September 28

A lot has happened since my last post!  We met our buddy class, Mrs. Burns 2nd graders.  We are doing a school-wide service learning project this year on the military.  Each time we meet with our buddies, we will be learning about the military and participating in activities that will help those who are serving our country.  We played a few get to know you games with our 2nd grade buddies, and then we watched a short video that talked about the different branches of the military.  We will meet again with our buddies at our early release day.

We completed our Oreo investigation in science!  Students had fun investigating our testable question, and they learned a lot in the process.  We didn't get a definitive answer to our question of which Oreo sinks the fastest, but we talked about the different variables that caused the groups to get different results.  We have now learned all of the different parts of the scientific method, and this is a skill we will be applying all year.  Later this week, we will be completing a study guide together in class to help prepare for the upcoming test on the scientific method.  Look for this to come home this week, and be sure to ask your child when the test will be.  I am still deciding, but it will probably be Tuesday, October 7th, or Wednesday, October 8th.

In math, we have been working on chapter 2.  We started by learning about prime numbers, and then we used what we learned about them to help us with the prime factorization of numbers.  Then, we began learning about exponents last week.  This is all new material for the students, so it might be helpful to check out the online textbook at home.  The end of this chapter covers multiplication, so please review multiplication facts with your child nightly to ensure that they are memorized.

We have been reading a variety of picture books in class to review story elements of fiction.  Students are working to identify the introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution of stories.  We read a book called Mr. Peabody's Apples that taught students the important lesson that words are very powerful.  Also, we have started analyzing characters in fiction books.  We will continue this skill this week.  Reading groups are going well, and we are reading books that are on each student's level.

In writing, we have also been discussing story elements.  We talked about how narrative writing needs a story arc, where the action builds up to a climax and then slowly falls to the resolution of the story.  Students shared their drafts with their writing partners to decide if their stories had a story arc.  Below are pictures of students working together with their writing partner(s).

 Some decided their story didn't really have much of a plot, so they began new drafts.  Others are continuing to develop their current drafts.  When conferencing with students, I am always looking to praise something they are doing well with their piece of writing.  Then, I offer a tip to help develop their writing craft.  I try to give advice that will carry over to different pieces of writing, as well as to their current piece.

It is still a few weeks away, but just a reminder that the quarter will end Friday, October 17th.  There will be a half day of school for students on that day.

September 14, 2014

Things have been going very well in 5th grade!  I am really enjoying everyone, and we are doing a lot of learning!

We are having fun in math workshop.  Math typically begins with a short mini lesson where the skill is introduced, and students get to practice the skill with my support.  Then, we break into our small groups, which are formed based on their understanding of the skill.  All groups get more individualized practiced with me, and they engage in hands on or technology based activities with their group when not meeting with me.  Also, students are provided with problem solving and real world math problems to work on during math workshop.  We are almost finished with chapter one, and the students have done very well with it.  Study guides went home last week, and we will be having our test on Tuesday.  If you study with your child and sign their study guide, they will receive a small amount of extra credit on their test.

Here is one of the activities that students did where they shaded in their initials in a grid.  Then, they practiced writing decimals and word form of fractions based on the number of squares they colored in of each color.

One of the activities students worked on in math this week was creating the perfect schedule for their school day.  They had certain requirements to meet, and they came up with some very creative ideas!

Our class of writers is continuing to work on personal narratives.  Some students are struggling with ideas for small moments in their life.  Ask your child what some of their ideas are, and maybe you can help them brainstorm a few other specific moments in their life that they could write about.  Last week, we examined many examples of small moments.  Students also made goals to focus on in their personal narratives.  They will be working on these goals this coming week.

In reading groups, we have been focusing on quality answers when responding to text.  Quality answers include using PQPA (part of the question in part of the answer) to restate the question, as well as using text evidence to support answers.  Using evidence from the text is extremely important this year.  We are learning how to quote the evidence that we find in the story.  Complete sentences, capitalization, and punctuation are also a big part of quality answers.

We have been learning to write a testable question and a hypothesis in science.  We also learned about the three variables in an investigation.  Our first investigation will be this week, where we will test our question: Which Oreo sinks the fastest?  Results will follow soon!