Art Show & Book Fair at Barnes and Noble!

Our Swanson students' art will be on display at the Brookfield Square Barnes and Noble November 14, 2009. 15% of all purchases made that day at Barnes and Noble will go to help support the Arts at Swanson School.

If you visit the store between 1-3pm you are invited to create a fall drawing and listen to a special book reading by our very own, Mrs. Wu! Head over to the mall to view their beautiful art and purchase a book.

Run-Walk!

Although it was raining outside, we enjoyed our run-walk inside! To encourage wellness and healthy choices, the Swanson students and staff spent 30 minutes this morning walking through the building.

Come Fly With Us!

This week we began our third investigation. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked in partners to build planes and practice flying them along fishline. It was great fun! I was extremely impressed with the groups' abilities to read and follow plane construction directions.

The planes fly along a fishing line called a flight line. The plane and the line together create a PLANE SYSTEM. A SYSTEM is a set of objects working together. The plane system will help us continue to learn about variables and controlled experiments. We will study the parts of the PLANE SYSTEM to find out how they affect the entire system. I can't wait!

We'll post more as we "learn to fly".

What's In My Head?

What goes on in your head while you read? What strategies do you use during independent reading to be sure you're understanding the book?

We've been talking about monitoring our comprehension while we read- paying attention to the inner voices in our head and leaving tracks of our thinking. Through our discussion we learned that sometimes while we read we can get distracted by things going on around us. Good monitors will acknowledge the distraction and then refocus their attention on the book they are reading.

Today we met Ned. Ned became a new member of our classroom. Ned's head was full of distractions- from ear wax build up to disgusting dirty diapers. We helped Ned rid his head of distractions so that he would be able to monitor his comprehension and enjoy his independent reading book. Then we taught Ned how to "track" the inner voices in his head by jotting down ideas on sticky notes.

During independent reading time today, Ned watched as our 5th graders monitored their comprehension and wrote down their ideas. He learned a lot from our kiddos!

the reviews are in...

We spent part of our afternoon at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center enjoying the performance, Frindle, based on the book by Andrew Clements. When we arrived back at Swanson I asked the students to review the play and share their opinion. The entire class did a great job summarizing the performance and sharing their thoughts and feelings. I would have loved to publish all of them. Below you'll find seven play reviews from your peers. Keep reading to see if your review was published...

REVIEWED BY GIONA:

Frindle, is a play based on the book by Andrew Clements. Nick, a young boy, is a 'free thinker' as Mrs. Granger called him, decide to play with words. Instead of calling a pen, 'pen', he called it a frindle. The plot comes alove when Nick came up with frindle. The battle between Nick, his friends, and his teacher, Mrs. Granger is a suspenseful and funny story that a lot of people would like.

I rated this play a 7 out of 10 because it was an entertaining experience, and it was fun to watch. My favorite scene would probably be when Mrs. Granger, dictionary fanatic, was telling Nick that using the word frindle was forbidden, and whoever used the word got a detention. Nick ran out the classroom door saying "I won't forget my frindle again!" I also liked it when the cast members were acting funny because it was entertaining. Yet, I didn't really like it when the characters in the beginning were falling over dead. Overall, though, it was a GREAT play.

REVIEWED BY OLGA:

This play, Frindle, is about a 5th grade boy named Nick Allen and his friends who were trying to find a way to have less homework. Nick invented a new word for pen, frindle, and soon over half of his school was replacing the word pen for frindle. Nick got this idea when his teacher, Mrs. Granger, answered his question on how the words got into the dictionary. Because of that, he thought ths would be just his word. About 10 years later this word was in the dictionary and Nick Allen was famous. This play was based on the book written by Andrew Clements.

I rated this play a 7 out of 10 because, overall, the play was great and I loved it. I wouldn't recommend younger students going to the play because the time transitions may be confusing, from the end to the beginning and back to the end (flashback). I liked that the actors handled an issue so well. A piece of setting was falling and it wasn't supposed to, but the actors just played along. It was a nice performance, but not the best. I would say the coolest character was Mr. Freee and I would recommend people go to the play.

REVIEWED BY KEVIN:

Nick and his friends came crashing in, complaining about how much homework they had. Nick came up with an idea to waste time, but instead his teacher made him write a report. The next day he shared the report and the teacher, Mrs. Granger, told him that everyone made up every word there is. Nick then made up the word frindle and by the end of the play his new word was added in the dictionary.

I rated the play a 6 out of 10 because it was better than okay, but not amazing. I liked when Mr. Freee was yelling for the teachers. That made me giggle.

REVIEWED BY JAMIE:

Listen Up! This play at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center called Frindle gets a thumbs up review! The play was about a 5h grade boy named Nick who invents the word frindle. The teacher, Mrs. Granger, does not like the idea. She tries to stop him, and the school, from saying it. Will he invent the word or will Mrs. Granger stop him? Find out!

I rated this play an 8 out of 10 because it had great actors and really caught my attention. My favorite scene was when Mrs. Granger was giving all the students detentions for saying frindle instead of pen. I would recommend this play and the book because it was a funny and entertaining play.

REVIEWED BY MIA:

In the play, Frindle, Nick was a maverick, a free thinker, and his teacher Mrs. Granger gave him way too much homework everyday. They made up ideas to distract their teacher from giving them homework, but instead they just got more homework. Nick made up a new word for a pen. He called it a frindle. All day he says frindle instead of pen. He got himself and more than 300 kids in trouble. Soon everybody heard about the word frindle in the news and people wanted it to be a real word in the dictionary. He showed Mrs. Granger that anybody can make up a word.

I rated this play a 7 out of 10 because I loved the idea of the play and showing kids you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I didn't like how they didn't use a little bit younger kids because I never read the book so I thought the kids were in high school, not in 5th grade. I would recommend this book for students in 3rd through 6th grade.

REVIEWED BY MAX:

Nick Allen, a fifth grader and a free thinker, shows his frindle to the world! Nick is an ordinary child until one day...where did the word come from? Mrs. Granger, Nick's teacher, did not accept his new invented word. What would happen...word or homework?

I rated Frindle 9 out of 10 stars for third graders through grown-ups. Andrew Clements did an excellent job on the story. I liked the book and the play because it had two different characters that were taking opposite sides.

REVIEWED BY CAITLIN:

Today we've got "Nothin But News"! The play Frindle, based on the book Frindle by Andrew Clements, is about a 5th grader named Nick Allen. He's a free-thinker and just wants to have some fun! His teacher, Mrs. Granger, loves words, but for some reason is against Nick and his friends when they come up with the word frindle. Frindle is a word meaning pen, and now frindle is getting out. To find out the rest, you'll have to visit the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center and watch the play Frindle!

In my opinion Frindle was a spectacular play! Although it could have been better. I didn't like how the kids were not actual 5th graders, but it was unique that there were only six actors/actresses yet so many characters! I really enjoyed the janitor, Mr. Freee. H was extremely funn and was very loud. The actors and actresses were very enthusiastic. I enjoyed it a lot and I hope you can see the play too.

5th Grade Vikings...

Who were the Vikings? Were they fierce warriors...yes! Great poets and storytellers....that too! Ruthless conquerors...without a doubt! Excellent seamen and ship builders...you betcha!

The Vikings were from Scandanavia and fought for land, gold, and silver. They also explorered Vinland, Iceland and other parts of North America from 700AD to 1100AD. Leif Eriksson was a famous viking- he explorered and discovered Greenland while looking for land and riches.

Viking ships were very advanced for this time period. They were a low, very fast wooden boat with up to one hundred men on board. They were often carved in the shape of a dragon or wild beast.

The Viking alphabet is called the futhark. After learning about the Vikings today each child had the chance to create a new locker tag using the Viking alphabet. We then had our pictures taken in the stylish Viking hat!

Lifeboat Inspection

We set up another controlled experiment in science today. Each group needed to determine the capacity of their boat (in ml)along with the number of passengers (pennies) it could carry before sinking. I was impressed with the teamwork I saw- every team was following our standard boat-loading procedure. Way to go 5th graders. A BIG thank you to Mr. Ralph our custodian- he saved one of our lifeboats after it got sucked in to the heating vent...What would we do without the custodial staff?

After inspecting we discussed the difference between INDEPENDENT and DEPENDENT variables. Independent variables are known before the experiment begins. Dependent variables are learned by conducting the experiment.

• What was our INDEPENDENT VARIABLE?
  
• What was our DEPENDENT VARIABLE?

Write your answers in the comments section!

How Fast Can You React to a Stimulus?

We had such a fun math lesson today! Today in class the students had the experience of estimating reaction times and using statistical landmarks (maximum, minimum, mode, mean, and median) to describe their data. Each partner group used the "Grab-It Gauge" to estimate how fast they can individually react to the stimulus. Each of us then found our median reaction time with our right hand and our left hand. We used this data to create a class It was a fun and interactive math lesson today.

Good luck on tonight's Study Link! Don't forget to take your "Grab-It Gauge" home so that you can test the reaction time of two family members (no dogs allowed)!