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