The new year is in full swing.

It was so great getting to meet so many new families (and to get reacquainted with familiar ones) last night at Back to School Night. I have a feeling this year is going to be great. My students are lively, enthusiastic, and excited about learning. That's great, since I am excited about teaching. We've already accomplished so much and it's only the 4th week of school.  Who wouldn't love a job where you get to spend your day with enthusiastic artists, performers, public speakers, mathematicians, historians, scientists, athletes, writers and readers. My students love of learning is inspiring. Here's to fantastic Class of 2020!

The Adventures of Terry & Almond

I am proud to share an animated film written, directed, and produced by the 5th graders in Room 212 (with collaboration of the SF Film Society). Here is the link to watch this wonderful film about kindness.

https://vimeo.com/304648250

Welcome back!

Welcome back to Jefferson for your child's last year. 5th grade is an exciting time with a lot of activities and events to celebrate and prepare students for middle school. I look forward to this year's graduating class of 2019. They are ready to learn and eager to participate in everything. I am expecting this to be a great year!

Welcome Back to School!

I am excited to start the new year with my Class of 2018! I've had a fantastic summer traveling with friends and visiting with family. I've attended several professional developments and am excited to practice what I've learned with my students. This includes a week long course with the Astronomical Society where I learned a lot about the solar eclipse and activities to engage learners. I have plenty of solar eclipse glasses and have been sharing them with everyone I know. I have no doubt this will be a great year in Room 212!

If you are a new family assigned to Room 212, please click on Family Survey, and complete the form. It'll only take a minute and will help me immensely with creating a group email list.

It's a new year!

Welcome to the 2016/17 school year. I am very excited to be back and getting things ready for my new 5th graders. We've been back for weeks cleaning, organizing, shopping, learning, and planning. I had a great time last week in the ExCel Science program with my colleagues and dedicated teachers. We went sailing on a research boat in the Bay, conducting science investigations and learning about the new NGSS standards.

Summer was fantastic, albeit short. I spent a lot of times outdoors hiking, camping, dining, laughing, and listening to music. I went to Colorado and did some hiking in Aspen with my wonderful college friends. It was a good balance this year of fun and practical/restful activities.

I'm extra excited about this year because I am fortunate to have been assigned a fabulous student teacher, Leigh Conley from SFSU. We've been working together all week and I know the kids and families will love her.

We've got several new faces at Jefferson this year. Though I am deeply saddened by Ms. Partika's decision to move to another school I am looking forward to collaborating with and learning from our new 5th grade teacher, Mr. Stanul.

If you are a new family assigned to Room 212, please click on Family Survey, and complete the form. It'll only take a minute and will help me immensely with creating a group email list.

Thank you, and happy new year!

Tomorrow is Promotion!

I can't believe this year is ending. Promotion is tomorrow at 10am. Don't forget to bring your tickets. There will be 2 lines. Line 1 is for ticket holders, Line 2 is for everyone else.  It has been a great year and I am sad to say goodbye to the Class of 2016. I hope everyone keeps in touch so I can track you down to invite you to the Reunion in 2023.

Your PSAs are posted. I will post the rest tomorrow.

Halloween Plans

Hello Room 212 Community!

Halloween is nearly here and it's time to make some plans.  Room 212 will be carving pumpkins on Thursday, 10/29 during our Garden time - 9:45 - 10:30. We will need 8 pumpkins for groups of 4 to carve. If you're out grocery shopping and wish to contribute a pumpkin to the class I would be most appreciative. I will go out on Wednesday and purchase pumpkins, but carrying 8 x 10-15 pound pumpkins can be back breaking. You can drop it off in the classroom any time before Wednesday evening.

If you would like to help with the carving please let me know. It's always nice to have additional adults around when the children are using carving instruments.

On Friday, 10/30, the parade begins at 1:30. We will be returning early from lunch to begin getting ready. If you would like to assist children with their costumes please come by between 1 and 1:20pm.

Thank you for your support!

End of September Update

Hello everyone,
We have been working really hard and learning a lot in Room 212. Our Native American Projects are due next week, and I can wait to see the results of their hard work. Students should be busy putting those finishing touches on their maps to make it look nice. We will be completing our Native American study and will begin leaning about Explorers.

We have finished our unit on mathematical thinking and are learning new ways to multiply and divide. We will begin work with parts of whole numbers (fractions, decimals, percents) soon. We have some very quick mathematical minds in Room 212, but the students are working on slowing down and thinking about their mathematical thinking to help develop their number sense. Nathan, Ben and Mary  have proven to be my "go to" students for coming up with an accurate answer.

We had our 4th visit to Golden Gate Golf Course, for the First Tee program. It's been fun watching the kids learn how to swing a club and hit a ball on the course. I have seen improvement in nearly all the students in the past 4 weeks. A special shout out to Team RAM - Riko, Allison, and Mary for their accuracy and for setting a new world record of 125 points on the First Tee Driving Range competitive course.

Jefferson is focusing on developing positive character traits this year. Last week we worked on teamwork, and I was lucky to see many examples of this as the students encouraged and supported one another both in the classroom, and in the yard. This week we are focusing on self-control and today the entire class had to demonstrate it when they were doing stacking cups with Mr. Flynn, our PE teacher.

Our class selected nominees for Student Council today. We will be having the primary election to select candidates for the 5th grade on Wednesday, October 14th. The candidates chosen in the primary election will go on to participate in the General Election on Thursday, November 5th.

I am happy to announce that Room 212 has been fortunate to get a field trip to Alcatraz National Park this year. We will be going on Wednesday, November 4th. This will be a fun, exciting adventure where we will learn about history and archaeology as we uncover the historical layers of Alcatraz.

That's it for now. Thank you for all your support!

5th Grade Yearbook Upload Instructions

Dear families,
The following is from the parents organizing our yearbook this year. There is information for downloading pictures (past and present) to a Flicker account. Thank you Amy & Ria!

Dear 5th Grade Parents,

   This is the last year for our children at Jefferson and we would like to remember their fabulous years at this school with a Fifth Grade Yearbook.

BUT WE CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!!!  

HOW YOU CAN HELP: We would like photos of any Jefferson event from K-5th grade, especially photos with multiple children. We are looking for photos from field trips, music performances, concerts, Halloween, Jr. Olympics, garden day, Walkathon, Artworks, kickball games, plays and anything that might work well in the yearbook.

We have created a shared site for collecting photos

1. Go to flickr.com

2. Click SIGN IN, you will be asked an email and password on a Yahoo site.

3. Log on email: yearbookjefferson2016@yahoo.com

     Password: jeffersonphotos2016

4. Click on YOU at the top left of the screen and you should see the site named Amy Cheung.

5. Click UPLOAD located on the top right side of the screen. That should allow you to upload your photos from your computer onto our site.

6. Choose photos from your computer.

7. When you have chosen your photos, PLEASE click below the photo and it will allow you to name the photo. PLEASE LABEL THE GRADE FROM WHICH THE PHOTO IS FROM. It will help us organize the photos.

8. Click UPLOAD on the upper right corner and it will show up on our website.

If you have photos on your phone, you can also upload through a Flickr app.

We would like families to submit an infant /toddler photo of your child for the yearbook. But please make sure you give us the child’s name so that we can identify the child.

If you have CDs or SD cards or hard copies of photos, please contact one of us and we can discuss further. We’ll take whatever you have to offer. Thanks for all you help. Your contributions will make this yearbook that much better.

WE WOULD LIKE TO COLLECT PHOTOS FOR K-4TH GRADE BY THANKSGIVING AND WILL SET UP ANOTHER DEADLINE FOR 5TH GRADE.

If you have any questions please contact Amy Cheung(Nicholas’ mom 205) amy.cheung.sf@gmail.com or Ria Ramos (Ani’s mom 204) reeyah@hotmail.com

First Day of School

Today was a great first day in Room 212. I really enjoyed meeting all of my new students. It's so nice to put faces to the names of everyone. It will probably take me a few days to learn everyone's names, but I should have it soon. We had a lot of fun making table groups, playing bingo, starting Me Cubes, and even taking a very difficult test. Everyone excelled, because everyone tried their best.

We have 2 new students to Jefferson this year in our class. Ronan (with an "a") comes to us from Harvey Milk. Ronan is a fabulous artist. We also have Riko, from Japan, who is learning English, and is going to help us with our Japanese.

We have a fun, full week planned and we will start diving into our 5th grade curriculum.

Thank  you all for a great first day!

Welcome Class of 2016

Hello Students and families of Room 212,
Welcome to my blog site. I have been working hard in Room 212 getting it ready for all of you. I am so excited to meet all of you next week. We have lots of changes at Jefferson this year (new staff) and I am looking forward to a fun filled year of learning and discovery in the 5th grade. I really want to help make your last year at Jefferson fabulous (and meaningful).

Please take a moment to complete the Family Survey by clicking on the tab above, then clicking on the Room 212 Family Survey link.

Thank you!

Class of 2015 Year End Slide Show.

Class of 2015 Slideshow

Panoramic Picture

The Class of 2015 Panoramic Picture will be taken on Wednesday, March 18th. Be sure to wear your Rising Star shirt, and be on time! The picture will be taken first thing in the morning.

Explorer Report

Click on the link above to find out detailed information about your explorer report due in February.

Holiday Party

Friday is our classroom holiday party! We will be wearing our pajamas, bringing our favorite stuffed animals and watching a movie. We'll make hot chocolate, decorate cookies, play Holiday Pictionary, and celebrate our last day of 2014 together. Thank you to all the families who donated supplies.

Math Night!

Tonight is Math Night for Jefferson's 4th and 5th graders. It will begin at 6:00pm and go to 7:30pm. I am looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Pumpkin Carving Help Needed

Dear Room 212 families,

I am sorry for the late notice, but I was hoping to carve pumpkins with the class tomorrow (Thursday). If you are free on Thursday between 9:45 - 10:30 to help a small group carve a pumpkin please let me know. We will be doing this activity in the garden, with the help of Ms. O'Brien. I am hoping for 2-6 volunteers.

Also, if you are able to donate a pumpkin to the class, or loan us pumpkin carving tools that would be great! I need 8 pumpkins, and plan on purchasing them tonight, but will purchase fewer if you are able to donate one by bringing it to class Thursday morning. Please let me know as soon as possible if you're able to donate one. Thank you!

I truly appreciate all you do to support our class.

Thank you so much,

Marcy Johnson

Primary Elections tomorrow

The 5th grade Primary will be held tomorrow. Nominees should have their <90 second speech memorized. I am looking forward to hearing all the 5th graders running for President or Secretary.

Puberty Education notification went home today. Parents should receive a bright orange announcement regarding Puberty Education to be held the week of November 17th.

World Series Game 1 is tonight. Go Giants! We are asking that we show our support for the local team by wearing orange on Friday. Orange is best, but any Giants' gear or black works as well.

Sharktoberfest at The Gulf of the Farallones Institute on Saturday, October 18th.

Here is the invite to Sharktoberfest at the Gulf of the Farallones Institute this Saturday. What a great way to spend the day!

Picture Day

Picture Day is scheduled for Thursday, October 9th. We are scheduled for first thing in the morning so please don't be late. Try to look your best because this will always be your "5th grade picture" forever.