Important Upcoming Dates Curricular Updates Haiti Donations Reminder Hello everyone! Since we have so many exciting things coming up, I figured I'd begin our newsletter with a list of upcoming events and dates. -Tuesday, February 27 there will be a math test on multiplying and dividing fractions. -Wednesday, February 28 Mr. Murdock has requested that all students arrive at school by 7:30am because they need to get into their Wax Museum costumes (we are costuming them tomorrow, Monday) and prepare for their All School Meeting performance that morning. -Friday, March 2 is the student presentation of their Wax Museum characters. It will be in the Commons from 1:30-2:30. Afterwards students will breakdown their backdrops and hang their costumes up, and be free to leave for the weekend. -Tuesday, March 6 we are taking a field trip to Boston. Once we get there, we board a trolley to take us on a tour of places where we can see evidence of the Revolutionary War in Boston. -Thursday, March 8 is when the Wax Museum will go on the road and at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on their AHA night. Students can stay through until we board the bus at 5, and childcare at after school will be free. We will also invite students who stayed through to have pizza in our classrooms before we head to museum, around 4:30. There will be no return bus to school, so it will be essential that a parents or guardian picks the children up at the Whaling Museum at 7 on Thursday night. Curriculum Update Recently we've been continuing our work with fractions, and have moved into multiplying and dividing fractions. Students work on developing comfort and competence through our online IXL program and in their workbooks. We will have an assessment early this week before we move on to some basic algebra. We are cruising through My Brother Sam Is Dead in humanities, and hoping to finish this book before we leave for March break. We continue to use this story to discuss the Revolutionary War through the lens of the main character, Tim's, experiences. Students have been working hard to write and now memorize their exciting Wax Museum speeches. I cannot wait for them to share their costumes, backdrops, and speeches with you this Friday! Information on our drive for goods for Haiti:
FA has strong connections to Haiti. From clothing drives, to providing computers, and sharing technology the FA community has supported this impoverished country. Mrs. Reimer will be traveling to Haiti on a medical mission trip over March break -she will be providing well baby/child care. The clinic has asked for supplies to give to these needy families. She would appreciate any donations that you could provide: toothpaste, toothbrushes, bar soap, children’s multivitamins, and small toys. Another connection to Haiti is an FA family is adopting a child in April and will bring donations to the orphanage. Towels, crib sheets, and underwear (size 2-6) are being gratefully accepted. Donation boxes are located in front of the library and 5th grade. Thank you! I hope you are enjoying your weekend, and that Friends Fest and the Morrisey's event were fun! I spent my Saturday nursing a fever and body aches...but woke up today, Sunday, feeling good as new. Thank goodness! Ms. B
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ERBs & Wax Museum Upcoming Conferences Drive for Haiti Hello, all! This week students have been hard at work, focusing mainly on three things. First, taking their ERB tests. So far we have taken the following sections: verbal reasoning, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing concepts and skills. Next week the fifth graders finish ERBs, including the following sections: quantitative reasoning, and math sections one and two. Then we are done with these standardized tests the kids find *oh so* enjoyable. They have also been dedicating quite a bit of time and effort to researching their Wax Museum figures. They are taking notes on their historical figure in four categories: -Early life -Revolutionary War Involvement -Legacy/"Known For" -Miscellaneous Next week we will begin writing our speeches, and then get to our memorizing for the main event! The Wax Museum event itself will be held at school on March 2 at 1:30 in the Commons. We also are planning on having Wax Museum on the road for the third year in a row at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on AHA night. Stay tuned for more information on that. The fifth graders have also been making preparations for student led conferences. They will be ready (and hopefully excited!) to share their updated goals and share some selected work with you when we all sit down to meet.
Lastly, I wanted to let parents know that many of the students in our class decided to work with Maura Reimer to collect items to donation to impoverished children in Haiti. Maura is taking a trip there in March, and this social justice-aware group jumped at the chance to help her spread the word about what she is collecting, organize and manage the collection bins, and prepare the donations for her trip. Those who are participating will share the message with Maura next Wednesday at All School Meeting. Road to Revolutionary War & Wax Museum Morning Meeting in the Library with Mrs. Griffin Upcoming Standardized ERB Testing Friendsfest! This week we discussed the time period leading up to the Revolutionary war. Students created illustrations for corresponding historical facts about the road to revolution, beginning with the ending of the French and Indian war and ending with the official beginning of the Revolutionary war. See below for photos of their artwork and relevant historical information. This morning we spent first period-our morning work period- in the library for an extra session with Mrs. Griffin. We were all lucky enough to enjoy a snack that Mrs. Griffin brought for us! First, we had a fairly typical morning meeting. We sat in a circle and greeted each other, then shared a small detail about our upcoming weekend that we were looking forward to. Next was an activity, where students shared a compliment to a classmate that had been assigned to them previously. After, Mrs. Griffin and I discussed with the class how to begin research for Wax Museum amongst the stacks of wonderful literature at our library. We also had a quick refresher of expected behaviors in library. I've enjoyed inviting specialist teachers to our homeroom to join us for morning meetings, or taking the morning meeting to their teaching spaces. It strengthens the connection between homeroom and specials, and encourages students to pay closer attention to behaviors and expectations across all subjects, knowing that all teachers work together and communicate frequently. These reminders are often helpful at mid year :) Beginning the week of February 5 we will be practicing our standardized testing strategies to prepare for the ERB testing that all Friends Academy 5th graders take part in. The tests are broken up by subject and content, and are 45 minutes or less per segment. Once the testing is complete we will submit the student answers for grading via mail. When we have the scores, parents can come in meet with Jamie to view their child's individual scores. Friends Fest, our annual family-friendly fundraiser, is on Friday, February 23rd. Don’t forget, the deadline to register and receive a free t-shirt for your child is Thursday, February 1st! Click here to learn more and register! Similar to last year, they will be running an online auction in tandem with FriendsFest. Some items available last year included: tickets to a Bruins game, a ski package to The Hermitage, pottery by our own Wendy Goldsmith, and an interior design consultation. If you would like to contribute something to this year’s online auction, please call Jodi Pink at 508.999.1356, or send her an email at [email protected].
Our last bit of news is that our conference sign up sheet is posted outside our classroom, and I invite you to sign up now! I have three slots available on Wednesday afternoon February 14, and all day on Friday the 16th available. Email me for potential times if you would prefer to sign up via email. I look forward to being together again with your child leading us through their year so far and sharing goals for the rest of the year. I hope you have a nice weekend! I am looking forward to a handstand workshop with one of my favorite yoga teachers in Providence. I'm excited to get upside down and push my limits! Best, Sarah Persuasive Essay Writing and Tuck Everlasting Wrap Up 13 Colonies New 4/5 Activities! Picture Book Sharing Hello families of 5A! Happy weekend. This week we began our Tuck Everlasting persuasive essay. Students use the "ORCEOS" model to help them remember the structure of a strong persuasive argument. See below... O-Give Your Opinion R-List Some Reasons C-Address the Conflicting Point of View E-Explain or give Evidence to back Your Opinion up O-Restate your Opinion S-Solution (if it applies) The question they were answering was: "If given the chance to live forever, would you take it?" I am impressed by their arguments and their deep thinking, as always. Once we publish our essays we will say goodbye to Tuck Everlasting and hello to My Brother Sam is Dead-a historical fiction novel about the Revolutionary War. In Social Studies we are studying the 13 original Colonies. We have a quiz on Tuesday, so students should be studying over the weekend. Quiz on Tuesday will include: -a mapping component: students must place the 13 original colonies on a blank map (with a word bank) -13 colonies vocabulary (9 words from our readings on 13 colonies) -information about who lived in what colonies, their ways of life, and geographical conditions (from "The English Colonies Grow" reading) Once we are confident in this area, we will move on to studying events leading up to the Revolutionary War, and get deep into...WAX MUSEUM! Next Friday 4th and 5th graders get to begin their new 4/5 activity on Friday afternoon last period. These offerings include writers workshop, tea set clay building, mindful art, wood shop, card games, band of friends, and random acts of kindness club. Kids are excited to get involved in new activities with some of their favorite teachers and some new friends. This week we were inspired by Mr. Kennedy's sharing at all school meeting of one of his favorite picture books, Last Stop on Market Street. We headed right to the library and checked out our own favorite picture books from (earlier) childhood. A few kids are reading their selected books each morning, and it brings me so much joy. I think they are enjoying it too! The stories give us feelings of nostalgia and allow students to present to the group without preparation and pressure to create content. Plus we get to practice being good audience members. See below for photos of our first readers in the limelight! It was nice seeing many of you at game night last night! I hope you have a good weekend!
Social Studies: French and Indian War and 13 Colonies and .... Wax Museum! Language Arts: Tuck Everlasting and Persuasive Writing Math: Fractions continued... Secret Snowflake Sledding! Upcoming As we enter the second half of the school year (how?!?!) we are beginning to make our way in history towards the Revolutionary war, but first we made a pit stop at the French and Indian War. Next we are moving on and studying the 13 original colonies, and then Revolutionary War! We will read the historical fiction story called My Brother Sam is Dead to accompany our studies. Below are maps to show the growth of the settlements into colonies. Students brought home some weekend homework yesterday, and even though they don't normally have homework on weekends, this was an exciting assignment! They are being asked to read brief descriptions of unsung heroes of the American Revolution and list four possible figures they would like to represent for the entirety of the Wax Museum project. This project is part research, part writing, part creative, and it culminates in a community wide event during which students dress up as their figure and present a speech from their perspective. As we discussed in homeroom, Wax Museum is a sort of rite of passage in 5th grade. On their homework this weekend, there is a spot for a parent signature. We are asking parents to get involved so that we can ensure students truly took care to select the figures they are interested in and followed the directions of the assignment. I thank you for your teamwork on this! We will keep you posted on any further information. This week in language arts we finished Tuck Everlasting! The students really enjoyed the book and had such amazing discussions about it, analyzing the text on a deeper level. Some of the discussions and questions we dealt with included:
Fractions This week and next we will be wrapping up our current unit on fractions. (Next comes multiplying and dividing fractions, and converting fractions to decimals!) Then we will have a test on adding and subtracting fractions, including word problems, next Friday. Next we will move onto multiplying and dividing fractions. Secret Snowflake has been such a blast this week. I have especially loved seeing the students excitement as they deliver their small gift to their recipient. Students are doing a great job of keeping their secret to themselves, and trying their best to let the gifting remain a mystery until the very end! On Tuesday, for our last secret snowflake day, students will bring a book, either new or used- for their friend to either keep or borrow- wrapped and unlabeled. We will gather together as a grade and take guesses as to who had us. Then comes the big reveal! We ask students to write a short note on the inside of the book to their giftee. This note can either be on the book itself or on a post it. Sledding! Upcoming dates and events
-No school Monday AND Tuesday is a Monday schedule. -ERB testing will begin in late January/early February -Feb 16 is student led conferences Have a great long weekend, all! Sarah Fractions Galore A Snowy Day and A Poem for Peter Making Our Own "Elf Songs", Inspired by Tuck Everlasting Other News In math we continue to practice and learn about fractions. This week we touched on converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa, and we worked with models quite a bit to tie the calculation methods to visual thinking. Here the students are giving a mini lesson to the rest of their classmates. They are teaching each other fraction and mixed number conversion tips and tricks while sharing solutions to specific problems. As the snow fell (more of it than expected, I might add!) outside our classroom on Thursday morning, we read the once banned classic picture book A Snowy Day, and a new picture book called A Poem for Peter, and reflected on the story of Ezra Jack Keats, A Poem For Peter is a story about what inspired Keats to break diversity and inclusion barriers wide open when he wrote about a little child of color in his famous picture book in the 1950s. The book was later banned because Keats was a white man, and his writing this story about a boy with skin tone different than his was viewed as racist. Keats' goal was to portray more children of color in urban scenes in his writing so more children could see themselves represented in literature. The fifth graders has so much to say about A Poem for Peter and the story behind Keats' writing. In their typical fashion, they blow me away with their thoughtfulness and deep thinking about inclusion and what is right. And of course, the timing was perfect with the blanket of snow forming outside around us. In the story, author Andrea Davis Pinkney writes about the universal comfort and enjoyment that snow can bring, to children especially. Snow does not look at color of skin, it just falls, and spreads, and quiets everything down a bit. And Keats used snow as a way to bring his character, Peter, out of his brooklyn home into the city, happily walking in a state of joy. After we read this book, reflected on what we learned, and had some snack, we went outside to our own wintery wonderland in our own backyard! It was a nice morning. This week in Social Studies we focused the New England Colonies and the Native American tribes after the Plymouth settlement was established. We discussed "Land Greed" and how interactions between Wampanoags and English settlers went sour once Massasoit died and a new generation of settlers came to America. We studied the below map to see what we noticed about it. This discussion lasted 20 minutes at least! Next we move to the French and Indian war. This week seemed especially fun, since we also were working on a little technology/language arts/music project this week! Students were asked to reread a passage from Tuck Everlasting when the main character hears a twinkling music box melody coming from the woods near her home. Her grandmother recalls hearing the music box every ten years, and they decide it must be elves in the wood. The FA 5A class is making their own elf music using Garageband, with support from the amazing Mr. Felix. I even brought in my old music box that plays, "You Are My Sunshine", to show them what one might look and sound like. Students imagined and created their own whimsical melodies and shared with each other Friday afternoon.
As we near the end of the trimester, we are practicing more and more for the Winterfest performance, which is next Wednesday at 10:30 am. Dismissal will begin right when it ends, right around 12. I'm looking forward to the short week, their beautiful singing voices, and a restful start to break for all. Happy weekend, all! Sarah This week the students wrapped up two projects, their Plimoth Perspective Projects (see cover photos below), and Inside the Mind, our cumulative activity on Wonder. We also started our next all-class read, Tuck Everlasting. In math we are continuing with fractions. Fractions is a lengthy unit because it encompasses adding and subtracting, switching between mixed and improper fractions, multiplying and dividing, and connecting fractions to their decimal counterparts. So we will be hanging out with fractions for a little while! Hour of Code In connection with the global movement, our class participated in the Hour of Code this week. One of the choices they explored was designing their own Google doodle using Scratch. The kids have been wondering what website we may use in class are technically "teacher directed" outside of homeroom when it isn't actually part of an assignment. We will talk about this this week! & Other Math
This week we practiced adding fractions with unlike denominators. Last week they practiced making equivalent fractions, which is the first step in adding fractions with unlike denominators. In addition we practiced some fraction number sense by estimating fractions. We did this by finding benchmark fractions. One goal of estimating fractions is to double check if our answers to addition and subtraction problems are correct, because an estimate should be close to the exact answer. This week is our last full week before our winter break, so changes in schedule will require some flexibility. I will keep you posted with any noteworthy news, and hope you all got to enjoy the snow a bit this weekend! Sarah Art Class Field Trip Inside the Mind Plymouth Perspective Project Math: Fractions Looking Ahead Hello all! It feels like its been ages since I've published a regular old newsletter. We have been hard at work in 5A, and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all here. First and foremost, I want to highlight our awesome field trip we took on Tuesday. Led my art teachers Wendy Goldsmith and Susan Cogliano, fourth and fifth grade piled onto one bus to travel locally to Alderbrook farm. There they are currently showing an art exhibit of 14 sculptures, "designed to bring art to the environment and provide visitors opportunities to experience nature and art in new ways." The art was created by Umass Dartmouth students, and the exhibit is running until December 15. Not only was the art a hit of course...Alderbrook is so much fun anyway! I highly recommend visiting again as a family if you live nearby. Curriculum update: -In Language Arts we continue to work on a new project, called the Inside the Mind project. Students are taking their expertise from our deep reading of the book Wonder and taking on the perspective of a character whose voice we do not hear during an event in the plot line. They first write part one of the project, which is a character study using traits and text evidence to describe the person they are studying. Then in part two, they write from that character's voice, using authentic dialogue from the text to stay true to the actions of the story. They also are creating cover art for this project- a large foldable head depicting that character. We can't wait to share the finished products, as I have enjoyed the writing process for this project thoroughly. -In Social Studies we are finishing our Plymouth Perspective Projects. Students are turning in these three journal entry-format essays and cover art this Wednesday. We are deep into writing these days! -In math we are reviewing our fraction knowledge from last year and adding to it. Students have been using IXL, their workbook, their math notebook, and games such as fraction bingo to reacquaint themselves with fractions. Looking ahead
-Basketball tryouts begin Monday afterschool for boys, and Tuesday after school for girls. Fifth graders are allowed to play this year, and anyone who tries out will make one of the teams. -Extra Winterfest practices will begin to pop up on our schedule. The event is at 10:30 on the 20th. Afterwards, we begin our long winter break! Please let me or Putnam know if your child won't be able to attend. Have a great rest of your weekend! Best, Sarah Plymouth Perspective Project & Wampanoag Visitor Book Fair & Authorfest Banned Books Presentation Creativity Tube Activity with Mr. Murdock Constellations Lunch & Turkey Trot We've had another full and exciting week! My favorite parts of the week were the multiple visits from speakers. Between a visit from Mr. Kennedy to talk about the recent changes at All School Meeting, and the visitor author Marc Nobleman, to our special visit from a Plimoth Plantation Native American representative, we have been quite lucky to hear from many eloquent experts. Below is a photo of Tim, a Cherokee Native American who spends his days educating visitors to Plimoth Plantation about the Wampanoags. He spoke to us for over an hour, sharing information about artifacts and answering all of our questions. Students took notes to help improve their Plymouth perspective projects, and have been including new details into their writing thanks to his expertise. This class of readers thoroughly enjoyed our frequent visits to the book fair this week. I feel so lucky and thankful that so many of the kids (thanks to their lovely parents) shared their love of literature and new books by purchasing and gifting new books to me and our classroom. All the talk in our classroom has been centered around new books and titles that kids are lining up to read. Nothing makes me smile more than students suggesting and raving about books to each other. Marc Tyler Nobleman spoke to us about his approach to writing books, and his message was truly inspiring. He spoke to fifth through eighth grade together, and he wanted the kids to know that if he can be a story detective and solve literary mysteries, kids can do the same. Here is a Ted Talk with Marc Tyler Nobleman sharing the same information he shared with students this week. It is quite a neat story! On Wednesday at All School Meeting the 5th grade presented their thoughts and discoveries on Banned Books. They spoke eloquently and thoughtfully, sharing interesting observations with the rest of the student body. So many teachers approached us afterwards reporting that the presentation spurred deep discussions in their homerooms. On Friday we had a visit from a very special person, Mr. Murdock! He was in our homeroom for first period helping us clear our "Creativity Tubes". You may be wondering what this means. Mr. Murdock explained that each of us has innate creativity, and that this artistic sense can't really be taught. To best harness and feed our curiosity though, we all must get rid of the hindrances and road blocks to our success. So we talked about fear of judgement, of being wrong, or failure, and more. Students worked independently to write down anything that gets in their way of creativity. They then balled up the paper with their creativity obstructions on them, and stuffed them into empty paper towel roll tubes. After a group discussion, we cleared our tubes and disposed of the negative roadblocks, symbolically shoving the papers out of the tubes and saying goodbye to the fears that prevent us from expressing ourselves best. We will now display our cleared tubes in our classroom to remind us that we can be creative without fear. The last bit of new this week is that we met in our Constellations groups for lunch on Friday. We reintroduced ourselves and welcomed new members, and we chatted about the upcoming Turkey Trot. This year students and faculty will be running the "race" in our constellation groups. The goal is not to win the foot race, or to even speed through it, but to finish in one group, with big kids encouraging the smallest ones. We are looking forward to wearing all gray and blue on Tuesday. I am also looking forward to the Thanksgiving break. Until then, enjoy your weekend.
Best, Sarah Halloween and Day of the Dead Plymouth Plantation Field Trip Wonder Continued Other news From our blogger Michael: This Tuesday after the parade we had a Halloween party on the beach tree terrace. There was a lot of good food. It was very fun. Thank you to the room parents for organizing the party, and the parents who brought in the treats. I was Captain America. Some of my favorite costumes were Martim’s alien costume, Stella’s witch costume, Madi’s homemade pineapple costume, Jared’s pumpkin bobble head costume, Calvin’s costume, and JJ’s greaser costume. I also liked the teachers costumes. From our blogger JJ: On Tuesday we had a Halloween celebration at Friends Academy. For Halloween I dressed up as a greaser from The Outsiders book/movie. Some of my favorite costumes from our grade was Madi’s makeshift pineapple costume. Another one is Martim’s alien costume. My last favorite costume was Asher's mad scientist. These were some of my favorite costumes. Walking through the parade and high fiving everyone was really fun, especially once you got up on stage and you could dance to songs they were playing. It was also really fun to guess the song titles, which is what the teachers were all dressed up as. Michael: For Spanish we had a Day of the Dead presentation. We brought in an ancestor’s photo, a candle, and something they liked. Now there is a table with everyone's items in the main hallway. It is an altar, and we cut out and hung papel picado which is decorated colorful paper. We also made replicas of sugar skulls on a cup. It has been a very exciting and fun week. See photos above of the parade and our altar. JJ: Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday during which people celebrate family members who have passed away. We celebrate this holiday at school. In Mexican countries families make an altar and put all their favorite foods and drinks and desserts on it. One of the desserts are sugar skulls that they decorate with different color frostings. Then at night they take flower petals and make a line from the grave to the families houses. The family keeps the house lights on all night which symbolizes that they will come back to life. Next Tuesday we are headed to Plimoth Plantation for our second field trip. We will break into small groups and explore the replica Wampanoag Village as well as the Puritan homestead. Students will be equipped with clipboards, prepared to take specific notes. We will be launching a new project called the Plymouth Perspective Project. It is one of my absolute favorites in 5th grade. On Monday, students will chose from the above baskets. Students will either be a boy or girl, age varying from child to aged adult, and either a Wampanoag Native or a Puritan English settler. We will have little Wampanoag girls, elderly Englishmen, and every combination in between. Taking on their new persona and perspective, students will research in picture books, online, and while at Plimoth Plantation to gather information and make journal entries from their new perspective. Final projects will also include an art element! On this field trip, students are not bringing technology. We will need non-heat-up lunches, and perhaps students will want extra snack as we are walking around quite a bit. Also, comfortable shoes and layers are strongly encouraged. We continue to read Wonder and discuss deeply the issues the characters are facing in 5th grade. This morning for morning work we illustrated a comic strip from a scene in Wonder. Students chose what they wanted to draw from one particular section of the story. Soon we will wrap up the end of the book and begin our special Wonder-related project. Students will write a "deleted scene" from the perspective of a character in the story. Below are some images of completed comic strips. I want to take this opportunity to remind you that Mr. Murdock has a blog and it is located here: Mr. Murdock's Music Blog. Check back for updates on what your child is working on in class and for photos. Lastly: This weekend as you're enjoying Open Trails at school you will notice a lot of new faces on campus because of Open House. Please feel free to introduce yourselves; we're sure our visitors will be wowed by the hospitality of our Friends Academy families! Happy Weekend, all! We are so looking forward to next week as we have a short week, a field trip, the Alice in Wonderland play performances, and exciting projects.
Thanks for reading, Sarah |