Class Update 11/8/16

Important Reminders:

Our annual Veteran's Day Assembly will be held on Friday at 9:15.

School will be closed November 23 - 25 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Class Updates:

We had a great time on our field trip to Cahokia Mounds. Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to attend!

Our unit on long division continues in math. We are finishing up our last few lessons this week on long division with two-digit divisors. We will also be reviewing more about how to interpret the remainder in word problems that use division.

Students are writing their first drafts of informational reports on focused topics related to Native Americans. They are currently focusing on the body of their reports to add in different types of information, including number facts, examples, and quotes. We will be exploring how to refer to geography in the reports, as this dramatically impacted the way of life for all Native Americans. Children will also study sources like timelines and maps to find additional facts for their writing. Research is ongoing in class as we write, but please know that students may need to do research and note-taking at home as well. Lists of websites are available on the Google Classroom site for students to use a home.

In reading, we have been learning ways that non-fiction text can become more complex as the level of the text increases. Students are working with their reading partners and individually to practice finding the main ideas and supporting details of sections of text. Lessons will be coming up on using both context clues and word parts to clarify the meaning of unknown words.

In social studies, students are working in groups of three to do a project on ancient civilizations. They are wrapping up the research part of their project on either the Mayans, Incas, or Aztecs. They will use their research to create digital books using a website called Story Jumper. Once students finish typing the text and creating the graphics for their books, each group will present their digital book to the class.

Our Halloween Parade and Party were so much fun! The children played some "bump" games on idioms and context clues. They also worked in groups to solve a variety of tasks in a Halloween Breakout Box activity. We had a visit from Serengeti Steve who brought spiders, scorpions, alligators, and snakes with him. We have some very brave students in our class! Thank you to all of the parents who helped organize the day.

Class Update 10/23/16

Important Reminders:

Parent-Teacher Conferences are this week. You should receive an email from the Sign Up Genius website to remind you of your conference time on either Monday, October 24th or Wednesday, October 26th. I look forward to meeting with you soon!

This week is Red Ribbon Week. Please click here for the schedule. Monday will be in support of Backstoppers and Officer Snyder.

The Book Fair continues through Thursday! Thank you very much for the change that was donated through the All for Books Fundraiser! Take a look at the books I was able to purchase for our classroom with the money that was donated:

Our field trip to Cahokia Mounds is on Thursday. Please make sure your child arrives to school on time, as we are leaving first thing in the morning. Children should also dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. We will return to school for lunch.

Our Halloween Parade will take place on Monday, October 31st. This year, 5th grade students will also have a special guest presentation following the parade. Please click this link for costume guidelines. HALLOWEEN COSTUME GUIDELINES.doc  Also note that clown costumes are prohibited this year. Thank you for your cooperation!

School will be closed on November 7th and 8th for teacher conference compensation day and for Election Day.

Class Updates:

We have had a busy couple of weeks at Long! 5th Grade students participated in Ability Awareness Day. Students rotated to five presentations by Easter Seals, Access for All, and Life Bridge, among others. The kids had lots of fun learning about and interacting with support and therapy dogs from CHAMP Dogs.

In both reading and writing, we will be beginning new units in non-fiction. Students will be reading a variety of non-fiction texts and study how they are organized to teach information using text structures and text features. The children will be learning about research methods and note taking in order to write informational reports. We wrapped up our personal narrative unit with a pajama day celebration on Friday. Students were able to read each other's writing in the dark with flashlights and leave feedback for their peers on compliment sheets.

In math, we are currently in our unit covering division with whole numbers. We have been exploring the relationships between multiplication and division with fact families, practicing mental math strategies, and reviewing the steps to long division problems. We will be having a quiz this week on Wednesday on the first five lessons of Chapter 3. A study guide will be given out on Monday to help students prepare.

Students have been learning all about the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, Plains, Southwest, and Eastern Woodlands regions of the United States in social studies. We are now reviewing for a Chapter 2 Test on Wednesday. Students received a study guide on Friday. Chapter 2 Packets will also be due on Wednesday. To further explore our Native American Unit, the children are working in groups to engineer a variety of homes, including tepees, pueblos, and wigwams. Thank you for all of the donations of materials for students to use on their STEM projects. We spent last week planning and sketching designs and the groups have just started to build their homes. We will continue to work on them this week. It is fun to see their creativity and teamwork!

Class Update 10/10/16

Important Reminders:

Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up at the end of this month. An email was sent out this week with a Sign-Up Genius link to select a conference time on either Monday, October 24th or Wednesday, October 26th. Please make sure to sign up for a conference if you have not already done so. I look forward to speaking with you about your child's progress.

The end of the first quarter is this coming Friday, October 14th. There will be a half day of school, with an 11:40 dismissal time. Lunch will not be served that day.

In conjunction with our upcoming fall book fair, the All for Books fundraiser will be happening all week from the 10th - 14th. Information about the fundraiser was sent home on Friday with students. Children can bring in change each day of the week. All donations will be used to purchase books for our own classroom library!

The 5th grade classrooms along with Girl Scout troop 4129 are collecting donations for the Endangered Wolf Center. An list of items needed, including paper towels and storage bags, was sent home with students. Children can bring in donations any time this week.

Look for a field trip permission slip to come home on Tuesday. Our first field trip of the year will be on Thursday, October 27th to Cahokia Mounds. This field trip is an excellent supplement to our social studies curriculum! We will need some parent volunteers who would like to attend this trip. If you are able to come, please fill out the bottom portion of the permission slip and return it to school with your child.

Class Updates:

In math, we are wrapping up Chapter 2 on multiplication. The children have learned a variety of strategies to multiply whole numbers including the Distributive Property. Students will have a test on Wednesday. As with the first chapter, students were given a study guide. If they use this study guide to help them practice for the test at home, they can receive extra credit on the test. A parent signature is needed on the study guide by the morning of the test to receive extra credit. I have also uploaded videos on our Math Google Classroom site for students to use if they need reminders on how to solve multiplication problems. Our next two chapters will focus on division skills.

The students work in math centers to practice their skills, including how to make factors trees for prime factorization.

Book clubs are up and running in reading! Students are working on close reading of read chapter books for their clubs. They meet twice per week to discuss what they have read. In addition, the children are working to write "thick" questions about their books and determine the potential themes of the stories. We have read many shorter books together in class to practice finding universal themes, including, hope, friendship, acceptance, and honesty. The children are working hard to find text evidence to support their thinking as well!

All students have finished publishing their first personal narrative piece in writing, and are now writing a second narrative to continue their growth in this genre. I have met with each child to discuss their work. Based on our discussion, students have selected a specific goal to work on in their next piece of writing. Many children are selecting goals based on developing the heart of their story with more elaboration. Others are focused on adding transitional words and phrases to help show the passage of time. I am excited to see how they progress from their first piece to the second!

In social studies, we have begun our unit on Native Americans. We are learning about the first groups of people to settle in North and South America, including the Mound Builders and civilizations such as the Aztecs. Next, we will be learning about tribes of the United States by region. The children will be working compare and contrast the types of food, clothing, shelter, and customs of each region. We will also focus on how the landforms, climate, and resources of those regions affected the daily life of Native American peoples.

Class Update 9/18/16

Important Reminders:

There will be no school on Friday, September 23 due to a teacher professional development day.

School Picture Day is coming up on September 28th.

Please help support our LPTO fundraiser, which is currently underway. The next coupon day is Tuesday.

We are at the halfway point in first quarter. I will be sending home mid-quarter reports with your child at the end of this week. The reports are intended to give you an approximation of how your child is doing so far this year, both behaviorally and academically. Please make sure to review the report and return it to school signed. As a reminder, you can log in to SIS at any time to check on your child's grades as well. Thank you!

Class Updates:

Math:  We will be having our Chapter 1 test on Tuesday. Students have a study guide that we completed together in class. If they study using the study guide at home and get it signed by an adult, they can earn extra credit on the test. In addition, I have provided students with review videos and an online quiz via Quizizz on the Google Classroom site. I highly encourage the children to play the Quizizz game to help them prepare for the test. Our next unit will cover multiplication concepts. Check out some of the projects the students completed below. Students designed robots and then calculated the area and perimeter of their robot. Decimal concepts were reviewed by calculating the decimal represented by the children's initials on hundreds grids. We have also been webbing numbers in all three forms.

Reading: We have used some familiar books, such as Mr. Peabody's Apples to examine the story arc that occurs in narrative texts. Students are learning about the important elements of plot, including an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. We have also been learning how to write written responses to questions about reading that include specific details and examples from the text, as well as an explanation of how that text evidence supports the answer. Take a look at the wonderful inferences students made about the book, The Gardener:

Writing: This past week in writing the students have been working hard to revise and add on to their personal narrative drafts. They have been adding strong leads, making sure their piece follows a story arc, and are elaborating more on the most important parts of their narratives. Up next, we will be crafting endings that leave the reader with a lasting impression.

Social Studies: We have finished up the lessons from the first unit. Students have been learning different ways regions can be grouped in a country, as well as some of the things that are unique to the Midwest Region. We have a Chapter 1 test on Wednesday. All students have a study guide to help them prepare. In addition, a vocabulary game is on the Social Studies Google Classroom site. We will also begin a My World Project this week to review the concepts from the first chapter.