5SW

Homework Sheet #22

Homework Sheet #21

For the last week 5SW has been working on learning new poetry techniques.  We have worked with onomatopoeia, similes and metaphors, personification, rhythm and rhyme and capturing a moment in time. We also tried to draw a lemon and a classmate’s shoe to learn to look at things in a different way. We tried to “be the lemon”. We also had to pick a poem, type and put it on the door. Now we are working on finding a mentor poet to read about and even read some of their poems. To go along with that we are reading through poetry books to document one poem book, either from your mentor poet or a different poet.

Here are some pictures of us at work:

Our focus in Social Studies right now is government. We are learning about the three branches of our US government. Here is some of what we have learned so far:

Legislative Branch
The Legislative Branch is a group of people who are either a representative or a senator.  There are 2 senators for each state and the amount of representatives depend on the population of the state.  For example, California has 53 representatives and New Hampshire only has 2.  The main purpose for the branch is to make laws.

Judicial Branch
One part of the Judicial Branch is the US Supreme Court.  There are 9 Supreme Court Justices in total.  One of the members is the Chief Justice and the rest are regular justices.  The main purpose of this branch is to solve deeper issues.

Executive Branch
The Executive Branch makes sure that the laws are followed. You have to have been a U.S. citizen to be president, part of the Executive Branch.

Refusal Skills
In our Life Skills class we have been studying and learning about refusal skills. We talked about using them with your family and friends. Refusal skills are what you say or do to say “no” to something or someone when you are asked to do something and you think it is not a good idea or unsafe. You say “no”, but there are five steps:

1. Ask questions
(Such as where are we going, and what are we going to do?)
2. Name The Trouble
(Such as, “That’s wrong.” or “That’s against the law.”)
3. Name the Consequences
(Such as “If I do that, I’ll be grounded forever,” or “If I do that I can go to jail.”)
4. Suggest an alternative.
(“Why don’t we do something else instead?”)
5. Move it, sell it, and leave the door open.
(“If you change your  mind…”)

-From Roberts, Fitzmahan & Associates, 1987

Homework Sheet #20

What a busy week we had in 5SW. Students were in school for four days, but they were working hard! Here is a look into our week in pictures:

Monday:

Tuesday ( No School )

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Ask your student what they were up to – OR – leave a question or comment here for them to see!

Homework Sheet #19

After continued research and discussion of important election issues, the students of 5SW took to the polls! Here are the awaited results:

Democrat

11 Total Votes

9 Votes – Obama

1 Vote – Clinton

1 Vote – Edwards

Republican

5 Total Votes

2 Votes – Giuliani

1 Vote – Romney

1 Vote – McCain

1 Vote – Paul

Click on the link here to find more information about our classroom and grade level votes!

5SW Results

5th Grade Results

The 5th graders will now be adding posts and pages to our classroom website. They are excited to share their learning with you! Please see the posts below as well as the “Sugar Cube House” page above that students have created. Enjoy. Please share what you think by leaving them a comment!