Some of the CAA staff did the #ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on Friday after school! Here's a quick video of our challenge. I'm so proud of our entire 5th grade team - all of us participated in the challenge! We teach 5th graders... a little bit of icy water can't scare us! ;)

I had so much fun doing the challenge in front of the whole 5th grade on Wednesday! You can find that video HERE. (Pictures are at the slideshow at the bottom.) I am donating $1 per student to ALS to fund research as a part of this challenge. Thanks, Lainie, for challenging me!

Dear families,

Is this really the last week of August? Some of the kids told me last week that the school year already feels like it's flying by. So true! 

In the Tuesday folder this week, you are getting a Scholastic Book Clubs order form. Students can order books either online or by sending in money (cash, or checks made out to Scholastic). I love the Scholastic Book Clubs because our classroom gets free books when the students place paid orders! Let me encourage you to purchase a book for your child. There are some GREAT ones in this month's brochure. One of them is even a Reading Bowl book this year! (Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage). But we must hurry! Orders are due THIS FRIDAY, 8/29, to receive the special prices offered in this brochure. 

You can also order online - our classroom gets a free book for EVERY online order! Visit www.scholastic.com/readingclub and enter our class code: J39FV. I recommend ordering from the 5th Grade Flyer, but you can order from any of them!

Plus, every child who orders gets a free 2-sided poster from Scholastic! 

Thanks to everyone who attended Thursday night's PTA Meet & Greet! I heard it was a great success. 

Slideshow of last week's work is at the bottom of this post.

What's Happening This Week:

• Monday, 8/25: Switch for science with Mrs. Hawkins
• Tuesday, 8/26: Red Folders come home; homework page assigned
• Thursday, 8/28: Shurley English Chapter 1 Test (Capitalization & Punctuation)
• Friday, 8/29: Scholastic Book Orders due! Math homework due also

Skills Class (7:30 am)
Students who attend MPACT and ESOL classes leave for those teachers during this time period. Other students will be divided up to receive specialized instruction based on their particular strengths and weaknesses. Please email me or call if you have any questions.

Reading/ELA
Standards

• RL.5.1. Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RL.5.2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
• L.5.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
  

Essential Questions

• What are the basic parts of literary (fiction) texts?
• How are literary texts set up (plot diagram)?

Activities
We are starting our first novel unit! We are reading Bridge to Terabithia in small groups. Students will be covering language arts standards in small groups as well.

• Interactive Notebook: story elements and plot pyramid
• Mrs. Thompson: introduce instructional conversations in reading; discuss exposition and inciting incident in the novel
• ELA/Writing: complete Classroom Practices #3 and #4 in Shurley English, Chapter 1; write opinion about nonfiction article - SHURLEY ENGLISH TEST THIS THURSDAY
• Computer: Take "Star Test" for Accelerated Reader; start Typing Pal
• Lit Circle: assign jobs for literature circles and meet to discuss the book

What We're Reading

• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• "Go Outside and Play!" (nonfiction article)
• Skinnybones by Barbara Park
• Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

What We're Writing

• Opinions about the benefits of playing outside

Homework
Read 30 minutes each night! I'd still love to see thirty minutes of reading over the weekend. It can be done a little each day or all at once. We are also currently doing a 30-Page Club in class. Students who read over 30 pages each night get to sign their names to the club sheet! We finished the 20-Page Club last week. How can I tell if a child has read enough each night? I do Status of the Class every single day to record what page students are on and to check comprehension. I truly appreciate when students have done the required reading! For students who have not done the reading, we discuss the importance of it and develop a plan for reading. If your child is not reading at least 30 minutes every night, please set aside a quiet space and time for this very important task. I do not require a reading log each night since I check it in class each day :)

Mathematics
Students have asked me - when is our first math test? Great question! It will be on Friday, September 5th. We are having small quizzes weekly to check understanding so that I can reteach as needed. Here's what's happening this week in math to get us ready:
Standards

• 5.NBT.A.3 Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths. 

Essential Questions

• How do we compare decimals?
• How can a number line help us compare decimals?
• Why is it important to be able to compare decimals?

Activities
We have gotten into our math small group groove! Students are working in small groups to complete centers and work with me on math skills. I am able to enrich those who master the material quickly and reteach those who are having a little difficulty. Here are some of the things we'll be doing in class this week:

• Interactive Notebook: how to compare decicmals
  
• Mrs. Thompson: working on task cards and a performance task (What do you know? How can you use it? Why is that true?)
  
• Computer: IXL (If you want, your child can work on this at home! They have new login numbers and will write these down in their agendas. The sections of IXL we are working on this week are C.8, C.9, and C.10)
  
• Partner Work: Play Decimal War with playing cards to make the highest decimal!
  
• Independent Work: Use baseball card statistics to see which ball players are better than others by using their batting averages. 
  

Homework
Students will receive a homework page (front and back - don't worry, only a total of 12 problems) on Tuesday. It is due on Friday. It's a review of expanded form and word form for decimals. (We worked on this last week.)

Social Studies
A note about tests and grading: This year in social studies and science, your child will be taking tests using a free online assessment program called Socrative. This website allows teachers to input questions and answers so that your child can take the test online. This saves the school paper and also allows the teacher to download the students' grades for multiple-choice tests.

This means you will not see a paper multiple-choice test come home for these subjects this year. Students will write a short-answer paragraph or essay for every social studies and science test, however. Grades will be posted on this paper for you to see when they come home in Tuesday folders.

If your child's test grade matches the essay grade, you will only see one grade on the test. For example, if your child makes a 3 on the essay and a 3 on the multiple-choice Socrative test, you will just see one grade on the test paper. However, if your child makes a 2 on the essay but a 3 on the multiple choice, we will show both grades on the test. We mark Socrative grades with an "SOC" by the grade.

If at any time you have a question about your child's performance on these tests, please contact me for Social Studies or Mrs. Hawkins for Science. Thanks!

Science
Students are with Mrs. Hawkins for the next two weeks to study plant and animal classification!

And here is the slideshow from last week! 

Here's a slideshow of some of the work students did last week! Information about the upcoming week is below the slideshow. 

Dear families,

School is moving along at quite a nice pace! We have been working on some introductory units to get students prepared for academics. Now we are going full-steam ahead! We are also introducing specialized Skills classes. See below for more information.

PS - Happy birthday to Christopher! His birthday was on Saturday. Hope it was a great day! :)

What's Happening This Week:

• Thursday, 8/21: Math homework (decimals)
• Friday, 8/22: Library Orientation; Economics Test

Skills Class (7:30 am)
Students who attend MPACT and ESOL classes leave for those teachers during this time period. Other students will be divided up to receive specialized instruction based on their particular strengths and weaknesses. Please email me or call if you have any questions.

Reading/ELA
Standards

• RI.5.10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Essential Questions

• What are the features of informational (nonfiction) text?
• How can we use text features to help us read informational text?

Activities

• Text-mapping several informational articles. Last week, we read about people who illegally smuggle exotic animals. The students really enjoyed that topic, so we are continuing the theme of exotic and interesting animals into this week!
• Friday: Text-mapping (informational text features) assessment

What We're Reading

• "Hide and Sneak"
• "Deep Sea Monsters"
• "Cougars on the Move"
• "Wild Animal Pets"
• Skinnybones by Barbara Park

What We're Writing

• Opinions about exotic animal laws in the United States

Mathematics
Standards

• 5.NBT.A.3 Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths. 

Essential Questions

• What is a decimal?
• What are some different ways we can represent decimals? (Base Ten blocks, standard number form, word form, expanded form)
• How are decimals and fractions related?

Activities
Our math class will be very flexible each week. I will watch and listen as students practice math to decide when we need extra practice and who might need to try something harder, and also to determine the pace at which we should move. We may finish all of these activities this week, or we may need to save some of them for next week. 

• Place value foldables for interactive notebooks
• Greg Tang math games (visit this website to play and select "decimals")
• Practice making decimals and the different ways to write them
• Create Decimal Designs to calculate decimals using hundreds charts
• Relating money values to decimals
• Human Decimal game
• High Rollers (competitive game where partners create decimals by rolling dice)
• Homework on Thursday

What We're Writing

• What we've learned about decimals and decimal place value

Social Studies
Standards

• SS5E2 The student will describe the functions of four major sectors in the U. S. economy. 
  
• SS5E3 The student will describe how consumers and businesses interact in the U. S. economy. 
  
• SS5E4 The student will identify the elements of a personal budget and explain why personal spending and saving decisions are important. 
  

Essential Questions

• What are the four major sectors in the US economy?
• What is fair trade?
• How does competition work in our economy?
• What is the benefits of saving versus spending?
• How are budgets created? Why are they useful?

Activities

• Play economics games! (Gas Station Game, Fair Trade, A Tale of Two Villages)
• Create a foldable for the four sectors of the US economy
• Create a zoo and discuss how economic principles are at work in running a business
• Watch videos on budgeting, taxation, and supply and demand (www.brainpop.com)
• Analyze banking brochures
• Final assessment on Friday

What We're Writing

• How to create a budget
• How our economic system works

BONUS SLIDESHOW!
Because Shark Week was on TV last week, we spent some time on Friday doing some creative shark-related activities! Thanks to Will for bringing in some shark teeth to share with us!

Dear families,

Welcome to your first weekly blog post! Typically, I write blog posts for the week on Saturdays or Sundays and will email them out to you as soon as they are finished. Each blog post updates you on general information about the week as well as specifics about what your fifth grader will be doing in class.

This week's blog post is especially long because I am explaining the details behind lots of our classes. Please do not let the length discourage you from reading these blog posts :) They are usually shorter than this, but they are all full of important information about your child's academics. 

Let me also officially welcome you to what I hope will be a very open and communicative parent-teacher partnership! I hope to always be able to share with you ahead of time information about what we are doing in class. If, however, you ever have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. You may find my contact information on the "Contact Me" page at the top. 

I love to take pictures in class, so there should be at LEAST one new picture to accompany each blog post! For weeks when there are several photos, I will set up a slideshow and send it to you. This post's picture is of about half the class working on our first STEM project. We'll be doing these projects monthly. STEM stands for "science, technology, engineering, and math." For our first project, students had to work in groups to create marshmallow towers, and the tallest tower won! (Congrats to Millie and Yuliana on their 24" winning tower!) After completing the project, students learned about the principles of engineering and design. We will use these 6 principles on each month's STEM challenge! (If you are interested in helping out with our next challenge, please let me know. It's a fun one!)

If you haven't already, let me encourage you to please sign up for FREE reminder texts from me. These come through an educational website called remind.com. It's completely safe and secure. This is a great way for me to send out last minute reminders. Look on the right sidebar to find the information to sign up for these free text messages! (Thanks to those of you who have already signed up! We have almost half the class!)

I also am going to send out requests from a website called threering.com. This is your child's free, secure online work portfolio. I will post examples of work and projects here so you will be able to see them! Some projects can't come home, so this way you can see the things your child creates in class. Please sign up for this once you receive the email. 

Now that we've gotten all of this introductory information out of the way, let me fill you in on some of the specifics for our first full week of school! 

*A special note about our homeroom classes and science/social studies: All of my homeroom students are in my class for Reading/ELA, Mathematics, and Social Studies. The only classes students switch for are science and social studies. My homeroom students will visit Mrs. Hawkins's class for science instruction. 

What's Happening This Week:

• Monday, August 11: All academic class begin! (The first class starts at 7:30 am, so please be on time.)
• Friday, August 15: My homeroom's social studies class first assessment - The Constitution and Citizenship

Skills Class
All students will have a 50 minute skills/focus class at the beginning of the day. This class starts at 7:30, so if your child is not in his or her seat at that time, he or she will miss out on part of that class. If your child attends MPACT or ESOL classes, this is the time for those classes. The students who do not attend MPACT or ESOL will get specialized instruction targeting their specific strengths and weaknesses. This is a very important class, so please be sure your child is on time. Thank you!

Mathematics
Standards

• 5.OA.A Write and interpret numerical expressions.
• 5.OA.B Analyze patterns and relationships.
  

Essential Questions

• How is mental math important in solving numerical expressions?
• Why is it important to recognize patterns in math?

Activities
We'll be working with number sense this week to help get our minds thinking in a mathematical way before we begin working with place value next week.

• Monday: Set up math notebook; mental math fun; break down numerical expressions, play Kakooma! (super fun math game... find it at www.gregtangmath.com)
• Tuesday: play "Which is the better deal?" and a game called "High Rollers;" work with a variety of place values; play "What's my number?" and Kakooma again!
• Wednesday: Play "Guess my number"
• Thursday: Word problem solving strategies (6 steps). We'll be using these strategies all year long, so you may want to become familiar with them. 1) Read the whole problem. 2) Figure out who and what the problem is about. 3) Write the question as a statement. 4) Draw your model. 5) Write your equation and solve it. 6) Fill in your answer and see if it makes sense.

• Friday: Play "Rocky Digits" game and a 100s chart game

Reading/ELA
Our literacy block consisting of reading/ela will be at the very end of the day. If your child checks out early, he or she will miss out on reading instruction.

Standards

• RL.5.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• RI.5.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• SL.5.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Essential Questions

• How do I make sure I read a variety of genres?
• How can I tell the genre of a book? 
• How do I read a text closely?
• How can I show description in my writing?

Activities

• Monday: Set up reading notebook; play Library Bingo and make a wish list for books to read this year
• Tuesday: Learn about the 30 book challenge; discuss author's purpose (easy as PIE - persuade, inform, entertain) and put a foldable into our interactive notebooks; play author's purpose scoot game
• Wednesday: genre sort small group activity; discuss the writing strategy of "Show, Don't Tell" which improves descriptive writing
• Thursday: Read Scholastic News article "Hide and Sneak" closely in 3 steps; write your opinion about smuggling in illegal animals
• Friday: Create a "Show, Don't Tell" short story and illustration

What We're Reading 

• Skinnybones by Barbara Park

What We're Writing

• Opinion piece (1-2 well developed paragraphs)
• Short narrative story

Social Studies
Standards

• SS5CG1  The  student  will  explain  how  a  citizen’s  rights are protected under the 
  U.S. Constitution. 
• SS5CG2 The student will explain the process by which amendments to the US Constitution are made.

Essential Questions

• Why does the US Constitution contain a Bill of Rights?
• What is due process?

Activities

• Monday: Introduce the Bill of Rights, the difference in rights and responsibilities of citizens, and explain the amendment process
• Tuesday - Thursday: a variety of centers to explore the Bill of Rights and citizenship (includes short videos, a play, amendment matching, reading nonfiction articles, etc.)
• Friday: First assessment - Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Citizenship. It will consist of matching questions and essay/short answer. 

What We're Reading

• "Symbols of the United States" (a short play)
• "No Bill of Rights, No Constitution"

What We're Writing

• What would life be like without one of the rights listed in the Bill of Rights? Choose a right, then write an opinion piece about which right would be the worst to lose and why. 

We had a great first day! We did a classmate scavenger hunt, played a game called "Switch Sides If..." and had some independent reading time! Students are also working on a quilt square. The quilt squares are a way to share about themselves with the class (and they are actually rectangles, not squares). Those are due on Monday and will be shared with the class. At the end of next week, they'll be "stitched" together and displayed in the 5th grade hallway!

I have loved spending my day with your children. Thank you so much for the privilege!

Mrs. Thompson