Friday Folders

With our second trimester report cards coming home on March 16th, there will not be any Friday Folders/Progress Reports for the upcoming weeks as I get all the grades together:

• Friday, March 2
• Friday, March 9
• Friday, March 16

Friday Folders and Progress Reports will resume on Friday, March 23.

Thank you!

Read Across America

Next week, March 5-9th is Read Across America week, which is held the first week of March to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. We will be reading books from many great authors! To help celebrate, Mohr has a series of spirit days lined up.

Monday:  Fox in Socks -- wear silly or mismatched socks

Tuesday:  Green Eggs in Ham -- wear the color green

Wednesday:  Horton Hears a Who -- complete a random act of kindness

Thursday: The Cat in the Hat -- wear your favorite hat

Friday:  Favorite Thing -- dress as your favorite story character

We will also be participating in our school's Read-a-thon! From March 5-March 16, students will be earning minutes in class, and at home toward their reading goal. If you have not yet signed up online, make sure to do that this week.

Week 25 Newsletter

Another week has flown by! It's almost the end of our second trimester. Students have been hard at work on their historical reports, we're finishing up Module 4, and we are getting close to the American Revolution. A lot of big things are happening in the coming weeks. Please make sure you mark your calendar for all upcoming events.

Today in class I went over the speech requirements. Each student has a copy of all the necessary items. They will be giving a speech to teach us about their topic. They should be informative and knowledgable about their topics. Speeches begin on Monday, March 5.

Tonight, Friday 2/23, is our school's Lunar New Year Event. Families can come from 5-8pm in the MPR to help celebrate the Year of the Dog. It should be a fun event!



UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Monday, Feb 26
• Band and Strings! Don't forget your instrument
• Field trip forms due
• Friday, Mar 2
• Minimum Day, dismissal at 12:30pm
• Module 4 Test
• Monday, Mar 5
• Historical Speeches begin
• Read-a-thon begins (until Mar 16)
• Wednesday, Mar 7
• Lawrence Livermore Lab field trip
• Unit 5 SS Test
• Friday, Mar 9
• Historical Reports due

4th Annual PUSD Film Festival

Calling all future directors!

PUSD is having their annual Film Festival in May. All video submissions are due by April 23rd. Check out the link HERE for more information.


There are many free tools you can use if you are interested in creating a video. Check them out HERE.

Week 24 Newsletter

We are continuing to work hard on our Historical Reports. Students have been researching, building timelines, creating mini-biographies... our final drafts will be due on Friday, March 9th. We will also be giving speeches about our topics. The speeches will be given Monday, March 5- Wednesday, March 7. This will be the last big projects for the second trimester report cards.

Last fall we read the book Wonder which is always a big hit. Now we are reading The Julian Chapter which shows a different perspective to the story. It's always enlightening to learn more about a character instead of just seeing them as the villain. While Julian has not been a nice person, we are leaning to see more from his point of view.

Today we were lucky enough to have Jacob's grandfather, Mr. Callen, come and talk about airplanes and flying. Mr. Callen is a retired pilot and he shared his knowledge on flying. It was fun to hear about all he was able to accomplish. Lots of questions and stories were shared. Creating their own engines was a big hit!


Upcoming Events:

• Monday, February 19
• No School, President's Day
• Tuesday, February 20
• Safety Valet pizza lunch

And just a reminder we have many important dates coming up for our writing project. Please plan accordingly. 

• Monday, March 5- Wednesday, March 7
• Speeches & visual aides due
• Friday, March 9 
• Final drafts due (printed)

Week 23 Newsletter

We are busy working on our Historical Reports and learning a lot about American History. Students have been drafting subtopics, finding information, analyzing maps and timelines. We will also have a speech attached to this report. We will be working on this for the next few weeks.

Today we started reading The Julian Chapter, a follow up to our beginning class novel, Wonder. We will be reading this for the next week or so, talking about kindness and how people can change.

Next Wednesday is Valentines Day. We will be having an exchange in class. If you plan on bringing in Valentines make sure you have one for every student in class (all 33 people). These are not required.

There will not be any spelling lists for the next two weeks due to the Monday holidays. We will resume the week of February 26th.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Monday, Feb 12
• Holiday, No School
• Wednesday, Feb 14
• Valentine Exchange
• Thursday, Feb 15
• Scholastic Book Orders due

Science Fair

Hello Mohr Families,

The Annual Science Fair is March 15th in the MPR here at Mohr School!  This is a fun event for ALL students and families. Please consider participating this year.

Here is what you will need to know:

• Students can work on a project by themselves, with a partner or in a group of three.
• There are many ideas out there to explore. Just look online Websites for Science Fair ideas or in a book or think of what you would like to learn.
• The science boards can be purchased at school (until we sell out for $3.50). You can also find them at Walmart and Office supply stores.
• You can bring in your project on Wednesday (March 14th) after school to the MPR from 2:50 - 3:30.   OR......
• You can bring it when you arrive at school on March 15th. Those coming to school at 8:00 am please bring your project to MPR. Those arriving at 9:00 please drop your projects off in the MPR. Kindergarteners arriving later can bring them by the MPR when they come to school in the morning.
• Families are invited to come and view the projects on Thursday evening from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm in the MPR.
• There is a Science Fair booklet (science fair booklet) with some information about the scientific method that will help guide you through your project and discoveries.

About the Boards:

• Please make sure your name (First and Last) in on the lower right side of the board.  Please include your teacher's name and your room number.  If you have any partners then their names and teacher's name and room number also needs to go on the board.
• There is an easy form you can fill out that you can just attach to your board PRIOR to turning it in.  form to put on science project

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Stanford (lstanford@pleasantonusd.net).

Week 22 Newsletter

Wow! What a busy couple of weeks we've had. This week we finished up our Unit 4, Life in the Colonies in Social Studies, which had us taking our unit test as well as a notebook check. We spend so much time collecting information in our Social Studies notebooks, so I'm always glad to see the effort everyone puts in to their work.

Next up will be Unit 5, Cause of the Revolution. We are finally ready to learn what was happening in the Original 13 Colonies, and what led the colonists to fight for independence. This is always a really exciting time in 5th grade Social Studies.

Our writing has also expanded into historical informational reports. Students picked a topic from a list of U.S. History topics and they've begun to research. This paper will show more of their knowledge in what is necessary with informational writing, while looking at it as a historian. We will study primary sources, maps, timelines, and people to better understand our historical event.

Thank you for all the cards and well-wishes for my birthday yesterday! It was so nice to spend the day with everyone!

Today in music class with Mrs. Robertson, students learned about Jazz music and how to scat. She took a video of our class, and in particular Vadim, showing off his new found scatting skills. I think you will enjoy the video! VIDEO LINK


URGENT: 
The cold/flu season has been sweeping through our classroom, as several students have been absent over the last several days. We've been wiping desks and cleaning hands to try and combat the coughing and sniffling. As a result, our tissue supply has been wiped out. If you have any tissue boxes that you are willing to donate, we would be very grateful!



UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Tues, Feb 6
• GATE test
• Wed, Feb 7
• Science Fair boards sold in Library at 2:50pm