear about the issues directly from a professional. These kinds of experiences make these tough topics really come to life. Thank you again so much for your time!

Also a big THANK YOU to Kyle's mom, Melinda Duplessis, for connecting us with a guest speaker from the Orca Whale Museum. The kids had a lot of fun learning how to identify and track wild Orcas. This was a great complement to a conservation lesson we had about a month ago. They students especially loved looking at the whale skull and recieving Orca trading cards. This was a fun and educational opportunity, so thank you for connecting our class with this speaker!


Upcoming Project Due Dates
--> This Friday students are expected to have finished their books for the Book Clubs. I will collect the reflection journals for the final time. I will be checking for all the required elements (all written on the first page of the journal) and I will also be checking for elements of quality writing. Many students need to go back and double check their spelling!! Students will receive a final self and group evaluation form that will be due Friday June 5th.

--> They will also recieve the instructions for the final project for literacy on Thursday afternoon. The Book Club groups will each create a "survival pack" in which they will put 10 artifacts or symbols that represent what it takes to carry us through hardship. They will be expected to gather objects or create some sort of visual representation of a symbols from their novel and then write a brief decription of each object and what it represents. I will be looking that in these descriptions they reference the book and either with a quote or description of a scene, connect explain why they chose the object they did. These "survival packs" will be due Thursday May 28th. The groups will have time in class to gather ideas and write the descriptions, but they will need to spend some time at home either finding the objects, or creating artifacts for the survival pack. All the objects must fit into a paper grocery bag, so no large items. I will show the students an example of a survival pack I have created for Crossing the Wire.

--> Students have also now been introduced to the DREAM Act topic for our CBA civic writig assignment. We will talk more about this assignment on Thursday and Friday, but I encourage students to begin reading what they can about the Act to gather information. There are many great sources linked from the social studies blog. This assignment will be due on Friday June 5th.

--> On Friday we will talk about our final project for the immigration unit. Students will be interviewing an immigrant and then creating a poster that shares his or her personal story of immigration. We will brainstorm questions together and possible interview candidates Friday. Next Tuesday we will write our interview questions and students will do mock interviews to prepare. If a student is interviewing someone who comes from a Spanish speaking country (HIGHLY encouraged) they must conduct the interview in Spanish. This will help the student in the end because the posters will be done in Spanish, and then no translation will be necessary. Possible interview candidates include family members, neighbors, family friends, or many of the teachers and IAs at John Stanford. If a student wishes to interview a student from the BOC classroom they will need to check with Ms. Melissa so that she can get permission from that child's parent/guardian first. Students will need to have completed the interview by Monday June 1st at the latest, and posters will be due Friday June 5th.

ON MONDAY STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE A CALENDAR WITH ALL THESE DUE DATES AND PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS TO HELP THEM ORGANIZE THEIR TIME. THERE SHOULD BE ENOUGH TIME IN CLASS TO COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENTS, BUT ELEMENTS WILL NEED TO BE DONE OUTSIDE OF CLASS, PARTICULARLY THE IMMIGRANT INTERVIEWS.