12/20/19

I hope everyone has a nice holiday season and a relaxing winter break. I look forward to seeing students back in school to start 2020.

12/19/19

It is hard to believe that we only have one day left before the winter break starts. The fifth graders continued to progress across all subjects during this Thursday.

It was a book group day during our ELA time. The students read another few chapters in their respective chapters and then did some writing pertaining to an important scene in their books.

We also had many students put the finishing touches on their Tea Party projects using the Explain Everything app on on their iPads.

12/18/19

The students had another day to use the US standard algorithm to solve some multiplication problems during math class. These last two days have been great, as I have been able to see many fifth graders persevering through some new concepts. The kids took a short assessment at the start of today's work.

A303 also met with their book buddies one final time in 2019 to collaborate on some seasonal activities.

12/17/19

Our final early release parent teacher conference day was an important one in terms of our math. The heart of today's lesson was looking at the standard algorithm for multiplication. Some of the students were familiar with these procedure while others were seeing it for the first time.

I look forward to seeing parents this afternoon.

12/16/19

The students progressed further into unit 4 in math class. It has been great seeing the fifth graders recall the work done in the first unit and apply these concepts to these more challenging problems. We had a solid math lesson today.

A303 students also met with their book groups again and progressed deeper into their novels.

12/13/19

We launched unit 4 in math class today. This unit is going to build directly off of the multiplication and division work that we did in the early stages of this year. Today's lesson centered around solving multi-step word problems in an as efficient manner as possible.

It was a pleasure to meet with many parents this week during conference time. I look forward to touching base with the rest of the families next Tuesday.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Go Patriots.

12/12/19

The students are rapidly approaching the conclusion of our current math investigation pertaining to fractions and mixed numbers. Today's lesson saw the students working to practice a number of the skills that we have been exploring the last four weeks.

The fifth graders also returned to their book groups during ELA time. Each one of the groups is focusing on one of our core competencies as they are reading. This will better inform the writing that they are looking to complete at the conclusion of the day's reading.

I look forward to seeing parents and guardians during tonight's conference time.

Homework

Math - workbook page 195, due Friday 12/13

Reading - 30 minutes a night of quiet reading

12/11/19

The fifth graders officially wrapped up their first unit of writing during our ELA time this afternoon. Each student has published their opinion piece and many were able to create an impressive poster to go along with their writing. I could not have been happier with the finished products.

Homework

Math - workbook page 195, due Friday 12/13

Reading - 30 minutes a night of quiet reading

12/10/19

Although this was a very early release day, due to conferences, the students still managed to fit in a meaningful math session. The hart of today's lesson was adding and subtracting mixed numbers. Rather than solving each problem, students spent time reasoning through the first batch and making an estimate that they could explain to a peer. A productive lesson.

I look forward to seeing parents this afternoon and on Thursday night.

Homework

Math - workbook page 195, due Friday 12/13

Reading - 30 minutes a night of quiet reading

12/9/19

The fifth graders read deeper in Home of the Brave during ELA time. Today's reading will served as a jumping off point for the students before they once again met with their reading groups to read deeper into their novels.

Members of A303 also visited the book fair during the afternoon to create their wish lists.

Homework

Math - workbook page 195, due Friday 12/13

Reading - 30 minutes a night of quiet reading

12/6/19

We concluded the week by having many of the students put the finishing touches on their opinion writing pieces as well as their persuasive posters. The students worked hard on these pieces over the last three months and should feel proud of their work.

We also finished our two day lesson on the Boston Tea Party during social studies time.

The fifth graders received their report cards today and will be bringing them home.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. Go Patriots.

12/5/19

We dove into the Boston Tea Party during our social studies lesson. After a short documentary about the pertinent details, the students began work on a presentation about this important event using their iPads and some source documents. We will continue work with this tomorrow.

The kids in A303 also had one more productive writing lesson. We are near the finish line in our opinion writing unit and I was able to have conferences with the last few students today. Lots of quality writing being done in the classroom.


Homework

Math - workbook page 179, due Friday 12/6

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading. Log due on Friday 12/6

12/4/19

After our snow day, we returned to a busy day of work this Wednesday. The focus of our science lesson was exploring the constellations of our solar system. The students answered some focus questions after a short reading and then began the process of designing their own constellation.

During math class, the fifth graders worked on some problems involving adding and subtracting fractions.


Homework

Math - workbook page 179, due Friday 12/6

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading. Log due on Friday 12/6

12/1/19

We began the month of December by starting out work with mixed numbers during math class. This first lesson, which is part of our larger unit on fractions, was a nice start. The students completed some pages in their workbooks and then were introduced to a game that tied in nicely with one that we worked with the last two weeks.

During ELA, the fifth graders worked with their book groups to read some of their novels. A productive day.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading. Log due on Friday 12/6