May Update

Testing is finally over!  I'm sure your child is very happy about this.  We had quite a few days of testing, but the kids really worked hard and we had some fun rewards throughout the testing time.  I am very proud of all of their efforts within the last few weeks!

As the end of the year approaches, there are many activities that will keep us busy in 5th grade.
Below are some of the important dates to keep in mind.

• May 5th- Bowling Field Trip (9:00-11:00)
• May 7th- Truman Orientation (12:45-3:00)
• May 14th- Field Day 
• May 15th- NO SCHOOL 
• May 20th- DARE Graduation (1:30)
• May 21st- 5th Grade Party
• May 22nd- Last Day of School (half day)

This past Friday the whole school was involved in a STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) day.  There were several fun science demonstrations, and the students participated in an egg drop where they were given specific materials and told to construct a structure to protect their egg from cracking when they dropped it.  Also, we went inside an inflatable dome and watched a video about storms.  It was like a smaller scale version of the Omni-max at the Science Center!

In math, we are finishing up our chapter on measurement.  Look for a study guide to come home early next week.  We are learning standard and customary measurement conversions.  Students are also working on a fun project in their math centers.  It incorporates geometry, number sense, volume, and other important math concepts.  They have to plan a field trip to outer space, as well as actually construct a suitcase and decide where the items they need to bring will fit inside the suitcase.  They are having a lot of fun with this!

In writing, our focus during the 4th quarter has been on argument writing.  They have learned to develop an opinion on a subject based on researching and examining the facts.  The students learned how to use a counterclaim to bolster their own arguments.

In reading, we are finishing up our reading group books.  I have really enjoyed how excited the kids get about the books we are reading in their groups!  Some groups may not finish their books before the end of the year, but I know the public library should have copies of the books if they would like to finish the books in the summer.

Forces and simple machines were the main topics we focused on earlier in the quarter.  The kids had fun trying out the different simple machines and realizing how often we use them in everyday life.  This week each child will choose an inventor or scientist to research.  For their final project, they will be able to make a brochure about the inventor/scientist's life, or they can write a newspaper article detailing the important events in the person's life.

Enjoy the last few weeks with your child before they become big sixth graders!  :)

January 25

I hope everyone is enjoying this warmer January weather!  I am very thankful for all of the outdoor recess since it seemed like we had indoor recess for so long!  Hopefully the temperatures stay up.

In writing, we finished up our informational unit on Native Americans right before Christmas.  We celebrated early in January by doing a gallery walk so students could look at each other's books.  In this unit, students learned about paraphrasing and note taking when researching.  We also focused on organizing research by creating subtopics.   Students worked hard to write a lead that would draw the reader in and give a preview of what information would be covered in their writing.

 We are now working on poetry.  So far we have read many published poems, and students have written haikus, cinquains, diamantes, and limericks.  They seem very interested in reading and writing poems!

In reading, we recently finished focusing on different informational text structures that authors use when writing.  A few that we covered were problem and solution, description, and compare and contrast.  Since we started poetry in writing, we have been learning about poetry in reading as well.  We have focused on figurative language, and we have analyzed poems for theme and other poetry elements.  In our reading groups, students are reading high interest novels, and we are having great discussions when we meet!

When we came back from Christmas, we explored properties of light in science.  We had fun doing some activities with flashlights!

Now we have moved on to living things.  Students are learning the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates, and we are focusing on the five types of vertebrate animals.  We even made a model backbone with gummy candy, pasta, and pipe cleaners!  In this unit, we will also learn about how the food chain affects all living things.

In math, we are finishing up chapter 6 on multiplying and dividing decimals.  This is a tough chapter, but the students are working very hard.  Look for a study guide to come home later this week.  After we complete chapter 6, we will move along to fractions.

Our math centers lately have focused on decimals and area and perimeter.  I am trying to incorporate real world problem solving into their centers.  Last week, students created their "dream house" and calculated the area and perimeter as one of their activities.

For most of our math centers, students have several activities from a certain math theme to choose to complete.   Giving them a variety of challenging activities and allowing them to choose has really increased their motivation and attentiveness during math!  I have a lot of fun planning the math centers, and I am so glad students seem to be enjoying them!  

November 15

This week we celebrated Veteran's Day with an assembly.  The students enjoyed honoring those who have served or continue to serve our country!

Our first field trip was a success!  Last Friday we went to Cahokia Mounds.  We didn't have a lot of time to spend there, but we had fun!  The kids loved climbing to the top of the mound.

We have another field trip coming up on December 2nd .  We will be going to Busch Stadium and participating in the CAPS program.  CAPS incorporates baseball into a variety of hands on learning activities.  This is a very fun field trip!  Permission slips went home on Wednesday.  Please send these in sometime in the next week or two if you haven't yet.

In math, we are finishing up Chapter 3 and 4.  We started dividing by one digit divisors, and now we have learned to divide by two digit divisors.  The test will be coming up later this week, and study guides will be coming home on Tuesday.  Please be on the lookout for these.  This week in one of the math centers, students planned a road trip and had to stick to a budget.  This was a way for them to have fun while practicing multiplication.

In writing, we are focusing on writing informational pieces.  Students have been researching Native Americans, and they are choosing a topic within this subject to write about.  Before starting the unit, we reviewed note-taking and paraphrasing.  After doing a little research, students organized their thoughts and ideas about Native Americans on post-its.  Then, they used their post-its to categorize the different topics they could write about.

In reading, we are are also focusing on informational texts.  Our mini lessons have focused on point of view, fact and opinion, summarizing, and text features.  By combining these topics in reading and writing, students are getting a firm grasp on how non-fiction pieces are organized.

In science, we are finishing up the water cycle and weather tools.  On Monday, we made water cycles in a bag.  We taped them to the window where they could get sunlight.  After a few days, students observed how evaporation, condensation, and eventually precipitation happened in the bag.  Our test on the water cycle and weather tools will be coming up soon.  Look for study guides to come home this week.

Here are a few pictures from the Halloween party.  Thank you so much to those that came and helped plan the party!  The kids had a great time!

October 24

Just a few reminders: Parent teacher conferences are this coming week, October 27th and 29th.  Please check Sign Up Genius for your time, or feel free to email me if you don't remember.  I would happy to let you know.  Also, the Halloween party will be Thursday, the 30th, and there will be no school on Friday, the 31st.  We will be going on a field trip to Cahokia Mounds on November 7th.  Permission slips went home with their mail on Tuesday, so please return them this week if you haven't yet.

Today we had Ability Awareness Day.  We traveled around to four different presenters who taught us about different disabilities.  We met a lady named Katie who shared her story about an accident that caused her to become a paraplegic.  She is a very funny and interesting lady, and the kids really enjoyed meeting her.  We discussed learning disabilities, depression, and physical/motor disabilities in our other sessions.  It was a great interactive way for students to learn to appreciate differences and to realize how much we all have in common.  Be sure to ask your child what they learned about today!

In reading, we are currently learning how an author's point of view and perspective affect how a story is told.  We reviewed the difference between first and third person, and we also learned the difference between third person limited and third person omniscient.  This week students practiced writing from each of the different points of view.  Students looked at the same picture and were given a certain point of view from which to tell the story.  It was interesting for them to apply what they knew about point of view in their writing!

We finished multiplication at the end of the quarter, and we have been focusing on division.  We are currently on Chapter 3.  Homework is being assigned most nights and goes along with the lesson from the day.  Everyone is being very responsible about completing this and returning it to school, which is great!  In our math centers, we typically do activities and real world problem solving that apply to the previous chapter.  This way we are constantly reviewing concepts and vocabulary that was previously learned.  We will be continuing with division for the next few weeks since Chapter 4 covers division, as well.

In science, we started learning about water and the water cycle.  We did several demonstrations and hands on activities to review and reinforce different concepts relating to the water cycle.  We evaporated water in class, did an experiment to create condensation, and actually made it rain in the classroom (on a very small scale).  Below are pictures of the students as they discovered condensation on the inside of their cups!  We will also be learning about weather and weather tools in this unit.

Students finished writing and publishing their personal narratives, and these will shared at parent teacher conferences.  Everyone participated in a 5th grade writing celebration on Tuesday.  Each student displayed their writing on their desk, and we went to each classroom for about 10 minutes.  Everyone read a few pieces from each class and left a compliment for each one they read.  It was a  fun way to share their hard work with peers from our own class and from the other 5th grade classrooms.  Next week we will be starting informational writing.

I look forward to seeing you all at conferences!

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.