End of the Year: Writing Project Checklist

• Imaginary Narrative
• Biography: Inventor
• Biography: African-American
• Invention Timeline
• Autobiography
• Persuasive Essay
• Conflict Essay- Sugihara
• Poetry Book

Great Example of Cross-Section

Ideas for invertebrate poster?

Our Tribes- Need for Activity this Week

Letter Going Out Tuesday Morning

May 28th, 2013

Room 20

Dear Room 20 Families,

As part of our ongoing efforts to foster a school climate of respect, and as part of our fifth grade health curriculum, we will begin a unit on Family Life and Sexual Health this week. I am wanting you to know this for several reasons. First, you are welcome to come in and preview any of the curriculum. Secondly, If you do not want your child to participate in the unit, or particular lessons, please return the waiver at the bottom of the page. Thirdly, we want to encourage you to discuss the issues at home, also. Your child may bring home family homework that are strictly optional and students will not be required to report back what you discussed. The purpose of the assignments is simply to give you a chance to communicate with one another.

Please contact me if you have any questions. I would be glad to discuss any aspects of the curriculum with you.

Sincerely,

Matthew Marchyok

Fifth Grade Teacher

Lewis Elementary

-cut and detach below-

---

Parent Waiver Form

I do not want (Print Student’s Name)____________________________ to study the

Family Life and Sexual Health Unit. I understand that he/she will be given an alternate assignment to complete. I know I have the right to preview all classroom materials before signing.

________________________                         _________________________

Parent or Guardian Signature                                                 Date

Link To TRIBE INFO TABLE

https://docs.google.com/a/lewiselementary.org/document/d/1D2NO03rxWCasqX1J_VSyJxr56K4N-XKlbyDVSIav0L0/edit?usp=sharing

Essay Question of the Week May 28-31

Essay Question of the Week May 28-31

Room 20

Please write a letter to your new principal next year. If you are going to Sellwood, it will be Principal Russell. If you are going somewhere else, you will need to research what her/his name is. Please write a bit about who you are and what kind of student you are. You might want to write about your interests and what you are looking forward to as a sixth-grader.

Here are a few ideas for your letter including paragraph topics you will add detail sentences to:

*Introduce yourself: Dear Principal __________,

“My name is Matthew Marchyok and I am currently a fifth-grader at Meriwether Lewis Elementary School.”

*What specifically I am looking forward to studying in middle school.

*What, specifically, I like to do outside of school.

*Other things that appeal to me about middle school your principal might want to know.

*What makes me special? Am I a hard worker? Helpful? Kind? Love to write, work with computers? An awesome problem solver? A deep thinker?

*Closing:

Sincerely,         Thank You,            See You Soon,

200-400 words.

Use a thesaurus to spice-up your adjectives, verbs, nouns and adverbs!

Write like a sixth-grader. Impress your new principal. “Wow, I am glad THAT student will be here!”

The following is from the organizer sent out on Tuesday (May 28th). I also provided an example on the sheet sent home on Tuesday:

Name: ____________________________

Homework due May 31st.

You will be assigned a vertebrate on Tuesday.

My class of vertebrate is (circle):  

amphibian   reptile   mammal   bird   fish

1. Using a paper no larger than 8 ½ x 11 (standard), create a small presentational poster including:

a) Class name

b) Species name

c) Information about habitat (where it live geographically and what kind of vegetation/landforms)

d) Food it eats

e) colored diagram labeling important parts of the animal’s anatomy.

2. you may wish to use cardstock or another firm paper/board. PLEASE do not use cardboard.

3. If you would like to create another mini-poster of your choice of class, please do but make sure you follow all instructions above.

*A general outline is on back of this sheet. This gives you an idea how to place your picture and additional information.

Room 20 Classroom Notes May 28th-May 31st

Room 20 has been doing an AMAZING job with taking walk and bike data and presenting it in poster and digital forms. We will conclude with our data gathering and displaying this week. We will be sharing our Native American presentations with one another this week. We will view each other's digital or poster presentation and take notes of what our classmates researched. We continue with our poetry books- creating a poetry book of several kinds of poetry. We also continue with our books "Woodsrunner" and our book on the American Revolution and Revolutionary War. We will also play an online video game that is about the American Revolution after we finish a research activity. We will begin our fifth-grade health unit titled, "Family Life and Sexual Health (FLASH) this week." On Monday, I will be sending home a letter and a waiver, if you prefer to sign it. The unit's purpose is to give accurate information about bodies and growth. It is also a way to empower students to ask better informed questions to their parents and doctors. Please feel free to contact me with further questions. In math, we will continue exploring decimals: ordering, multiplying, and dividing. Homework this week will be our weekly essay due Friday (note we have fewer days this week) along with a vertebrates activity- Drawing and coloring a picture of one of the five classes of vertebrates, labeling it, and finding information about its habitat and what it eats. Students will be assigned a class of vertebrates. If students would like to do a second this week, they are more than welcome. Parents, your child needs you! We will be sending some of our students through a multiplication facts boot camp at home until the end of the year. You must help them with multiplication facts 1-12. When I recently spoke to the principal at Sellwood MS and asked her what her "wish list" is for every incoming sixth grader, she said be sure to know your math facts! While we all know there are countless of important tools to have as a sixth-grader, I got her point. Room 20 will be prepared. Most of us are in a good space. Let's make it 100%!

Word By Letter- Great for finding that perfect word!!!!

http://www.wordbyletter.com/words_starting_with.php?q=d 

Excellent Vertebrates Resource

http://www.davidlnelson.md/Cazadero/FiveVertebrates.htm 

Native American Projects DUE Tuesday, May 28th!!!

Dynamite Multiplication Facts!

http://www.multiplication.com/games/play/dynamite-multiplication

American Revolution Assignment

This link is to help you research the historical events during the American Revolution

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/revolutionarywartimeline.htm

Essay of the Week May 20-24

As we learn about Native Americans, pretend you are a Native American many years ago during the time Europeans were just arriving. The years would vary because Europeans came to different regions at different times.
What would a day in your life be like? What would you see, taste, touch, hear, or smell?
Write from a Native American's perspective from the region and tribe you are researching.
Then, write about this new, strange looking race of people who have come. What do you think of them? What do they seem to want from you or your land?

300-500 words. If you want to write more, make sure you stay on topic.
If you are having a problem writing enough, read your notes you have taken so far. This should give you much to write about for the first part. For the second part (Europeans come), brainstorm some ideas based on how white Europeans could change things now for your tribe? What are some stories you hear about these newcomers? Are they respectful of your brothers and sisters? What about the land around you?
DUE FRIDAY MORNING

"Wonder" Trailer for Book

Classroom Notes May 20-24

I wanted to welcome our new student, Abby, and her family, to Lewis Elementary. This week we continue researching a Native American tribe from what we now call the United States of America. Students are finding specific information about the tribe: land and region, dwellings (homes), food, myths, and something the Europeans learned from them. Our research is comprehensive and specific- not just "they ate deer." What species? What diod they use plants for besides eating? Medicine? Building materials? Clothing? What kind? We used Google Earth to view some of the landforms and will take our information and put into a presentation. The presentations are due Friday the 24th. We finished our book reports last week, so now we can focus more on our literature study of "Woodsrunner," and a book on what life was like during the American Revolution. We will also create a timeline based on these parts of history. In math, we finish playing our board games. One of the best aspects of this project was refining our games based on student feedback. Everyone gave an evaluation based on "I liked..." and a "You might try..." In math this week, we continue working with decimals, percentage, and data from walk and bike surveys. Please take a look at the beautiful pie charts (hard copy and digital) your children created in "The Dip." If you come across percentages at the store or watching a ball game, please discuss that percentage is parts of 100. Writing: This week, I will be presenting a document that outlines a poetry project. It has not gotten of the ground as quickly as I wanted, but we will have time this week to begin it. Students will create several types of poems and bind them together in a digital portfolio. Homework this week: "Wonder" essay due Friday. We are almost finished. We will have some reading comprehension homework based on either Native Americans or Revolutionary War, or a mixture of the two. A question I wan to pose: Why did Native Americans fight in the Revolutionary War? Why did slaves fight in the Revolutionary War? Ask your child these questions. What two sides were at war? We will also have math practice for homework. Reading and math are due every morning. Essay due Friday. End of the year party is June 14th!

Board Games!

A few pics of our math board games. The students really worked hard!

This Looks Great!

Calling all inventors! OMSI is hosting a free night of engineering-related activities for 4th-12th graders on Monday, May 20th. Come design a new invention, enjoy a free pizza dinner, and join a raffle for science prizes! Sign-up online:

http://inventionx.org/event/oregon-museum-of-science-and-industry/

Tribes Map

We will be studying the various regions of North America this week and the tribes that historically inhabited and continue to inhabit these regions.

Essay Question of the Week

200-500 words. DUE FRIDAY

The astronaut helmet

·In the chapter ‘Costumes’ Auggie describes the astronaut helmet that he wore constantly as a younger child. We later learn that Miranda was the one to give Auggie the helmet, and is proud of the gift, but that it was Auggie’s father who threw it away. What do you think the helmet signifies to each of these characters and why do you think they all view it so differently?

So.. Think about:
Miranda: The helmet signifies (stands for) ________
August: The helmet signifies ________
Father: The helmet signifies ________

***When you are thinking of the word signify and how to use it, think about certain clothes kids wear. A child may view the way they dress as making a certain type of statement. Yet, for their parents, the statement might be totally different. The astronaut helmet meant something different to each one of these characters. Go for it. Do good work this week!

Room 20 Classroom Notes May 13-17

Good week to you all. Thank you to the several volunteers who notified me of your availability for the end of the year party on June 14^th. If anyone else is interested in helping out for this 5th grade tradition, please contact me.  In math this week, we are presenting and playing student created board games that reinforce concepts such as adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions, working with decimals and large number calculations.  We also received raw data from the walk and bike team and created graphs based on the school wide data count for the different modes of transportation that students took to school.  We will be creating different graphs every Friday as posters and digital representations via spreadsheets and using chart wizard.  This is important for students to learn how to manipulate, analyze,  and visually present data. In reading, we have two groups studying the American Revolution.  One group is reading a  non-fiction book on early American group while the other is reading the book “Woodsrunner” by Gary Paulsen.  Students will not only read and answer questions based on these books but have projects connected to them and early American history. We will also begin learning about the United States geography again by studying various Native American tribes. It is my intention to emphasize how natural surroundings determined the way of life for these tribes, for instance, if you were a tribe in the NW you would be using the cedar tree. If you were living in the southwestern region you would use the natural materials available for all ways of life.  Students have finished their literary analysis for “Passage to Freedom”.  Room 20 did an outstanding job writing their 5 or more paragraph essays based on various thematic conflicts that arose within the story.  Please have your child share their essay with you via their google docs account. Homework this week will include math review and a fractions activity based on recipes found in magazines.  Students will also have another weekly essay due on Friday.  Students have begun presenting special book report projects and we will continue throughout the week. We also need T-Shirt sizes for end of the year. T-Shirts will be paid for. Please indicate student size, if you have not already done so. Thanks!

End of the Year Party!

Fifth grade needs your help! Please contact me ASAP if you are interested in helping make your child's (and classmates') end of the year awesome!

Revolutionary War Info

http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/videos#american-revolution

Virtual Math Manipulatives

http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html 

Essay Due Friday May 10th

Auggie’s appearance

Choose one of these prompts and write a 200-500 word essay. If you cannot reach 200 words, please respond to both. Remember to go into DETAIL.

Due Friday May 10, 2013.

·Throughout Wonder, Auggie describes the way that many people react to seeing his face for the first time: by immediately looking away. Have you ever been in a situation where you have responded like this to seeing someone different? Having now read Wonder, how do you feel about this now?

·Auggie’s face is not fully described until quite far on in the story, in Via’s chapter ‘August: Through the Peephole’. How close was this description to your own mental picture of Auggie? Did you have a picture of his face in your mind while reading the book? Did this description alter that picture?

Poetry Book

http://www.misscantillon.com/Class%20Notes/poetry07.pdf

Classroom Notes Room 20 May 6-10

Good Week! Thanks to everyone who came and helped during Art Night. It was a true success! Room 20 received many compliments! This week, we will finish our book reports. Book reports are sue this week. Students can start turning them in on Tuesday. The presentational format will be of the student and their partner's choice. In math, we will get into small groups and create a math board game, thanks to an idea I'm stealing from Ms. Jen. The content will be based on math concepts from the year. I can't wait to see them and play them! They will be introduced this week! We are about halfway through our literary analysis paper. This is a five-paragraph essay on one of three kinds of conflicts that arose from a story entitled, "Passage to Freedom." Students have been working hard developing ideas, organizing their thoughts, using excellent and specific words, using quotes from the text and including page numbers from where they referenced-- VERY MIDDLE SCHOOL! We will officially start a mini unit on North American Indians the week of May 13th. It is my intention to highlight the fact that there were and continue to be such a diversity of cultures from tribe to tribe. We started the year learning about United States geography. We will now learn about the different regions before Europeans came to this continent.

Fractions Game

http://www.math-play.com/Fractions-Jeopardy/fractions-jeopardy.html 

Beautiful!

Richter Video

http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/10/7/1668/gerhard-richter-painting 

Common Thread

We are reading the book, "Wonder," by Patricia Palacio. This story inspired us to create a piece of art symbolizing our common thread- what we all share.

Our poetry is like painting with words. It also was inspired by the story of Wonder- a boy born deformed, going to middle school, and trying to fit in.

We washed the wood with different watercolors to bring out the design of the WOOD GRAIN.

Then, we measured 6 inches from each side and created our own "Thread." We then connected them.

This piece is a symbol of how we all may look different, but we are more alike.

Apple Watercolors

This is a still-life, which means we created our painting using a real-life apple.

We used a MIXED-MEDIA, which means we used different paints.

We used watercolors AND ink.

We used the different colors in the watercolor to show shading along with the ink. We used the cross-hatching method for shading with ink.

We painted around the apple to show depth.

Gerhard Richter

We used a scraping tool to move the paint around our canvas. We used primary color combination and analogous colors.

Primary colors: 

Analogous Colors: 

Letters

We studied how letters change over time.

• Most letters were originally pictures for a thing or action (look at an example)
• Letters have changed over time
• Illuminated Manuscript was an art form common in many Western traditions, especially for important books such as "The Book of Kells," or "The Bible."

Sunset on the Coast

• Pastel
• Based off of Impressionism. Impressionism was art that didn't need to be a perfect duplication.
• We showed depth by creating a background and foreground (in the front)
• The pastel allowed for soft lines instead of sharp lines

Weather Link

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/portland-or/97204/april-weather/350473