Lynchsters Mr. Lynch's 5th Grade Class 

After the long, four-day weekend we’ve got another four-dayer this week.

All students at Thompson Brook had their Gmail accounts activated a couple weeks ago. Most importantly for me, this means ba-bye Microsoft Word. This has been in the works for quite some time and eventually all students grades 4-12 will have e-mail access. I’m actually not that interested in the e-mail component at the moment (which only works internally anyway – a good thing), but am thrilled that students will now have access to Google Docs. All Thompson Brook students were taught how to use this both by me and in Library class. In a nutshell, Google Docs means that the days of saving files and moving them around to different devices via flash drives is over. Students will have instant access to any paper or project they are working on via their home computers, tablets, iPods, iPads, or a Smart Phone. When they get to high school, this historical fiction short story (assuming they don’t erase it), will show up on their phones.

A few weeks ago I introduced students to a Historical Fiction Short Story project. Students are writing a historical fiction short story based on the time period of 1600-1763. Students created timelines, did research on potential time periods, and then had a specific time period/event approved by me. Although I’ve tweaked this project a bit, the basic premise of the project was created by the fifth grade Language Arts committee for all fifth grade students. This means that all fifth grade classes will be doing some form of this project. The way it’s graded (the rubric) was created by this committee as well. We spent a lot of time on this in school utilizing both the iPads and the Computer Lab although some of the work (in small increments) may be done at home. The story is due on Wednesday, January 29.

 

Upcoming Events

February Vacation – February 17 – 21

Connecticut Science Center field trip – Friday, February 28

April Vacation – April 14 – 18