A Bunch of Hippies!

Classroom Pumpkins Transformation

Every year I take home the pumpkins in the classroom and turn them into cupcakes, highlighting the delicious circle of life. 

After baking the different pumpkin varieties until tender, I scoop out the flesh...

...and blend away in the food processor. Ok, so I processed one of the pumpkins from my porch too, ensuring a hefty amount of pumpkin puree to be utilized for the holiday season. 

 I bake the pumpkin pieces face down in a casserole pan with an inch of water and cover with foil. This way the pumpkin needs no additional water to blend into a smooth, tasty puree that is ready for scooping. 

 I use Isa Chandra Moskowitz's VCTOTW recipe for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cupcakes because it's perfect. 

Beautiful cooling cupcakes waiting for their icing.

Time for scratch-made vanilla buttercream. For best results, use real vanilla scraped from a pod. 
After piping, more magical vanilla deliciousness: a sprinkling of vanilla sugar.

All done and ready for 5th graders! Happy Harvest Festival!

Reading & Responding

The collection / reading response cycle is proof of active reading through your book! Here are some tools to check-in on your progress.

A Collection:

You can collect an idea about your book at any point, before, during and after. Here are some examples. But always let the important parts of your book, along with the idea they give you, be the main idea of your collection. 

A complete collection contains:

• the name of the book
• a short retell of background info
• an idea you're having - most important
• the evidence from the book that made you think that idea

A Reading Response:

So now you're ready to write your reading response? Remember that each part of writing your response should be thoughtful and show effort. So don't do all response tasks in one night! Pace yourself through these tasks. Each can count as RRNB homework.

• Determine a theme based on previous collections and create box/bullets (outline) of theme and supporting evidence.
• Draft introduction. Include a hook, statement of theme, and summarize evidence briefly.
• Draft all body paragraphs, thoughtfully elaborating on evidence in separate paragraphs. Remember to state the theme!
• Draft conclusion. Include a final statement of theme and summary of evidence. Leave a lasting impact in your conclusion!
• Revise all of your draft, paying attention to your vocabulary. 
• Edit for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
• Publish!

Busy Days Ahead!

RAFTS Rule!

Our November Mathletes Report!

Mano a Mano Visit 316!

Some things we did last week...

State Supreme Court Judge Locke visited the 5th grade, telling us about the three branches of government.

5-301 and 5-316 combine to play a group game.

Scholastic "Book" Fair

Sam and Le1a

Should we really call it a book fair? Statistics show that more kids buy stuff, like posters or erasers. And those are a lot more expensive than the books. 

"The books are actually pretty expensive, too!" says a reporter of class 5-316. "The books are good, also." But, the stuff is double the price of the books. That's not right.

The average amount of money kids spend on stuff is up to $30! We interviewed students from the 5th grade and this is what they spent.

"STUFF" PRICE AVERAGES:
$6.00-15.00 on posters
$3.99$ on fake phones
$0.50-$3.00 on erasers
$0.50-$3.00 on bookmarks
$50.00 on a lunch box
$5.00 for 2 highlighters or a pack of metallic markers
$3.00 on a pencil/eraser/sharpener

Not everyone is buying the books, though. Most kids find the "stuff" addicting and buy it. Even the class journalists, honestly. It may look fun and cool at first, but really, it is a waste of money- or quoted from a class journalist, "It is a bunch of overpriced lousy cheap-quality junk."

It´s not just that, though. Do you think the parents are okay with giving their kids a lot of money, just to buy junk? Yeah, 20$ to buy a fake phone, at a BOOK FAIR.

But maybe a fake phone is better than... a Poop Fountain, a book available at the fair.

Fun Happenings in 5-316!

Our trip to Federal Hall

The Annual Storybook Parade

Day of the Dead Celebration