12/22/17

I hope everyone has a great winter break and I look forward to seeing students back at school the first week of 2018.

12/21/17

Today was a day for crossing the finish line. Groups in math put the finishing touches on their math posters and then presented them to their classmates. Later in the school day, the members of A303 finished their organizers that pertained to our Native American cultural regions unit.

Tomorrow, the 22nd, will be board/card game day. Students may bring in one board or card game with which to use.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

12/20/17

The students are hard at work on their posters for their math word problem. It was nice to get to move around and listen to students in each group explain and support their reasoning behind their solutions. These posters will be finished tomorrow.

During social studies class, the fifth graders spent some time exploring specific tribes that resided in four of the cultural regions that we have been exploring.

This Friday, the 22nd, will be board/card game day. Students may bring in one board or card game with which to use.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

12/19/17

The students continued to progress towards the midway point of our fraction unit today. The students began to look at a word problem that will require them to work in groups over the next few days to solve different pieces of this problem. Today was spent looking at the question itself and some strategies to better absorb the information and process it to help begin to solve.

This Friday, the 22nd, will be board/card game day. Students may bring in one board or card game with which to use.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

12/18/17

As we began our final school week before the winter break, the fifth graders spent time during math class working with addition and subtraction of fractions. The students are doing a very nice job of working through the last few lessons. Today was a productive day. Later this week, the fifth graders will take a quiz to gauge where they are in this point in the unit.

Later in the school day, the class returned to the Milky Way during science class. The students began the lesson by using Kahoot to answer some review questions. This segued into working in small groups to answer some focus questions.

This Friday, the 22nd, will be board/card game day. Students may bring in one board or card game with which to use.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

12/15/17

The fifth graders wrapped up another productive week together. Some of the reading groups were able to act out their favorite scene from Bud, Not Buddy during our ELA time today. They did a great job. The other groups will be able to have their turn next week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

12/14/17

Many of the students were able to complete their opinion piece concerning zoos during our writing time today. Fifth graders who are finishing up that task have moved on to designing the layout of their very own animal friendly zoo. I look forward to reading these pieces this weekend.

I look forward to meeting with parents tonight during conference time.

Homework

Blog post - Students should compose a three paragraph essay in which they write about their favorite part or parts of science camp. Due Friday December 15th

12/13/17

Today was a busy day in A303. The students worked on some complex land plot problems during math class. These problems called on the students to use the key points from the last few lessons and apply it to these fractional word problems. It was nice to see the students preserve through the early problems. This work will continue into tomorrow.

Later in the school day the fifth graders returned to their opinion writing concerning zoos. The students are doing a great job conveying their enthusiasm for this topic in their writing.

Homework

Blog post - Students should compose a three paragraph essay in which they write about their favorite part or parts of science camp. Due Friday December 15th

12/12/17

During this early release day, the students spent the bulk of their time continuing to work on their zoo opinion pieces. The strong work from yesterday carried over today. It was encouraging to see students using a variety of primary sources to build their papers.

Homework

Blog post - Students should compose a three paragraph essay in which they write about their favorite part or parts of science camp. Due Friday December 15th

12/11/17

The fifth graders returned to class today after a week spent at science camp in Rhode Island. We began the day by having the students share some of their favorite thoughts about camp during our morning meeting time. This served as a way to get students thinking about their homework assignment this week.

Our ELA time was spent using graphic organizers to begin preparing our opinion piece on zoos. The fifth graders were highly engaged with recent lessons pertaining to this topic and that carried over into this preparation day.

Finally, during math class, the members of A303 worked with using different strategies to add fractions.

As a reminder, tomorrow is an early release day for conferences.

Homework

Blog post - Students should compose a three paragraph essay in which they write about their favorite part or parts of science camp. Due Friday December 15th

12/4/17

The fifth graders had one more school day before the science camp trip to Rhode Island. During our work today, the students continued their studies of fractions. The class took a small assessment to ascertain where they stand at this early juncture.

Later in the school day, the fifth graders began working with a new read aloud book. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry will be our next book. Today, the students were given some background information about the time period that this novel is set. The class seems eager to begin looking at this great story.

Tomorrow the fifth graders will head down to Rhode Island for the rest of the week for science camp. I look forward to seeing students and parents at the Thompson tomorrow for departure day.