Delayed Opening Tomorrow and Extra Help

Just a reminder that tomorrow there is a delayed opening because of the Parent Teacher Conferences. School will start at 10:45.

Because I do not have conferences scheduled at 10 A.M, I am holding extra help for the students who would like to come. So send your child tomorrow at 10 if you would like them to get some extra help before the math test.  I will also have regular extra help Friday morning at 8:00 A.M.

Thank you!

Latest in 5B and Parent Teacher Conferences

Please sign up for a parent teacher conference if you are going to have one.  It is not mandatory, but I want to give everyone the time needed.  Also, if you have signed up for two conferences by mistake and can't make any changes on Sign Up Genius, please let me know and I will make the changes for you.

Thanksgiving this year was quite productive in our class.  Your child planned a meal for six people and had to spend less than $40.  They all shopped at Market Basket, Shaws, Stop & Shop, and other local grocery stores.  Once everyone learned that a two pound turkey wouldn't feed six people and it was OK to have chips as an appetizer, they were on there way to shopping success. See the pictures below.

Information for Thanksgiving Week

This will be a short week for all of us at Proctor.  We have an early release on Wednesday because of the Thanksgiving Holiday.  If anyone has grocery store fliers, please send them in with your child.  We will be doing a project on Wednesday and will need many of them.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoys the time with family and friends.

Food Drive

Just a reminder that the Food Drive is going on this week until Thursday, November 20th.  We have a graph in the cafeteria that shows the number of canned goods brought in by class.  So we need to bring in the canned goods. We want to be a top class!

Field Trip Tomorrow

Just a reminder that we will be traveling to Sturbridge Village tomorrow. We will be leaving promptly at 8:30, so all children must be at school by 8:15. Remember to leave all electronics at home. We have activities planned for the long bus ride!  Don't forget your bag lunch. Leave all peanut and nut products, along with any glass items at home. Dress warm and prepared for inclement weather. It is expected to rain tomorrow.

I'll see everyone bright and early tomorrow morning!

Missing Volunteer Forms

If you volunteered to help out with DASH could you send me an email?  The office misplaced the forms and we currently do not have any volunteers for our class.  Please email me soon.  DASH starts at the end of the month.

Thank you!

Take A Look At What Has Been Happening!

Cardboard Challenge

We have been very busy in our class.  We are finished with our Cardboard Challenge and will be displaying the work we have created with the school later in the week. Below are some pictures of the work in progress.

Students learned some valuable lessons about designing and redesigning!

Ben  picking out some colors for the paint job on the car the boys designed.

Olivia and Arianna picking out the paint color for their interactive design.

Ethan, Gar, Ben, Aidan, and Charlie building their car.

Arianna, Olivia, and Jolie painting their surprise design.

Ethan making some necessary changes.

Aidan thinking through a problem.

Girls stopping to pose for a picture.

Erin, Bella, Liza, and Katelyn in their refrigerator!

Andrew, Will,  and Ryan working in the hall because their project is so large it won't fit in the room!

Moldy Bread Project

 Our moldy bread is looking a bit...well, you can see for yourself!

Both Mrs. Boucher's and Mrs. Lantz's Classes

Mrs. Lantz's Class

Mrs. Boucher's Class

Some questions to think about.  Why is it that my class molded more than Mrs. Lantz's class?  Mrs. Lantz's class hasn't appeared to mold very much at all.  They actually started the project two (2) days before my class.  The bread was rubbed in pretty much the same places with in my classroom.  The types of bread are the same except some of my students did get homemade bread that only contained 4 ingredients.  Talk to your child about what you think happened. Ask your child what he or she thinks may have happened.  Ask what he or she would do if this experiment were to be done at home. Would anything be changed?  If you are in the building, stop by and take a look. It won't be up much longer.  It is getting pretty disgusting!

Exciting Things Ahead

We are about to begin the Cardboard Challenge.  This is a very exciting challenge for the class.  If you are wondering what this is all about or what you may need to do, watch the video below.  Parents do not need to anything except maybe save some recyclables for your child to bring in for the challenge.  This will be our first Engineering and Design challenge.  We will be working on this until October 10th.  I will be posting pictures, so check back soon.

Caine's Arcade Global Cardboard Challenge

We have also been busy with our Moldy Bread Experiment.  Starting Monday we will be observing the changes in the bread and answering some questions about why certain breads will mold faster than others.  I will have updates and pictures for you on the bread later this week.

We are very busy in fifth grade!  But we have a lot of fun.  Stay tuned for updates.

Off To A Great Start!

We have had a great start to our year!  Each day since school has started, I have been greeted by smiling faces and eager to learn children.  A teacher couldn't ask for anything more.

A few things to remember, gym is on Tuesday and Friday so make sure you come dressed and ready to play!  If you don't have all of your supplies, please make sure you get them soon.  We all need to be ready to work and need the tools to be successful.

Fifth grade will be challenging, but we will have a lot of fun together! It is going to be a great year!

Welcome Back to School!

Dear Parents and Students,

I hope you have all had a restful and relaxing summer.  It is hard to believe that school is about to start in just a few days.  I have been busy getting the classroom ready for all of us, and I am excited to have you join me for the fun year ahead.

School will start promptly at 8:40 A.M. on September 3, 2014 for a full day.  I can't wait to see you all then! Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Mrs. Boucher

End of the Year Activities!

We finished off the year with weather instruments and a "mini water cycle".  The students made observations and gained a better understanding of the water cycle.  See the pictures below of the students working.

We also learned about the Battles of the Revolutionary War. The students researched battles using books from the library and then used the ipads to gather more information.  After compiling information, students worked in groups to write scripts and acted as news reporters.  They reported out on the Battles, in costume, while being filmed in front of the green screen.  These shorts films will be linked soon.

Katie actually wore her costume to the dentist!

We also have some new additions to our class.  Each day they continue to grow and change before our eyes!  I will post a picture on the last day of school to show how much the tadpoles have grown.

I will also post pictures of the other activities we have done.  Stay tuned!

Egg Drop, Bubble Wands, and Weather Instuments

We are approaching the end of the year and still have much to do. Your children may have come home excited to tell you about our egg drop project. Just in case you are wondering, this is what your child will need to do: create a homemade structure that will hold a raw egg intact while being thrown off of Proctor's roof. This contraption cannot be bigger than a shoebox and must be made from recycled materials. You should not buy any materials. This project will be completed at home and children should come to school on June 13th with a finished product and raw egg.

The children will also be building bubble wands. There will be a handout coming home at the end of this week. Please check your child's backpack for information. This should also be made completely from recycled materials and you will not need to purchase any materials.

We have been working very hard constructing  weather instruments in class. Ask your child about the different types of instruments we have made.  We will be taking some data using the instruments later this week.

Check back often to see pictures of your children hard at work.

How Many Boxes Will Fill Our Classroom?

After MCAS testing was over, the class took on the challenge of trying to calculate the total number of Scholastic boxes that would fit in our classroom.  The students were grouped in fours and were given a box. One group was given a basketball. The only directions the students were given was to work together to think through the process and use the tools in the classroom and all that we have learned in math to help them with this task. They also needed to be able to show their thinking and calculations when they were finished.  Below are some pictures of the students working to solve the problem.

A head scratching challenge!

Will and Olivia measuring the length of the room.

Jack telling Karleigh she must be right!

Double checking your work is always a good idea!

One group had an extra challenge, a basketball!

This was a fun way to spend the rest of the morning after MCAS tests.  The students worked very hard to find an answer.  But it wasn't about finding the correct answer, but rather about thinking about a problem. 

James thinking about creative ways to measure.

New Happenings in 5B

Difficult word problem homework . Maybe
you remember helping your child with
this one?

We have all been working very hard on our latest math unit - Surface Area and Volume.  The students have trying their best and working very hard to understand new math concepts.  The photo to the left was one of the rather difficult math word problems the children had to work on for homework one night last week.  A couple of girls tackled the problem together and worked very hard until they got the correct answer. These problems are not easy, but they do show that with perseverance you can get the answer.

Katie, James, and Kate
sorting shapes on our class Venn
diagram. 

In an attempt to learn Geometry, the students have been making all kinds of shapes for the past month or so.  Once everyone put their shapes up on the Venn diagram it wasn't quite correct so Katie, James, and Kate volunteered to come in early one morning last week to fix it.  They took on the challenge of identifying the mistake and then reorganizing the class Venn diagram.  Stop outside our classroom if you are at school to see if you can identify how they sorted the shaped.

Our class Happy Meal from September.

I thought I would take a picture to show all of you what our class Happy Meal looks like as of the end of April, 2014 - NOT MUCH different than September!  The apples are more brown and a little bit softer, the nuggets and fries are as hard as rocks but that is it.  Other than that they look like they did they day I bought them back in September.  I don't know about you, but I won't be eating at McDonald's any time soon!

We have just finished up our
reading unit on Historical Fiction.  I thought it would be fun to write Spy Letters from the point of view of a character in the book we have just read.  To the left is an example of how the recipient of the spy letter would read the letter using the decoder.  To the right, you can see what looks like an ordinary letter but it really contains a secret message. The students used the decoder to write their letters.  It was more difficult than it sounds, but it was a lot of fun.  If you would like to read the secret letters, stop outside our classroom and read the bulletin board to read about all the secret messages.

Stop by our classroom to see all of these projects!  Your children work very hard.

This Week In Room102

We have finished the ELA section of MCAS and all of the students worked very hard. I was very proud of each and every one of them! We have a bit of a break before the next round of math and then science in May. So for now, it is back to the normal day in our classroom.

As you read last week, we have been studying the different traditional literature types. The students have organized and classified different book genres. This past week they took all of the information they gathered and began creating posters. Stay tuned to see the final products or better yet, stop outside our classroom to take a look and see them in person. We aren't quite done just yet though. Give us a few more days.  Once the posters are finished, the students will be working independently to create something of their own. This you will have to wait for, but it will be worth the wait! Take a look to see your children hard at work.

Nick, Harry, and Sydney all working hard on their poster drafts.

Matthew and Cooper discussing the myths and the characteristic to include in their poster.

Uma and Tori deep in discussion about a castle, a donut clock, and fairy tales!

Abby and Madi each adding a touch to the draft.

Did someone say pictures? Katie and Kate stopping for a photo shoot.

Ryan, James, and Jack all working cooperatively on a draft.

Sebbie starting the draft -Teddie had to leave for a minute!

We have also been working diligently in math learning how to accurately measure and label angles. We have also learned that the sum of all triangles is 180 degrees. Ask your child about the hands on activity that we did to prove that the sum of all triangles always equals 180 degrees. Ask them to prove it to you.

Please keep a look out for a permission slip to Concord and Lexington the week of April 9th.  We will be going with Mrs. Lantz class. And if you have not returned the permission slip for the Great Body Works movie please do soon.