If it keeps up.....

it will be the Thanksgiving holidays before you know it. These first few weeks of school has zoomed by. Let me start by saying that we have a really great class. The kids are all meshing so well, they are helpful to one another, have made friends, and work together in groups without all the drama that sometimes follows 5th graders! NOT HERE though! We are all working toward getting to know each other and using are names... There are 40 of us in Room 148, so it has taken awhile to get to know everybody!
We have spent some time in Science learning about density. This is one of my favorite experiments that we do. We think it is perfect because it allows the kids to work with different Science tools and record what they are doing. Plus the drawing and labeling is easy to do for this assignment!

Sabian is very intent on making sure that is "an exact measurement"! Good work Sabian.

This is what each group created!

Wow! Is that what you predicted?

One thing about Room 138.... WE HAVE NO SLACKERS!!! Everybody works!

Noor's group is starting to combine their liquids! They have finished the weighing! Pass the scales.

we have learned to use our scales to take exact measurements... which is what we know all great scientists do!

we are trying to determine how layers form in liquid substances.

we always wear safety goggles! ALWAYS.....

everyone gets a turn!

we first made a prediction as to how we thought the layers would end up... after the experiment we actually drew the correct picture and wrote about what happened and WHY it happened based on our scientific data....

We all did a great job writing the steps down, so we could write about the process using our notes!

We practiced drawing and labeling our results!

what is going on here???? How did Mrs. Yadon make that lime rise?

Quick... Mahnoor the Scientist to the rescue!

Mahnoor was our first lab coat assistant! She helped to determine the weight of water and salt water that made a difference with the lime!

These are the great flowers Mrs. Rowan won from Channel 4 from their Kudos from Kuhn segment. A parent (of a previous student) from Parkwood Heights nominated her! Mrs. Rowan was blown away by the size of the arrangement! Mr. Rowan had to come and pick them up!

It was great to see all of you at Open House! Remember to return those Marine Science field trip forms. This will be a great trip for us, and best of all it is FREE!!!!

We will not have spelling and vocabulary words this week. We will work on DRA's and read about natural disasters from our Newspaper in Education.

House Keeping

Thank you to all that attended Open House last night! It was a pleasure to see you again and go over some of our routines and rituals.

1. As mentioned at Open House, Marine Science Center (MSC) field trip forms came home yesterday. Please make sure to send those in as soon as possible. If you would like to chaperone, please let us know by sending us a note. This is a free field trip- students will only need to bring a bag lunch and a drink.

2. All Scholastic Book Orders are due next Friday. We have already received quite a few, but the order will not be placed until 9/11.

3. Beauclerc Spirit Shirts are on sale from the PTA. T-shirts are $8.00, golf shirts are $11.00, and sweatshirts are $13.00.

4. Tuesday Sept. 15th is Read and Feed Night for the Beauclerc Book Fair. Olive Garden dinners are available, ADVANCE PURCHASE ONLY.

We are off to a great year! Enjoy the long weekend!
Pictures from the week to come.

Don't forget Open House!

Some of our "best learning" comes from observing and listening to others explain how they solved the same problem. We just love "hands-on" math! It makes our brain work twice as hard. The package factory is now letting us design boxes using what we know about volume. This has been a great thinking exercise. Students are understanding how to determine box size by measuring the volume. Finding things to do for rainy day recess.....

Computers are always fun! A serious game of Chess.....

A nice game of SORRY!

Chinese Checkers anyone?

Look who came to visit at the end of school today, this is the second time he has visited since school started.

Don't forget Open House

Thursday, September 3rd at

7:00pm

SEE YOU THERE!

And we're off....

We had our very first fire drill of 2009/2010 last Friday, and we are happy to report that we did a great job! We finally understand volume! This is a great thing combining our Math and Science units to help us really "see" what volume is (beside l x w x h)

scissors (check), tape (check), cubes (check) student made packages (check)

This is how we spend rainy day recess :-)

or building things, as Tony did right here!

Working together makes learning fun! We have accountable talk that lets our teachers know we are working together at solving problems.

We gotta work, work, work together! We gotta work together for our team!

Tony and Cameron work to determine volume in a box they made, and then added another section.

David ran to first, slipped in the mud, and tried to brush it off. There is nothing like orange baseball field clay.

Well Mrs. Underkofler... there was lots of mud and Jared seemed to bring some home to you!

It has been a busy first week of school. We are settling in and learning how to work in groups, handle science equipment, use manipulatives to solve math problems, and use the text books to find answers for our open book tests.

We did make our 100% PTA membership first! Mrs. Rowan collected a lot of donations over the summer to support our class. However, we still would like to have all of our parent join. It is $5.00 and if you have kids in more than one class it is still just $5.00 :-) It is a great organization that supports our school.

We are traveling to the Marine Science Center on Thursday, September 24. We can bring as many parents as we would like. There is no cost for this field trip, students just need to bring a bag lunch and a drink. The MSC also has chips, soda, shark's teeth, t-shirts and other items for purchase. We will pass out information at Open House this Thursday.

OPEN HOUSE THURSDAY AT 7:00 PM

Please join us this Thursday in Room 138 for our OPEN HOUSE. Get all your questions answered about expectations for 5th grade. Hear about changes in 2009-2010. Students are welcome to attend with you. Come early (you know how bad the parking situation is) and carpool with neighbors if you can. We are excited about teaching your child! See you at 7:00.

Mrs. Rowan & Mrs. Yadon

Day 3 ) - Done :0

Make sure you join us NEXT Tuesday at the CiCi's on Baymeadows for Beauclerc Family Night! This is a great time to come out and meet other Beauclerc families. (It doesn't hurt that you can eat all the pizza you want!)

Well, we have completed our third day of school, and have we been working hard. Monday we started building boxes and trying to determine the number of cubes that would fit inside the box. Let's just say over the last three days we have s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d their minds into thinking about math. Today we shared the formula for volume (l x w x h) and you could just see their little minds clicking!

Today we also finished our first level reader in reading. This allows students to build fluency and increase comprehension. Most students were able to finish in one class period. We will work on these each week, and students will be amazed at how well they can answer the questions asked of them. Tomorrow we are actually going to work in our literacy centers so be sure to ask your student which center they picked!

In Science we are learning how to use science tools. Today, we looked at sugar under a microscope, and observed what 1000 ML looks like in different containers. We learned that a containers shape could be deceptive. We also used pan balances and double beam balances! We are creating budding scientists.

Social Studies is teaching us about land forms and Earth's climate as a result of certain land forms. We will be exploring how our nation was developed and who were some of our first settlers.

Yes, we have been busy! Friday is our first spelling and vocabulary test-- study those words!

Planners arrived today, so students were busy filling them out. It is the expectation of our Principal and ourselves that these are signed nightly by a parent. Please make sure to sign your student's planner daily.

Work Together We DID!

And the line of cars just kept on coming! There were many car riders today because of the reduction of transportation (that was mandated) by the School Board. As the week progresses, we will see if we have more walkers. Our school is land locked, so please be patient!!!!

Calendar Math started today,- make sure you tell your parents this expectation! It is a very easy Math grade.

Did you know that tests in Room 138 are Open Book? Yes, and today we talked about what good readers do to become experts at taking these test. Just because you have the resource doesn't mean you will automatically be successful.

Working on "What does a scientist look like?"

This was a great activity. The kids actually graphed their answers. We had a lot of adult male mad scientists with glasses and wild hair!

What a great first day back! We accomplished so much today, and even managed to get in some homework. In fact, at dismissal we learned we were the only 5th grade class that assigned homework in multiple subjects! Students received their new spelling and vocab lists, we listened to our first story on tape, worked a little in Science and started a math unit! We have hit the ground running so to speak.

We know that drop-off and dismissal was a little (well a lot) crazy today. We hope as the week wears on that many students will start walking, and the car pool line will dwindle some. For students to be a car rider, they must be picked up in a car at a cone. If they are not a car rider (getting picked up at a cone) they will be released at 3:00. Please be patient as we are responsible for dismissing 1250 students each day. Safety FIRST!