Rainy Day Activities

With the wonderful rain finally hitting us, we have been forced to stay inside for numerous days in a row. While many of their classmates were busy drawing, reading, and playing competitive tournaments of Uno... Kai, Jonah, and Petar took to creating a pretty awesome card house during their lunch recess. Nice work guys!

Guest Blogger- Curtis

Fractions

By Curtis

After Module 2, we have started a new module in math. This module is all about fractions. We will learn about equivalent fractions, making like units pictorially, making like units numerically, and other ways to use fractions. This is a very short module, but is important. Have a happy new module!

Spelling Bee Representatives

Congratulations to our class' 4 finalists who are moving on to the next round in Mohr's Spelling Bee. We are so excited for you!

Soumya, Jayani, Lionel, Anjali 

Module 3

As we begin Module 3 and start diving into adding and subtracting fractions, I wanted to make sure you remember where to locate the resources available to you.

Ms. Wilcox's Videos

Videos will be posted when needed

Mr. Habecker's Videos

These help you with each lesson's homework

Spelling Bee

The Spelling Bee written test for 5th grade will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, right after school. Our science specialist, Mrs. McCarthy will be administering the test. Students should go to the MPR if they are interested in participating.

If you are interested in the 450 word list, that is for the following round, it can be found HERE.

Good luck spellers!

Can Food Drive

Holiday Can Food Drive

December 8th - 12th

Our class is participating in the Friends Helping Friends Holiday Can Food Drive. With your donations, we will be able to put baskets full of food together that we can donate to local families in need this holiday season.  Our class is signed up to bring 

boxes of granola bars.

Thank you for your support!

Hour of Code

We are participating in the Hour of Code this year, which is the week of December 8th. Today, the students were able to preview coding by creating games, cards, art, and much more. Next week we will be coding in the computer lab, as well as in our classroom using devices for our second BYOD day.

Students-- 

HERE is the link to the different games and activities you can try with coding. I can't wait to see what you are able to create!

Parents--

If you are interested in learning more about the Hour of Code, please go HERE and explore the site Code.org. They are hoping that students across the United States will get in one hour of coding next week.  To see what the Hour of Code looked like last year here in PUSD, check out the video below.

Guest Blogger- Bridget

Keith Haring

By Bridget

Photo by Aayushi

This week our guest blogger is about a person from art with Mrs. Davidson. The person was a man named Keith Haring who was a street artist. His street art was simple and all of them each had life in it such as hearts or people. In all of his art there was movement. All of his pictures were very colorful and had big, thick lines. For his signature he drew a picture that's called Radiant Baby. Almost all street artists have to put a signature so if a person made a piece of art that looked like his or her, people will know that if it was their art or not. If they put their name as a signature people will know that it was him or her and probably get sent to jail. After awhile people found out that it was him and he got sent to jail. Once he got out of jail he continued on with his art but it wasn't street art. His art wasn't popular until a long time and he made lots of money.

Scholastic Book Club

It's almost the holidays, and if you are interested in picking out any gifts for your student, click on the picture above. I'll be placing a large Scholastic order on December 5th, in order to make sure the books arrive in time before we leave for Winter Break.

Parents, if you end up ordering anything for the purpose of a gift, and would like the order to remain a secret, please let me know and we can arrange how you pick it up.

Guest Blogger- Jayani

Jayani asked a few of her friends all about the Poetry unit we are starting, as well as the book we just finished reading entitled, The Fourteenth Goldfish. Thanks to our camerawoman, Abby, as well as Katie, Soumya, Rhea, and Anjali.

Report Card Conferences

Just a reminder...

Report Card Conferences are next week, November 17-20th. The time and date you selected for your conference can be found HERE, at Sign Up Genius. You should also be getting a reminder email from Sign Up Genius a few days prior to your conference as a reminder.

Due to conferences, next week features 3 minimum days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Students will come to school from 8:15-12:30 on those days. There is no late start on Wednesday next week. Friday there is no school for the students.

I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child's grades for the 1st trimester.

Narrative #2

Students don't forget that Narrative #2 is due today before the end of the day. Many of you submitted your essay to Google Classroom today during writing time, but if you decided to work on it a little more this afternoon, make sure you get it in tonight!

Have a great 4 day weekend! See you on Wednesday!

Fun Run 2014

Tomorrow is our annual Fun Run! Students will be running and walking to raise money for technology needs at our school. We just had Apple TV installed in our classroom yesterday from last spring's Fun Run earnings. We're excited to start using it to enhance our learning. We can't wait to see what else we're able to introduce into our classroom.

Hope to see you out there cheering our class on. The 5th grade races at 2:00pm. Students show your 5th grade pride and wear lots of BLUE!

BYOD #1

We are ready to have our first Bring Your Own Device day on Friday, November 7th. Students are invited to bring in a phone, iPod touch, tablet, or laptop... as long as it is able to access the internet. We will use these devices to enhance our learning experience in social studies and science, to read new stories and articles, and to discover new ideas.

A permission slip was given to each family at Back to School Night. I still need them back from several families. If your student is missing this form, you will be receiving an email this week with the form attached. Please print it out and sign it. Your student can bring it to school with them. Any student who does not have the form returned by Thursday, November 6th will not be able to bring in a device the following day.

I'm looking forward to starting this BYOD process with your students. This first day is the beginning of many more to come, if the students use it responsibly. They are very excited to begin!

Upcoming Tests

Next week we have two big tests...

Tuesday- Science Chapter 2 Test

• The study guide was given today
• It can also be found in our Dropbox link, which is at the RESOURCES page

Thursday- Mid Module 2 Math Test

• Study guide will be given next Tuesday

Red Ribbon Week

Next week, October 27-31 is Red Ribbon Week. Each day has a different theme...


Monday- Wear RED
Tuesday- Crazy Socks
Wednesday- Sunglasses (The Pleasanton Police will be on campus during lunch)
Thursday- Pencils
Friday- HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Parade begins at 8:30am

Guest Blogger- Siona

This week, Siona chose to talk about our participation in the Global Read Aloud, as we read the novel The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm. In this video she talks with Ashley and Kai about the book, while Chloe videotapes. The class is really loving making videos to share out!

Global Read Aloud 2014

This year we are participating in the Global Read Aloud! We are reading the story The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm along with thousands of other students across the country, and world!

Check out some of the fun resources!

• Map of everyone reading The Fourteenth Goldfish
• Digital Resources by chapter
• Watch the book trailer!

Module 2 YouTube Videos

If you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel... you should! Helpful math videos are added all the time, and you can also locate them by clicking above on the VIDEOS tab. There you'll find the whole playlist, as videos are added. Great resources if you are stuck on homework or a new concept!

Guest Blogger- Ethan

This week Ethan decided he wanted to share his thoughts on how math is going in our classroom. He gathered a few of his classmates for a little chat. It was Ethan's great idea to share a video. See what's going on in our classroom!

District Classes

This year the district will be offering great reading, writing, math, and technology classes for teachers. This will be a year where you might see subs more often because the district is supporting Pleasanton teachers by offering us valuable common core training opportunities.

Thank you for being supportive as I learn new ideas and strategies that will further your child's education in my classroom in a variety of subject areas.

Science Workbook

Great news! Kai was able to find a link to the entire Science workbook online! Now, if you accidentally left your workbook homework page at home, you can print it out. The link has been added to the Resources page on our toolbar, and can be found below.

Science Workbook

Thanks Kai! What a great find!

Science Test Friday

Today the students were given a study guide to help prepare for Friday's test on Chapter 1. This study guide has been uploaded and added to our Dropbox, which can be found at the link below.

Chapter 1 Study Guide

The link to our Science dropbox folder will be permanently in the Resources section of our class site. Please make sure you are familiar with how to locate things on the site.

DropBox & Study Guide

I'll be using DropBox this year to link up important files you can access any time. Today, I uploaded our Mid Module 1 Assessment Study Guide so students will have access, if they forgot their spiral at school. You do not need to sign up for DropBox in order to access the files.

Mid Module 1 Study Guide

The study guide can be found at the link above, but will also be permanently under the RESOURCES tab on our site.

Study for Math

Thursday is our first Math test and you'll be receiving a study guide to help them focus on what they need to do.

In the meantime, you might want to brush up on past lessons by viewing the videos. Here's our class playlist:

Band & Strings

Thank you to all the parents who helped encourage their students to try out Band and Strings this year. We have almost the entire class participating and they were excited to begin today!

Just a reminder that Band and Strings will be every Friday from 1:50-2:50pm. Students will be dismissed by their B&S teacher to go home for the weekend.

Starting next week, students should be starting to bring their instruments. This is a common forgotten item for students, so help them get in the habit of bringing their instrument to school every Friday. If your student ever forgets their instrument, you can leave it in the front office, where the lunches are left.

If your child is in Band, their teacher is Mr. Borris.
He can be reached at the email address: jborris@pleasantonusd.net  There will be a second band teacher, in the coming weeks, who will have half of the instruments.

If your child is in Strings, their teacher is Mrs. Muldoon.
She can be reached at the email address: mmuldoon@pleasantonusd.net

I can't wait to hear how they sound at the Holiday concert in December!

Guest Blogger- Rhea

Picture Day

By Rhea

Picture Day is an important and stressing day, especially when you take your picture right after PE. People all in nice outfits ready to take their pictures, practicing their smiles. Preparing for pictures that will last the rest of your life! Some people are also excited to get their pictures over with. Here are some people's ideas about picture day.

Anjali says, "Smile!"

Shreya says, "I hope my picture looks nice!"

Katie says, "Picture Day rocks!"

And Chloe says, "Best day ever!"

First Math Test (Assessment)

Within each module of the EngageNY math program there are 2 assessments. One is the "Mid-Module Assessment" and the second is the "End of Module Assessment". There will be two tests, or assessments, for each module we complete.

The students will be taking the Mid-Module Assessment for Module 1 on Thursday, September 18th. Since it is our first assessment, we will be doing a lot of review in class, and students will receive a study guide to help them prepare.

The assessment has been added to our Calendar, and students are aware of the test date.

Guest Blogger- Katie

Music

By Katie

As you can see we have a new music teacher... MRS. HENDERSON! This is just my opinion but I think she is great! Personally, I like it when we have to clap the beat, and the hello song. Some people like the line up song or copying her hand motions. I think this will be a great school year with Mrs. Henderson and a brand new start. 

"I love her," Chloe says, "She is really creative." 

"I think she's funny," Ashley told me.

"Hi," says Kai.

EngageNY Videos & YouTube Channel

I apologize for the lateness of this post, but I wanted to make sure all students know that there will be videos for certain EngageNY lessons to help students with homework & new concepts. Please make sure that you check our class YouTube channel and watch for new videos on the EngageNY playlist. There will be a mix of videos- some created by me, or others to help explain concepts.Also, check out our sites VIDEO tab, for great resources! Mr. Habecker has also created great video tutorials if you are struggling with a new math concept at home. Today's lesson Module 1, Topic A, Lesson 1 (1.A.1) has been uploaded.

Guest Blogger- Camille

The First Week of School

By Camille

The first week of school was probably great for everyone. Everybody saw their friends again, got used to their teachers, sat with each other, and also had some laughs during recess. School started for one reason and one reason only... so the teachers can jam up your head again and fill it up with everything you lost over summer! Anyway, everyone should be excited for the school year to start. Everyone should start and end the day with a good attitude. Happy first week of school everyone. Good luck this year!

Photographed by Marie

Back to School Night

Don't forget.... 

Back to School Night is tomorrow (Thursday)!

6:45pm 

in the MPR 

for a message from Mrs. Berglin

7:00-7:45pm 

in Room 11B (downstairs) 

for class information

See you then!

Back to School Action Items

I'm so glad to have your family in my class this year. To get ready for Back to School Night on Thursday, there are three things I'd like you to do this week.

First, please fill out the form below with your information for this year's class list. Most important class information is either emailed out, sent out using Remind, or posted on this site.

Also, please make sure you submit your email address to this site, which is found in the right hand column. This will keep you updated regularly of events, important dates, etc.

If you cannot see the embedded form below, access it at this website: bit.ly/1nJSM0f

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There are two sign ups that every parent needs to check out this week...

1. Room Parents: 2 parents are needed to work together to help plan parties, send emails, be a liaison for PTA information, etc.
• Room Parent Sign Up
2. November Conferences: please sign up for a report card conference time that will be held the week of November 17th.
• November Conferences Sign Up

Thank you!

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Please link up with me through Remind. Remind will let me send out important reminders of tests, projects, holidays, etc. straight to your phone or email! 

You can link up one of three ways! 

(1) Download the Remind app

(2) Visit the link below:

(3) Join by sending a text to (925)208-4659

with the message @72ac50

Thank you! This will be a great year!

Happy First Day of School!

Welcome to the Wilcox Crew! I'm so excited to start the school year with all of you in my class! I hope you will have a wonderful 5th grade year with me. We are going to have a lot of fun and learn a lot of things! Get ready for an exciting final year at Mohr!

Archived Projects

You may have noticed that I added a new "Archive" section to our site. I wanted to make sure that all the work past classes have done is not lost forever. If you click on "archive" you will be taken to a site with past class's work, starting with the 2013-2014 class. If you'd like to bookmark the site, it is listed below.

http://wilcoxcrewarchive.blogspot.com/

The Best Part of 5th Grade Is...

We had a great year in Room 11B and we did a lot of amazing things! I wanted to capture everything we did, and get the students' perspective on what was their favorite part of 5th grade was. Thank you for sharing your students with me this year. I enjoyed each and every day I had with them, and I can't wait to hear about all the amazing things they are going to do in middle school, and beyond.

The Best Part of 5th Grade Is...

(please excuse some of the audio in the interviews)

The Amazing Race Across the States

For the past few weeks our class has been road-tripping across the United States to learn more about our country's states, national parks, monuments, and other interesting sights. The students were broken up into 10 teams and had to make a route that traveled through 20 states, either traveling from San Diego, California to Bangor, Maine or Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida.

Along their travels they made postcards, brochures, and souvenirs, they kept a journal of the things they saw along the way, they calculated their daily mileage and travel time, and encountered a daily "fate" which could either result in extra mileage or severe delays due to weather, car problems, or any number of incidents.

As a retrospective, the teams have been putting together a map of their route and highlighting their "Top 20 Sights". Take a look at the team maps by using the links below.

Team 1	Team 2	Team 3	Team 4	Team 5
Map	Map	Map	Map	Map

Team 6	Team 7	Team 8	Team 9	Team 10
Map	Map	Map	Map	Map

Team 1- Kina, Sarada, Nikita
Team 2- Shivani, Akanksha, Aashritha
Team 3- Anvita, Vaishali, Esha
Team 4- Noelle, Maille, Emily, Alicia
Team 5- Kendall, Simona, Victoria, Dalynn
Team 6- Connor, Sri, Xiuyuan
Team 7- Julian, Vedant, Meron
Team 8- Zachary, Dante, Div
Team 9- Cody, Joey, Sathya
Team 10- Adelric, Andrew, Matthew, Paolo

Upcoming: Amazing Race Essay & Speech

As we wind down our "Amazing Race" across the United States, the students have been preparing an informational essay & speech about a location they picked in class a few weeks ago.

The essay should focus on their location's historical importance, why people would travel to it, important facts, etc. It needs to be typed up and printed out to turn in.

The speech can be a retelling of their essay, though I recommend that it be under 2 minutes and memorized. Students may choose to change their speech slightly to make it more entertaining.

Both the essay and the speech are due on Monday, June 2nd. 

It is the last big assignment before report cards are completed for the final trimester.

Open House- May 21st

Just a reminder that this year's Open House & Art Show is on Wednesday, May 21st from 6:30-7:30pm. Stop by our room to see all the amazing things your students have done, and also swing by the Multi-Purpose Room for this year's Art Show.

Also, our classroom will feature QR Codes (Quick Read Codes) to help guide you to some of our digital projects. I recommend you download a free QR Code Scanner for your phone so you can see your student's hard work.

Hope to see you there!

DARE Culmination Tonight!

Just a reminder...

DARE Culmination is tonight at the Amador Theater. Officer Batoy has asked that students get to the theater around 6:15pm, as the program will begin right at 6:30pm.

Students should wear their DARE t-shirts that they received today and dark pants.

Hope to see you all there!

UPDATED: State Testing & Math Placement Dates

Here's the finalized schedule for the testing dates. Please mark your calendars. Students should be on time to school each day of testing:

Thurs, May 8- Math Placement Part A
Mon, May 12- SBAC (Smarter Balance)
Tues, May 13- SBAC (Smarter Balance)
Wed, May 14- SBAC (Smarter Balance)
Fri, May 16- SBAC (Smarter Balance)
Mon, May 19- CST Science
Tues, May 20- CST Science
Thurs, May 22- Math Placement Part B
Wed, May 28- Math Placement Part C

State Testing & 6th Grade Placement

Over the weekend you should've received an email from the district about state testing this year, and all the changes. Please know that this is a very transitional year, so information is slow. Here's what is known so far.

Fifth grade is taking 3 different tests: 
(1) Smarter Balance online testing,
(2) CST Star Science Test, and
(3) 6th Grade Placement Test.

The online Smarter Balance test is a completely new format and as such this year is a practice year. Students and teachers will be learning the new format of the state test, and while the students will be completing the test, their scores will not be known. Their scores do not count. You will not get results. If you are interested in seeing the Practice tests, please go to http://www.smarterbalanced.org/practice-test/

The entire 5th grade at Mohr will be taking the Smarter Balance tests the week of May 12th. 

The CST Science test is the same format we have done for years with a test booklet. This is the last year of the CST format. As of right now, the test dates are not yet scheduled.

The 6th grade math placement test will also be taken sometime in the month of May. It's exact date is not yet scheduled.

Once these tests are scheduled, I will send out an email with all the dates.

I hope this clears up any confusion. Let me know if you have any questions.

Science Competition

Below is a wonderful opportunity for any students interested in science. If you are interested, please email Cynthia Tien.

Thanks! 

Ms. Wilcox 

---

My name is Cynthia Tien, a current junior at Amador Valley High School. I am a part of a school club called Amador Valley Science for Youth, which focuses on engaging elementary school students in interactive science activities to further their exploration of science in particular areas. As a club, we value spreading the fascination and application of science to young minds, and allow them to dive into the world of science. We believe that these experiences will allow the children to expand their interest in topics already covered in class. Currently we do weekly presentations at Walnut Grove and have an audience of thirty fourth and fifth graders weekly. We also periodically do presentations at the Pleasanton Public library!

This year we are excited to announce that we will be hosting an Elementary Science Olympiad (ESO), which is an adaptation of the well-known Science Olympiad that currently takes place at the high school and middle school levels. (More information about the high school and middle science olympiad can be found here: http://www.soinc.org/). Elementary Science Olympiad is a science competition consisting of about 13 or so events that cover a variety of science topics. Students of any potential can compete in these events. We hope that this experience will allow elementary school students to have fun while competing in various events that apply the knowledge they’ve learned over the year.

We are planning to host ESO on May 31st, at Amador Valley High School, from around 9 AM - 4 PM. Teams comprised of 10-15 4th and 5th grade students will be competing as partners or groups of 3 in 13 separate events; each student will have about two events. Results are calculated based on the rankings in these individual events. Event types consist of build, lab, and study events. Build events require students to make a product beforehand and test it on the day of the event. Study events require that the students research and learn a particular topic, which they will be tested on at the day of the event. Lab events require students to use knowledge that they learn beforehand and apply it to the situation they are given on the actual day of the event.

We'll be explaining more about the events individually, to interest kids in the competition. We want as many students involved as possible!

More info about the event can also be found on this site: http://esopleasanton.weebly.com/. If you could forward this link to parents, we'd greatly appreciate it. 

If you have any additional questions, please email cynthia.oddrepublic@gmail.com

Thank you!

2nd Annual Fun Run

Mohr's 2nd Annual Fun Run will be held on Wednesday, April 9th. It is an all-day event to help garner school spirit and raise money for technology.

Today, your students should have brought home their Fun Run envelope and Pledge Form. If they plan on getting sponsors, make sure they fill out the form and return it on Monday, April 7th. Money is not needed yet, just the pledge forms.

5th Grade's color is BLUE, so students should show their spirit by wearing as much BLUE as possible. T-shirts will be given out on the day of the Fun Run for each student.

If you have any questions about the event, please let me know. The 5th graders will be racing from 1:50pm-2:30pm on April 9th, so if you want to stop by and show them encouragement, that would be great. Just make sure you get a visitor's badge in the office first!

Children's Choir

Amador UNICEF Presents

Hand in Hand

its second annual multicultural show fundraiser

Friday, May 16^th from 7-9pm

at the Pleasanton Middle School Multi-Purpose Room

Be a part of the children’s choir!

Rehearsals

Every Monday starting April 7 from 3:20-4:30

in the Walnut Grove Music Room

Directed by Ms. Martie Muldoon

email

Amador.believeinzero@gmail.com

with questions or to sign up

Donation Opportunities

Our classroom is in need of a few items. If you are interested in donating any of the following, we'd really appreciate it!

1. Kleenex boxes
2. Printer paper (plain white)
3. Binder paper (college or wide ruled)
4. Glue sticks

Thank you in advance for all your support!

Error Analysis

A new feature I've added to our class math tests is the ability for students to earn back some points for the mistakes they've made by analyzing their mistakes, after they get their tests back. Students can earn 1/2 point for every question they originally got wrong if they do these 3 things.

1. Redo the original problem they got wrong
2. Tell me what they did wrong the first time, i.e. "I multiplied when I should have divided."
3. Write and solve a sample problem that is similar to the original problem.

Any student who originally receives a "1" or a "2" on their math test will be asked to complete this Error Analysis sheet. Students who originally scored a "3" have the option, but it is not required. The Error Analysis can also be completed on any Mathematical Reasoning questions as well. 

Error Analysis sheet

The link above should take you to a copy of the Error Analysis sheet, if you should need to print a copy, though students also have this document in their Google Drive.

World Element Corporation

As a way to explore the Periodic Table, each student has adopted an element and has been researching their element's name, symbol, configuration, as well as all the uses for their element. The World Element Corporation is looking to downsize their company and the students must explain why their element should not be fired from the company.

This is an on-going in class assignment, but we've shared some of our thoughts using the website, Padlet. Check out our wall, HERE, where we explain some of our thinking about the project. Our wall will continue to be filled with our thoughts.


You should see our Padlet, below, where it is embedded in the post.

Created with Padlet

Lawrence Livermore Lab

Last Thursday we had a wonderful field trip to the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. The students spent time in the Discovery Center and then were able to participate in some hands-on experiments. Take a look at some of the pictures and videos from this fun field trip!

Weekly Nonfiction Reading

Sign in to your Newsela account and read your assigned article (check for the anchor) each week, which is found in your binder at the top of the page, and complete a reading comprehension quiz about the article.  

The weekly quiz will be up by Monday of each week, and should be done by the following Monday.  These quizzes will factor into your Reading Comprehension grade. It will be written as a part of Monday's homework, but you will have a week to finish the article and quiz.

Please use all of your reading strategies for these quizzes!  

• Preview the questions before reading the article
• Highlight the text as you read
• Reread the article and find clues in text to answer questions
• Use test taking strategies!

You can change the lexile level of the article by clicking on the blue toolbar on the right hand side of the screen. This changes the level of the words and information within the article. 

All 5th graders should start with a reading lexile of approximately 800.  If 800 isn't available, choose the closest level to 800.  I will let you know if you should adjust your lexile (reading) levels in the next few weeks based on your reading comprehension scores for the quizzes. Below is a table of the lexile breakdown based on the Common Core Standards.

Typical Text Measures, by Grade

Grade	Text Demand Study 2009 25th percentile to 75th percentile (IQR)	2012 CCSS Text Measures*
1	230L to 420L	190L to 530L
2	450L to 570L	420L to 650L
3	600L to 730L	520L to 820L
4	640L to780L	740L to 940L
5	730L to 850L	830L to 1010L
6	860L to 920L	925L to 1070L
7	880L to 960L	970L to 1120L
8	900L to 1010L	1010L to 1185L
9	960L to 1110L	1050L to 1260L
10	920L to 1120L	1080L to 1335L
11 and 12	1070L to 1220L	1185L to 1385L

newsela.com

First article: 

Using DNA Testing to Pinpoint Disease, due by Monday, February 17th.

Please bookmark this reading website on your computer so it will be easy to find! Good luck and happy reading!

Google Story Builder

This week in the computer lab, the students used Google's Story Builder to create conversations between 2 or more characters. Click on the link below which will take you to a spreadsheet with an on-going collection of the students' stories.

Wilcox Crew Story Builder

The results are pretty entertaining and very creative! They had a great time making them. I hope you enjoy them! 

Elements of Art Zentangle Trees

For the last few weeks we have been working on a beautiful art that combines the students' knowledge of warm and cool colors and line. Inside the tree, students used a variety of line designs known as Zentangles.

The finished pieces are truly beautiful.

Student Created Videos

For the past few days, students have been creating videos on my iPad using Educreations to explain a word problem to the rest of the class. They had to understand what was being asked in the problem, come up with a solution, write an explanation, and make sure it was all done in a way that someone else could easily solve the same word problem.

The students absolutely loved making their videos. I hope you'll check them out and see what they were able to create. It's amazing what they are able to do!

TABLE 1- Victoria, Zachary, Noelle, Esha, Dante, and Vedant

TABLE 2- Akanksha, Simona, Shivani, Anvita, Sri, and Meron

TABLE 3- Connor, Kina, Nikita, and Div

TABLE 4- Emily, Kendall, Julian, and Adelric

TABLE 5- Joey, Dalynn, Alicia, Sarada, Xiuyuan, and Sathya

TABLE 6- Maille, Aashritha, Vaishali, Andrew, Paolo, and Cody

Science Fair

Hello Future Scientists and families:

Mohr's Science Fair is coming soon.  It is Tuesday, March 4th.   In order to start thinking about a project, look for information that will be coming out in the Eagle Express through email.  The first event is next Thursday, Feb. 6th.  We will be selling the science boards used for displaying your science project.  They are being sold for $3.00.  You can purchase one after school in the library from 3:15 - 3:45pm.  Any boards left over can be bought through the office.  If you are writing a check please make it payable to PTA.

We are looking forward to another successful Science Fair here at Mohr School.  Should you have any questions please feel free to contact Linda Stanford at: lstanford@pleasantonusd.net

The Most Important Element is...

Check out this Google Story Builder to hear a discussion between Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen as they argue who is the most important element on Earth. Click on the link below to hear their conversations.

The Most Important Element is...

Think about two or three characters you would want to have talk to each other. They could be from your favorite book or a school subject you love! You'll be making your own Story soon!

Permission Slips

Today, students brought home two important permission slips. First, the StopWaste program. They will be in our classroom next Wednesday to talk to the students about how to prevent waste at our school. In order for the students to participate, they need the permission slip signed. Second, DARE. Today the students met Officer Batoy who will be their DARE officer this year. Students need to have the permission slip to participate in the program.

1) StopWaste permission slip due Tuesday, January 21st
2) DARE permission slip due Thursday, January 23rd

If you have any questions about either of the programs, please email me.