Lazy days of break...

The gifts have been exchanged.
The food has been eaten.
Now we sit back and relax!

If you're looking for some ideas of things to do this break, here are a few suggestions...

Reading is Fun! (RIF)

Winter is the perfect time to grab a blanket and snuggle up with a good book!  Don’t forget to read for fun over break!  You have a new RIF log - be sure to write down your minutes!  In addition to Pizza Hut and Pasta House, the January logs count toward a Six Flags ticket!

Math Games!

As you know, Miss Liefer loves math!  Even before Everyday Math, she was using cards and dice practicing math skills while playing games.  In your Christmas gift are two booklets.  One  includes the games we often play during class.  The other booklet is an original gamebook created by your teacher.  Every class since I’ve started teaching has received a copy of this game book!  Merry Christmas!  I hope you enjoy playing the math games at home.

Adventure Fiction Stories

We have been drafting adventure fiction stories in writing class.  In January we will enter a creative writing competition.  If you have some spare time over the break, log-in to your Google Drive account and add some sensory details!  You could even have your family read it and make suggestions to make it longer and stronger!  Add dialogue! Action!

Typing Lessons 

Visit the website http://www.typingweb.com/tutor/

Login - your 5-3 name
Password - your class #

MOBY MAX Visit the website http://www.mobymax.com/il1796

Excellent website to practice skills- it changes the question to fit your needs and Miss Liefer can access how you are doing to help you become better in reading, grammar, vocabulary, math, math facts. AND the more lessons you complete, the more "game time" you earn!

BLOG Visit our blog http://missliefer.blogspot.com/

Look at old pictures. Watch our videos. Check out the tabs at the top - there are lots of great website links!

BrainPOP Visit the website http://www.brainpop.com
Tim and Moby teach us science, health, technology, math, social studies, arts, music, and English. These animated videos are entertaining and informational. Watch one or two today! There are also quizzes and printable activity pages!

Merry Christmas!

Name that Song!

Can you name that Christmas song?  Printed on the back of the Christmas packet are 20 famous holiday songs that Anthony Antonym (Santa’s elf) messed up.  See how many you can figure out! 
For example:  #1 Noisy Night (answer: Silent Night)

*Remember if you finish the whole packet over break, you'll get a "no homework pass"!

Have you been naughty or nice?

Check out this Christmas website!
www.claus.com/village.php

Literary Elements

Onomatopoeia Alliteration Personification

Similes and Metaphors

Video about Similes and Metaphors:


http://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/similesandmetaphors/zoom.weml

Dec. Report

                                                       Tree of Lights
 Tree of lights goes from Dec.1- Dec.19. We encourage you to bring in money so very much.
5th grade~$50 and 4th grade~ $300 YEAH!!!!
                                                       
                                                        Lock-In
There is a lock-in on the last Friday of ISAT. There will be games & food. Games= Just Dance, Bingo, and LOTS more. food=pizza soda popcorn.

     

Tree of Lights

Since we have many blessing to be thankful for during this holiday season, we thought it would be nice to share some Christmas cheer with those less fortunate.

Please consider donating money to the Waterloo Rotary Tree of Lights.
All of the proceeds from this fundraiser go to help families and organizations in need, right here in Monroe County.

The Student Council is accepting donations all this month, with Thursday, December 19, being the last day to donate here at school.

Please consider making someone's Christmas a little nicer.

Student Council

Do you have any great ideas on how to make our school a better place?

Write your suggestions on a piece of paper and drop it into this brand new Student Council Suggestion Jar!

Our class representatives will bring up your ideas at the meetings!

math-a-thon

Thanks for participating in Math-a-Thon!

A Math-a-thon was conducted for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  
St. Jude’s is located in Memphis, Tennessee.  
It is a research hospital for children with catastrophic illnesses.  

This year, we had 52 children complete their Math-a-thon booklets consisting of 250 problems. 
The children were from fourth and fifth grade classrooms.  
 They had people pledge donations to St. Jude’s Hospital. 
 The students were able to raise $2292.50. 

What caring and giving children we have at Gardner Elementary!

More Legends

How Bald Eagles Got Their Name And Colors
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-bald-eagles-got-their-name-and-colors/14539186/

How Niagara Falls Came To Be
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/niagra-falls-maggie/14537311/

How Rivers & Oceans Came to Be
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-rivers-lakes-oceans-were-formed-byellie/14395249/

How Cats Got Chased by Dogs
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-cats-got-chased-by-dogs/14347865/

How the Stars Got in the Sky
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-the-stars-got-in-the-sky-by-harry-tuttle/14346945/

Why Mice Live in Holes
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/why-mice-live-in-holes/14255103/

How Rivers are Formed
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/renee-how-rivers-are-formed-very-animated/14255027/

How Rivers were Formed
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-rivers-were-formed-ryan-21/14255011/

Why Pigs Share
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/tyler-legend/14254673/


And here's the link to our other post of legends...
http://missliefer.blogspot.com/2013/11/legends.html

PRIDE Chart

This morning we pulled our last letter on the Pride chart!

(We pull a letter in the morning when everybody in the whole class has all their homework finished).

We are having our first PRIDE party of the schoolyear!

This afternoon we had the reward.  It was a "snow" party...

We watched the cartoon video of Frosty the Snowman,
made snowmen (and reindeer) out of donuts, 

drank crushed "snow" from the ice machine,
 and cut out paper snowflakes.

We took a break to celebrate our PRIDE in our schoolwork and finishing our assignments on time. :)

all the supplies ready to be assembled

The finished product!

check out all our snowflakes

Typing Tutor

Today in computer lab we are starting typing lessons!
You can do them at home too (if you have internet access).

Login - your 5-3 name
Password - your class #

www.typingweb.com/tutor/

This link is also available in our "literacy" tab at the top of the blog.

Panda Cam

In literacy we are reading the novel Year of the Panda by Miriam Schlein.

During class we were discussing pandas and asked what zoos have pandas.
  This website shows the panda zoos around the world
 http://www.giantpandazoo.com/panda/panda-zoos


There are three in the US:  Washington DC, Atlanta, and San Diego.

Washington DC Smithsonian National Zoo (they have two cameras)
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/webcams/giant-panda.cfm

Atlanta Zoo (you can read the daily diary entries)
http://www.zooatlanta.org/1212/panda_cam

San Diego Zoo (the viewing area is closed for maintenance, but check back soon)
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/pandacam/


Another site with a panda webcam.  (This camera feed is from a reserve in China)
http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/china-panda-cam-1

A link to photos from the Wolong Nature Reserve
 (This is one mentioned in our book that they are sending SuLin)
http://explore.org/#!/photos/player/wolong-nature-reserve

another great site to check out...
http://www.giantpandazoo.com/panda/news/wolong-panda-reserve-scheduled-to-reopen-before-the-end-of-2012

Hat Day

Remember tomorrow is HAT DAY!
Bring $1 (money goes to Honor Flight)

Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization created solely to honor America's veterans for all their sacrifices. They transport our heroes to Washington, D.C. to visit and reflect at their memorials. Top priority is given to the senior veterans – World War II survivors, along with those other veterans who may be terminally ill.

For more information and to watch a short video, visit this website:
http://www.honorflight.org/

Legends

Legends are unverified stories handed down from earlier times.

These stories were passed down from one generation to the next.  It was a way to share the history of the people so it would not be forgotten.

In social studies we discussed some legends Native Americans told that explained nature, such as the creation of owl and rabbit.

Pourquoi stories are simple legends that explain why things are the way they are in nature.

For fun we wrote our own pourquoi legends.
This is our collection of "why" things are the way they are in nature!  Enjoy!

(Note some students are still creating their legends on the iPads, so we will add more links to this post as more are available)

Niagra Falls:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/niagra-falls-maggie/14169473/

How Tigers got Their Stripes:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-tigers-got-there-coler/14169257/

How Birds Learned to Fly:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/aidan/14169208/

How the Flower Got Created Out of the Ground:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-the-flower-got-created-out-of-the-ground/14168155/

How Tigers got Sharp Fangs:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-tigers-got-sharp-fangs-by-ethan/14168052/

How the Tortoise Got its Shell:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-the-tortoise-got-its-shell-by-joely-goulding/14167848/

Why Dogs Tails are Long:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/why-dogs-tails-are-long-by-meredith/13966025/

How the Zebra Got its Stripes:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-the-zebra-got-its-stripes-legend/14052983/

Educreations Update

Some people were having trouble viewing the educreation links at home... I tweaked the settings.
Check out these old posts and see if you can view them now...

Save the Rainforest:
http://missliefer.blogspot.com/2013/11/save-rainforests.html

Subtraction Methods:
http://missliefer.blogspot.com/2013/10/subtraction-algorithms-methods.html

Waterloo Community Chili Supper

To Benefit the victims of the Typhoon Haiyan Disaster in the Philipppines the Waterloo School District and local churches are coming together to raise funds to help those who are dealing with the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

Please join us for dine-in or carryout in the WHS Cafeteria, tonight (Friday, Nov. 22) from 4:00pm - 9:00pm!

This is a great opportunity for us to come together to help those in need!

JFK

On this day 50 years ago, President Kennedy was assassinated.  

Fact About JFK...
*Born in Massachusetts in 1917
*Served int he U.S. House and Senate
*Elected president in 1960
*Youngest man elected president, and first Catholic
*Presidency involved the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis
*Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963

Today's featured BrainPop movie:
(Note the daily featured video is Free to watch ALL day long! No password needed!)

http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/johnfkennedy/

I am so proud of this class.

They are working hard collecting BOX TOPS!

So far we've collected...

500 boxtops and earned popsicles

1000 boxtops and earned ice cream

1500 boxtops and earned popcorn (with Bulldog cups and soda)

Thanks for supporting our school and clipping the BoxTops!

Our next class goal is to collect 2000 = a kickball game with Mrs. Ivers!