Today for Art we got ready to tie-dye our T-shirts, by putting a lot of rubber bands around our shirts and tossed them on the couch. The rubber bands will make the designs on the shirts. Parents will be dying them for us tomorrow. The fifth grade shirts will be purple. We do this every year and we’ll wear them the first day of each month for Kids of Character. The rest of the time we got to make our own original piece of art, which meant we could do whatever we wanted to do on a piece of paper.
Today was also Wildcat Wednesday and we danced in the gym. We were practicing for the family dance tomorrow night. It’s called the Wild Wild Willowdale Fall Family Dance and Social. It starts at 6:30 p.m. I hope to
see you there!

Today Sanborn Super Students are finally turning on the new Palms (E2s) that they have been patiently waiting for for a month and a half.
Our new Palms have calculators, Bluetooth, and you can download songs. They are going to be a lot of fun.
But they are also a BIG responsibility. There are many consequences and privileges.
The first time you drop your Palm you will get it taken away for one day, second a week, and third for the remainder of the school year. If you break or lose your Palm, you will go to any of the electronic store and get a new one, or pay the money it took to get it. If you leave your Palm at home you will get a late slip! I hope I never do that!
Well I am running out of battery. I have to get my charger, but I sure love using my new palm. BYE!!!!!!!!!

Hello! I am Brandon, and today we are talking about math. Guess what? We learned something new today! We learned how to do math patterns, I mean figure out the patterns when they only give you a couple numbers in a pattern of numbers. Sounds easy huh? Well, not quite! For these patterns, we had to add, subtract, and divide for just one pattern! In fact, it took me the whole day to figure out one of those patterns! For example: 87, ___, 43, ___? Could you figure out the pattern?
Well now you know how hard math patterns can be, and so that's all for today! (The pattern was subtract 22, so the pattern was 87, 65, 43, 21).

I bet you can't guess who won first prize for the Buzz Book cover Contest? First you are probably wondering what the Buzz Book is and what the contest was?
First the Buzz Book is the phone book ALL Willowdale students get with all the students' phone numbers and addresses go in so we can go play with each other or call one another if we have questions on homework. The contest was for ALL 5th graders. We could turn in a design for the cover. Everyone in all three classes did. From there there was a process that a group of adults picked the top 15 and hung those in the teacher's lounge for two days. After two days of teachers voting, the top 4 places were announced and well.. I will tell you the results!
There was a five-way tie for 4th place and too many names. Ally and Erin from our class tied for 3rd place. Alyssa from our class received 2nd place. The 1st place winner was also from our class and it was..... Kaitlyn.
As you can see Most of the winners were from Ms. Sanborn's class.
The prizes we received were really cool! We got stuffed animals, pillows, slurpies, and more.
Boy do we have to thank Mrs. Cohen, Mrs. Merchant, and PTA for getting all the cool prizes.
I can't wait to see the books when they come out!

Hi I'm Alex and I will tell you about what my class did in gym today. We played an exciting game where you had two teams on scooters. It was like football on scooters.
You had to pass a football in boy, girl order five times then got a “touchdown.” The person with the ball can't move. It's not like tackle football and there is no swatting.
This game is fun and great because everyone is moving and we are on scooters.

Do you want to know what Ms. Sanborn’s class did for art today? Today in art we learned about an artist named Georgia O'Keeffe. We learned about some bright, colorful flowers that she drew and painted. To me the flowers looked really real and BIG.
After Ms. Sanborn read a book about her and she shared some her pictures we started drawing our own flowers, but some people had to work on other art projects that were not done yet.
Andy said,'' art was fun today.'' It was because everyone was doing different types of flowers and there were all kinds of different colors.

Yesterday we started the Social Studies ELO test and took the rest today.
“That test had some easy questions and some hard ones, but we all got through it,” stated Caeden.
One of the questions was, Is a diary a primary or secondary source? How about a computer or schoolbook?
Now that the test is over we all will breathe a sigh of relief! Ahhhhh!

Today we shared our Radio Willoweb sheets. It was really fun. We lined six desks up in front of the class and shared our presentations, like a radio show almost.
Keanu said "Wow this must’ve been hard".
Some people had a lot of things like Brandon. He had over five facts on his "Did You Know" segment sheet. A couple things I had on my segment sheet were that the Constitution has 4,440 words, Pennsylvania was spelled wrong on the Constitution, and that Rhode Island didn't get someone to come as a replacement for the person that had to go to France for an important meeting.
In conclusion some people are going to get to be on the Radio WillowWeb Podcast thanks to these tryouts we had today and some not. I thought this was fun. The people who get to be on the WillowWeb will have a BLAST!![and I know it].

Who wants to be a winner? Ceara did!
Today Ceara was the “Fast Finger” winner for “Who Wants to be a Winner Social Studies ELO!” She is in Ms. Everts' class. At first she was zooming through each point level by getting questions right and left!
Then she got to the last three questions and she began to struggle a bit. Then she used both of her lifelines for the second to last question and she got it right! She still had the last question to go though. It was a very hard question. The million point question was: Which tribe named our city Nebraska meaning "Flat Water"? Then Ms. Sanborn gave her the 50-50 lifeline to her the answer was either A or B. A was Pawnee and B was Oto. I knew what the answer was the whole entire time. It was B, but Ceara guessed A and didn't get the million points and all the prizes that with it.
Even though she missed the million, she still got everything from 32,000 and below it.
I asked Mitchell about how hard he thought the game show was and he said, "I thought some of the questions were hard and some of them were easy but, I would of gone for the million too!”
Well that game show was the most exciting thing that happened on our Friday!

I had so much fun in gym today! Did you?
First we did the pacer running test which was so tiring. We had to run back and forth until the end of level three.
Then we played an exciting game called Flag Game. It’s just like the flag football. We don’t play with a football. We have to take the flag off the person’s hip while they’re trying to run to the other side ,but today no one won.
After the game we had to go back to our class and do work.

Have you ever heard of Op art? That is what we did in art today. It stands for Optical Illusion Art and it was cool.
Here's how you do Op art. First you make any design using geometric shapes, but you have to make the shapes repeat. Last you try to make an illusion. Sometimes it will make you dizzy. We looked at a lot of examples on the web and from last year’s class.
My project has all rhombuses in it. I’m going to use markers, but I don’t know what colors I’m going to use yet.
I really liked the Op art, but it made me feel really dizzy!

Yes! The 1st ELO test is history!
Yesterday and today we did the Millard Public School Science ELO Fifth Grade test. That test was a sweat wiper. They were suppose to be review science questions from units we did in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades.
Charlie grimaced as he said, "It was hard, but I survived!"
Some people thought it was fun and easy while others thought it was really hard. It was our first BIG test of the year.
For those people who thought it was really hard or those who thought it was easy probably are wondering what the next test which is the Social Studies ELO on Monday is going to be like. I know Charlie is!

You wouldn't guess how tiring our first day in the computer lab was; we had to do 5 reading and vocabulary tests. The computer teacher, Mrs. Greenwald talked for a little while and told us where to type in our passwords and how to get to our test, then we went straight to work.
Before we got started she suggested that we should put our headphones on so the other noises in the lab and library didn’t distract us. Her other idea was to use a traker. The first two tests were kind of hard. We had to read tons and tons of short stories. The questions about them were easy for me. We did three other tests, but they were short which was great!
We were at least on the computers for about an hour. Once we were all done we had to go back to our classroom.
That was our rough first day and experience in the computer lab, I hope next time it will be more fun!

Today in Ms. Sanborn's class we had to take our reading test for "Yang The Third," and if people thought there was a question that was hard they could look back in our reading books. We also got to pair up in buddies and read some good old TFK. After reading it we had a TFK worksheet, but reading TFK was not the only thing we did with buddies, we also did some
buddy studying in spelling. Hangman as one of our
choices to help us study with our buddy.
For science we got to play bingo. Ms. Sanborn would
tell us the definition and we would see if we had the word on our board. After that it was time for Who Wants To Be a Winner. Our first personto get to be in the fast finger was the winner of Bingo, Sabien. The second was Keanu after we all took a quizzler quiz and he got a 100%. After each 5th grade class came in and their two students competed in the fast finger then the person who got in the hot seat was Keanu from our class!
Today was a busy day.

"Correct answer!" Yelled Ms. Sanborn as we were correcting our math tests from the day before.
After math we shared our writing.
Next was reading. Our class did a worksheet after reviewing the story. Then we reread the story with one or two other people.
We worked on Spell It on our handhelds after reading.
A little bit before lunch Ms. Sanborn had to leave and a substitute came. It was exciting because we got to do fish riddles and jokes.
Mmmmm, it was finally delicious lunch time. We ate up then went out to recess. When we came in we had SSR time.
Next we did spectacular Social Sudies. We did three sheets. One was about regions, one about longitude and latitude and finally the last one was about fantastic vocabulary.
When it was time for studyhall almost everyone worked on one of the two art projects. Finally everyone filled out their assignment books, then ring, ring and it was time to go home. We all said goodbye to the substitute and headed home.
It was one of my favorite Thursdays.

Noun Name Art is a project above all others! We are suppose to trace a letter on a block of paper and color everything including 5 pictures of nouns that start with the same letter as the one on the block. (Like my letter is A so I might draw an alligator, apple, ardvark, ant for example)
I think this will be tricky to to dig up five nouns that begin with the same letter as some of those student's letters for their name like y, q, and z.
I'm sure that these will all be phenomenal! Hopefully there will be an incredible blend of grammar and art.
I even went around and got some quotes on what some people think of this intriguing assignment.
"It looks like fun," said Alyssa. Charlie called it "Awesome!" Lastly Christian said, "It's pretty cool!"
I think the most unique name someone is doing is the nickname "Cheeze" by Charlie. You don't hear or see it spelled that way everyday. I'm just going to use my regular name, Ally.
I'm excited to get started on my Noun Name art by tracing the four letters in my name and decide what nouns I will use for my A, L, L, and Y.

By the end of the month we sure will be sick of tests. We have been studying for Science, Math, Spelling, and Social Studies.
"All right, one, two, three, show me," Ms. S said. Today we worked on dry erase boards to help study for the math test tomorrow. We used the boards to write our prime factorization trees, factor rainbows, and more. I hope we get lucky on our test and get that pot of gold at the end of our "rainbows!" (Who has ever heard of using rainbows in math anyway?)
One of the other tests we have been preparing for is the grandest science test, the Science ELO. We used the Quizzler on our Palms to help us study. I heard Brandon say he got 100 out of 102 on his Quizzler. Good job Brandon!
S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g was one of the actual tests we took today. It was our first of the year. We found out there is a bonus word on each test. Today's bonus word was restuarant. If you get it right we get points added to our score. Did you get it right?
Luckily we didn't study for a test in music, recess, or lunch because we had studied so hard in class the rest of the day!

WOW! I can't believe we are done with the first unit in our math journals! It feels like we whipped right through that unit, but I know we didn't, it's been three weeks.
To begin our math unit review today we highlighted the Table of Contents in our journals so we knew what to study from them. The second helpful review strategy we used was the Unit study guide. Boy was that a good refresher.
I forgot some of the lessons we learned until we did a couple of the problems on the page.
We reviewed prime factorization, factoring, divisibility rules, and so much more.
I enjoyed this unit because I learned new math words and procedures I had never learned before plus I learned tricks to help make me use take less time. I can't wait to use those divisibility rules more. I prefer to use those rather than do long division. (more time for the "fun stuff")
Actually math wasn't too bad today due to the fact that we worked through the study guide together and the only homework we have over the three-day weekend is to study for the big test.

Dear Mom and Dad, is how most of us started out our incredibly cute, but informative letters we wrote to our parents today in our Writing journals.
Our assignment in Writing after a quick discussion and listing of ideas was we had to write a letter to our parent or parents telling them what we wanted them to look at, check out, ask, or notice when they were at Curriculum Night tonight. Curriculum Night is only for parents so if we wanted them to see anything we had to be sure to write it down and give excellent directions or they wouldn't find it. Like my Superhero art. I told them exactly where it was. I also gave good directions for my Line art, Picasso, and mailbox. In my letter I also asked them to ask Ms. Sanborn some good questions and be well behaved.
I know Ms. Sanborn will do a wonderful job tonight telling our parents all about our schedule and what we are going to be doing throughout the year. The favorite thing that Ms. S is going to say is that their assignment is to WRITE US BACK! I wonder if they don't they would have to get a Late Slip and we would have to sign it?
In conclusion, the letters we wrote to our parents today in Writing were all about the upcoming Curriculum Night tonight. I know they will enjoy coming tonight especially when they have a message from me waiting to read.

Argggghh! When I think of beasts I hear the sound of wild animals,but not our beasts today. The only sound you could hear with our beasts was the sound of thinking, cutting, and gluing.
Today in art we created Beasts of the ...... Ms. Sanborn had a print up called Beast of the Sea by Henri Matisse. We talked about his work being childlike and basic. We also talked about him. We guessed what we saw in it, then after we found out the name of the print, we pointed out what we thought were objects that might be in the sea. Some were hard, others were easy.
Next, we listed places that we could use for our creations. For example, baseball field, school, mall, space, and so many more we filled up the whole chart paper.
After that Ms. S listed the requirements for this week's assignment which included columns, objects that fit the place, tons of colors and more.
We all were so excited we got to work right away cutting away. We didn't have much worktime before lunch so we also worked on our collages after our scrumptious meals too.
Boy was art fun and different today. We learned about the French artist Matisse and began our new paper, glue project Beast of the .......!

Palms! Quizzler! ELO!Do all those words seem strange to you?They did to us too until just recently. Now we practice daily on our Palms using Quizzler for the upcoming ELO tests.
In Units we have been reviewing lessons in science that we studied from first grade up until now to refresh our memories for an upcoming state test. We learned about weather, space, and matter. I don't remember everything so these reviews are great. After some of the reviews and as another way to review we turn on our Palms and use a Quizzler called ELO Science that Mr. VIncent and Ms. Sanborn wrote questions for. When you go into it, it asks you the question and gives you four choices. You choose the answer you think is right. After you press that box with your stylus it will say on the screen correct answer and move on or incorrect and wait for you to pick the right one. Some of the questions are hard. The favorite thing about the Quizzler is some of the choices for answers are really funny like Darth Vader or Sponge Bob. Those always make me laugh.
The more I practice these Quizzlers the better I get. Hopefully next week I will have gotten so good that I will be able to compete in the Who Wants to be a Winner competition.
To conclude, today we reviewed for the upcoming Science test using our Palms. We used the application Quizzler with the 102 questions ranging from weather to matter questions. This is a great way to help us all get ready for the big tests coming soon.

"and we went on the beach for three more days, then on our tenth roller coaster, then we ate all the candy we could eat." Well that would be a great vacation if it really happened, but it didn't.
Today during Writing time we sat in front of the slightly tattered couch and listened to quite a few of my fellow classmates share their wonderful memories of their favorite vacations.
The writing assignment last week was to be sure to add all five senses to the piece. I think many of us did that. I could really smell some of the yummy food that people described. I could really feel the water splashing on my face in a lot of the journals and I could also hear kids screaming at the different amusement parks thanks to the good descriptions.
This was a fun writing assignment and was really fun to hear where everyone else thought was their "favorite vacation was." I wonder what we will write about tomorrow?