December 20, 2012

Happy December everyone!

As I reflect back on what I am thankful for as a teacher this holiday season, there are several things that come to mind...

• I am thankful that my students are kind, caring, and take their responsibilities as learners seriously.  Most of the learning we do now involves some type of collaborative work.  The children are able to work with partners and with groups of varying sizes equally well.  This is quite early in the school year to be able to learn in this style so easily.  It shows that they clearly understand their roles and responsibilities in the classroom seriously. The benefit of this type of learning is that the students actually discover and own their own knowledge, rather than me giving it to them.  They also learn how to manage time, divide up responsibilities, and solve problems on their own.
• I am thankful that my students are empathetic.  After the horrible events in Connecticut, we had a very thoughtful, mature, and meaningful conversation about our feelings.  Thank you to the parents for discussing this with your children in a thoughtful and caring manner. It really helped!
• I am thankful for being able to teach in a school that is truly a community of caring, lifelong learners.  Every day, we learn from each other, and with each other. 

Have a great holiday season!

Jeff Weinstein

November 30, 2012

     This week in Science we finished learning about sound.  It was really cool learning about how your ear works.  We started to learn about solids, liquids and gases this week.  It was very cool to see what kinds of gases, liquids and solids there are.  Solids, liquids and gases are also known as matter.

          This week in Health, we learned about how drugs can be medicine. We learned about which drugs are good and which ones are bad. Good drugs are ones that gt you over a sickness or cold. Bad drugs  can kill you! So I recommend  not taking bad drugs because they are really bad!

    During Social Studies in Mr.Weinstein's.  fifth grade class, we learned about the Colombian exchange. That's when Christopher Columbus established a trade route  Taino people. By doing this he made one of the most important trade routes in the world.

November 16, 2012

This week in Social Studies we read and wrote about different explorers. The 2 explorers we read about were Hernando Cortes and Vasco Nunez de Balboa. Hernando Cortes was a conquistador and he conquered the Aztecs. Vasco Nunez de Balboa ran away on a ship from Spain to Columbia. He became governor there and killed a whole tribe of Natives with his man-eating dogs.

This week in gym we started juggling. It is a fun thing to do. If you have scarfs and foam balls this will be easy! Just follow my instructions and practice everyday you will become a master juggler! Just listen to my instructions and you will be GOLDEN!!

                                                                       Instructions

   1. Take one scarf and start throwing it from one hand to the other in a figure eight shape.
   2. Take another scarf and start throwing it with the other scarf in a figure eight shape one scarf goes up         another goes up then catch both one then two.
   3.Take in number three up up catch up catch.
if you look like a clown juggling your doing it right!!! And if you didn't learn from this tutorial YouTube one!


    Hello, In art this week we made Sturbridge Village brochures sense we went to Old sturbridge Village for our 5th grade field trip. Our brochure was about how you should go visit Old Sturbridge, and what you would see!!! It was a really nice place, the people their made cool things, the farm had cute animals and i felt like i was in a whole different place. (which i was)
Thank You for reading!!!!!!

October 26, 2012

In room 32 this week, in science we started are unit on energy.  Did you know there are two main types
of energy?  one is called kinetic energy. the other one is called potential energy.  Were studying
electricity.   Did you know that atoms and electrons are needed to make the atoms equal.  We
 also looked at circuits when the circuit is open the electricity wont flow. When the circuit is closed
 the electricity will flow. We watched a video called this too shall pass.  You should watch it too.

                              In social studies we are learning about explorers. Amerigo Vespucci , and how he was the first one to relies he was in a different country . And Ferdinand Magellan , and how he was the first one to travel around the world.
                                     
                              When you are writing a personal essay you get to express your a opinion about a topic you feel strong about. First, you would have to think about a thesis statement. A thesis statement is when you think of a statement like Baseball is the Best Sport. Then, you would think of supporting evidence like a mini story or a survey. When your done with your supporting evidence you will be able to lay out what order you want your paragraphs to be in. There are three paragraphs. After that you would make a rough draft and afterwards you will revise and edit. When you revise you might want to change about five to ten words into a synonym. When you are done with that you would do COPS. Capital, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling. When you are done you can make your final or type it. That's how you write an essay.

October 5

Yesterday in Social Studies we watched the Presidential Debate. The two candidates are Barack Obama & Mitt Romney. On the debate on October 3, 2012 they talked about Domestic issues. We had to rate how well they did 1-5 on a piece of paper. They used vocabulary words like Federal and Deficit.

Also, in social studies we were learning about the Vikings and we had to make a Viking time travel report pretending we were with the Vikings. All of you were wrong.Vikings aren't all big blood thirsty people with blue eyes. In fact none of them had horns on there helmets,none.

I want to talk about math ,my favorite subject.In math we were doing area models.Area models are mostly used for multiplying large numbers.I love area models because you have to multiply most of the time , and i love multiplying.Area models are good for you not only because your multiplying but, because its for your education.

September 28, 2012

       Did you know that Vikings didn't actually have horns on their helmets or that not every Viking's a blood thirsty tyrant? Vikings were mostly farmers and traders that lived in Scandinavia, which was built up with Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. They lived in barn like houses called 'halls' or 'longhouses' with their families and during the the winter they brought in their farm animals. Vikings did raid and kill though. They sailed to the to the coast of England and killed monks, took their treasures, and took some monks for slaves. This is what we learned about Vikings this week.

      This week we learned about the Newbery Award. Okay so you know that the Newbery award is for kids, right?  Well, kids have nothing to do with it.  It's really the librarians that pick the books.  We think that kids should actually have a say in it. It's not that grownups shouldn't be a part of it, but they see books differently than kids do.

This week in Social Studies we learned about Pangea, tectonic plates, and continental drift.  Pangea was the name of the continents on Earth when they were joined together.  A scientist named Alfred Wegner discovered this first, but no one believed him.  He had found a way to fit all the continents around Africa.  It turns out his theory was right.  Tectonic plates are ike bases under the continents.  These plates move about 3cm every five years.  These plates broke apart and the continents drifted apart.  This caused Australia to move towards the bottom of the world and change its climate.  The continental drift also caused certain crops to grow in one place and not another.  This is what we learned in Social Studies.

September 21, 2012

           This week in Science we did an Engineering Design Challenge.  Each table was a group.  Each group has 5 materials.  We had a ruler,4 balls,a container, a cup and a piece of chart paper.  Each group had to come up with a experiment to try and do with all materials.  We learned that we all have to agree on what to do so it doesn't end up in a big argument.

            This week in reading we learned about Greek and Latin word roots.   Did you know that the words predict, dictator, and dictionary all come from the Latin language? Dict means "to say." Also, the words microphone, microchip, and microscopic all come from he Greek language.  Micro means "small."  It was really interesting and loads of fun.  

            In reading this week we did prefixes and suffixes.A prefix is something that is at a beginning of a word .Here are some examples: so one is re in recycle or ly in quickly.Now lets talk about suffixes , suffixes are something you put at the end of a word to change its meaning and you can change it from one type of word to a different type of word.

September 14, 2012

                                                                     Reading
                         In reading we read a book called " The Man Who Walked Between the Towers". It was about a man who walked between the Twin Towers. It was a true story and the man's name was Philipe Petite  He laid on the cable,ran,jumped,walked,danced,and sat on the cable! He was a VERY brave man!
                          In science we are learning about physical science. In Technology we did a paper about what technology is and read a passage about toy ducks at sea.Toy ducks at sea is about how scientists and explorers discovered the oceans around the world.In the paper we had to do we had to circle the things we thought were technology and circle what technology is.
                       In social studies we did plenty of things.We were learning about longitude and latitude.How we learned about it was by checking each state and what there directions were.We also learned about the US Constitution and maps.

Greetings!

Today was an amazing first day of school.  The kids were incredibly respectful, well behaved, and came in eager to learn.  Initial anxiousness quickly gave way to smiles as we worked on setting the foundation for a great year to come.  Beginning next week, this blog will be written by the students, and I'll pop in once in a while.  Let me just close by saying that the students in our class are fantastic and I am looking forward to helping them grow and learn this year!

Mr. Weinstein

August 11, 2012

Greetings!

I hope you are all enjoying the last few weeks of summer vacation.  I am incredibly excited to head back to school and begin a new year.  Over the summer, I have been doing lots of reading, playing guitar, playing video games, and relaxing.  I have also spent a lot of time at the Potter Road Community Garden growing vegetables for the Framingham Food Pantry.  Ms. Langmeyer and I learned a lot this year about how to properly space and plant vegetable plants so they don't invade each other's space. :)  I'll tell you all about it (and show you) when we get back to school!  See you all soon!

Mr. Weinstein

May 25, 2012

In Science, we watched a movie called Life (by the BBC). We learned about the flying fish.They gain speed and then put their fins out. Then they glide out of the water at high speeds out of the water. Then they glide out above the waves together. They are amazing fish.

We also learned about mudskippers. Mudskippers dig holes in the ground to house there young. Eventualy the holes fill up with water to keep the mudskippers moist. The mudskippers lay their eggs in a small cave without much oxygen. The mudskipper breathes in air from the surafce. Doing this it carrys it back to its young. This process continues thousands of times.This is what we learned about the mudskipper.

Another fish we learned about is the sailfish. It has a lot in common with a swordfish except, it goes faster. It glides across the water at high speeds. They can go about 50 mph! They use their probiscus(or nose) to catch fish. They are carnivorous!

May 8, 2011

Happy Spring!

The students have been quite busy the past few weeks.  We have been working in our community garden, preparing for MCAS, and learning, learning, learning :)

In Social Studies, the students have been learning about the events leading to the American Revolution.  This ties into our new reading unit, in which they have been assigned Historical Fiction books that take place during the same time period.  Through the dual readings, the children will be learning what life was like for the colonists as they decided to wage war against the most powerful nation in the world!

We have wrapped up our major Science units and are preparing for MCAS.  While reviewing, I have been quite impressed with the students retention of information from previous years.  have used videos to help reinforce concepts and last week, Chris Lambert, meteorologist from WHDH came in to help our class understand how their studies of weather are applied in the real world.  The kids loved it!

In writing, the students have been reading short stories that we will use to identify themes and then write Literary Essays.

In Math, we have been reviewing and shoring up computation skills in preparation for MCAS next week.

In Open Circle, the students have been learning the steps of problem solving and in a few weeks, we will be breaking the class up by gender to address specific social issues that each gender is likeley to face next year in Middle School.

Thanks for Reading,

Mr. Weinstein

April 3, 2012

With ELA MCAS behind us, the students are embarking on a new learning journey:  an independent research project.  The students are selecting a topic that interests them and will then be working to research that topic across all of our curriculum areas.  This eight week project will stretch across Writing, Math, Reading, Science, Social Studies, Technology, and the Creative Arts.  There will be mini reports written for each area and the students will get to learn about their topic in depth.  WE are very excited to begin this journey.

Recently, the students created PowerPoint presentations to teach others about the proper uses of commas.  It was a wonderful learning experience, as every group found errors in their final project while they presented.  They learned how important it was to properly edit and check work, before saying "I'm done!."

In Social Studies, the students are learning the truth about Slavery and how inhumane this institution was.  Next we will be learnign about the events that led up to the American Revoultion.

In Science, the students have been working with Mrs. Hoehelin to learn about Meteorology and Weather.

I wanted to make this post a brief update, as the next more lengthy post will come from the students.
Thanks for reading!

Mr. Weinstein

February 3, 2012

    This week in Science we learned about vertebrates, and invertebrates. We learned about hydra's, birds, etc. We also wrote summarys, one on vertebrates, and one on invertebrates. Then we each got to draw an animal that the science textbook had in it. We had to draw a invertebrate or a vertebrates. Did that some invertebrate have hollow bodys?! Thats what we learned in science this week.
       This week in Health in room 32, we learned about cigarettes. Cigarettes can be very harmful to the body and can cause cancer. We looked at pictures of people after they were smoking. Some people had yellow teeth, black lungs, and much more. People can also lose a lot of money too when they buy the cigarettes. So......Do not smoke cigarettes!!!!
     This week in Room 32, everyone made public service announcements.  Public Service Announcements are videos about one minute long and ours were about bullying.  There are many diffferent types of bullying:  cyber, physical, emotional, teasing, and exclusion.  It is a bad thing that people still bully.  The purpose of these videos is to stop bullying.  Remember:  Don't bully, no one wins!

January 30

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I posted, as the students have been doing most of the posting, so I thought I would update you all on what we have been doing. 

In Reading, the students have been working diligently to finish up writing and producing Public Service Announcements about bullying.  Each group of students selected a specific type of bullying, wrote a script, storyboarded the PSAs, and are getting ready to film them. This week, we will also be learning about simple, compound, and complex sentences and clauses. Additionally, they are actively reading their biographies for the Wax Museum project.

In Social Studies,  the students are finishing the research phase of their 13 Colonies Jigsaw Project.  They are working in groups to research and develop teaching tools to help the rest of the class learn about their specific area.

In Writing, the students are either finishing their Personal Essay (opinion piece) or if they are already done, they are working on their creative fiction pieces based on "Pictures of Harris Burdick."

In Science, the students are learning about animal adaptations with Mrs. Johnson.

Math varies by teacher.

Last week, the students used the Engineering Design Process to plan, design, test, and improve sails for sailboats.  It was very frustrating for some stduents, but everyuone learned a lot!

Thanks for reading!

Mr. Weinstein

January 13, 2012

   In Room 32 this week we have been learning about the parts of the cigarette in Health. Did you know that cigarettes have rat poison and acid in them? They have 4,000 different ingredients! Never smoke a cigarette because it  can cause cancer! Plus you will spend lots of money on them.Stay safe!
   In preparation for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we learned about civil rightsRosa Parks started the Montgomery boycott in 1955. E.D. Nixon helped her case from getting arrested to becoming famous. She got scared one day before she got arrested because she found out that the man she was working for was in the Ku Klux Klan. That's why she got scared.The Ku Klux Klan is a group of white people who kill black people because they think they are better than colored people. They lynch them, burn them and sometimes bomb their houses. Lynch means to hang a person by a tree or something. It was a horrible time.