Summer Homework

Over summer, students returning to AST are required to read two chapter books and write a summary for Mr. Kenan.

Don’t forget! 

Also, I recommend that you consider this a bare minimum.  Reading over summer will help you to maintain your progress and avoid the summer slide.  It is the MOST important way to prepare for Grade 6.

Students leaving AST should also read at least two books.  I will come to Taipei, Japan, Seattle, the Philippines and India in person to check your work so make sure it is ready.

Ms. Sharp also gave us some other good ideas for extra English practice over the break.  You can view the suggestions here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OEllof_kFeHZZWVNdgQ18oNN7gFcKLNY446V2W_wVcM/edit?ts=5935fb1a

I also recommend that you continue to use Khan Academy for about an hour per week to maintain your math learning.

Finally, in Middle School I recommend that students make the most of school clubs.  I suggest one sport and one other activity as a good starting point.  These are an excellent way of building teamwork skills, maturity and responsibility.

 

We recently watched two short clips about Fermi’s paradox.  Here they are.  What do you think?  Why haven’t we found any aliens?  I also added the live feed from the ISS:

I’m not sure if the comments in the NASA feed are moderated so parental guidance is recommended.

But wait, there’s more!  Here is the slideshow from Promotion:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SMCl5AwH0mt0W3KrI2OIzfnWNaq2m7vL4g0EHsZsFns/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.p

Here is the music that went with it.  Please be aware that YouTube may suggest other clips at the end and that these may be less appropriate Greenday songs.  Parent guidance again, please.

 

I think that’s all.  If I’ve forgotten anything I can still add it over summer at a cost of 10NT per item.

To parents, thank you for all your assistance this year and your kind wishes.  All the best to you and your family in the future.  Be sure to let me know if you’ll be visiting Eritrea and I might let you ride on my elephant.

The Last Week

Today in math we logically categorized shapes by putting them into a tree.  Can you remember which types of triangles are irregular polygons?  And which type of quadrilateral is a regular polygon?

We went to see the Middle School literature exhibition.  They each made a display about a book they had read.  I noticed one of my favorite books there, The Odyssey, and a book that Mr. K likes, A River Ran Through It.  I kept meaning to borrow that book from the library but it’s too late now.

In the afternoon we had some time to finish writing and did some last-minute teacher checks.

Upcoming Events

Tomorrow: Grade 5 Promotion at 2:30pm in the theater.  Some sources said 2pm but this is incorrect.

Thursday: The last day of school for students.

Schedule

The last three days will run on Activities Schedule 2, which goes a little something like this:

Activities Schedule 2

Used for ES & MS during HS finals.

8:00 – 9:05	1st Block
9:10 – 10:15	2nd Block
10:20 – 11:30	3rd Block
11:30 – 12:20	Lunch
12:20 – 1:25	4th Block
1:25 – 1:45	Silent Reading / Advisory
1:45 – 3:45	Activities
3:45	Bus Departs

For ES the ‘Activities’ part will be homeroom as usual so far as I am aware.  The main difference will be shorter specialists earlier in the day.  This change is due to final exams for the big kids.

Let’s enjoy the little time we have left and I hope to see many people tomorrow at 2:30!

Homework

Welcome back, everyone (for tomorrow).  I hope you enjoyed the break.  I’m getting in early with this week’s first blog post.

 

Homework

1.  Read for at least 30 minutes every day and record in your log.
2.  No vocabulary this week.
3.  No spelling this week.
4.  Use Khan Academy for a total of an hour over the week.
5.  Challenge:  Choose a poem that you like and memorize it so that you can recite it without notes.  This will be due next week.  We will have some time on this in class and I will provide further explanation.

More Vocabulary

This is how the world would look if there were perfect correlation between a country’s size and its population.

 

Today we made a scatter plot showing the relationship between a country’s size and its population.  What did we find out?

We had the speeches and elections for MS STUGO.  Well done to Carilyn, Evelyn, Dzaki and Charlotte for throwing their hat into the ring.  Middle School teachers were impressed.

Please remember to find or bring anything you need for the Semester Celebration on Friday.

 

Vocabulary

The prosecutor put the nasal-voiced criminal in the dungeon.

He pointed the nozzle at the blaze but the fire extinguisher had expired.

Don’t be a bystander – do something!

Homework

Welcome to our last full week of elementary school.

Today in literacy we made predictions about our reading.  Was your prediction correct about the end of A Wrinkle in Time?

In the afternoon we wrote free-choice poetry.

 

ALL ES AND HS LIBRARY BOOKS ARE NOW DUE!!! 

Please return ASAP unless you have special permission from Ms. Sylvia like Jasmine does.

 

Homework

As for last week

 

Spelling List 1

shopping          hopping          trimming          bragging          batting

running            transferring   dabbing            plodding          handcuffing

sliding               waving           hoping               biting                baking

absurd          garment          tantrum           eternal          fallible

 

Spelling List 2

produce          production          construct          construction

compose         composition          harmony          harmonious

human            humanity

exuberance     unadulterated     distraught     disintegration     contagious

tantrum     absurdity     shriveled     eternity     garment

 

 

Vocabulary

Your eternal, distraught tantrum over your ripped garment is absurd.

Her contagious, unadulterated exuberance shriveled when she realized she had drunk too much coffee and was twitching.

 

Lost library book

I checked out this book from the ES Library but it has gone missing.  Please look at home and in your trays.

Two ticks if anyone can find it.

The Art of Lego Mindstorms NXT-G Programming. (Copy: T 38575)

LEGO

Homework

Today we found the mean, median, mode and range of several sets of data about the Solar System.

Why was the mean sometimes very different to the median?  What else did you find surprising?

We completed the final Lexile test for this year.  We will pass on your Lexile score to your Grade 6 teachers so they will know where you’re up to next year.  Read like crazy over summer and flabbergast them with your mysterious improvement!  This is what a couple of kids did last summer.

In the afternoon we read a photo essay about what Earth looks like from space.  We also looked at a famous photograph taken by Voyager I called Pale Blue Dot.  I read Carl Sagan’s speech about it.

Say ‘cheese’!

 

Please return all books to the ES library!  They are due tomorrow.  Ms. Sylvia needs everything back to begin the renovations.

Also have a look around home and see if you have any other books that should be returned.  There are some from the classroom that are missing, and some that I borrowed from the ES library that were on the book stand.

 

Homework

As per last week.

 

Spelling List 1

jump          jumped          jumping

reach         reached         reaching

wait           waited            waiting

crack         cracked          cracking

burn          burned           burning

somber     snigger     statistics     column     transparent

 

Spelling List 2

proceed          procession          succeed          succession

serene             serenity               receive           reception

compete          competition

misconception     monotonous     sniggering     statistical     consciousness

imperceptible      magnificent     inexorable     indentation     omnipotent

 

Vocabulary

It is a misconception that teachers are somber and monotonous.

Stop sniggering at these statistics.

The magnificent, omnipotent tentacles on the dais were almost imperceptible in the dark room.

The fallible man felt so nauseous that he fell inexorably to the ground, lost consciousness and then disintegrated.

Changes to Grade 5 Promotion

The time and date of the Grade 5 Promotion have been moved to Tuesday, June 6th at 2:30pm in the theater.  This will enable more families to attend.  We will not proceed with the class lunch.

 

We completed our graphs and looked for correlation.  We also examined these graphs and considered the correlation – what do they show?

 

Vocabulary

It is a misconception that teachers are somber and monotonous.

Stop sniggering at those statistics.

Homework

This morning we created interesting, complex characters for our narratives.  They had both virtues and faults, whether they were heroes or villains.  What are Draco Malfoy’s virtues?  What are Mrs. Which’s faults?

In the afternoon we worked out differences in age and weight in different parts of the Solar System.  We found that I would be 157 years old on Mercury and I would weigh more than two tonnes on the Sun.  I think I’ll stay home.

We also watched this clip about exoplanets that may be habitable:

 

Homework

1.  Read for at least 30 minutes every day and record in your log.
2.  Write ten new words in sentences.  These words will be chosen from the ones we learned in class.  Also, write 5 new words from your own reading and their definitions.  Due Friday.
3.  Practice the spelling words (below).
4.  Use Khan Academy for a total of an hour over the week.
5.  Challenge:  Present a project to the class about something in space (obviously not the thing you wrote an essay on).  It might be in the Solar System, like Enceladus, or it might be outside it, like the Andromeda galaxy, the Big Bang or the possibility of alien life.  You are to present your project in a way you have not done so far this year.  No essays!  No posters!  Here are some ideas:

• PowerPoint presentation
• travel brochure
• create a website
• a fictional diary
• a podcast (i.e. make an audio recording)
• a YouTube clip (live or recorded; it doesn’t have to actually be on YouTube but it can be)
• interpretive dance
• another method negotiated with Mr. Connelly

This project is due on May 26th.  That gives you about three weeks to work on it.  We may have a little time at school for research.

 

Spelling List 1

baby          babies          body          bodies

carry         carries         hurry         hurries

monkey    monkeys     donkey      donkeys

enjoy         enjoys          obey           obeys

transparent     column     tolerate     virtue

 

Spelling List 2

nation          national          relate          relative

famous         infamous       educate      educable

insane           insanity

correlation     obscure      defiance              virtuous        toleration

ubiquitous      synthetic    unreasonable    hysterical     transparency

 

Vocabulary

Is defiance a virtue?

She couldn’t tolerate the ubiquitous synthetic elephants.

Stop being unreasonable and hysterical about the transparent column.

Links Galore (and some photos) (updated 5/5/17)

Recently we’ve been looking at a lot of online resources about space.

Here is the website that allows you to easily calculate the scale of the Solar System.  Just enter the size of the sun you want at the top:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/

Here is a map of the Solar System to scale.  It is the one Eddie posted yesterday in the comments.

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

This clip shows the relative size of different planets and stars:

Here is a similar clip but it also shows galaxy clusters:

This is how the sun was born . . .

. . . and how it will die.

Here is Grade 5 making a scale model of the Solar System on the upper courts.  We scaled it down so that the sun had a diameter of 1cm.  The kids on the left are the sun while the ones sitting way over there on the steps represent Neptune:

Look at all those inner planets squashed together.

Here’s Mr. Sharp’s panoramic photo.  Zoom in for a closer look.

Mr. Connelly looks like an incoming comet.

 

Remember that homework is due and the spelling test is tomorrow.

 

More links:

Was, or is, there life on Mars?

Might life evolve in other places in the future?

The War of The Worlds, 1978 musical version.  It reached number one in Australia and Holland.  What do you make of that?

High School Library

Today we went to the High School Library for borrowing and reading.  Miss Sylvia gave us a tour.  This is one of several end-of-year activities that will help us with the transition to Middle School.

 

Vocabulary

She had no inkling of an aberration in his angular face.

Can you see a correlation in the data?

The man wanted to live in a dystopia rather than a utopia, for his own, obscure reasons.