December 10, 2010

Hi everyone,
The children will not be able to blog this week, as they are rehearsing for our Poetry in Motion presentation in honor of the Winter's Solstice. Therefore, I decided to give you a subject by subject update of what the they are learning.
Reading:  This week, we have been learning about advertising techniques and different types of ads.  This is part of a two week unit on Media Literacy.  Next week, the students will be writing and producing anti-bullying Public Service Announcements. They have really enjoyed learning about target audiences and the techniques that advertisers use.
Writing:  The students have been working on Personal Essays.  After brainstorming different opinions that they had about a variety of topics, they arrived at a thesis statement and three supporting ideas.  They are now in the process of gathering information to support those ideas.  They are really enjoying this unit.
Social Studies:  We are finishing up our study of the settlement of North America.  Next, we'll begin working with groups to learn about the 13 colonies.
Science:  We are completing our Energy unit by studying how energy transforms from one form to another.  The students will be preparing for a unit test that is is on December 22.
Math:  Depending on their teacher, the students have been learning how to compare fractions or how to multiply large numbers.  Fractions are often challenging for 5th graders, and I am so proud of how the persevered and asked for help when they needed it.

Stay Warm!

Mr. Weinstein

December 3, 2010

Poetry in Motion

This month we are doing Poetry in Motion.We are doing this to celebrate the shortest day and the longest night of winter (the Winter's Solstice). For this assignment we got to pick a friend or two to do it with.With your partner(s) you and will pick out a poem and memorize it.And you will perform it in front of the whole grade and guests.You also have to dress up, make simple props, and do a short skit with your group After the performances we will in enjoy a lovely breakfast.

Reading

This week in Reading, we wrote another letter to our epals in Moscow, Russia. We also received a video from them and we saw what they looked like and we saw what the lobby in their school looked like. It looked like a mall!! It was so cool! Also, we learned about commas. We learned where to put them when we are writing. For example, we learned to put a comma to set off words of the speaker : Sally said, "I am going to take the dog for a walk!" We also learned to put them in a sentence to separate a long phrase that comes before the main part of a sentence: When Paige talks on the phone, she talk for a long time.Finally, we learned to put a comma when we separate an interjection from the rest of the sentence : Wow, look at that! That is what we learned about this week in Reading.

Health

This week in Health we started a new unit. We are learning about drugs.We are also learning about marijuana and alcohol. Our last Health was Tuesday we talked about good drugs and bad drugs. Next week we are going to learn about different types of drugs. 

Written by Paige, Sally, and Jordan 

Week of November 19,2010

Reading:  Jane Yolen

  This week we have been learning about Jane Yolen. Ms.Smith made a poster and has been teaching us about her. She has written over 300 books!Some of her fantastic books are "Owl Moon," "Pirates in Petticoats," and "Dragon's Heart." Jane started writing when her and Steven, her younger brother started writing a newspaper for their apartment building. In high school she was the editor for the school newspaper.In 1962 she married David Stemple.They were married 44 year until he died of cancer in 2006.She has 6 grandkids.Jane Yolen still writes today.This year she is turning 72.Happy Reading!

Week of November 12, 2010

Health

         This week during health, we did some cool but gross things. One of the things that we did was look at the sugars and the fat in different sodas and foods. We divided the sugar by 4 to turn grams into teaspoons. We divided the fat by 5 to turn grams to teaspoons. We did that for the following drinks, Coke, Mountain Dew, orange soda, Gatorade, ginger ale and A and W Root Beer. The one with the most sugar was root beer with almost 19 teaspoons! The one with the least sugar was Gatorade and ginger ale with 8 1/2 teaspoons each. After we did that, we looked at fat. It was really cool and gross. She took Crisco cooking fat and showed us how much fat is in Burger King food. It was a lot! Then she told us that there is 1 teaspoon in each bag of chips and if you ate 5 bags of chips a week, that would be a lot of fat.  

Bullying 

   We had a bullying meeting. We learned that when we see someone bulled we say: "Stop we don't do that at Potter Road." We learned that it is illegal to bully in Massachusetts. We learned that if it is serious bullying, you  could be arrested. In 2009 Massachusetts enacted one of the strongest anti-bullying laws. If you are a bully, your teacher by  law would have to tell the principal. The principal by law would have to tell the police. There are 3 types of bullying : physical, emotional, and cyber bullying

Social Studies

      This week in Social Studies we learned about Henry Hudson, Jacques Cartier, and Samuel de Champlain. For Henry Hudson his crew got so mad at him they threw him over board.This is called mutiny.  France funded Jacques Cartier. And Samuel de Champlain found Quebec. We also looked at letters from the Pilgrims and the Wamponoags.

Week of November 5, 2010

  In reading this week we are doing some thing called epals.The people we are doing it with live in Moscow,  Russia.The cool thing is that they are also in 5th grade, too.Our classroom and their classroom sent over pictures to each other.In their pictures they all wore the same thing.In some of the pictures you can really tell what they were doing. In some of the pictures they were doing plays.Even though it does not seem we have a lot in common, WE DO!!!!! We are doing this as we learn about people from other cultures.

   In art this week we did paintings on canvas or paper.You would do the painting based on your  poem.Most people would do all these different shapes and designs.At the end they were very colorful and great.I think everyone had a great time!        

  In Social Studies we learned that Francisco Pizarro was a conquistador.Pizarro was born in Spain in 1478 and died in 1541. Pizarro was invited to a feast, but then ambushed the Inca.  Pizarro killed thousands of the Inca and strangled their leader, Atahuallpa.  This, along with disease that his men brought, ended the Incan empire.  Pizarro wanted to take riches in Lima, Peru.  Later, he was killed by Pedro de Almagro while trying to take the riches.  Almogre wanted the riches for himself.

Written by Will, Evan and Dimitry

October 22, 2010

                   Science                       

 This week in Science we learned about magnets and magnetic fields. We did something really cool where we levitated disk magnets by just using a pencil! We learned that magnetic fields are the area of force surrounding a magnet and that magnetic poles are the north and south ends of a magnet. We also learned that some magnets are really strong! Magnets are inside compasses, they can be used for many things, and that if you rub a magnet on a piece of metal, then the metal becomes a new magnet. Magnets are in refrigerator doors, and they are also used to close things. We also learned about atoms in Science. Protons and electrons make up an atom and the protons and electrons make up and atom and the protons and electrons jumping back and forth create static electricity. So, if you get shocked by a slide when you come down it and you get shocked, that's really the electron on the atom on the slide jumping onto the atoms on you. We had a fun time this week learning in Science.

Reading

This week in reading we found out we are going to be doing a word parade.A word parade is when we go to a class room and tell them about the new word that we learned.To get prepared for this we have to make a sign with our word, the definition, and a sentence for our word. We also have to dress up as it too. It is going to be a fun word parade!!!!!!!!!!! Also, in Reading we did a computer game about Internet Safety. The computer game is about a kid named Zack. He is doing all this bad stuff on his computer. His dad wants to help him but Zack wont let him.Zack meets another kid on the computer that is older than him. Zack ran away to go live with him. We are helping Zack's dad to get him back by playing a game and finding password.We had a fun time in reading this week!!

 

BY SALLY AND PAIGE

Friday, October 15,2010

Noah Webster

This week we learned a little bit about Noah Webster.Noah Webster wrote the "Webster Dictionary".Noah Webster was born on October 15,1758.By the end of his lifetime Noah knew 20 languages.He wanted to study law but ended up being a teacher because he could not afford to go to law school.Noah Webster was a very smart man because he came up with 12,000 words.That is why room 32 has honered Noah Webster by learning about him.Mr.Weinstein got his first "Webster Dictionary" for Hanukkah in  5th grade.We looked up the word "internet" in the dictionary and it did not exsist yet.That was because the copyright date was from 1976! Every year new words are added to the dictionary.Don't forget to say Happy Birthday to Noah Webster!                                                                                                                                             

Explorers

 In Social Studies we each have an explorer we have to research and resite to the class. We will have to put our information on index cards and dress up like our explorer.We put all our information in a packet with lots of detailed information. We have been looking for information in the computer lab and in our classroom books to help us answer our questions about our explorers. When we resite our information to the class we have to be looking at everyone while we read, dress properly like our explorer and put enough important information on our index cards as we resite. Mr Weinstein will score us on the things above. Hope you like our presentation!!