Yesterday our 5KP class celebrated another ‘last’ experience. It was the last time we would all be together as a group as Jonathan was about to leave for a little holiday and while he was gone Isabella and Lydia would also be leaving us. Therefore we decided that because of that and the fact it was Jon’s 12th birthday, we would have a party. Hooray!

So here are the 17 students I had the pleasure of finishing the year with, and eating that giant cake with. Have you ever seen anything like it? Wow, thanks again for the great lunch of sushi, snacks, drinks and cake.

Wow, what a huge week it has been for the 5th grade fund-raisers…so much counting, so little time! But when I think of the two weeks the earthquake victims have had I realize I have nothing to complain about. Today our class collected 2678.4 but as you can see a lot of it was in jiao and had the students busy for awhile. I wonder how many more times it will be counted before it reaches the people that need it.

I was at the copy market on the weekend talking to a vendor friend who told me that last week in one hour the stall holders donated over 80,000 rmb to help the victims of May 12th. Everyone is digging deep all over China, so many people have been moved by this disaster and it is probably not the focus at this stage of the year with less than 3 months until the Olympics.

migration-of-5th-grade-students.kmz

is a site where Mr Utecht has been creating a google earth map of  where our students have lived and live now.

Check it out!

The only negative point about the entire field day was that Lydia was not there to shoot baskets for us in a fund-raising effort for the earthquake victims…I am sure she would have doubled our high score of 189 points (rmb). Other than that it was a huge success with students enjoying themselves as they earned points for their respective houses.

I would love it if you took a look at some of the photos for the day on our flickr site. My tag is always kpower if you are unable to locate the pictures. There are also pictures of our fundraising efforts taking place and as soon as I get a shot of Arthur ‘doing his speech’ I will load up our ‘healthy meal’ photos too. Feel free to copy any of the photos you like onto your own blog by right clicking and going to copy image location and putting it into the little tree area on your ‘write a post’ section…Any of you smarties who can explain that in more techy terms…please…be my guest!

Have a great weekend my wonderful 5th graders, you deserve it!

P.S. We hit the 20,000 rmb mark with our fund-raising collections today, congratulations and keep up the great effort.

Congratulations to the Elementary Students in Pudong who have really embraced the idea to raise money for the victims of this month’s earthquake and cyclone.

At the end of our 3rd day 5KP have now collected 18,811.20 rmb…yes that last little .20 is 20 jiao and much of our money has been in jiao but there have been plenty of 100 rmb notes in there too and your generosity has added up to an amazing effort so far.

I am very proud of the attitude that I have have seen this week, congratulations and continue to dig deep for the next week or so.

Dear parents of 5 KP,

Many children want to help the earthquake victims in China.

5KP has decided to focus our participation on a simple, but effective fund-raising initiative that they will lead.

Over the next 2 weeks please send any loose change or spare money you have with your child to school. The change will be collected by 5KP and used to facilitate donations. (Dr. Larkin has sent many community e mails regarding how money collected by the school will be used.)

It is a very straightforward manner in which these donations are being raised. The focus is on collection and not the process of raising money. (There is a time when fund raising processes are important. Now the need is for speedy action.) Children are asked to contribute what they can, when they can. The jar our class is using makes it easy for the children to see the funds growing. Finally, having the grade 5 students in charge gives them a chance to lead our elementary for the final time before they head on to middle school.

I discussed this with the children yesterday. They understand they are only to contribute what you (their parents) feel is appropriate.

Thank you so much to all the parents who have already donated so generously. 5KP collected over 3100 rmb today.

Thank you for your support.

Congratulations to proud new dad Mr Howitt and his wife Mrs Howitt (K) who gave birth to Benjamin Jon Nykolas Crowe Howitt who weighed in at 3.26kg (7.2lbs) and is 51cm long. It has been a busy year for new arrivals on the 5th grade team with 60% of us adding to our families. It is hard to believe that little Blake Hossack is now nearly 4 months old and Mimi Power has been with us for three months on Monday. We wish the Howitt’s all the success in the world as a new family and hope they don’t have too many sleepless nights…yeah right!!!

Hello Students and Parents,

it was the night before Spring Fling and all through the house…not a creature was stirring not even a mouse!

I hope you all remember to bring water, snacks, towels and spare clothing so that you can get through the day as comfortably and enjoyably as possible. I am really excited about the coming activities and hope you enjoy the more reflective activity I have created for you in project area 5… Have a look here to see if you can work out what this activity might be about.

Spring Fling Desert Island Activity

Thanks to Mr Utecht for coming into class today and introducing us to some interesting ways to utilize Google Earth. I think the students have all made progress today understanding what it means to migrate as you will discover if you read any of the blogs I have seen posted so far such as Andy, Jessica, Elaine, Chloe and our sole male so far Kai.

News of the week

Transition Ceremony Information

Have a great day 5KP. You are doing really well. Enjoy the last 4 weeks!

I was impressed with the results of the unit 10 math test on Algebra concepts and skills. More than half the class earned above the 90th percentile with many others not far behind. Well done 5KP. I don’t want people to be discouraged when they don’t earn 100% and I would like everyone to aim really high in our new unit on Volume that we started today. It is only a very short unit with 7 lessons so it should be possible for the students to do well retaining information for that amount of time before they are tested in about two weeks from now.

We spent nearly 90 minutes on math this morning introducing the new unit and using math manipulatives such as geometrical shapes to get an idea of what the unit would contain. I would like the students to be revising over their math work everyday during the unit to give them the best chance possible to achieve their own level of success.

I have also been researching some sites that may be of use to them. The students already utilize sites such as brainpop.com and superkids.com to aid their study but here are a few more that have specific information relating to volume. Students I would like you to check out some of these over the long weekend so that you can continue learning over the break

Skillswise factsheet

Volume of Rectangular Solids

Despite the unusual name of this site, it is perhaps the most relevant for the early stages of the chapter.

The following sites may also prove useful if only for reference purposes. A reminder that some of these sites may be a little too detailed for some students and in that case the Everyday Math reference book is still the best resource available as it is very specific to the unit we are studying, the last thing I want is for students to feel more overwhelmed by new information but for those of you that ask for extension work, these sites and the links they go to may be of assistance.

Surface Area Formulas 

more of these   and still some more

Just remember, it is up to you students to take charge of your own learning, success and failure in preparation for the new responsibilities you will soon take on in middle school

P.S. please don’t forget to return your yellow elective forms if you are attending the Pudong Campus next year.