Birthday Time!

Time for celebration again! This past week was Issy's birthday.   :-)

Just the (Multiplication) Facts, Maam

The foundation for most 5th grade math is knowing your multiplication facts. Here Issy, Dasha, Maria and Danea show off their skills during Math Mania time [our extended day].

Sandi & Karen's Lunch Groups

We are happy to announce the following lunch group offerings! What's a Lunch Group? It's a weekly meeting, taking place during lunch and recess, where we can come together and focus on an interest, in this case writing and documentary film (and later photography).

Please keep in mind your participation requires a COMMITMENT. Can we scream that in unison: COMMITMENT!!!! You will be "giving up" your recess and lunch time in the cafeteria. That being said, you must come ready to participate. Please check out our offerings below. We will be talking more about these lunch groups in class when we're ready to roll.

Writing Club Mondays, October 18 through June 13	Documentary Film Club Thursdays, October 7 through January 27	Photography Club Thursdays, March 3 through  June 16
The highly anticipated Writing Club is open to those students with an enthusiasm for writing and desire to develop their craft.  Together we will work on independent writing projects, culminating in celebrations at the end of both cycles of writing.  Writing Club members will participate in conversations with their peers about their writing, give and receive feedback and constructive criticism with the goal to grow as writers.  Sandi, who will be their writing teacher/coach, will facilitate each writing cycle. Facilitator: Sandi Weisel	The winter Documentary Film Club focuses on the inspiring and entertaining medium of film. Together we will explore topics and social issues of your interest in an informal setting… by viewing current documentaries projected on the Smartboard as we eat our lunches! And discussion is encouraged. After each film we will explore the ideas it generated through a film chat. Students have the opportunity to select topics of interest on the Response Form, soon to be distributed. Facilitator: Karen Zacconi	The spring 5-316 Photography Club is a chance for you to showcase your world, in pictures! After a creative brainstorm while we eat in the classroom, we will spend our time snapping pictures around the neighborhood catching Brooklyn’s unique energy and spirit. Other days we will be formatting our pictures in graphics programs. Together we will compile our photography in a slick, professional-looking book that will be available for sale. *This club requires you to have a digital camera and a USB. Facilitator: Karen Zacconi

Blogging about blogging... about blogging

We had the opportunity to share our blogs in class this past Friday! It was amazing to see how each student made their page a unique representation of themselves with images, video and special gadgets. We nudge you to check on each others' blogs and comment using the links to the right. Also, it seems some of us have emerged as blogging experts, going above and beyond the basic tutorials we received in class. We encourage you to share your wisdom! For those of us who saw things we'd like to try on our own blog, leave a comment here and let us know. This will help guide possible tutorials in the future.

The Birthday Girls

The first full week of school and we already celebrated 2/22 (or 1/11) of our class birthdays! Jada and Olive distributed sweet treats during writing workshop to the eager class. And we discovered that cupcakes go really well with poetry.