Ms. Hoskins' Classroom

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

BAKE SALE! Calling on Volunteers!

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Fifth graders are planning and organizing a bake sale to benefit their trip to Boston in June. In order to make this a success, we would appreciate having volunteers to support this event. The bake sale will be held on Thursday, April 14, from 1:00-5:00. We feel the day of parent-teacher conferences will give us an opportunity to get a lot of potential customers. If you are able to help, please check off the task that best matches your interest and schedule. We will respond about your "shift" by Monday, April 11. Thank you in advance for your involvement!

Child’s Name________________

Parent/Grandparent’s Name_______________________

________I can help set up for the bake sale event.

________I can contribute a baked good item or items.

________I (adult) can support fifth grade representatives with overseeing the bake sale table during the actual event (Please choose which shift works best for you.):

1:00-2:00______

2:00-3:00______

3:00-4:00______

4:00-5:00______

*We can do our best to coordinate your volunteer time with your child’s conference.*

________My fifth grade child can help with the bake sale during one of the following shifts:

1:00-2:00_______

2:00-3:00_______

3:00-4:00_______

4:00-5:00_______

*We will provide a permission slip to ensure that your child can be dropped off and picked up after his/her shift.*

________ I can help clean up after the bake sale event.

**Did You Know? **

Colonists were likely to eat tea cakes, cornbread, and/or johnny cakes. It would be neat if one of these items could be available at our bake sale!

Friday, March 18, 2016

Bravely Writing About Bravery

I have been ever so impressed by my fifth grade friends this quarter. They're growing, not only taller, but deeper. Through their writing, I have gotten to know different sides of each of them as individuals. They've shared personal feelings and special moments, and they've take risks to do so without holding back!

We've been working on writing memoirs, which seems very sophisticated for fifth grade. However, they're able to achieve great, thoughtful pieces of writing, especially after seeing a variety of styles used by professional writers. Just as I started thinking we'd run out of steam and it might be time to move on from memoir, they've impressed me again!

Because of a book we've been reading as a class (Number the Stars by Lois Lowry), we've had many discussions about the idea of bravery. Students have now had an opportunity to reflect on the book's characters who are brave, write acrostic poems about the word "brave" itself, and they've thought about themselves as brave individuals.

Today, in the last period of the day, I assigned a theme of "Write about a time you were brave." We brainstormed the times students had shared in Morning Meeting earlier this week, and I wrote these ideas on the board in general terms. Each student chose one form of bravery to write about, and wrote fast and furious for about 15 or 20 minutes. The bar was pretty low, being a Friday afternoon, doing a non-preferred activity. However, when I just sat down to read their work, I was blown away. I would like to use these pieces and build off of them for conventions practice, and I hope to have them ready to be shared with you by the time report cards go out.

Some featured acrostic poems:

Our "Bravery" Brainstorm:

15-20 minutes later...

I am proud of these kiddos every day, but the featured proud moment today comes from writing.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Pie in the Face Campaign!

Our 5th grade friends have been working hard to promote the Pie in the Face event coming up on March 14th to support their class trip to Boston. Check our their recent promo video!

Good teamwork to Tadd, Elijah, Ben, Severen, Gabe, Nathan, and Izaak, who put this promo together in about a half an hour!

Who will get pied on Pi Day?

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Scott Kelly Returns to Earth

Astronaut Scott Kelly is set to depart the International Space Station, where he has lived for the past 340 days (twice as long as any other US astronaut has been in space), to return to Earth. While it will be really late into the night when he is scheduled to land, your family may consider tuning into the live-stream of some other parts of his departure. You can check out the web link below, or visit Nasa Television's website for the live feed.

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11139594/astronaut-scott-kelly-return-time-live-stream

The students learned about Scott Kelly back in third grade before he set out for his space mission. Scott Kelly is an identical twin, and part of this mission involves collecting twin data while his brother Mark has been here on Earth. https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study

Scott Kelly has also been a part of the Space Veggie project. He successfully grew a zinnia in January after many attempts during his mission. http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/first-flower-grown-in-space-stations-veggie-facility

All of this is part of the early stages of the Mission to Mars. It is possible that in our lifetime, we will see a manned mission to the Red Planet. http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars

Google Search: Scott Kelly year in space for more info

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Unique Opportunity -- Wonder Author, R.J. Palacio at Bowdoin

If you have interest and availability to go to Brunswick tonight, consider checking out this author talk.

R. J. Palacio, author of NY Times #1 bestseller, Wonder, will speak at Bowdoin College on Wednesday, February 24^thfrom 7:00-8:15pm in Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. She will speak about how she came to write the book, and how it has sparked the “Choose Kind” movement. She is the parent of a Bowdoin student and lives in New York City. Sponsored by the Education Department.

It will also be live-streamed at bowdoin.edu/live and archived at BowdoinTalks, talks.bowdoin.edu.