Milky Way Plate Tectonics

In science class, we used Milky Way bars to investigate what happens at Transform, Convergent, and Divergent plate boundaries.

Save the Drama for Mr. Rose

Scary stories to read in the class

Today in Writer's Workshop, we read a couple of short stories from Scary Stories to Read in The Dark.   We also made pictures to go with our stories.

Play dough Pangea

In room 21 last week, students used a basic dough recipe to create models of Pangea.  Each student painted their models with physical features that may have been found on a continent like Pangea.  We named our creations and wrote short descriptions.

Launching Writer's Workshop

Here are some of the stories that we have been working on this school year.

The top crust

Soil Layers Snack Attack

In Science class this year, we are studying Earth Science.  We started by studying the part that you can see, the crust.  This week we learned about the layers of the soil.  Can you name the five layers we used in our Soil Layers Snack?

Did you notice our name change?

Did you notice the change in our blog title?  Well, our classroom is moving to (drum roll please) the bottom floor of the building, where Ms. Cowart's class used to be.  We will have a "room warming party" when school begins to let students and parents see the new room and learn all about what we will be studying this year.

These are all our animals so far can't wait for more frogs and toads next week!

       This is our snail she had 3 baby's! One on April 29 @ 11:00 and to day May 1st she had 2 more! We are grateful we have them!

Cece and Ty Pond!

We been going to the frog pond! First we caught Cece , then Ty today! Ty is one the top and Cece is one the bottom!

Update on the Triops

As promised, here are some pictures of Triops.

Our trip to the Frog Pond

Today our class went to the frog pond behind Shedd Park.  We saw two Mallard ducks (a male and a female) with two turtles on a rock.  As we moved around the pond, we found lots and lots of snails.  Mrs. McDermott heard a frog and we went to investigate.  We found three frogs, but they were all too fast for us.  We also found a baby turtle, but it dove under the tall grass and we could not catch it.  When it was time for us to go, we saw another turtle and frog, but it was too late.  In the end, we caught one large snail and one baby snail.  We brought them back to the classroom for further observation.  We will return the snails to the pond at the beginning of next week.  We will also return to the frog pond at another time to see if we can find some tadpoles or frogs.

Life Science

Our Triops are growing so fast.  We have three Triops that are about an inch long each and one Fairy Shrimp swimming in the tank.  Today, our class read about three classifications of plants; flowering plants, conifers, and ferns.  We then went outside and used our collection containers to collect samples of each.  We even saw a Garter snake along the way.
On Friday, our class will be visiting the Frog Pond (behind Shedd Park) to observe local animals and collect live specimens to observe in class.  We hope to find tadpoles, snails, and maybe some small frogs.

In Memory of Furball

Sadly, our caterpillar Furball passed away during school vacation.  He is missed in our classroom.

Triops

Our class also has several other pets, they are called Triops.  Triops are descendents of the Trilobites that lived during prehistoric times.  They are crustaceans (like lobsters and crabs).  Our Triops just hatched this morning and they are too small to be seen with our web camera.  Right now they are translucent and only one centimeter long.  We will post pictures as they get larger.

Furball

Our classroom has a new pet.  Her (or his, we are not sure) name is Furball.  Her whole name is Princess Furball Adjustment.  Furball is a "Wooly Bear" caterpillar.  She will become a Tiger Moth.  Students in our classroom have been bringing in fresh green grass for Furball to eat and sticks for her to climb on.

We made it through

The 5th grade Language Arts MCAS is over.  We made it through.  Next week we will continue our work on preparing for the math and science MCAS testing that will happen in May.  We will also finish our Physical Science unit next week and begin the Life Science unit in April.  Happy Spring.

Poetry Unit beginning

Next week, our class will begin reading and writing poetry.  We will post some of our poetry when it is ready.  In the meantime, you can find some really funny poems at http://www.poetry4kids.com

MCAS Prep Workshops

Our class has spent the last couple of weeks working on improving our responses to Open Response questions on the MCAS.  Our students have been reading prompts from past MCAS tests, TTQA to create a topic sentence, and using the Blueprint for Reading and Writing from our Language! Program to write a quality response.  When students are finished writing their responses, they self-assess by reading the exemplars and rating their responses on a scale of 0-4.

We are posting our quality responses on our "Show Me a 4" board pictured above.

Oobleck

Tomorrow is our school's celebration of Dr. Suess's birthday and Read Across America Day.  Dr. Suess's birthday is really March 2nd.  In celebration, we will be reading Bartholemew and the Oobleck, then we will make Oobleck using cornstarch and water.

Physical Changes and Chemical Changes

This week we worked on our Physical Science unit and wrapped up Chapter 2 on Physical and Chemical Changes.  We made paper mache volcanoes and talked about the physical and chemical changes that took place while we created our volcanoes.  Today we used vinegar and baking soda to make our volcanoes explode.  We also created volcanoes with Mentos candies and Diet Coke.  Students and parents, please leave comments on our blog about our projects.

A note to students

Please use your first name ONLY when posting a comment.  And don't forget, you can post comments to our blog from home too.

Writer's Workshop

See what we have been working on in Writer's Workshop

Writing Lots and Lots of Reviews

In writer's workshop, we are working on writing reviews about things that we like.  Please leave your review as a comment.

A reminder: Lowell Public Schools Student Acceptable Use Policy for Internet Use

Lowell Public Schools

Student Acceptable Use Policy

The Lowell Public Schools consider the following uses of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) unacceptable, and just cause for taking disciplinary action, revoking privilege’s, and or initiating legal action:

1. Personal Safety

a. students shall not post personal contact information about themselves or other people. Personal contact information includes address, telephone, school address, work address, etc.

b. Students shall not agree to meet with someone they have met online without their parents’ approval and participation

c. Students shall promptly disclose to their teacher and or other school employee any message they receive that is inappropriate or makes them feel uncomfortable.

2. Illegal Activities

a. Students shall not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Wide Area Network (WAN) or to any other Local Area Network (LAN) or computer system through the WAN, or go beyond their authorized access. This includes attempting to log in through another person’s account or access another person’s files. These actions are illegal, even if only for the purpose of browsing.

b. Students shall not make deliberate attempts to disrupt the computer system performance or destroy data by spreading computer viruses or by another other means. These actions are illegal.

c. Students will not use the system to engage in any other illegal act, such as arranging for a drug sale or purchase of alcohol, engaging in criminal gang activity, threatening the safety of another person, etc.

d. Students shall not use the Lowell Public School’s computer resources for commercial or financial gain or fraud.

e. Students shall not use the system for political lobbying. Students may use the system to communicate with their elected representatives and to express their opinions on political issues.

f. Students shall not post chain letters.

g. Students shall not post anonymous messages.

3. System Security

a. Students shall be responsible for the use of their individual account, if assigned, and should take all reasonable precaution to prevent others from being able to use their account. Under no conditions should a student provide their account information and/or password to another person.

b. Students shall immediately notify the teacher if they suspect or have identified a possible security problem. Users will not go looking for security problems, because this may be construed as an illegal attempt to gain access.

c. Students shall avoid the inadvertent spread of computer viruses by following the Lowell Public Schools’ virus protection procedures if they download software.

4. Inappropriate Language

Restrictions against Inappropriate Language apply to public messages, private messages and material posted on Web pages For the purpose of this policy, Inappropriate Language can be considered to include, not necessarily limited to the following clarifications:

a. Students shall not use obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, racist, sexist, threatening or disrespectful language.

b. Students shall not post information that, if acted upon, could cause damage or danger of disruption.

c. Students shall not engage in personal attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks.

d. Students shall not harass another person. Harassment is persistently acting in manner that distresses or annoys another person. If a student is told by a person to stop sending them messages, the student must stop sending messages to that person.
e. Students shall not knowingly or recklessly post false or defamatory information about person or organization.

5. Respect for Privacy

a. Students shall not report a message that was sent to them privately without permission of the person who sent them the message.

b. Students shall not post private information about another person.

6. Respecting Resource Limits

Every effort shall be taken not to waste finite resources

Students shall not download extensive files unless absolutely necessary.  If necessary, students will download the file at a time when the system is not being heavily used and immediately removed the files from the system computer to their personal computer.

7. Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

a. Students shall not plagiarize works that they find on the Internet.  Plagiarism is taking the ideas or writings of others and presenting them as if they were original to the user.

b. Students shall respect the rights of copyright owners.  Copyright infringement occurs when a individual inappropriately reproduces a work that is protected by a copyright.  If a work contains language that specifies acceptable use of that work, the student should follow the expressed requirements.  If the student is unsure whether they can use a work, they should request permission from the author or copyright owner.

8. Access to Inappropriate Material

For the purpose of this policy, Inappropriate Materials are those materials including, but not limited to, any materials not in support of the system’s curriculum.

• Students shall not use the WAN to access material that is profane or obscene, that advocates illegal acts, or that advocates violence or discrimination towards other people.
• If a student inadvertently accesses such information, they should immediately disclose the inadvertent access to the computer teacher at their school.  This will protect students against an allegation they have intentionally violated the Acceptable Use Policy.

Consequences of Violations

In the event there is an allegation that a student has violated the District Acceptable Use Policy, the student will be provided with notice and a hearing in the manner set forth in the disciplinary code(s) of the Lowell Public Schools.

Disciplinary action shall be tailored to meet specific concerns related to the violation and to assist the students in gaining the self-discipline necessary to behave appropriately in an electronic environment.  If the alleged violation also involves a violation of other provision of the disciplinary code(s) of the Lowell Public Schools, the violation will be handled in accord with the due process provisions of the school and the school district currently in place.

It is every student’s responsibility to cooperate in any investigation of a complaint or alleged violation of the policies by providing any information  he/she possesses concerning the matters being investigated.  Further, it is against city policy to attempt to alter, delete or destroy documents, files, etc. that are the subject of investigation. Students should realize that the Network Administrator can still recover files, which have been deleted.

Consequences to violations include but are not limited to:
Suspension of Internet access;

• Revocation of Internet access;
• Suspension of Network privileges
• Revocation of Network privileges
• Suspension of computer access;
• Revocation of computer access;
• School Suspension
• School expulsion
• Legal action and prosecution by the authorities

The Lowell Public Schools have the right to restrict or terminate anyone’s Network, Internet, and WWW access at any time for any reason. Further, the Lowell Public Schools have the right to monitor Network activity in any form that is deemed necessary to maintain the integrity of the Network.