The Wizards basketball team visited Highland this morning and really got the day off to a great start.  They are so talented and we all had a great time! Our very own Mrs. Brown and several 5th grade students got to play a game on the court with 2 members of the Wizard's team. Hilarious!!!!!!!!!!

Monday in Class we read our Scholastic News edition for this week. The articles are  really interesting to kids and the magazine is a fine example of excellent writing. Today, we read an article about the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River in South America. The kids were amazed at what this man lived through. Plus, we examined how the author wrote this article and how the lead paragraph really got us hooked! We also used a physical map of the world and located the Amazon. The Scholastic News also integrates science and math into the many activities on the back.

September 29th is Writing Wednesday. Get ready for another jumbo session of writing skills for success!This week will be doing a math open response question.


In Social Studies there is a vocabulary test coming up on Friday. Students will be given a practice quiz and study guide on Wednesday.

Ask your child what they think of News Quiz.  This is an educational program provided by KET. Each week the students are involved in a 15 minute news show that quizzes them on current events as they listen. It is a fun way to stay on top of current events involving our state and our world. Each week we watch the show on Friday or Monday.

All students have been working diligently on mastering the many vocabulary words from the overview unit. We will finish the unit on Wednesday and have a vocabulary test on Friday. Students will receive a study guide on Thursday.  On Monday morning we are having a special visit from the Harlem Wizards. They will be talking to us about heroes. Also, Highland Heroes will be announced in morning procedures Tuesday.  Have a great weekend!!!

VOCABULARY
culture
ideal
ethnic group
census
immigrant
democracy
republic
constitution
citizen
private property
economy
free enterprise
profit
supply
demand
export /import
consumer
entrepreneur
region
geography
agriculture
irrigation
climate
precipitation
natural resource
mineral
fossil fuel
renewable and nonrenewable resource
conservation
environment
pollution

Today was our first Writing Wednesday. Writing Wednesday's are when we combine two homerooms together and we practice on how to effectively answer open response questions and other writing tasks. Today went great! My homeroom teams with Mr.Lindsey's class and we worked diligently this morning until our entire team received a 4 on their reading open response question. We really targeted how to organize our thoughts through the use of a T-Chart which is a graphic organizer we use to attack the question and answer it correctly, completely, and clearly. Each Thursday morning we will recognize students from our team as an MVP and a D to the 4 which means they were dedicated and didn't give up. Ask your child what they thought of Writing Wednesday.

Another Great Week at Highland!!

     We have had a great week in Social Studies!!! We finished collaging our journals and I will be taking them home this weekend to laminate. All students did an outstanding job personalizing their S.S. journal. During all the collaging we also studied about American people and our culture as well as our national motto "E Pluribus Unum". 5th graders think Latin sounds pretty weird but we learned why this was a good motto over 200 years ago and still is a good motto for us today. Ask your child if they remeber what is means and why it is a good motto.
     On Friday we celebrated Constitution Day by reading an article titled "3 Supreme Court Cases Every Kid Should Know" The kids loved hearing how these cases changed our laws in education. The three we read about were: Brown V. Board of Education (1954), Tinker V. Des Moines Independent School District (1969), and Hazelwood School District V. Kuhlmeier(1988). In all of these cases our Supreme Court had to interpret the laws we follow in our Constiutution and made a decision based on what the Constitution says. If you are unfamiliar with these cases google them, it's worth the read or ask your 5th grade student what they were about.
     Next week we will continue in our overview unit as we learn about our Government, Economy and Regions of the U.S. We will also watch our first episode of NewsQuiz which is a 15 minute television program sponsored by KET that airs weekly. The students listen to the news and then are quizzed over what they learned. It is a lot of fun and it keeps us informed about what is going on around the state and the world!!!

9-13-10 What's happening in S.S.

Today we began learning new vocabulary words that we will be using in our Overview Unit. This unit begins on p. 6 in the textbook and ends on p. 38.  There are 5 lessons in this unit. We will finish the vocabulary tomorrow and begin discussing the first lesson titled "The American People" on Wednesday. In addition to this new unit, we are also collaging our S.S. journals so that they are more personal to each student. Plus, collaging is a very cool art technique that we all seem to enjoy! If you have extra magazines that you want to get rid of, we definitely will use them.

We remember 9/11

Today in class we learned about the horrible events that took place 9 years ago on 9-11-02.  My students were very young then and don't have a lot of memories of this event and I wanted them to learn about what happened and how even in a tragic event Americans can  unite together for the common good. Through our Scholastic News magazine I was able to share some personal stories from people who were there at ground zero and we learned how citizens from all over the U.S. came together to help one another. Today we want to remember 9/11 as a day of service in honor of those who died and those who came to help at the Pentagon, Ground Zero, and in Pennsylvania. I have challenged all my students to do something for someone else Saturday, September 11th 2010 as we remember this day as a day of service instead of just remembering the destruction that occurred. I believe if we teach our children to build a tolerance for others differences and promote peace we can change the world one child, one family at a time. I hope you will join me tomorrow in the spirit of service and reach out and do something for someone else. It will set a good example for your children and make you feel good inside. Have a safe and happy weekend!!

Peace,
Denise Howard

WELCOME!!

I am so excited to start my first blog with students and parents of Highland Elementary. If we haven't met then I hope we will soon. I teach 5th grade Social Studies and would like to use this site to share what's happening in my classroon along with some cool photos. I look forward to a fun and exciting year at Highland. Let's chat!!

Denise Howard