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!
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:
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
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.
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
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:
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!
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.
- What are the basic parts of literary (fiction) texts?
- How are literary texts set up (plot diagram)?
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
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
- "Go Outside and Play!" (nonfiction article)
- Skinnybones by Barbara Park
- Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
- Opinions about the benefits of playing outside
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.
- How do we compare decimals?
- How can a number line help us compare decimals?
- Why is it important to be able to compare decimals?
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.
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!
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