Great Sites to Learn More About the 13 Original Colonies

Today we start a new research project.  Below are a list of student friendly websites that will help in the research.  This is a team project.  Teams of 4 will work together to create a poster of one of the three early colonial regions.  Once finished we will post pictures of amazing projects.

http://www.ops.org/elementary/catlin/Portals/0/Teachers/T_Hagen_Suzanne/north.pdf

http://www.lcps.org/cms/lib4/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/4153/Group%20-%20infosheet.pdf

https://sites.google.com/site/theamericancolonies/southern-region-1

http://www.solpass.org/6ss/Standards/standard_us1.5b.htm

http://mrnussbaum.com/13colonies/13regions/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw9pw8rIDlU      Middle Colonies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ScZh2-QLOE   New England Colonies

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3KAOWye1AM   Southern Colonies

Help!!!!!!!!

Our class got a grant this year and with that grant our awesome teachers got us all Kindles! Some of us Paperwhites and others got Kindle wireless.It is so fun reading on an electronic book instead of a paper book.

Next week is the science fair but the project is due tomorrow, April 18th. Our class is going on a field trip on the 25th. We need money for the bus, so please bring in money for the field trips. We also need tissues for our class as we have none. Thank you!

By kali

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Awesomeness in an Awesome Way

Hey my unicorns! Its me, Michele, from Ms.Kinsman and Mrs.Harrington's 5th grade class. As you magical critters should know, we are having a field trip to the Capitol. Right now, we need more money in order to go. We would truly appreciate if you peeps gave up some LOOT. PLEASE! We also need tissues to clean our sniffers. If y'all Leprechauns can bring in a box or seven, us unicorns we would truly appreciate that.

Also, we started the OAKS math test today, April 8th. Our math teachers are suggesting to have a calculator handy; we are allowed to use them during the math test! If you don't have a calculator, Mrs.H & Ms.K have some we can borrow. We appreciate your effort forever and always.

Thanks for taking your time to read this blog post.THANKS unicorns! The rainbows will grant you a wish for being awesome and checking out our blog post.

Your awesomeness,                    
Michele

Teacher's Note: In order to encourage our students to be active and engaged writers, we are going to allow Michele to add her personal, "magical" touches to this blog post. It's unique style will hopefully catch the attention of our readers and bring about Kleenex donations! -Ms. Kinsman

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E-Reading in 5th Grade: Getting Started with Kindles

Now that our students have been using their Kindles for nearly a month, I think it is a great time to reflect on the benefits and new-found struggles of "e-reading". 

The students were very excited when we received the Kindles. They literally could not wait to get their hands on the new technology. However, a lot of our students had unexpected reactions to the devices. For instance, some really struggled with the touch screen technology; a challenge I would not have expected given the tech experience most of our kids seem to have these days. The Kindles rely on a much more "intuitive" touch screen approach, which means that there is not a button for turning pages, accessing the menu, or returning to the home screen. Instead, you have to remember which part of the screen to touch to access those functions. The ten students that had been assigned the older model Kindles, without the touch screens, had a much easier time navigating the tools.

After about an hour becoming accustomed to the new technology, the students were ready to start shopping. We allowed the kids to choose one book of their choice from the Amazon store. I encouraged them to use the rating and recommendation tools from Amazon, and we also had the old fashioned Scholastic book orders to help them out. I was impressed with our students' abilities to choose high-quality and interesting titles. The kids also learned about samples, and had a great time downloading a few pages of books that caught their interests. 

That night I was able to easily purchase the titles, after a quick support email to Whispercast. Luckily our school has set aside quite a bit of funds to help enrich our classroom libraries. Because this money is available, purchasing new titles has been fairly easy. I also learned that each purchase has to be made separately, and loaded onto the specific device. Amazon has amazing customer support and has been crucial in helping us learn to manage the Kindles. 

I would love to include a picture of our students reading on the devices, but I keep forgetting! I PROMISE that the next post will feature our kids enjoying their reading. We will also share some of the ways we are using the Kindles to help with instruction.

With Spring Break Just Around the Corner...

We have a number of activities planned before Spring Break. Given our busy schedule, we will only be assigning math homework each night. That means no spelling lists or Writing Sparks for the week. The kids do, however, have a reading log that we expect back on Thursday morning. 

Tuesday

We have a special guest speaker joining us on Tuesday to discuss nutrition with our students. Our school received a grant that includes locally grown fresh produce in our cafeteria along with this presentation. We are excited to share this opportunity with our students. We have noticed many of them bringing large bags of chips for lunch and snacking on candy throughout the day, despite our "healthy snacks only" policy. We hope the information will encourage our students to have a healthier approach to their diets.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we will be heading to Hagg Lake to release the baby trout, or fry, we have been "growing" in our hallway. We spent a couple of weeks learning about the life cycle the trout during ELD and are excited to see the little guys enter their new habitat. If you would like to volunteer for this trip, we will be leaving after lunch (11:10) on Wednesday and will return to the school in time for early dismissal (1:50).

Thursday

 

Finally, on Thursday, we have a full day (8:30-2:00) field trip planned for the Tillamook Forestry Center. This year the students will be participating in a new interpretive program that we are excited to see. This continues to be one of my favorite trips of the year, even after five years of visits! Parents are still needed for this trip. If you would like to chaperon, we recommend that you and your student drive your own vehicle. Our bus will be crowded (three to a seat!) and the trip is twisty. Please send an email to Ms. Kinsman if you are interested in helping out (kinsmanl@hsd.k12.or.us).

Thank you so much for keeping up with our classroom happenings. We will be posting some more information about our new Kindles later in the week. We need some pictures to show off our new technology!

The Kindles Have Arrived!:)

Wednesday I came into the classroom and a big box was on the back counter. Everyone was telling me that the Kindles had arrived but I didn't believe them because they had been saying that for months. So I asked the teacher if it was true. She said yes. I was so excited!

There are two types of kindles. The original and the Kindle Paperwhite. The Kindle Paperwhite is a touch screen with audible capabilities. They also store the words you do not know. The more advanced readers will most likely get the original Kindle because they do not need these extra helpful capabilities.

Now begins the process of inputting the Kindles into Wispercast, the online management system the teachers will be using, and assigning the devices to the students.

Wednesday the teacher will have us finally get reading on the Kindles. Mrs. Kinsman has gotten some free classics for us to try out the Kindles and learn how they operate. Soon students will get to pick out books. We will get a book, read it, then pick a new one. The good thing is that if one student gets a book and finishes it, it will forever be in the class library and other students will be able to read it with out more money spent getting it on their Kindle. We have a large fund set aside specially for books. Our classroom library will no doubt be excellent.

By Oliver

 

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What's up in the Classroom?

Hi my name is Jasmine. I'm going to explain different types of things that our awesome class does. First I'm going to tell you about our math. Our class is learning about fractions. So far we have made a fraction kit. We use the fraction strips to solve story problems. At first I hated doing fractions but my teacher has encouraged me to do my best.

Next I'm going to explain about what we do for reading. My teacher meets with groups to work on a story. Finally I'm going to explain about how my two teachers are my favorites. There my favorites because they are so nice and funny because I think they both have a big heart.

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