Homework… What is it good for? Absolutely Something!

Here at SAS we have researched, thought and talked hard to come up with our new homework policy. We do not want your child to be overburdened with unnecessary ‘busy work’ (like the image below) when they could be doing more productive things with their time like enjoying their families, reading something they enjoy or playing outside with their friends. There IS a place for homework but it is not to stress out your child or keep them occupied, it is to challenge, enrich, re-enforce, and teach independent learning habits (my personal favorite).

blog

WE BELIEVE THE PURPOSE OF HOMEWORK IS TO…
1. Reinforce Skills And Concepts
2. Extend Educational Opportunities Beyond The Walls Of The Classroom
3. Develop Independent Learning Habits

HOMEWORK PHILOSOPHY
We Believe That Homework Is Effective When It Serves As A Critical Component To The Continued Learning Of A Child

1. Based On Researched Best Practices Students Will Be Assigned A Maximum Of Ten Minutes Of Homework Per Grade Level Per Night, Monday Through Thursday. (For example 10 X 4 = 40 Min. Max of Homework for Gr. 4) Independent Reading And Instrument Practice Is Not Included In This Formula.

2. Total Minutes Of Homework Time For Any Grade Level Should Be Proportioned So That 50% Of The Time Is Dedicated To Regular Classroom Homework And 50% Of The Time Is Dedicated To Language Learning Block Homework.

I have talked about our Policy and the reasoning behind it at length with the students. I look forward to sharing our policy with you all at our open house next Wednesday night.

September 7, 2011

Pre-K and K & 1st Grade Presentations 5:00-6:00

Second & Third Grade Presentations 6:00-7:00

Fourth and Fifth Grade Presentations 7:00-8:00

Open House

Presentations: All grade level presentations will begin in the Elementary School library for specialist teacher introductions; introductions will be followed by grade level curriculum presentations and then end with time for families to explore their child’s classroom and talk with teachers.

Dinner & Transportation: The Food Court will be open from 5:00-7:00 for parents to purchase a light dinner or snack.  Your attendance is supported through optional transportation from Starbucks in Jingqiao.  Buses will depart at 4:15 and return to Starbucks at 8:15.  Secretaries will be available to call taxis for families as well.

What to Expect: Elementary teachers are looking forward to sharing with you the details of how your children spend their day at SAS, the curriculum that is delivered as well as an opportunity to explore the classroom and instructional materials.  Your attendance is very important.  Presentations are intended for an adult audience, due to time and space restraints, we kindly request that your children enjoy an evening at home.

We all look forward to personally welcoming you to our wonderful school.

Evaluating Websites

5KP, you do not need to worry about this post.
Here is my Jing Presentation.

How to Select and Evaluate Websites

Here are some sites to help you as you evaluate websites in the future; as this is something you will be doing for the rest of your lives, I suggest you copy and paste this into your blogroll or to delicious or your Google Reader.

Lesley University Evaluates Websites

Houghton Mifflin Website Evaluation

University of Maryland Evaluates Websites

Cornell University Library Website Evaluation Site

P.S. If I were you, I’d want to evaluate the websites above to see how they add up too! Why have I chosen them? Do I have my own personal agenda, am I trying to sell you something or persuade you one way or another?

In all of the above questions, the answer is no, but you never know… so be smart online!

30 more sleeps…

…until your children are no longer considered Elementary School Students. WOW. Whether your 5KP student is your first, middle, last or only child, this is always a big deal. There is excitement in the air and a big buzz around the classroom; especially when our students’ days are filled with dodge-ball tournaments, field trips, soccer days, Chinese painting sessions, lego and so many other things that are making life pretty cool for them right now. Today’s math test went really well by the way, and we are also finishing up Lego and Memoir this week so believe me, there has still been plenty of learning taking place.

Friday the 27th of May

I would like to invite you to have lunch with your child in the cafeteria on Friday the 27th of May at 12.10 pm and then join us for dessert in room 209 at 12.40 pm where we will share our literary essays and memoirs with you. We will then move to the auditorium by 2 pm for our band and strings concert. Please e mail and let me know if you can make it to the 12.40 publishing party so I can plan accordingly and don’t feel guilty if you can’t; I know your child would LOVE to have you there, I also know life is busy, but hopefully you will be able to make it to some or all of our events that afternoon.

Students, your homework task to be completed by Friday depending on your after school obligations today and tomorrow is to do a blog post or written piece on the following…

“30 days to go”

This will be a reflective piece of writing of about 300-400 words (don’t moan, that is nothing!) telling the world how you feel about the end of your elementary years being just around the corner. Think about some of the wonderful memoir writing we’ve been looking at with Small Steps, Boy, Childtimes and our classroom mentor texts and try and dig deep to tell us how you really feel.

Are you nervous, excited, bored, scared, joyful to be saying good bye to what is essentially the main part of your childhood?

Have you got favorite highlights and memories you can recall that you’d like to tell us about? Good bits? Bad bits?

Good Luck and I look forward to hearing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

Parents, I feel completely overwhelmed with gratitude (and sugar) so thank you from the heart for thanking me today for looking after your children this year, it has been a pleasure. On that note, read your e mail if you haven’t yet as I am asking for an even bigger favor than chocolate!!!

Appreciation

Note below re Friday if you haven’t read it on e mail yet (apologies for repetition)

As you are aware, our China Alive experience is now fully underway.  The exploration of our host culture began Monday with an introduction to a variety of board and table games for the students to play.  Other activities during the week include folk performers, Chinese painting, Chinese cooking and a movie.  The week culminates with a field trip on Friday, May 20th, to the historic water town of Qi Bao.  Your child is encouraged to bring the following items for the day-long field trip:  cell phone(optional), toilet paper for bathroom, home lunch, water bottle, camera (one for each group at least), small pocket money (100 Yuan), pen, paper, umbrella (if it rains) or sunscreen (if it is sunny).  All fifth graders need to wear their house T-shirts for Friday’s trip.

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions prior to the trip.  Don’t forget to ask what your child is learning about China throughout this week.

Have a fantastic week!

The China Alive Team

(along with the Grade Five Team)

Oh, and last but not least, the dance performances Thursday and Friday have 5 of our girls involved and are wonderful, please come along to the auditorium if you can at 3.30 for an hour long sensational dance show.

Over and Out!

Homework!

Hi there my little chickadees!!!

So, I have told you to check my blog for homework…mmmm, what should I give you to do!!!

*First of all, remember you need to go to one of the specialists blogs, at LEAST one blog, and leave a thoughtful and constructive, well-written comment.

*Go to my previous post and make sure you have commented on Margriet Ruurs blog please either asking her a question or letting her know you are excited about her visit next month.

*Now have some fun and raise some food for people who need it. Please aim for 500 grains of rice on the wonderful Free Rice. Click on the link and get smart! Choose art, English, chemistry, math, language learning or geography, your call, but raise some money and test your skills at the same time!

*Get your test signed as you show it to your parents and fix up any errors to return to me tomorrow.

*DON’T FORGET TO RETURN any money you have raised for Uganda and NOT handed in yet!

News of the Moment

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.

Screen shot 2010-10-11 at 1.54.22 PM

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

Friday on my Mind

Good Morning 5KP thrill-seekers…

Did you all do your morning jobs??? Or were you all too excited once you saw the instructions on the board? If so, GET BACK TO THOSE JOBS, hand those forms in and get ORGANIZED!

Here are your instructions for after you are ready for the day, PAY SOMEONE A COMPLIMENT NOW, yes, NOW, as soon as you are reading this, call out (politely) to someone else in the room and tell them something nice, DO IT!

Then…

Make sure you have saved your work in the ‘For Mrs Power’ folder, save it in word if you are having any difficulty and remember to save as “Final Narrative Kimbra” Carl B, Patricia, keep typing please, do not go on to the tasks below until that document is IN MY FOLDER, that goes for all of you!

Then…

Open the front and back end of your blog. Go into your ‘Nicholas’ entry to edit it. Open a new tab, google ‘Nicholas’ and find a picture of the book cover, or any of the covers or something relevant to the book. Copy by right clicking and saying ‘copy image location’ then go back to your back end and click on ‘add media’. If you are stuck now, ask someone for help, I know some of you know how to do this already.

When you have done that. Go to add a new post. Take out your reader’s notebook and choose one of the entries I have written comments in for you. Type up that entry under the heading ‘Reader’s Notebook’ and make sure you add any improvements or suggestions I have made and that you correct all errors.

Now, go to this site, http://www.overhereoverthere.com/ and I want all the falcons and dolphins in the class (if you are not sure which you are check here) to comment on a post Sydney has written, and all of the bears and pumas to comment on a post Hannah has written. Be positive and maybe suggest something else you would like them to write about. These girls are 4th graders now but they are friends that have known each other since pre-k 4 and have remained friends even though they now live half way around the world from each other; be supportive and encouraging and check your spelling before you hit ‘comment’.

IF you have done all of that, and only then, you may have some free blogging time, if you HAVE NOT finished, please do so over the weekend.

Maddie, don’t forget to take Shadow home today in the small cage, clean it out first and I have put a small zip-lock bag of food in there for him and you can also give him some vegetables etc, but not too much. The most important thing is water. You can take the ball home but please bring it back (and Shadow, on Monday.) Ask Patricia, Claire or Ingrid if you need any help and Carl B and Mike have also got ‘hamster experience’. Good Luck!

Have a great donut/brownie eating experience today and a wonderful weekend. Be good for Mr B please, very very good!

Happy Birthday to Claire and Thomas for the weekend.

News of the Moment

Hello 5KP families

The class are enjoying preparing their first personal narrative for publishing. Using some of the new tools I was taught about at the Mac conference last Thursday and Friday we have been reading each others work, saving the work as a Pages Document and then using Voice Candy to give feedback to our writing partner. Ask the kids about it, they really worked hard. We will hold our first publishing party next Monday. It would be great if we could have some volunteers to send in a few treats for the kids. Please mail me if you are able to make brownies or cupcakes or send in some juice, pop-corn or potato chips, we would really appreciate it and then we will celebrate by sharing our stories aloud with each other.We are about half way through our second math unit and I anticipate having our second unit test first thing on Thursday the 23rd of September. That week is a busy week with our publishing party on Monday, school photos on either Monday the 20th or Tuesday the 21st (times to follow), an elementary assembly at 2 pm on Tuesday (you are always welcome to attend), our day off from school on Wednesday the 22nd and our first soccer day of the year on Thursday the 23rd, starting out on the fields at 10 am, please join us if you are able, we play about 5 matches between 10 am and 1.30 pm (details to follow).

All of these dates are in the google calendar at the left of this screen and are updated regularly.

All new students have now been put into their school houses, either Puma, Dolphin, Bear or Falcon so check out who is where.

names

Finally, if you are anything like me, you will sometimes find it difficult to get your child organized in the morning. Some of the students have been coming to school without their writer’s or reader’s notebooks, their study-links or other things they need for the day. I found this link handy in my own life and wonder if it may be helpful in yours. The site, unclutterer.com is in my useful sites category too on the right of the screen as I have followed it for a few years; there is always something handy on there to help me or my family/my class become more organized.

I look forward to perhaps seeing some of you at the S.A.S. swim meet of the P.T.S.A. barbecue this Saturday. Over and Out!

How many have YOU read?

Hello 5KP (Don’t scroll down)

Read any good books lately?

I have a task for you to complete by Monday April 26th. Ideally, it would be great if you could do it on your blog, but it is not essential, your reader’s notebook would also be appropriate.

So, below is a list of the top 100 Children’s novels as taken from this site.

I would like you to copy the list into a word document, and then highlight it in the following way:

RED = books you have read (be honest, not movies watched, not ‘want to read’ or ‘half-read’ but actually finished)

BLUE = books you have been meaning to read

GREEN = 3 books you must read before the end of the school year (you have 55 sleeps to go)

(Your three ‘green books‘ are probably going to start off being ‘blue books‘ and you then have to choose which three blue to turn green…Get It?)

Then, paste the revised list back into your blog for others to see and do the following:

Choose 5 of the books that you have already read and do a review of them on your blog, approximately 200 words per book review and add a cover photo of the book to your post.

Now, before you scroll down and see the list, which is ordered from 100 down to the number 1 book, make a prediction… What do YOU think is the number one children’s book? Please include that at the start of your blog post…

Like this… I predict that the Number One Children’s Novel will be: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson

100. The Egypt Game – Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard – Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe – Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches – Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking – Lindgren (1950)
94. Swallows and Amazons – Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn – Brink (1935)
92. Ella Enchanted – Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall – MacLachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father – Cleary (1977)
88. The High King – Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday – Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek – Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse – Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief – Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three – Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book – Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family – Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain – Forbes (1943)
77. The City of Ember – DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust – Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog – Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers – Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain – George (1959)
72. My Father’s Dragon – Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning – Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy – Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Stewart ( 2007)
68. Walk Two Moons – Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher – Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins – Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes – Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago – Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake – Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock – Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl – Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart – Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 – Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars – Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins – Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG – Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows – Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret — Selznik (2007)
51. The Saturdays – Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell (1960)
49. Frindle – Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks – Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy – Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass – Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest – Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie – Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Baum (1900)
39. When You Reach Me – Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix – Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It’s Me, Margaret – Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire – Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach – Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – O’Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic – Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh – Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising – Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess – Burnett (1905)
27. Alice I and II – Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet – Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women – Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods – Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux – DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief – Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting – Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda – Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee – Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy – Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie – DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia – Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit – Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game – Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables – Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden – Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes – Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter #1 – Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte’s Web – White (1952)

Did you predict right? Was you book on the list? What number? Don’t forget to include that information in your blog post titled: Top 100 Children’s Novels

Musical Magesty

Well done 5KP and indeed all of 5th grade on a smoothly run concert last Tuesday. You certainly looked wonderful and I enjoyed listening to both Strings and Band sections play and now wonder which one I would like to see Hannah pursue in 18 months.

Students, your homework is to respond to these questions by Monday under the blog title “Musical Choices”:

1. Should Hannah choose Strings or Band?
2. When you have made that choice, be more specific and choose an appropriate instrument for her (keep in mind what you know about Hannah, her size, her personality etc)
3. Write a paragraph giving a detailed response to how and why you made your choices.
4. Attach a photo of the instrument you have chosen. I will get Hannah to comment on the choices she agrees with.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

With only one week til our Winter Break we have a busy and exciting time ahead of us.

Report Cards and IOWA test results will be sent home on Monday.

We will do our Unit 5 Math test next Thurday and our Free Choice Writing assignment is due on Wednesday, with the first draft of this due tomorrow. Ask your child what they have chosen to write about, you may be surprised by their answer.

On Wednesday we will have a Writer’s Workshop Publishing Party combined with a Christmas celebration in the classroom where their ‘Secret Santa‘ will reveal themselves. Every child has been doing something nice (and inexpensive) for another person in the class (names were chosen out of a hat) and they have been asked to buy a small gift of around 50 rmb to give that person on Wednesday. In the meantime, desks are being cleaned, notes are being left and small treats sometimes too. The kids are having a lot of fun with this.

Have a great week before the break and thank you to all those who came out to support their child at the concert.