What We've Been Up To , Lately!

Its been an exciting time in Room 109. It is the end of 2010 and we are wrapping up our units, with awesome common assesments, report cards, conferences, great novels, and tons of projects. Check out our latest and greatest- The Civil War Wax Museum. We were super and everyone who came to visit was improessed and inspired.
You will see some students dressed as Abraham LIncoln, Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, and Fredrick Douglass. They were all abolitionists.
Enjoy!

WWI Vocabulary

Students, this is you showing what you know about very difficult words related to WWI. It would be super of you to use these videoes to study for this week's Common Assessment. You all did a terrific job and we, again, are proud of your super smarts!

Civil War: Slavery Debates, 110'ers

The 110'ers took on the difficult subject of slavery. It was their job to pretend they were a person of the Civil War times and present their opinion and reasons as to why the Confederacy supported slavery. Here is a sampling of our hard work. Upon finishing each presentation, we practiced our complimenting. Everyone did a great job and we clear on the reasons the Confederacy wanted to go to Civil War against the Union.

Hi Kids, How Was Thursday?

Well, Mrs. Albandia, Ms. Parkhill, and me, Ms Randolph, just finished presenting your hard work to the teachers and administrators here at the IETC Conference in Springfield. Ms. Mullarney and Ms. Lagerstedt took some pictures, too and we will post those to you soon. Enjoy seeing yourselves being presented on the big screen. Kids, thanks for being superstars!

The 2010 Blog: Civil War POV

It has arrived, this year's KidBlog.org and we are super, super, super excited. The kids are writing about Civil War, using the point of view of a Union or Confederate soldier. Check out their post and commentaries.

www.kidblog.org/Randolph2010

Soldiers, log in from home and read your commentaries. Have fun and be safe.

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

We are about to enter the world of PEMDAS. This is our nemonic to remember how to solve an equation that has many, many operations (+,-, *, and /) in it. How do we solve it? Which operation do we do first?
Follow these simple steps to know how... remember this simple phrase:
"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally"
In other words, do the operations in this order:
P: Parentheses
E; Exponents next
M and D: Multiply or Divide, whichever one comes first when you read the problem L to R
A and S: Add or Subtract, whichever one comes first when you read the problem L to R

Civil War: Secession Debates, the Union Side

This afternoon, the 109'ers, participated in their first debate as members of either the Union or the Confederacy. We stated our platforms, defended our side's position with 3 solid reasons, and then ended with our group's slogan. We hope you enjoy our videoes as much as we enjoyed making them.

Starved Rock 2010

Hi everyone and welcome to the first post of this school year. We invite you to look into our classroom as we learn new things and engage in exciting activites. For this post, a random sample of photos from our recent trip to Starved Rock are uploaded.
At Starved Rock, we took our understanding of rocks and minerals on the road. We searched the park for evidence of what we knew and photographed our key vocabulary concepts along the trails. The weather was great and our fitness was even better. Our chaperones were the best! It was a great day!
Enjoy!

Tomatoes Do Grow at Night

It is summertime, but the Learning It Bloggin It, Showin It site needs a blog entry. Kids, it appears that this evening, Mr Phipps and I were able to check on the garden for my first time this growing season. We were the town over for a wedding, thus the fancy clothes, and we stopped by to look on our way home. The plants have grown and bear delicious fruits we can eat. I am inspired by your hard work and remind you that if you stop on by school, do some weeding, you can take home some really delicious, nutrient rich treats. I think we should make cabbage and tomato recipes so that we can enojy these treats when school begins again. Let's talk to Linda ASAP.

What Type of Animal is This?

Today we celebrated Earth Day. We saw the movie, Oceans, and we then cleaned the park and enjoyed a glorious day outside in the fresh air. The bunnies were at the park, too. When we returned to school, we decided to take the animals we learned about and create a inferring game for our sister class in Chicago, where Mr. Phipps' third graders will use our movies. They will practice inferring and taking what they have been studying about animals to get their answers. We can't wait to share and hear what they have to say.

What Type of Animal is This?

Today we celebrated Earth Day. We saw the movie, Oceans, and we then cleaned the park and enjoyed a glorious day outside in the fresh air. The bunnies were at the park, too. When we returned to school, we decided to take the animals we learned about and create a inferring game for our sister class in Chicago, where Mr. Phipps' third graders will use our movies. They will practice inferring and taking what they have been studying about animals to get their answers. We can't wait to share and hear what they have to say.

What Type of Animal is This?

Today we celebrated Earth Day. We saw the movie, Oceans, and we then cleaned the park and enjoyed a glorious day outside in the fresh air. The bunnies were at the park, too. When we returned to school, we decided to take the animals we learned about and create a inferring game for our sister class in Chicago, where Mr. Phipps' third graders will use our movies. They will practice inferring and taking what they have been studying about animals to get their answers. We can't wait to share and hear what they have to say.

What Type of Animal is This?

Today we celebrated Earth Day. We saw the movie, Oceans, and we then cleaned the park and enjoyed a glorious day outside in the fresh air. The bunnies were at the park, too. When we returned to school, we decided to take the animals we learned about and create a inferring game for our sister class in Chicago, where Mr. Phipps' third graders will use our movies. They will practice inferring and taking what they have been studying about animals to get their answers. We can't wait to share and hear what they have to say.

Blog It- Math Style!

We have been using our class blog interacting with one another, commenting, posting, and simply communicating in a digital way. This past week, we have been working hard on fractions and being able to add them when they have different denominators. We have been learning how to reduce. Check out our blog to hear and see the kids explaining and designing their own math problems. Fun stuff to check out. Click below for a sample.

http://kidblog.org/randolph109/Martyna2/explaining-math/

Yahoooooooo!

The garden, through DonorsChoose.org is now fully funded! This is fantastic and we are super duper excited. Thanks for all the donations, world!

Donors Choose: Recession Gardening

We are currently studying the Great Depression and its effects on families living in America during that time. As a direct way to become the solution in difficult times all students, in Room 109 are encouraged to sign up for the last round of after school programs and be a part of the Gardening Club. We will be creating an edible garden to fight today's present economic times. We will be monitoring the DonorsChoose.org website for our Project entitled, "Yes We Can: A Community Recession Garden Project". It is here that we have asked the world outside our window to provide materials and seeds for our upcoming project. Keep your fingers crossed (just one, I hear) and spread the word and seek donations, kids!

109'ers Blog Conversations

Ms Parkhill and the staff at Washington School have created blog spots where students will submit comments about various activities, topics, and ideas presented in our classes. Of course, we have agreed to our internet safety guidelines and understand that we are ready to blog appropriately! Have fun, be throughtful, and safe.

Podcasting Book Reviews with Images

We reviewed our latest book chat novels using our own illustrations and pocasting skills. Enjoy!

mental warm up

FInally... it works!
We LOVE to dance and our teachers LOVE to dance, even more. When we are feeeling like our brain synapses need a zap, we mental warm up. Thanks to our good friends over at www.cics.com in Mr. Phipps' third grade class, we are able to enjoy dance offs when we need a zap!
Watch and feel free to join us by dancing in your living rooms at home!

Podcasting Book Reviews

We have been reading excellent novels in our Book Chat time. We used our art skills and time to provide an illustrated book summary of our last three chapters. We are using these pictures to create a mind movie where we simply tell what happened in our story. Summary at its greatest.
object>
The week before, we just used our lovely voices to summarize. Compare the two and see which you enjoy more.

Colonial Jobs Day.

We have been studying the 13 colonies and are about ready for our Common Assessment. In order to understand and "live" the colonies, we worked with Ms G to come up with a colonial job fair day. We had a blast dressing up and presenting the occupations of colonial times- Innkeepers, Blacksmiths, Silversmiths, Teachers, Doctors, Printers, and Wigmakers.

Book Chat Reviews: Commercial Style

One of our last rounds of book chat books allowed us to create persuasive book reviews using technology. We had a great time making commericals about each of our books. Enjoy!


t>

Welocme to Learnin' It, Bloggin' It, and Showin' It- 109 Style

We are a classroom of fifth grade students who love to learn and use technology. This is our blog and we welcome you to it. Come often and check out what we have been up to throughout our days.