1/31/18

The last day of January saw the students continue to work on their literary essays. We continue to make solid progress in this area. I have enjoyed getting to read the impressions of the fifth graders.

Math class saw the fifth graders kickoff a multi-day world problem that will require teamwork and the ability to use the skills that we have been working on for the last two weeks.


Homework

Math - worksheet due Friday February 2

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/30/18

The students continued to work on their two projects concerning River Ran Wild. Many students have either finished typing or are in the process of typing their letters. Groups also returned to their timeline posters today.

Homework

Math - worksheet due Friday February 2

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/29/18

The fifth graders continue to work on letters that they will be sending to the Boston office of the Environmental Protection Agency. These letters speak to the importance of the group's efforts and the subject matter that we have been learning about in class these last few weeks.

During social studies, the members of A303 look at the book Encounters by Jane Yolen. This gave the students a look at events from a different perspective.

Homework

Math - worksheet due Friday February 2

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/25/18

Today was an important reading lesson for the fifth graders. The students worked on two items that tie into out clean water unit. The first was a continuation of the letters they are crafting speaking to the importance of people having access to clean water and ways for regular people to contribute to helping in this area. The second saw groups look to create a timeline of events pertaining to the key components of the recently read story.

During social studies today, the members of A303 looked at some newspaper accounts of the War of the Worlds broadcast from the 1950s.



Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/24/18

The students had another literary essay writing day today. The productivity from Monday's work carried over into our lesson this morning. The fifth graders are almost all complete with their rough draft concerning a story that we read last week. We are preparing to move into the next phase of the writing process.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/23/18

Today the students looked to address any lingering questions from the book, A River Ran Wild. We spent some time look at the author's note that was attached to the end of the story. In the coming days, we will be turning our attention to other books that deal with a similar issue.

During math class, the fifth graders looked to continue using visual models to represent multiplying fractions.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/22/18

The fifth graders continued to work with multiplying fractions be whole numbers today. The progress that is being made on a daily basis is encouraging to see. This work will continue throughout the week.

Later in the school day, as part of your social studies unit on European exploration, the students listened to the original radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. This lesson will tie into Christopher Columbus' famous voyage later this week.




Homework

Math - finish multiplying fractions worksheet if not done in class

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/19/18

The students wrapped up the second portion of their math assessment using iReady today. I appreciated how well students worked the last two weeks in completing this round of testing.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and I will see people back at school on Monday.

1/18/18

During science class, the fifth graders began to look at the water cycle. Today's lesson kicked off with an energizer that used a large inflatable globe to ascertain how much of the face of the planet is covered in water. This segued into some early observations about the water cycle.

Earlier in the school day, the fifth graders took the first part of their iReady winter math assessment.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/17/18

The members of A303 kicked off their next unit of study in social studies today. We have turned our attention to European exploration of the American continent. Today was a nice way to get things rolling and it seems as if the students are enthusiastic to learn.

Earlier in the school day, the fifth graders undertook their second lesson in their multiplication of fractions unit.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/16/18

With more winter weather on its way, the members of A303 returned to the Nashua River during reading class. The students reconvened in their reading groups to finish answering some focus questions. At this point, the students were tasked with coming up with definitions for some of the keywords that we encountered in the story. A productive lesson.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

1/12/18

The students finished the week by taking part two of their reading iReady assessment on chromebooks.

The fifth graders were also able to meet with their book buddies for a Martin Luther King Jr. activity.

I hope everyone has a nice long weekend.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night. Fill our reading log on a nightly basis. Due Friday January 12th.

1/11/18

During today's work, the members of A303 took their mid-unit fraction assessment. The work leading up to this point has been quite good. I have seen students make positive strides on a daily basis. The fifth graders appeared to take their time and be diligent about checking over their work when completed. I look forward to going through these results.

Today also saw the fifth graders take the first part of their ELA iReady assessment using Chromebooks. Tomorrow will see the students complete part two

 Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night. Fill our reading log on a nightly basis. Due Friday January 12th.

1/10/18

The fifth graders continued to work deeper into their literary essays today. The students are looking at a particular short story called Spaghetti. Today, the members of A303 used their literary essay templates to begin the process of building an essay concerning this story.

Later in the school day, we spent one last day reviewing for tomorrow's mid-unit fraction assessment.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night. Fill our reading log on a nightly basis. Due Friday January 12th.

1/9/18

The students began to look closely at the first anchor text within our clean water current events unit. This book, A River Ran Wild, was written by Lynne Cherry. The students are going to learn about the history of the Nashua River in Massachusetts. Today, time was spent working into small groups to answer some focus questions.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night. Fill our reading log on a nightly basis. Due Friday January 12th.

1/8/18

It was nice to see the fifth graders back at school after the weather induced long weekend. The members of A303 continued their work with literary essays during ELA. We finished our exploration of the video concerning the soccer team from the Philippines. We then transitioned into looking at another one of our core literary essays and annotating it.

Later in the school day, many of the students were able to put the finishing touches on their Native American cultural region projects. I have been happy with how these are turning out.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night. Fill our reading log on a nightly basis. Due Friday January 12th.

1/3/18

Today was an exciting writing day for the fifth graders. We continued into out next lesson in our study of literary essays. The focus of today's work was a short video about a soccer team in Thailand that had success even though they faced great obstacles. The students keyed in on the main details from this remarkable story and began to sketch a rough outline of a potential literary essay concerning these young soccer players.

During math class, the fifth graders continued to work some word problems that involved both fractions and mixed numbers.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night.

1/2/18

As we began our first week of school in the new year, the members of A303 turned their attention to a new unit of study in reading. This time we will be focusing on current events, more specifically clean water and the population's ability to access it. During the course of the next few weeks, the fifth graders will be exposed to a number of different anchor texts and articles that explore the clean water crisis that parts of the world experience. I look forward to wading into this issue with the students.

Time was also spent today returning to the Native American cultural region projects. This work will continue throughout the course of this week.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night.