Homework… What is it good for? Absolutely Something!

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Lana

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).

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 & 1^st Grade Presentations 5:00-6:00

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

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

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.

30 more sleeps…

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Lana

…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!!!

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 20^th, 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!

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Lana

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

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Lana

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

Reminders for Next Week

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Lana

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.

Action Stations

Posted on March 11, 2009 by Lana

Consider yourself invited…

Invention Convention Invitation

What is going on in 5KP?

Math

We have started on unit 9 this week which is focused on Coordinates, Area, Volume and Capacity. As it is a shorter unit we might get through it before spring break and hopefully get the assessment completed late next week. I am sending the Unit 8 test home today, please sign it and return it so we can continue to review it in class; the class average was 89% and everyone except two students improved on their last score and one of those students didn’t improve because they earned 100% on the last test AND this one!

Social Studies

The Invention Convention is fast approaching. The majority of students have met certain deadlines and are on track to complete the project on time. Students should have their log books completed by Friday morning. Many are working on their posters in class. Talk to your child and ask them how their project is going is going. Remember, we want to see you here at school for our Invention Convention on Wednesday 18 March, from 8:30 10:30am. (See the above invitation for details.)

Field Trip

The 5th grade are going on a field trip to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Please make sure you read the permission slips, sign them and return them back to ME asap. The forms are coming home today.

Goldberg Materials

Thanks to all of you who have really made an effort to bring in materials for our Goldberg Challenge. We can’t wait for the big day (March 19th). Keep bringing in those recyclables…there are some good prizes to be won.

Band Bonanza

The Band bonanza is on Friday 20 March. The combined 5th grade Pudong/Puxi Strings group will be at the Puxi campus and the combined 5th grade Band will be here on the Pudong Campus. Here are the bus details for the 5 Strings students; please check them and get back to me if there is a problem.

Bus details for Strings Students

Work for Friday

Posted on February 5, 2009 by Lana

Hello there, missing me yet???

Here is what you are to do now on your blog seeing as you have finished watching the Bill Nye video.

Task 1:

Scenario: You signed up for the latest reality television show where you are brought to an
unpopulated area to live for one year. A small house will be built for you to stay in for the
year, and you have a choice in some of the design. You have a list of common household
items that can go in your house, but you can ONLY select three. The items are a refrigerator,
an oven, a microwave, a dishwasher, a washing machine, an air conditioner, a television, and
an indoor toilet. Which items would you pick and why? Before you pick, consider these
things about your location:
· It is very hot and humid all year round
· You are alone without access to other people
· There is a portable toilet already set up a half-mile from the house
· Clothes, sheets, dishes, and food will be supplied
Write down the items you would choose and explain your reasons. Share your items with the
class.

Task 2:

List ten appliances and gadgets found in a home. Use the Internet or books to find out when
these items were invented. Create a time-line using these dates. Have any of these items been
invented since you were born? How many of these items were around when your parents or
grandparents were young?

When you have finished that these are the following tasks to complete in the morning and also after lunch in order of importance please, (therefore skip a task if you have done it already)…

1. Upload your invention convention speech to your blog from the portal (try again from a different computer IF you had trouble yesterday) and write a post ON THE SAME POST AS YOUR VIDEO SAYING HOW YOU THINK YOU WENT…at least 150 words please.

2. Continue and finish writing about this post and add a couple of pictures to your page.

3. Write a post about the black box experiment and how it is going so far, have a look on the internet and see if you can find some other information about black boxes and write about that.

4. Read this post and start googling some different invention conventions out there to see what yours might be like.

5. Free blogging time until it is time to pack up for reading buddies.

Enjoy your day, have a great weekend and make me proud.

Mrs P

Invention Convention

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Lana

We are beginning Phase One of the Invention Convention this week and will have that completed by the Chinese New Year Holiday. Considering how much my class enjoyed this project last year I believe we are in for a treat.

I will link to some of the sheets we will be using in the unit below so you can have access to the information the students will be accessing in class.

In short, phase one of the project is research based and students will begin by researching a number of different inventors and doing some sample research on Thomas Edison. They will then choose an inventor of their choice, research them in greater detail and present a speech as that person on January 23rd.

In your speech you need to be able to answer the following questions and tell us some other things of interest about your inventor.

Question #1: Who is the inventor and what about their life impacted their ability to create the invention?

Question #2: What is the invention and how did it come to be invented?

Question #3: How did the invention affect society at that time?

Question #4: Is the invention still used today? Why? How? Modifications?

Question #5: Could this invention have an impact on the future? Explain.

Here is the rubric to assess your speech as well as some of the other worksheets.

Biography Speech Rubric

Useful versus Entertaining Chart

Personal Technology Survey

Inventor and Invention Chart

Thomas Edison Questions

Reporting on the Classics through your blog

Posted on December 12, 2008 by Lana

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.

the barefoot librarian

Kimbra Power

Tag Archives: Homework