Holiday Hat Day

Just about everyone in our class dressed up in spirit the day before holiday break.

After Winter Break, our class will be furthering our skills with adding and subtracting fractions, but with unlike denominators.  This can often get tricky, but we will work hard to learn how to find a common denominator before we solve.  In science, we will begin learning about fossils.  Floor hockey, if the weather permits, will be our focus for several weeks in P.E.. In social studies, we are moving closer to the Revolutionary War, although about a month away still.  Our focus will be directed at understanding which nations were beginning to struggle over control of North America, leading us to the French and Indian War.  Feel free to build some background knowledge with your child over any of these subjects you like. 

Happy Holidays

Another amazing art lesson was conducted in our class this week.  Using the theme of Pop Art, students created a Santa masterpiece. 

In music, students are currently learning the basics of the violin, and appear to really enjoy it.

A short holiday celebration will occur in our room on Friday, from 2:15-3:00.  A sign up for treats has been posted outside of our classroom.  Have a festive holiday season!

Joyful Noise

This week we finished up our focus on poetry.  The students typed up their original, two or three-person Joyful Noise poems in computer lab and then read them to the class with partners.  The poems turned out wonderful!  Such a creative class.

We will be finishing up our science unit on heredity and traits this week.  Next week we have a guest speaker from Hamilton Solar speaking to the class about solar energy.  In math we will be moving to adding and subtracting fractions.  For next week, we will only focus on adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators.  After Winter Break we will begin finding common denominators and adding unlike fractions.  Feel free to start discussing these concepts with your child.  The unlike fractions often cause some difficulties with some students.

We will have a holiday part December 17th at 2:15.  A sign up sheet for treats should be posted soon by our door.  Feel free to attend if you like.

Many shipments of PE and science equipment have come to our room lately...must be the time of year, holiday season and all.  Actually, I'd like to thank all of you who have cashed in your BING points.  Here is what our classroom ended up receiving from all of that: hockey sticks, fossil packs, 4 digital scales, 20 dictionaries, 6 soft dodge balls, and safety glasses!

December Book Order

The December book order is due this Friday, the 3rd.  Paper copies went home Monday.  You can also purchase books easily online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs.  Our class activation code is HFRHW. I will close down the purchasing online Friday morning.  Thank you.

Fractions to Decimals to Percents!

This week in math we learned how to convert fractions to decimals and then learned how to convert the decimal to a percent.  We did this both with a calculator and without.  Next week we will polish up our skills of decimals, fractions, and percents.  We finished up our unit on analyzing microscopic items in science and will move onto learning about heredity in the next few weeks.  We learned about the 13 original colonies in social studies and the three regions that made up the 13 colonies.  The next book report will cover a historical fiction book and will be due December 15th.

Cardinal Art

Our class was blessed with another amazing art lesson by volunteers.  After an amazing art history lesson on John Audubon and his first published bird book, students began an artwork of their own.  The focus was one using water colors to create a painting of a cardinal.

Looking at the Micro World

This week and next we are focusing in science on proper usage of a microscope.  Today we viewed a variety of slides and drew a few of our favorites.  Next week we plan on preparing our own slides to view.  In social studies we had a visitor, William Bradford, from the Plymouth Colony visit on Wednesday.  I'm sure it would be an interesting discussion if you asked your child what was learned, as it appeared much knowledge was gained from this experience.  We have been focusing heavily on identifying the main idea in informational text this week and will move onto predicting outcomes next week in reading.  Our next book report will focus on a historical fiction book and will be due the 15th of December.

Solubility and Social Studies

Today in social studies we continued to learn about new colonies that were being established in the New World in the early 1600s.  Today's lesson focused upon the French settlements near present day Quebec.

In science we began a new topic, that of solubility.  Students explored the concept by mixing a variety of items in glasses to discover the differences between mixtures and solutions, including a super saturated solution.

Literature Groups

This week we began our first novel.  We are reading On My Honor, a short chapter book by Marion Bauer.  During reading groups, detailed discussions take place as the students lead the book talk.  We have recently been working on analyzing texts at deeper levels, using Blooms' Taxonomy.  Bloom's Taxanomy involves six levels of questioning and allows students to analye and interpret the readings using both lower and higher order thinking skills. When students are evaluating and judging using higher order thinking skills they are more likely to retain information.  It is also thought that using higher order thinking skills can help achieve the ultimate goal of becoming a lifelong learner.

Students write a question from each level of Bloom's Taxonomy and then answer their own question.  In reading groups, each child chooses a question to pose to the group to contribute to the book discussion.

Beck Elementary Close to $100,000

Our school, Beck Elementary, is in the top 15 schools in the nation and the top 5 for K-6 school in the Bing Video contest. We have from October 29th (yesterday) to October 7th to get as many votes per day as possible. Many of you helped us get this far. Please, please, please help us earn the $100,000 on November 9th!

It is simple, and fast to do. It will take a minute.

1) Go to http://www.ourschoolneeds.discoverbing.com/HowItWorks.aspx#fbid=61WNUgbGVYd&wom=false

2) Click "log in" in the top right corner

3) Create an account if you don't have one. Sign in if you helped us vote last week.

4) 15 videos will show up. Look for the one with children in a circle (Beck Elementary- Reno,NV)

5) Click on it and vote. You can vote once per day I believe on our video (5 votes a day total, but voting for others won't help us). Voting ends Nov. 7th.

6) Please get your friends to help vote as well!

Thanks so much,
Dr. Brock

Nevada Day

Today was an academically packed day, focusing on the theme of Halloween and NV Day.  After reading about the history of rootbeer and how it is made, students used their reading skills to decypher the rootbeer recipe from the reading and made rootbeer in bulk.  As the dry ice carbonated the beverage, we learned all about the science of dry ice.  Next, math and science were combined and pumpkins were used for estimation, measurement, mass, volume, metric conversion, and density.  The final density of their pumpkins revealed how much of the pumpkin was submerged under water when it was placed in water.  After lunch students read their "spooky" stories in the dark around a campfire pit in the middle of the classroom. Finally, our guest speaker, Joe Bones (skeleton borrowed from UNR), lectured about the skeletal system.  The last our of learnings focused on finding out what percent of our body length is our femur (about 25% by the way).  The Nevada Day celebration ended our wonderful day!

Picasso Art

Mr. Rash and Mrs. Hobson visited our class today to teach some art history about Pablo Picasso.  Using the knowledge, students applied the techniques Picasso used to create Picasso inspired pumpkins.  It was also hat day today and over 1/2 the class wore fantastically designed hats.

Kinderbuddies and Tie Dye

Today we combined science and art with our kinderbuddy class.  Students talked about the simplified version of the science behind the tie dye, such as the color wheel (Roy G Biv).  They helped their kinderbuddy tie dye a shirt as they did so.

Help Beck win $100,00- View Video and Vote!

I did this this morning and our video for our school is amazing. Check it out!

If you vote for Jessie Beck right now, our school pops up in the first two rows of entries. Look for a circle of cute little faces on the grass as the thumbnail for the video :)

Remember...
1. go to http://ourschoolneeds.discoverbing.com/
2. hit login and create an account
3. go to your personal email and verify the information on the email send from BING
4. go back to http://ourschoolneeds.discoverbing.com/
5. login with your new username and password (save this info for later when we make the finals)
6. Find "Beck Elementary School" and submit a rating of 5 stars!!!

WE NEED YOU JESSIE BECK PARENTS! PLEASE VOTE TODAY - ONLY 5 MORE DAYS TO VOTE!

After-School Tie Dye Event

This Thursday and next Monday the 5th grades will hold an after-school tie dye event from 3-5PM.  If interested, return the attached form the day before the event.

Our Journey Ends

We are back!  What an amazing trip.  Let me have the students, in their own words (taken from their lengthy personal reflections) tell the story.

"Ecosystem is like a surrounding of home, like a neighbors."-Chris
"I had to have to have trust in my team through the challenge course."-Autumn
"I learn about ort with our food and how to prevent it."-Shane
I learned "how bats can see in the dark" and "how to work together."- Carter
"We learned about invertibrates. We learned to tell that if a X is on its back it is a true bug (not an insect)."-Jackson
"I learned a kind of chemical in your eye is called roydopsin."Kellyn
"I learned that biotic means it was alive or is alive, and abiotic means not alive or wasn't alive."-Maile
"I learned how to climb a flat wall, to adapt my eyes in the night...and how to trust people."-Ben
"I learned personal things too. I learned I can walk in the dark alone even though I was kind of nervous."- Allie
"Getting along to complete a task...I  learned how to trust people guiding me with a blind fold."-Brennan
"I learned about the solar system."-Analycia
"The sun can run out of gas."-Jack
"I learned about night vision and how we see in the dark..."-Wyatt
"I learned how to conquer my fear."-Makenna
"You are supposed to find out if the water is healthy for the fish."-Joe
"I learned that when the moon is waxing it's getting bigger and when the moon is waning it is getting smaller."-Rebekah
"There is a lot of wild things out there."-J.P.
"I learned the ways of gravity that it goes down by itself. I learned the moon faces (phases) and bluemoon."-Chloe
"I can be myself around people...Cirpuscular means awake at twilight."-Taylor
"I learned that I can not be afraid of heights...I learned that dissolved oxygen is made out of oxygen that isdisenorate and go into the water."-Jakob
"I learned echo location and I learned that two hoof marks is a deer."-Kalena
"Cones make you see color. Rods make you see black and white."-Jack
"I also learned that population means amount of things such as a group of animals, people or plants."-Annika
"I learned about pH amounts in the water and the dissolved oxygen."-Tucker
"Grizzly Creek was fun. We did a course that was fun but taught us how to trust each other."-Abree
"I learned that cones in your eyes help you see color. Rods, that are in your eyes, help you see black and white."-Emme

The quotes could go on and on.  These are just a sample, one sentence in most cases, of what the students wrote about after we returned.

Day 2 at Grizzly Creek Ranch

The second day at camp has been amazing for all the kids.  From archery, to pond ecology, to an amazing challenge course with team building.  We began the day around 6:45 and had a fantastic breakfast at 7:30.  Although we had more ORT than last night (left over food waste), I am sure the 5th graders will do much better tonight.   Their eyes were bigger than their stomachs after a night's rest.  Speaking of last night, the waxing crescent moon made for a great night hike.  Only one of the girl cabins had issues due to a mouse.  However, they have overcome that adventure and are ready for tonight!  Go Mouseketeers!  We are almost ready for another delicious dinner and then our last night program (on ecosystems).  We are all becoming fans of Grizzly Creek Ranch.

First Day of Camp at Grizzly Creek Ranch

Our first day has been a success.  The weather up here is fantastic and all the students are having an amazing time.  From the second students stepped off the bus, camp had begun.  They quickly unloaded the gear and gathered on the green to begin activities within 4 minutes of stepping off the bus.  The rest of the day was spent on team building activities.  Some groups even began to learn about the science of archery as they shot bows and arrows (safely of course).  Campers are at this moment unloading their gear in their cabins, while letting their freshly baked pretzel hold them over until dinner is served.  After dinner the night hike from 7:30-9:00.  A full packed day of learning!

Scarecrow Photo Booth

The photo booth was a huge success at this year's Scarecrow Festival.  A few sample photos of students from our class are included here.  I am told that the school will have a disk of all photos taken in the booth for sale in the near future!

Class Scarecrow Photo

We erected our scarecrow today before school started.  Even with all the chaos with everyone setting up the booths throughout the day, our class had a fantastic day of learning.  During our tour of the scarecrows, we took a minute to capture the memory.  Of course we had to pose for a funny photo as well!

Order Books from Book Order Online!

October book orders will be distributed in class next week.  However, you can see more books than just the ones in the flyer and order them online if you would like.  I have set up an account through Scholastic Book Clubs for our class.

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.

It’s so simple! Here’s how it works:

• SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, register by clicking click the “Don’t have a user name or password?” link. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code HFRHW. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.
• SELECT the books you’d like to order—choose from thousands of titles—many more than in our monthly flyers.

SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child’s books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

You can still order the old fashioned way by sending in the order form and money too.  Our next book report after the current one (genre=science fiction/fantasy) will be MYSTERY. Perhaps your child can find a good book in the book order and it will arrive before we start the next book report.

Packing List- Grizzly Creek Ranch

Tie dye was a success yesterday.  I forgot to take photos only because we were all so busy tie dying.   We even created a basket of tie dye items for SCI (who donated $4000) for their annual fundraising raffle.

I have attached the packing list on our webpage. I hope it isn't too small to read.  This went home weeks ago, but could have got lost.  A hard copy will also go home on Friday.

Creating our Scarecrow!

Building off of the pirate theme from a few weeks ago, our class created a pirate scarecrow today.  The class chose Calico Jack as our character, a pirate we had researched earlier.  Breaking into groups, the class created and assembled our scarecrow entirely on their own.

Our Neurons are Firing!

This week, our class combined a little science with math.  We measured our reflexes in our right and left hands as another student dropped a sheet of paper with markings on it.  Where our fingers grabbed the paper were measurements representing how fast our reaction time was.  After 10 trials on each hand, we figured out our range, mode, median, maximum, and minimum reaction times. 

The Run for Education is quickly approaching.  This is a fantastic opportunity to build school pride adn work on our physical fitness.  The event is October 17th.  Schools with the most students participating are awarded grant money to purchase PE supplies for the school.  We have won this in the past, but not recently.  It would be great to see you all there.  Entry forms are available at the school, including in your child's classroom. 

On another note...if you had signed up for the updates to be sent from our class webpage to your email then that is great. However, I learned that the photos that are posted there don't get sent.  So, if you like to see some great learning in action, you will have to visit the actual website at http://brocksclass.blogspot.com/ .

Book Report

Last week it was announced to the class that our first book report will be due on Monday, October 4th.  Forms are by the door and have been covered as to what is expected.  Today they were reminded that they have 2 weeks until it is due.

Arghhhhh! Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Our class celebrated "Talk Like a Pirate Day" on Friday, since the official day is on a Sunday this year.  Our morning work, reading, science, and math was directly tied to a pirate theme, including the way we spoke in class.  The highlight of the day involved students learning why boats float, especially if loaded with "booty" such as gold.  Students created boats from aluminum and placed "booty" (glass beads) in their boat until it sunk.  After learning about the concepts of surface area, density, displacement, and buoyancy, they created another vessel which held more.