Category Archives: Homework

A letter to my parents

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Dear Mom and Dad,

To make sure that my homework is completed to the best of my my ability and on time, here are a few things you can do to help me.

Remove temptation – Suggest I do homework in a quiet place that does not have distractions. Turn off the TV; don’t expect me to do homework in a room where  other children are playing.

Establish a routine – Set a specific “homework time” such as right after dinner. Require that my homework be complete before I can play outside, watch TV or use the phone, computer etc.

Prioritize – Encourage me to work first on those assignments that are due tomorrow; then tackle the tasks that are due later. Help me to plan long-term projects so they are not left until the last minute. Insist on seeing my daily planner.

Check understanding – Be sure that I understand new assignments before I start working on them. This one can save lots of late-evening tears for me!

Guide, but don’t correct – If I need help, offer ideas that can help me sort out the problem, but don’t give me the answers.

Get me organized for tomorrow – Remind me to pack my backpack before going to bed. Even the best homework effort doesn’t do much good if it’s left on the kitchen table!
Thanks

I Love You

First Blogging Session Fun

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Well done 5KP, you have entered the blogosphere…

For homework tonight please do the following :

1. Click on your name in my blogroll to the right of this screen. Check that it goes to your actual blog. If it does not, send me a comment to this post telling me the problem. If it does, finish today’s entry, change your heading and tagline or write a new post if you haven’t done these things already.

2. Click on at least 3 other students in 5KP and leave a positive comment about something they have done, their choice of them or the quality of their post.

3. Show a parent your blog and if possible, get them to comment on it or my blog.

See you tomorrow and thanks for another great day.

Reminders for Next Week

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A note from Mrs Denton for the Band Students

Band Bonanza – Next Friday March 20th.

Concert – 2:15 PM in the MS Gym 

(Upstairs from the auditorium)

Parents are welcome to attend!

Students should wear black pants/skirt and a white shirt.

Wednesday is our Invention Convention Day, please join us in our Grade 5 Corridor if you are able from

8.30-10.30 am (invitation is on last post)

Thursday is our Goldberg Junkyard Wars Day, students can continue to bring in as many clean and useful recyclable goods for this fun event for the students; they are really looking forward to it.

Friday is our Band (Pudong) and Strings (Puxi) extravaganza. Please join us if you can.

All of these things are written about in more detail on recent posts.

We will be having our Unit 9 Math test next Thursday, the class should be revising each day over the subject matter they are being taught in class.

Skills covered on the unit nine test include:

*plot ordered pairs on a four-quadrant coordinate grid

*understand the concept of volume of a figure

*use a formula to find the volume of prisms

*plot quadrant pairs on a one-quadrant coordinate grid

*identify the base and height of triangles and parallelograms

*use a formula to find the area of triangles and parallelograms

*understand the concept of area of a figure

*use a formula to find the area of rectangles

In Language Arts we are having some fun for the last week of the quarter working on our debating skills; I told the class they are so good at arguing at this age that they should put their debating skills to good use!

Please complete the survey for me today if you are able; I appreciate the feedback and I also still have four parents who have not responded to my e mail about parent teacher conference times.

Have a great weekend.

Sunday Update!

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Hi Students, looks like Hannah has been given the all clear and should be home tomorrow. Thanks for all your concern and for being such sweet kids last week when I was a little stressed out…Anyway, I will be back on Monday so see you soon.

There has been some great blogging over the weekend, from news on the authors and black boxes to rube goldberg machines and readers theater updates, great job 5KP!

Tomorrow I will hand out a form for your parents that I did not give out last week, it is about reading. Here is the information about it in a ‘nutshell’…

Three ninth grade students are hosting an SAS Elementary Read-A-Thon.

If you choose to participate, your child will ask friends and family to pledge a little bit of money for each book they read between Feb 20th and March 20th.  Your child may ask you and other friends and family to sponsor them.  Sponsors can donate a flat rate or a per book rate.

Any type of reading counts – independent reading and parents reading to kids!

All money raised will go to buy books for migrant schools.

This is a wonderful event because it will help our students improve their reading skills and help other children develop theirs.

For more information, please read the information pack that is coming home in your child’s bag soon or go to giftsshanghai.wikispaces.com

Also Mr Davis and I have noticed that not all the kids are bringing healthy snacks and then I found the following on Mrs Voge’s blog which I think is very relevant to all of us.

“I have been noticing that some children are not bringing a snack and water bottle from home each day.  It’s an early start for everyone and the children really need a good breakfast and mid-morning snack.  Most children are also ready for another snack in the afternoon.  Please remember to send healthy snacks as opposed to treats.  Lately, I’ve noticed an increase in sugary snacks, or snacks with high levels of additives or coloring such as cookies, chips or candy.  As our children grow they need healthy food to help develop their minds and bodies.  At school we have discussed the importance of ’switching on our brains’ by drinking water, exercising and eating healthy food.  If you are having trouble finding things that your children will eat, give them a choice e.g. “Would you like carrot sticks or apple slices?”  Take them shopping with you to choose healthy snacks.  Ask them what healthy snacks other children bring.  Some popular snacks are cut up fruit or vegetables, raisins, yogurt or cheese and crackers.”

Your child gets very tired during the day if they don’t get enough nutrients to keep their brain working and their energy levels up, thanks for your attention on this matter.

Invention Convention Phase Two

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This is what I expect you to do for the Invention Convention Phase Two that begins when you return to school on February 4th. You may copy and paste this to your own blog, e mail or word document if you wish and refer back to it as a time-line whenever you need to.

The actual Invention Convention will be held here at school on Wednesday March 18th, more accurate venue and times to follow.

1. You will identify a problem in people’s lives today, and imagine an invention that could help solve this problem.

 2. You will develop a working prototype of the invention.

Due: Friday March 18, 2009

3. You will keep an Inventor’s Log on your blog tagged as ‘Inventor’s Log’ to record your progress as you are inventing.

o   Brainstorming and Diagrams on provided paper Due Friday, February 20, 2009

o   Make a Plan a Construction Log 1 Due Friday, February 28, 2009

o   Construction Log 2,3,4,5 and Test 1 Friday, March 7, 2009

o   Test 2, 3 and all recommendations in log book Friday, March 14, 2009

o   Poster, sales pitch and prototype Due Wednesday, March 18, 2009

4. You will create a brochure or poster which explains your invention, names it, and tries to encourage people to buy one. This will be completed at school.

Due in Wednesday March 18, 2009

5. You will be able to explain and talk fluently and clearly about your invention.  You will express the advantages of your invention and be able to market it at that convention.

What do YOU think school is for?

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One of the blogs I read regulary is Seth Godin’s blog where I read about topics such as creativity, goal-setting and marketing among other things educational and informative. So tonight after I wasted a fair amount of time on skype and facebook I set about clearing out my google reader and enjoyed reading this post from Mr. Godin.

The question recently raised and discussed on the blog was ‘What is school for?’ and here is ‘a starter’ list that was posted.

The purpose of school is to:

  1. Become an informed citizen
  2. Be able to read for pleasure
  3. Be trained in the rudimentary skills necessary for employment
  4. Do well on standardized tests
  5. Homogenize society, at least a bit
  6. Pasteurize out the dangerous ideas
  7. Give kids something to do while parents work
  8. Teach future citizens how to conform
  9. Teach future consumers how to desire
  10.  Build a social fabric
  11. Create leaders who help us compete on a world stage
  12. Generate future scientists who will advance medicine and technology
  13. Learn for the sake of learning
  14. Help people become interesting and productive
  15. Defang the proletariat
  16. Establish a floor below which a typical person is unlikely to fall
  17. Find and celebrate prodigies, geniuses and the gifted
  18. Make sure kids learn to exercise, eat right and avoid common health problems
  19. Teach future citizens to obey authority
  20. Teach future employees to do the same
  21. Increase appreciation for art and culture
  22. Teach creativity and problem solving
  23. Minimize public spelling mistakes
  24. Increase emotional intelligence
  25. Decrease crime by teaching civics and ethics
  26. Increase understanding of a life well lived
  27. Make sure the sports teams have enough players

So my students of 2009 and ‘grown-ups’ of the future…let’s get a little clever and have a think about this list.

What would you add, change or remove? I don’t want you to obsess about some of the ones that you don’t understand or don’t ‘speak’ to you but something must jump out at you as right, wrong or crazy.

Post on your own blog by Friday the 6th of June under the heading “I think school is for…”

Book Report

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Gathering your thoughts…

 When you finish reading your book, complete these questions.

 1.       What award has this book won? Do some research on this award and write a paragraph telling us about it.

2.       Where does the story take place?

3.       When does the story take place?

4.       Who are the main characters and what are they like? Write a paragraph on each of the characters you consider important to the story.

5.       What is the main problem in the book? Does it get resolved and if so how?

6.       What is the theme or message of the book? Is there a moral to the story or a lesson to be learned?

7.       What do I like best about this book?

8.       What would I change about the book if I was the author?

9.       Would I recommend this book to my classmates or friends? Why or why not?

Reporting on the Classics through your blog

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For the latest book you have read in our ‘Classics’ series I want you to do an online book review. I would like you to post before next Friday the 19th of December, the sooner the better but I don’t want you to feel overly pressured if you are flat out with yourGlobal Project. You will have class time on this next week as we have finished Math for 2008 so we can use next week for Global Projects and Book Reviews.

This book review will include several components so read the following carefully.

1. I want you to find 5 websites about book reports/book reviews/book chats and link to them giving them an annotated bibliography like we have been doing with our Global Native Project. Only link to sites you think might be useful to people your age who are writing their own book review. I went to allreaders.com and then put in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and came up with this page. Use easybib.com to help you with the presentation of your bibliography.

2. I want you to include at least two and no more than five covers of your book on your post and tell us when each of the covers was used if you can find that information out. Then tell us which cover is your favorite and why?

3. In between 200-400 words write a summary of the book without giving us the ending.

4. Tell us  why you think this book is still considered a classic today?

5. Who would you recommend this book to and why?

6. Have a look at some sites about Classic Children’s books or Classics in general and read through their lists. Tell us some of the books from the lists that you have read? What other books would you add to the list?

Other sites worth looking at include:

this, this and this

Now see what you can come up with. Happy Reading and Reviewing 5KP.

Questions you may be asked

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Students, Mr Howitt has been working hard on developing some questions that parents may ask you next week at our Global Natives Open House.

You may want to cover answers to some of the following questions in your speech or at least be aware of them so that you can provide the relevant information to parents when you are asked.

1.    How does your artifact represent the culture you studied? Why was this artifact important to them?

2.    Why did you select this artifact over other ideas?

3.    What else did you learn about this culture?

4.    What did you learn about yourself as a group participant? What was most difficult for you as a member and what was the easiest aspect?

5.    What types of resources did you use for your research? Why did you select those resources over others available?

6.    If you were to redo this project what would you do to improve it?