Douglas E Brunner

April 14, 2012

I 'd like to Educate you a bit.

October 30, 2011

Newsletter #8

Dear Parents,
I hope everyone had a fantastic time at the Halloween party on Friday. Personally, I had a great time telling scary stories to the people entering the haunted house and left the night exhausted. This week is going to be a normal week, as we don't have any interruptions or special events, however, we will be starting science and social studies again! This session, science will be taught by myself and we will be studying energy. Also, as a reminder, ASA's start again this week.

Thank you and have a wonderful week!
Doug Brunner

Announcements
-ASA's start again this week

-Thursday- Vocabulary test list 4

Dragon of Last Week
Justin Beatrix

Math
-Dividing by powers of ten

-Two digit division

-Working problems backwards

-Estimating two digit quotients
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmm/g_5.html

Reading
-Reading Strategies: Inferring & Summarizing
-DEAR (Drop Everything And Read)
-Read-to: Hatchet by Gary Paulen, Scary Stories
-1st Grade reading buddies
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Writing
-Writer's workshop
-Trait #2: Organization
-Grammar: articles, past tense & subject-verb agreement
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Science

-Energy (light & sound)

Technology
-Typing Skills
-iMovie video editing

Vocabulary http://quizlet.com/
1. Union (n)
2. Fumes (n)
3. Revolt (v)
4. Govern (v)
5. Inner (adj)
6. Insist (v)
7. Intact (adj)
8. Instant (adj)
9. Influence (adj)
10. Immigrate (v)

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October 16, 2011

by Douglas E Brunner

Newsletter #6

Dear Parents,

The year is flying by as the first quarter of the school year is already finished! We've got a lot of exciting things planned this week as we delve in the world of Halloween. From writing scary stories to reading creepy tales, we're really getting into the spirit of it. We plan to decorate the room and hopefully share our scary stories with other classes. Besides the spookiness, this week will be rather normal. On Tuesday, we will be having our vocabulary test that we tried to take last week, but ran out of time. Our Dragon of the Week for this week will be Justin Beatrix.

Thank you and have a wonderful week!
Doug Brunner

Announcements
-Tuesday: Vocabulary test list 3

Dragon of Last Week

Antonia Kaessmeyer

Math
-Division

-Divisibility

-Divisions using estimation

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmm/g_5.html

Reading
-Reading Strategies:Inferring & Summarizing
-DEAR (Drop Everything And Read)
-Read-to: Hatchet by Gary Paulen, Scary Stories
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Writing
-Writer's workshop
-Trait #2: Organization

-Scary Story writing
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Technology
-Typing Skills

-iMovie video editing

Vocabulary http://quizlet.com/
1. Gigantic (adj)
2. Particle (n)
3. Observe (v)
4. Firm (adj, n)
5. Horizon (n)
6. Duration (n)
7. Combination (n)
8. Stationary (adj)
9. Culture (n)
10. Manufacture (v)

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September 29, 2011

by Douglas E Brunner

Newsletter #5

Dear Parents,
Last week was a very busy week with the NWEA tests and our math and vocabulary tests, which means that this week is going to be more relaxed. Thursday brings us our first Passport Club and the students should be preparing at home. Passport Club is strictly an at home activity, which means we won't be spending class time to get ready for it. If your child signed up for the level 6 passport, please make sure they have returned their level 5 materials. Lastly, this weeks Dragon of the Week is Natalie Meenan!

Thank you and have a wonderful week!
Doug Brunner

Dragon of Last Week

Angela Jung

Announcements
-Thursday: Passport Club

Math
-Expressions and Multiplication

-Distributive property

-Logical reasoning
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmm/g_5.html

Reading
-Reading Strategies: Visualizing
-DEAR (Drop Everything And Read)
-Read-to: Hatchet by Gary Paulen
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Writing
-Writer's workshop
-Trait #1: Focusing Ideas

-Narrative writing
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Technology
-Typing Skills

Vocabulary http://quizlet.com/
1. Gigantic (adj)
2. Particle (n)
3. Observe (v)
4. Firm (adj, n)
5. Horizon (n)
6. Duration (n)
7. Combination (n)
8. Stationary (adj)
9. Culture (n)
10. Manufacture (v)

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September 29, 2011

by Douglas E Brunner

Newsletter #4

Dear Parents,

I hope you all found the weekend restful and adventurous. This week is going to be a very full week as we will be having NWEA tests for mathematics and language. The tests will be given during normal class sessions and will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. This week we will also be having a regular math and vocabulary test.

Since last week was a short week, we didn't have time for our Dragon of the Week to put up their bulletin board, so this week the DOW will once again be Angela Jung.

Thank you and have a wonderful week!

Doug Brunner

Announcements

-Tuesday- NWEA Mathematics

-Wednesday- NWEA Language

-Thursday- NWEA Reading, Math Test Chapter 2

-Friday- Vocabulary Test List 2

Math

-Problem Solving: Relevant information

-Review Algebraic equations

-Math test over chapter 2 on Thursday

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmm/g_5.html

Reading

-Reading Strategies: Questioning

-Drop Everything And Read (DEAR)

-Read-to: Hatchet by Gary Paulen

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Writing

-Writer's workshop

-Trait #1: Clarifying Ideas

-Writing process: Publishing

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Technology

-Setting up personal blogs

-Typing Skills

Vocabulary http://quizlet.com/

1. Suggest
2. Volume
3. Complete
4. Compete
5. Proceed
6. Increase
7. Brief
8. Recently
9. Citizen
10. Generous

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September 29, 2011

by Douglas E Brunner

Newsletter #3

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful moon festival weekend and got a chance to do something fun and adventurous. My wife and I had a rather exciting time visiting the Hangzhou Safari Park, where we got to pet lemurs. It was nice seeing most of you at Back to School Night last week and as I said then, if you ever need to contact me, feel free to email, call or stop by.

On to this week. Our Dragon of the Week for this week will be Angela Jung and below is a picture of last week's dragon, Alessandra Beelen. This will be a rather simple week as we won't be having any major tests or school activities.

Thank you and have a wonderful week!

Doug Brunner

Dragon of Last Week

-Alessandra Beelen

Math

-Adding and subtracting using algebra

-Estimating sums and differences

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmm/g_5.html

Reading

-Reading Strategies: Questioning

-Drop Everything And Read (DEAR)

-Read-to: (To be chosen)

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Writing

-Writer's workshop

-Trait #1: Funneling Ideas and Brainstorming

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Technology

-Beginning Powerpoint

-Setting up personal blogs

Vocabulary http://quizlet.com/

1. Suggest
2. Volume
3. Complete
4. Compete
5. Proceed
6. Increase
7. Brief
8. Recently
9. Citizen
10. Generous

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September 12, 2011

by Douglas E Brunner

Newsletter #2

Dear Parents,

We've finished another challenging, fun filled week of learning, including a short recorder performance in the assembly on Friday. The week ahead is looking pretty exciting as we prepare for student council elections, finish our first chapter in math and finish our first vocabulary list. This week is also a short week, as teachers have professional development on Friday and so there is no school for students that day. On Wednesday of this week, you are all invited to join us for our HIS Back to School Night, starting at 6:30pm.

Starting tomorrow, each week will have a "Dragon of the Week," where a student decorates a bulletin board in the classroom and shares about themselves. In technology class we've been designing posters to go along with this idea and will be putting them around the room shortly. Our "Dragon of the Week" this week is Alessandra Beelen.

Lastly, I want to discuss homework. I have a strong conviction that children need time to be children and therefore I do not assign lots of homework. I feel that time outside of school is time for family, physical activity, exploring and life experiences. Each night the students go home with some form of homework, however, it shouldn't take more than an hour. I understand if you disagree with my philosophy and therefore I will try to include links to some websites for further practice if you should see fit.

Thank you and have a wonderful week!

Doug Brunner

Announcements

-Wednesday- Vocabulary test over list 1

-Wednesday- Back to School Night at 6:30pm

-Thursday- Math test over chapter 1

-Thursday- Student council elections

-Friday- no school

Dragon of The Week

-Alessandra Beelen

Math

-Finish place value

-Ordering, comparing and rounding decimals

-Math test over chapter 1

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmm/g_5.html

Reading

-Reading Strategies: Questioning

-Silent Reading

-Read-to: The Bald Bandit

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Writing

-Writer's workshop

-Trait #1: Ideas

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

Technology

-Publishing with Apple Pages

-Beginning Powerpoint

Vocabulary http://quizlet.com/

1. Medium

2. Beyond

3. Remain

4. Previous

5. Identical

6. Distance

7. Effort

8. Explanation

9. Accurate

10. Opportunity

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September 12, 2011

by Douglas E Brunner

Newsletter #1

Dear Parents,

It's been a fabulous first few weeks of learning and since the school year is now rolling right along I've decided to start sending out what I hope to be a weekly newsletter. The idea of the newsletter is to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in our classroom. You will usually find a summary of the topics we'll be studying for the week and maybe some stories, pictures or anything else worth sharing. Feel free to email me with any questions or ideas.

Thank you,

Doug Brunner

Math

-Place value (whole numbers and decimals)

-Factors

Reading

-Reading strategies: Making connections

-Silent reading

-Read-to: The Absent Author

Writing

-The 6+1 Traits of Writing

-Trait #1: Ideas

-Writer's workshop

Technology

-Publishing with Apple Pages

-Simple publishing with Microsoft Office

Vocabulary

1. Medium

2. Beyond

3. Remain

4. Previous

5. Identical

6. Distance

7. Effort

8. Explanation

9. Accurate

10. Opportunity

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