Weekly Update #2

9/27/17
   Every single day this week was very fun, and right now I will talk about Wednesday. We learned dividing integers and did some review with integers. In science we were talking about air pressure and did some experiments. After lunch, we went to Mr. Brown's class and did IDW and read a story and did IDR. It was a lot of fun!
   Tuesday was great too, and again we did review in Math. Did I mention that we have art this week? In science we did more experiments and watched a very interesting video, and went to lunch. In Mr. Brown's class we read two more stories and did 15 more minutes of writing and 20 more minutes of non-fiction reading. When we went home we were very exited for tomorrow from all the excitement fun at school.
  Wednesday's are always fun because we have the assembly to end the school day and make us have a fun long afternoon at home. We worked on our jobs and had lots of fun. In math we worked on our games for other classmates and the second graders. For Mr. Brown's class we listed to music and wrote stories. Some of the stories were super funny.



   Here is a story that one of the students started.


   I could here the thump of the intruders footsteps in my house. I was hiding in my secret hiding place behind my dresser. Life doesn't feel real anymore. I'm home alone and there is a intruder in my house not taking any thing, just walking.
   I start wondering wen this is going to end when I notice my phone is on my bed just within my reach. I dare to reach for it and I here my door open. I pull my hand back and he doesn't see me. He comes in and I can hear him whistling.
   My breathing mixed with my heartbeat sounds like a earthquake. He is walking around my room. It does not seem like he has a earpiece in, so it doesn't seem like he is working with anyone. I sniff and he tuns his head towards where I am hiding and smiles.

Weekly Update #1

Reading                                                                                              9/27/17 

This week in reading, we started working on IDR. IDR (Individualized Daily Reading). This gives students a chance to improve silent reading skills and strengthen their reading. The students are working on improving the class library and pod. We are working on establishing a check in and check out system and both classes are creating decorations and getting it ready for use. We have been doing class read-alouds and the students have been doing turn-and-talk with their partners. We have also been working on having class discussions at the end of books and the teacher not having to moderate and call on students. We have been practicing 'popcorn' discussions, where the students do not have to raise their hand and be called on, rather when one person is done talking somebody else begins to talk. By using this strategy, we are working on communication and not interrupting others. We are beginning our nonfiction unit, and have started reading nonfiction during IDR. All students should have nonfiction books by now.  

Writing 

The students now have their writing notebooks all set up and are beginning to generate ideas for stories based off of the books we've been reading as a class. The class created collages representing themselves and hobbies\things that interest them. We have also continued with IDW, and the students are beginning to write their own short stories and generating ideas in the back of their notebooks. Students are encouraged to bring notepads around with them to be able to write down ideas when they come up with them. This week we also played a bit of "Two true one false" to get to know each other a little better. The class had a lot of fun playing this and we will get to wrapping it up over the next few days when we have time in between subjects for more students to share since we have not gotten through all students yet. 

Math 

In Mr. Hill's room, we have been working on positive and negative integers and are beginning to take Cornell notes. This note-taking strategy will hopefully help students to stay more organized, and have a better understanding of our lessons. As we begin to wrap up this unit, the class has been assigned their first group project, where they create a board game with a partner. The students will be putting their knowledge of positive and negative integers into the project, which will be due Thursday, October 5th. They will have time to work in the project in class, but will also be expected to do some work at home.  

Jobs 

The students have recently been assigned classroom jobs. Each class has elected a president and a secretary, and the rest of the students have all volunteered for other jobs of choice. They have been given time to work on jobs mostly on Wednesdays, or quietly after they finish school work. 

 

           Mr. Brown's class 9/27/17 

This week in Mr. Brown's class we have been doing IDW as usual and IDR where this week we have been reading non-fiction books and looking at the text features .we have also been working on the pod and drawing sketches of animals in art. 

 

 

Weekly Update 9/20

Reading

This week in reading, we started working on IDR. IDR (Individualized Daily Reading). This gives students a chance to improve silent reading skills and strengthen their reading. The students are working on improving the class library and pod. We are working on establishing a check in and check out system and working on decorations and getting it ready for use.

Math

In math we have been using positive and negative integers for the four basic operators when multiplying count the negative numbers if odd result is negative even result is positive

Some Highlights

New spiral notebooks for science and math

Speaking of math games, they are due 10/6/17

Work continues on pod library

Planning on more adding leaves

The pillar of stuff was replaced by tree

Also special dual interview

"I think the pod should be funny but

also have some realistic parts in it but I

Don’t want weapons ."in the words of an anonymous source

"I think the pod should be more realistic than fantasy seeing as

realistic would look better in the pod rather than fantasy" anonymous source

First library day was on Tuesday

 

IDR and Library

IDR stands for individual daily reading. Every day, we do IDR for about 10 minutes. I feel that because our first library lesson was last Tuesday! So, we will have more reading options for IDR. 5th graders are allowed to check out young adult books, so a new variety of books are open to the 5th graders.

Mr. Brown's class

This week in Mr. Brown's class in writing we have begun IDW (Individual Daily writing). To get ideas for stories we have read various books and stories including a short story by Ray Bradbury. While in P.E. we have been doing recess games and AMRAP.

 

 

9\20\17
    Monday was a great day. We did integers in math and worked on studying a train and how it works. Recess and lunch was great. P.E was fun because we did four square. In Mr.Brown's class, we started brainstorming some stories to write and talked about a book we read.

    Tuesday was awesome too. We did multiplying integers, and we did a teamwork activity about motion. In Mr.Brown's class, we IDW and IDR

Math Resources

We’ve been studying the four basic operations with integers these last few math lessons, and students are doing a great job. Just in case any student have reported feeling frustrated or like they don’t understand the concepts, here’s a collection of videos below that they might want to watch to help them feel more confident! Watching these is totally optional, but I thought the kids might enjoy some of them J

Ridiculous and cheesy song about adding integers  - this is pretty cheesy, but some kids might think it’s funny?

Adding Integers – a video made by a math teacher who was actually in the same cohort as Ms. Savage and I at Seattle University (not necessarily an endorsement, ha!). This is basically just a straightforward lesson style format.

Subtracting Integers – same as the adding integers video above.

Subtracting Integers – this video is from PBS math club and the students tend to really like these videos because they are silly without being super cheesy.

Upcoming Dates to Remember

Dates to Remember:

-October 5^th: Curriculum Night 5:30pm

-October 13^th: TRI Day, no school

-October 19^th: The Great Shake Out (earthquake drill)

-October 19^th: Fall Family Festival

-October 20^th: Picture Day

Instrumental Music

It is time to kick off instrumental music! Instrumental music is a wonderful opportunity (and great fun!) but also a significant commitment. So, please pay careful attention to the details below if your child wants to participate.

 

Here is a link to the Instrumental Music Packet that was sent out this week. It includes information about how to sign up online!

Weekly Update 9/13/17

It is the first full week of school. On Monday, the class was trying to get used to the school and schedule. They went to lunch and it sounded like everyone's stomach was growling. After lunch they went to Mr. Brown's room, and when they came back from recess after Mr. Brown's room they looked like they had lots of fun.

 

On Tuesday, we worked on our charter figured out our mascot. It was another fun day at the new Cascadia. We started ending our time to get to know our school and started the learning part of school. But, like always, recess was super fun and it is a break from learning. On Tuesday the 12th we  also worked on Cornell notes in science.

On Wednesday we enjoyed taking out the computers and making our jobs. All week students worked on improving our shared class library and pod.

The Pod
The pod is the mini library for Mr. Hill and Mr. Brown's classes. It is also a shared reading area. Every pod has a theme, and ours is the plant pod. Our time with Mr. Brown for the first few days was spent working on the library. Some people decorated, some inventoried, some sorted, and some made a check out system. Some people even stayed in for recess to work on the pod. That’s it for about the pod.

The Election Results for Mr. Hill's Room

The ballots are in 

The Secretary is Olivia k. 

The secretary takes stuff to the office, hands out papers, and answers phone 

The President is Chris  

The president Leads Class meetings and the line  

 

Mr. Brown's class
This week in Mr. Brown's class in reading we have not yet started the unit but we have read a few books, started reading partners and are putting together the library. In reading we have read and re read book books while discussing various question about the books. While in writing we took a pretest for the Mr. Brown.

"This is a student generated update for the week."

Welcome to the 2017-18 School Year!

Dear Families

 

My name is Josh Hill and I am your student’s homeroom teacher for this year.

 

I am teaming with Nathan Brown and we are super excited to be your 5^th Grade Teacher Team. Josh is teaching Math and Science and Nathan teaches English/Language Arts and Social Studies. We will both integrate RULER (social/emotional curriculum) into our class. Additionally, students will study art and P.E. with our awesome specialists! Our room numbers are 274 (Brown) and 275 (Hill). We are on the second floor in the Northeast corner of the building.

 

We are excited to be working with your child and I look forward to a wonderful year. Below is a link to the state websites that shows Washington State Standards. It has a lot of information and is searchable. Math at Cascadia is two years ahead with students learn the 7^th grade Common Core Standards. The curriculum for math is the Glenco, Course 2. For ELA, Seattle has adopted a brand new curriculum called Center for the Collaborative Classroom (CCC). Lastly, students will journey through American History, starting with pre-colonial America, and ending with a unit on American government.

 

Dates to remember:

Meet the Teacher is Thursday, August 31^st from 4:00 to 6:00 PM

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Tuesday, September 5^th at 10:30

Curriculum Night, TBD

 

Meet the Teacher:

The Meet the Teacher event tomorrow will include a chance to tour the school and peek into the windows of each classroom. The teachers will be out on the playground and they will be sorted by grade level. Feel free to walk into the building, visit the classroom, and you may leave supplies in the common area if have purchased them already. Please make sure to label any supplies with your student's name. We also have a few boxes of books that are in the shared space outside our rooms.

 

First Day:

We encourage students to take the bus to school or ride their bike. The drop off area will be congested. Students can get to the back playground on their own and many adults will be there to help them find the way. They should look for the 5th grade area and we will pick them up promptly at 7:50am.

 

School Supplies:

Classroom Supply Lists: Kleanex, hand sanitizer, 2 boxes Ticonderoga pencils, erasers, sharpies, flair pens, highlighters, box of fine tip or thick tip dry erase markers, paper towels, Post-it notes, scissors, colored markers, colored pencils, box of black or blue ballpoint pens, glue sticks, clear tape. These supplies will be shared by the class, so there is no need to label them.

Individual Supply Lists: 1.5" binders or zipper binder, 5 tab dividers, 5 composition books (hardback), pencil pouch, lined paper, pencil sharpener, ruler. These supplies will be managed by each student and we hope that this will prepare them for middle school responsibilities.

 

Every day your student needs:

• Water bottle
• Their binder with pens and pencils (homework inside)
• 2 books to read
• Healthy snack

 

Volunteers:

We are going to need chaperones and volunteers for events this year. Please get your paperwork in by the end of September. If you would like to be one of the overnight chaperones for camp, that paperwork is a little different and needs to be turned in as soon as possible. Volunteer Paperwork is available on the district website.  Also, if you have a job or hobby that would be relevant to our in-class studies, then we’d love to have you.

 

Room Parents:
Room Parents are vital to helping me coordinate volunteer needs for the classroom and with planning and support of parties and other classroom events. If this is something you're interested in, please go to the Cascadia PTA website and sign up.

   

Josh’s background is in business and design so he hopes to bring real world situations to every class period. He feels this helps students to make connections to their future. He has a master’s in teaching from Willamette University in Oregon and is licensed to teach, elementary education and both math and science at the middle school level. He spends much of his off time with his family but does enjoy traveling and seeing the world. He is Dive Certified and enjoys exploring the world’s water.

 

Nathan's background is in Interdisciplinary Learning and Spanish Language and Culture. He completed his masters in teaching at Seattle University, and worked in Highline School District before starting at Cascadia last year. Outside of school, Nathan loves reading, creating collaborative art projects, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and spending as much time as possible with friends and family.

 

Please check out our blog regularly for classroom updates, student work and current events. The address is http://rooms306.blogspot.com. Not only do we post weekly, we also have sections with resources and activities that you can use to support learning. Thank you for this opportunity to work with your child and we look forward to hearing from you.

 

Our goal is to create an open conversation about your student’s education, so please feel free to contact us with any questions related to school. Our contact information is listed below; we prefer email and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Joshua Hill

jdhill@seattleschools.org

 

Nathan Brown

ntbrown@seattleschools.org

 

 

 

State Standards:

http://www.k12.wa.us/Science/Standards.aspx

http://www.k12.wa.us/Mathematics/Standards.aspx

http://www.k12.wa.us/ELA/Standards.aspx

http://www.k12.wa.us/SocialStudies/EALRs-GLEs.aspx

 

 

Curriculum Websites:

Glencoe Math

Amplify Science

CCC

 

P.S.

Mr. Hill would like to get some input from parents about middle school math placement. If you have some comments or suggestions, he would like to hear from you in an email or during curriculum night. He hopes to set up a forum for an open conversation about this topic.