Thanksgiving at the Crames

Thanksgiving Glimpse...

Sophia's desserts.

Gratitude 217

If you think of it, please send some Thanksgiving pictures to me.  I'll post them when I can.  This way we can appreciate how everyone celebrates.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Designer Reflection Video Instructions

Moments of Gratitude...

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year.  It is time to reflect on the many things that we are grateful for.  As we gather this holiday weekend, our fourth graders will be sharing a special thank you to someone dear.  Be on the lookout for these moments of gratitude.

I would love to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to all of you.  For your support, your talents, your effort and your patience, I am grateful.  As a teacher, I find it exciting to work with such inquisitive and imaginative minds.  I am thankful that you have embraced your own journey and that I get to share it with you.

Happy Thanksgiving to All.

Sincerely,

Fitz Crame

Project Central Game Presentations

Full Research Paper and Boards To be Presented in School Starting Monday

It's time to start wrapping up our science projects.  The final projects will be due for presentation starting Monday, December 1st.
Boards, research papers, digital design templates and prototypes should be brought to school for classroom presentations on Monday.
Please refer to the research paper checklist to ensure that all necessary components appear in your final paper.
Good Luck

Link your RIT score to Khan Academy Activities

http://support.nwea.org/sites/www.nwea.org/files/resources/Khan%20PDF%20MPG%20October%202014.pdf

How to Use
1. Use MAP reports to find the RIT scores for a given sub-goal.
2. In this document, locate that same goal, approximate RIT range, and sub-goals.
3. To choose appropriate Khan Academy exercises:
a. Consider both the name of the exercise and the CCSS standard.
b. Click the link and try the exercise yourself.
Note: When you’re in Khan Academy, the links to videos and other resources add
context to the actual exercise but are not necessarily correlated to MAP.
4. In the browser window where the exercise opened, note or copy the Web address URL.
5. Optionally deliver exercises to students. For example:
• Paste the URL into an online document for students to access.
• Present the exercise in the classroom.
• Use for parent-teacher conference discussion.

NWEA RIT Resources (MAP)

This is a very useful ink for personalized RIT level skill development.  Just follow this link
  RIT to Resource

1. Click search by RIT score.
2. Enter desired Subject (math, language or reading)
3. Enter desired goal strand (per subject)
4. Enter specific subject goal (per subject)
5. Enter current RIT score
6. Enter specific Common Core Standard
7. Click "Show Results"
8. Choose activity
9. Have Fun!

Using your current RIT score allows you to focus your learning activities to your specific level.  You can also choose activities like videos, games, puzzles and more that you find interesting/fun.  The more time you spend working at your personalized level, the more you will grow!

We'll take a closer look at these resources this week in school.  Have a great weekend.
Mr. Crame

Properties of Math: Project Central Productions

Science Fair Board Template

Review of Literature Due Monday

Get your Review of Literature Published this weekend.

Von Steuben Science Fair Field Trip

Wesley diagrams the boundaries for Cops and Robbers

Cub Scout Recruitment Meeting

If you are interested in joining the Cub Scouts, information was sent home in the backpacks today.

Mathways Unleashed

More kid-created information about this program to follow...

Project Central In Action

Students who successfully complete the Topic Ultimate Challenge may find themselves in "Project Central". In this phase of Mathways, students may design projects to help others understand the concepts covered within the current math topic.  Some have designed board games, posters, brochures and even a music video.  Stay tuned for the finished products.

Maciek Teaches Us How To Capture a Screen Shot on a Chromebook

Joe's Review of Multi-digit multiplication Game

Owen Observes Order Of Operations

Knocking out Geniuses with Evelyn

Mia Reviews Mayan Math Monster

Walking Field Trip This Friday

With the Science Fair rapidly approaching, (final project due December 1st) we will be doing some additional research on a walking field trip to Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center.  We will walk to the school by 8:30 AM.  We will visit the Von Steuben Science Fair and investigate the over 500 different student projects.  We should return to the school by 9:45-10AM.

Permission slips are coming home today.  We are looking for a few parent volunteers to chaperone. So, if you are available, we'd love to have you join us.

Great Math Sites for Reading and Math: IXL Online Math and Language Practice

http://www.ixl.com/
IXL Cuts off after a short time without a membership.

http://mrnussbaum.com/allgames/
Games you can play on the iPad and on the computer.

Use this site to go over some math and reading skills for practice.

Aidan's Review of Literature Outline

Here is a nice document that Aidan has found to help guide us through our Review of Literature (due Monday 11/24).  It is a five paragraph outline that nicely organizes the review of literature requirements.You may use this to guide your own R.O.L.'s.  You may also include more paragraphs to help illustrate your project.

Nice find Aidan!

Aidan’s Guide to The Perfect Review of Literature

Introduction

Hook the reader.  Get the reader to be interested in your project.  Entice them to read the rest of your paper.  

Why you were interested in this project?

State statistics that better define your project and its purpose.

Define your purpose for this experiment.

Second Paragraph: First Source

Give the bibliographic information in sentence form. Example: “According to…”, “As mentioned in…”

Use your notes to summarize the scientific information you found in this source.

Summarize the most important information that you learned from this source.

Third Paragraph: Second Source

Give the bibliographic information in sentence form. Example: “According to…”, “As mentioned in…”

Use your notes to summarize the scientific information you found in this source.

Summarize the most important information that you learned from this source.

Fourth Paragraph: Third Source

Give the bibliographic information in sentence form. Example: “According to…”, “As mentioned in…”

Use your notes to summarize the scientific information you found in this source.

Summarize the most important information that you learned from this source.

Final Paragraph

Write a sentence or two that summarizes the overall facts and information you gathered from your research.

Explain a cat that you found surprising or interesting.

Explain how you think this information will affect your hypothesis.

Write a conclusion sentence the explains the value of reviewing scientific research before continuing with your science project.

You may add more paragraphs to enhance your writing.  Your review of literature should be 2-5 pages typewritten.  Remember to take your writing through the various stages of the writer’s process: prewriting, drafting/writing, editing, revising and publishing.

Also, be mindful of the six traits of writing:

Ideas

Organization

Voice

Word Choice

Sentence Fluency

Conventions

Science Fair Update

This week we have been working on the Review of Literature.  The review of literature will be a 2-5 page paper that discusses the science behind our projects using our references.  It helps the reader understand all aspects of the experiment from why you chose the project  to the experiment itself. We constructed our introductory paragraph together and began to develop an outline to guide our writing.

The Review of Literature will be due next Monday, November 24th.
The final paper, along with the Science Fair Boards and Digital Design Templates (with prototype) are due Monday, December 1st for classroom presentations.
The Science Fair is scheduled for December 5th in the Gym.  Times to follow.

For design engineers, we have chosen the most makeable "ideate" idea and should begin construction of the prototype this weekend.  This will allow for testing and editing next week.  The week of the 24th will be used to create advertisements and publishing of the final digital presentations and paper.

For experimenters, experiments should have been underway for completion within the next week to allow for evaluation of results and conclusions.  The week of the 24th should be dedicated to final revisions of the paper and publication of the science boards.

We will practice presentations in the room beginning December 1st.

Good luck.

Poke a Guy App Development Team

Math Derby Game Development

217 Circa 1980

With wifi down due to system upgrade, 217 travels back in time when slates were just sheets of rock and notebooks were notebooks.

Global Safari All School Assembly

Helpful Sites for MAP Rit Enhancement

Good Evening Parents,

Thank you to all who came to report card pick up.  I enjoyed meeting with all of you. The support that you provide to your child is the key to their success.  I appreciate your effort and dedication.  

Per our meetings...Attached you will find a list of some websites that you can use at home to enhance reading and math skills through games and activities.  You can select activities according to MAP Rit scores as indicated on the sheets I gave out during conferences.  

Your student can play games nightly and focus their learning according to their individual levels.  Use the sites as you see fit.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Good Night,

Fitz Crame

http://www.prepdog.org/

Reading Activities by RIT
http://clinton.k12.wi.us/maptest_sites/map_reading_rit.html#readritabove220

Math and Reading NWEA Activities by RIT
http://www.belleplaine.k12.mn.us/page/3028

Defines Abilities by RIT
https://sites.google.com/a/sau73.org/curriculum-assessment/activities/nwea-rit-bands/math

Math and Reading Games by RIT
http://www.fredon.org/student-resources/rit-games

Math MAP Practice by RIT
http://www.anderson5.net/domain/3057

MAP also assesses a student’s ability to identify an author’s purpose: to persuade, to inform or to entertain.
Here are some activities to help understand author’s purpose.
http://www.fcatexplorer.com/media/parent/tiplister/flash/tip210a.swf

MAP also assesses a student’s ability to identify the main idea of a reading selection. Here’s a link:

https://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help/informational_text_main_language_arts_fifth_5th_grade.htm

Lexile Level Book Finder: https://lexile.com/
This website will help identify books geared towards individual lexile levels.

First Quarter Reflections

Today we took sometime to reflect on our first quarter adventure.  We created digital flyers to capture these reflections.

1. My Greatest Accomplishment
2. My Greatest Challenge
3. My Goals for the Next Quarter

Midori's First Bulls Game

I had to rush after school to a pizza place where I ate a snack and did some homework.  Afterwards, I had to go to after school where my dad picked me up early to go to the Bulls game.  It was very fun to see grandmas being cheerleaders, and they also had parachutes that had shirts attached to them that they were shooting towards the crowd.  It smelled really strongly of burgers and fries.  The third quarter of the game was really boring because nobody was making a single basket.  But finally in the forth quarter, both teams started to make baskets and the Bulls won the game.