Hi 5KP families

Welcome back after the October Holiday, I hope you had a restful time with your family wherever you were.

Parents, if you are interested in keeping informed regarding some of the changes educational literacy is going through then I suggest you attend the evening with Dr. Jason Ohler. I had two workshops with him last week, your child will be hearing him present at school this Thursday and you are invited to hear him speak about “New kids, New Media and New Literacies” next Wednesday the 20th of October. Check out the Elementary Pudong Blog for details. I found him to be an enthusiastic, interesting and entertaining presenter with plenty of relevant things to say.

Math

The class has started unit three in math which is primarily focused on Geometry Explorations. I have added a couple of useful sites to my blogroll for them to work through but I wanted to draw your attention to this one as it may also help you understand some geometrical terms that will enable you to help your child in this unit (scroll down to the geometry, B, section. This one is also very popular with the kids as they work to beat their best time connecting geometry terms with their geometrical shapes. I like it too, however I have not beaten the kids yet! They LOVE to win!

Writer’s Workshop

We begin our second personal narrative this week as we start the Second Unit of Study with, “Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing.”
The students will use the feedback they received from their first narrative to help them craft their next piece. Areas for improvement include
:focusing more on one small seed topic rather than a giant watermelon topic,
:remembering to keep your writing in either the past or present tense (past is the easiest, especially as it is a personal narrative) and :making sure to read over your work many many times to see how it sounds as you make your editing changes.

Reader’s Workshop

We continue to work through our reading with our partners paying attention to they say we can make predictions and ask questions of our texts. The students must either be reading, writing about their reading or talking about their reading during these lessons. We began listening to Madeleine L’Engle read her Newbery Honor book, A Wrinkle in Time today as our second read-a-loud. The students are encouraged to bring in blankets/cushions as we snuggle up for 3 x 30 minute sessions each week of this mysterious story.

Social Studies

This week we move on from our Science Unit on Mixtures and Solutions and begin our Social Studies Cultural Studies Unit. I love teaching and learning with the class during this unit as it raises so many questions about what culture is, what we can learn from our own culture and how we see ourselves as American/Chinese/Korean/Canadian or a mixture of several different cultures. As all of your kids are considered third culture kids, you may want to attend Laura Cowan’s session this Wednesday at 10 am at Malones in Pudong, check here for more details.

Homework

Students, don’t forget, this week you will have a study link to complete each night as well as your regular reader’s notebook entries. You should also try and spend some time two or three times a week on one of the math sites we looked at today in class to help you with your geometry skills, don’t wait until just before a test to revise on things like this. I’d also like you to read Daniel’s story as he has worked so hard on it. Daniel was one of my best writers last year and he has sadly moved to Korea now, please add a comment to his story after you have read it telling him your favorite part of his story. By Wednesday, I expect you to have added to your blog your completed Fun Fiction with Story Spine piece. I have added it below to refresh your memory. On Wednesday and Thursday nights you will have the opportunity to check out your classmates’ work on their blogs.

Thank You to our 5th grade room mother, Lisa Coe, for helping us keep up to date with the many things going on here at S.A.S.

Have a great week 5KP