11/30/18

The month of November ended with the students finishing their final piece of writing concerning Budy, Not Buddy. Next week, the students will work in small groups to select a scene from the book that they will act out.

We also officially began our unit of study concerning fractions. Today was a nice early lesson to establish some key terms and to begin to lock in place the relationship between fractions and decimals.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and I look forward to seeing students back at school on Monday as we begin the month of December.

As a reminder, the first day of parent teacher conferences will take place next Tuesday December 4th and the students will be taking a field trip on Monday December 3rd to the Museum of Science. 

11/29/18

The students began their final piece of writing concerning Bud, Not Buddy during ELA today. The task is to select an important turning point from the novel and to explain why this scene was important using specific evidence from the text to support their opinion. This assignment has many similarities to their just completed literary essays. I will be looking to see students apply lessons learned during that unit of study to this current task.

Students should return their signed permission slips by this Friday, the 30th so that they are able to come to the Museum of Science next Monday, December 3rd.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading. Reader's logs due Friday November 30th.

Math - two sided worksheet due Friday November 30th. Please show all work.

11/28/18

The students worked in groups to determine the volume of the classroom today. This led into a discussions in our math workshop about strategies to solve for volume. The data that was collected was then organized into a line plot. The fifth graders did a great job.

Students should return their signed permission slips by this Friday, the 30th so that they are able to come to the Museum of Science next Monday, December 3rd.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading. Reader's logs due Friday November 30th.

Math - two sided worksheet due Friday November 30th. Please show all work.

11/27/18

The students were able to spend some time reading each other's literary essays today. The students worked tirelessly these last few weeks on their essays and the finished products were quite good.

Students should return their signed permission slips by this Friday, the 30th so that they are able to come to the Museum of Science next Monday, December 3rd.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading. Reader's logs due Friday November 30th.

Math - two sided worksheet due Friday November 30th. Please show all work.

11/26/18

The students began the last week of November by reading two of the final few chapters in Bud, Not Buddy. Later this week, the students will respond to a writing prompt that will have them examine an important scene in great detail. They will be tasked with using some of the close reading strategies that we have been practicing to respond to this question.

During math class, the members of A303 found the volume of rectangular prisms using cubic centimeters.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading. Reader's logs due Friday November 30th.

Math - two sided worksheet due Friday November 30th. Please show all work.

11/21/18

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday and long weekend.

11/20/18

The students continued to make their way through a volume workshop in math class today. The dedication to the subject matter and level of discourse that has been on display these last few weeks in math class has been awesome to see. The fifth graders are hitting home run after home run in math.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

11/19/18

The fifth graders began this short week by continue to read deeper in Bud, Not Buddy. We are going to start thinking about our final piece of writing that will look to dive in-depth into a key scene in the novel.

Later in the day, the students continued to work on their 13 Colonies projects. This look like they are turning out great. I can't wait to see the finished results.

As a reminder, the school day ends at 12 o'clock on Wednesday.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

11/16/18

The fifth graders wrapped up a productive week. Students continued to work together on a planet project during science class, they worked to find the volume for rectangular prisms that were fused together and they continued to write during ELA. I was proud of the effort that the kids put into their work all week.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and I look forward to running with the Boys In Motion tomorrow morning.

11/15/18

The students worked on finding the volume of rectangular prisms during math class. They continue to build nicely on prior lessons. Tomorrow, we will take a short quiz to gauge student's progress in this second investigation unit.

During reading time, the students read one of the final chapters in the novel.



Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading

Math - workbook pages 85 and 86, due Friday 11/16

11/14/18

The students are approaching the home stretch of their literary essay writing. Students are at different points in the writing process, but everyone is making nice progress. I was able to meet with many of the writers today to continue to progress in the editing process. Many others are putting the finishing touches on their final draft.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading

Math - workbook pages 85 and 86, due Friday 11/16

11/13/18

The fifth graders spent time reading and analyzing a key chapter in Bud, Not Buddy. The students keep returning to the idea of family and what Bud will feel when he finds his family. I thought that the discussion today was an important one and the readers in A303 were engaged throughout the lesson.

We also continued to work with volume problems in math class. This work will continue throughout this week.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading

Math - workbook pages 85 and 86, due Friday 11/16

11/9/18

I hope everyone has a great long weekend.

11/8/18

The fifth graders are reaching the final stages of Bud, Not Buddy. The students dealt with an important scene today and answered some focus questions pertaining to this key turning point.

We also continued deeper into unit 2 of our math work. The students constructed three dimensional boxes today that allowed them to answer some questions. A productive lesson.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

Writing - Open response question about Wonder (book and movie) due Friday November 9th

11/7/18

It was nice to see students back at school today. The members of A303 made progress on a number of fronts today. During math class, we began unit 2. This unit will see the kids working with three dimensional solids to solve volume problems.

During writing time, the fifth graders continued to make nice progress to the ultimate goal of having each student complete a literary essay.

Finally, the fifth graders met with their book buddies to begin to plan for a mock campaign video that they will be making together tomorrow.



Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

Writing - Open response question about Wonder (book and movie) due Friday November 9th

11/5/18

The students returned to their math workshop during math class. Today's lesson was the final one of unit one. I thought that the students in A303 made tremendous progress these last few weeks. The fifth graders completed a number of different tasks during today's work.

As a reminder, the students do not have school tomorrow. I will see kids back at school on Wednesday.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night

Writing - Open response question about Wonder (book and movie) due Friday November 9th

11/2/18

The students had one final Bud, Not Buddy lesson this week. We are approaching the later stages of the novel and the students are doing a fine job of analyzing some of the more interesting developments in the course of the story.

Later in the day, the fifth graders in A303 watched the movie Wonder. While watching, they were kept track of significant differences between the novel and the movie. This will lead into a piece of writing next week.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

11/1/18

November began with another literary essay writing session. Some time was spent with students partnering up to make peer edits. While that was going on, other students were conferencing with me. Back-to-back very productive writing days.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading per night, fill out log on nightly basis. Due Friday November 2nd

Math - workbook page 62, due Friday 11/2