December Update

I hope you all are enjoying the winter weather!  It sounded like the kids had a lot of fun on their first snow day.  Just a couple of reminders about upcoming events.  We will be having an early release this Wednesday, so please make sure your child knows his or her going home plans.  Also, later this week students will receive a copy of the spelling bee newspaper.  It has a variety of spelling activities as well as a list of words that can be used to practice for the spelling bee.  We will have our class spelling bee next week to determine who our classroom winners will be.  These class winners will participate in Long's spelling bee on Friday, January 17th.

 Most of the students did well with multiplication, but a few students really need to practice their facts.  Please work with your child at home to make sure they know their facts.  As a fun culmination of the unit on multiplication, students worked in groups to create a multiplication board game.  There were many creative ideas, and the games turned out great.  They enjoyed getting to play games created by their classmates!

Currently we are studying division, and we will have a test over this skill before Christmas break. Look for a study guide to come home later this week or early next week.

In reading, we are using context clues to figure out the meaning of unknown words when we read. Also, we started new reading groups last week so your child has a new reading group book.  Reading groups are a great way for the students to apply the strategies and skills we are learning in reading.

The students are doing a great job in writing!  We had our celebration early in November when we read aloud our personal narratives.

Now we are using what we have learned about informational writing and applying it to Native Americans, a topic we have learned about in social studies.  The students are discovering many interesting things about Native Americans and how they lived.  Later this week they will take what they have learned when researching Native Americans and write a rough draft of their information.

Too bad we just finished learning about weather before the big snow storm hit!  Hopefully the students had a better understanding of what caused it, though.  Before Christmas break, we will be learning about matter and light in science.  Currently, we are studying the states of matter and conservation of matter.

5th Grade Happenings

A lot of things have been happening in 5^th grade!  Edward Jones and the St. Louis Rams teamed up to do a program with our students on Tuesday.  Students made cards to send to the soldiers overseas to help cheer them up over the holidays.  Also, we got to meet Emory Blake, a player from the Rams.  He signed autographs  and posed for pictures with the kids.  Another fun event from Tuesday was meeting the Rams mascot, Rampage.  He really got the kids excited! 

Last Thursday we had a great Halloween party.  The kids loved dressing up in their costumes and participating in the fun games during the party.  Thank you to all of the parents who helped plan our party!

In math, we completed our chapter on graphing and data.  We are now beginning multiplication, so PLEASE make sure to practice math facts with your child.  If you go to multiplication.com there are pretests the students can take.  This can give you an idea of what facts they haven’t mastered yet.  By 5^th grade, we expect students to know their facts from 1-12.  They should be able to quickly say the answers to these facts. 

In reading, we are studying author’s purpose.  Students are determining why authors write different texts, and they also are applying this when inferencing about author’s opinions.   Most reading groups just finished their books, so we will starting new books next week. 

Students are making lots of growth in writing!  We are finished with personal narrative, and we are moving onto a new genre: informational writing.  Next week we will begin learning to paraphrase and take notes when researching.  

In science, we are continuing to study the water cycle.  Ask your child how we made it  rain in the classroom!

Class Update

Parent teacher conferences are coming up on October 28th and 30th.  On Monday you will receive an email from Sign Up Genius, the site we use for parents to sign up for conferences.  Please sign up for a conference before October 21st.

In science, we finally conducted our Oreo experiment to see which Oreo sinks faster!  The kids had a lot of fun doing different jobs during the experiment.  We will be finishing up charts, graphs, and drawing conclusions this week.  Be looking for a study guide to come home later this week to prepare for our test on the scientific method.

Students are doing a wonderful job in writing.  They are adding sensory details and making their reader feel like they are experiencing the moments.  We have increased our writing stamina, and students are able to write for over 30 minutes consecutively!

In reading, we are focusing on main idea.  Students are reading non-fiction texts and deciding what the story is mostly about.  Also, in reading groups we are answering constructed response questions with details from fiction books.  Next up will be summarizing.

Our algebra test will be on Wednesday, and students began the study guide Friday.  They will bring home their study guide Monday night.  In a few weeks we will begin multiplication, so please make sure your child knows his or her multiplication facts.  If not, please practice, practice, practice!!  Some kids told me their parents even quiz them in the car!  It is very important that they know their facts quickly as we will be doing long multiplication problems.  It is very difficult for them to do this if they don't know their facts.

As always, thank you for all you are doing at home!  Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Fifth Grade News

Things have been moving right along.  Routines are established, and the students seem to be enjoying fifth grade.  They are a fun group of kids to teach!

In math, students have been working hard on estimating and adding and subtracting with decimals.  We will finish up chapter three with a test on Tuesday.  Students have a study guide in their folder that we completed in class earlier in the week.  Please take some time to look it over with your child before Tuesday.

Reading groups have gotten underway, and we are learning to make predictions with support from the text. We have also been focusing on questioning and themes of stories.  Reading seems to be a favorite of many students!

I am so proud of the writing the kids have been doing in class!  They have increased their stamina and are able to write for much longer than they could at the beginning of the year,  After the mini lesson of the writing skill or strategy, students are allowed to choose a spot around the room to write.

On Wednesday, we had a celebration of our writing where every student shared a piece of writing they were excited about.  Everyone has been making progress in writing, and we are continuing our study of personal narratives for the next several weeks.

In Science, we are getting closer to doing our Oreo investigation.  We have learned how to write testable questions, how to write a hypothesis, and how to write a procedure.  Next, we are learning what variables are and how they affect investigations.  Later in the week, we will use what we have learned to perform an investigation to find out which type of Oreo sinks faster.  The kids are very excited to learn science with Oreos!  If you would like to donate a box of Oreos for us to use, please let me know and I can tell you what type we need for our experiment.

We also had our first buddy activity this week where students were paired up with a second grader from Mr. Jobst's class.  We plan on meeting monthly with our buddies, and each meeting is focused on one of the 7 habits.  This week fifth and second graders talked about being proactive.  The fifth graders did a great job of making their buddies feel welcome in our classroom!

Busy, busy, busy!

Even though this was a short week, we still accomplished many things!  We took our math test over place value today, and we had time after the test to learn a new math game.  Next week we will be starting chapter 3 on rounding.  In reading, we have been using clues in the text to make inferences.  Also, the students are quickly becoming accomplished writers.  They have learned how to take a big idea and turn it into a story.  Also, we discussed strategies for using good leads when starting a piece of writing.  The students wrote some very interesting, attention-getting leads.

Science was especially fun this week!  We have been talking about the two types of observations: qualitative and quantitative.  Today we went outside and found small natural objects to observe.  Then, we were able to use the school's new digital microscopes to magnify their objects on the whiteboards where everyone could see.  We were very surprised how such simple objects appeared so intricate and detailed under the microscope!

Our whole school has started reading  The Seven Habits of Happy Kids, which is a kid's version of the popular book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  The habits show kids how they can be a leader and make good choices.  Ask your child what habit they have demonstrated lately.  Here are the seven habits and what they mean:

Habit 1 – Be Proactive – Stop, think and make a good choice. Take responsibility
for your own actions and outcomes.
Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind – Set a goal and make a plan on how to
meet that goal. Work that plan.
Habit 3 – Put First Things First – Do the important things first. Work before play.
Habit 4 – Think Win-Win – Make a decision that will make everyone happy! Have
an attitude that I can win, and so can you.
Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood – Listen with your
eyes and heart not just your ears. Understand the other person’s point of view
before sharing your own.
Habit 6 – Synergize – Work together as a team. Each person has an important role
to play.
Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw – Take care of yourself. Make it a priority to renew
and strengthen your mind, body, heart and soul on a regular basis.

First Full Week- A Success!

Our first full week of school was a success!  We had a class meeting where the students decided how they wanted to be treated.  From our discussion, they came up with a mission for our class.  I think they did a fantastic job!  Take a look at our class mission.  

We are working on place value in math, and everyone is doing a great job so far.  In writing, we have been developing our writer's notebook and focusing on small moments in our lives.  The goal is for the students to be able to narrow down an idea to a specific moment so their writing has a focus.  In reading, we are talking about strategies good readers use.  Earlier in the week, we did a team building activity in science.  Ask your child how their group saved Fred! We also are learning about different science tools.

What a great first week!

We had a lot of fun this week!  We did lots of team building and get to know you activities  together.  Hopefully by now the kids are getting used to some of the routines and are excited about 5th grade.  Next week we will begin learning in the different subject areas.  Don't forget that curriculum night is this coming Tuesday, August 20th, at 6:30.  I will discuss the different topics we will learn about, and I will also explain the routines of 5th grade.  Hope to see you there!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!  I am so excited to be starting my eighth year of teaching 5th grade.  I have taught 5th grade at Long since I began my teaching career in 2006.  Each year has been an adventure, and I have especially enjoyed getting to know the families at Long.

My goal for this blog is to provide updates about what we are doing in class, as well as to remind you of any tests or assignments that you need to know about.  This is my first time doing a blog, so hopefully it works out well!  I don't plan on overloading you with information, but I want to give you a general overview so you know what your child is learning and doing throughout the school year.

I look forward to starting the school year, and I can't wait to meet all of my new students!  I hope to see you at the Meet and Greet Ice Cream Social on Tuesday, August 13th at 7:00.