9/30/21

The last day of September saw the fifth graders continuing their work with different multiplication strategies. Today's work was a continuation of yesterday's lesson. The kids are doing a nice job with this important content.

We also spent some time working on a writing pre assessment that had the kids read a short story and watch a short video and then write about watch they watched/read. This is a valuable piece of work that will serve to track the progress that the kids are making in ELA over the course of the school year.

9/29/21

We dug deep into the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros during our writing time today. As part of our literary writing unit, the kids are going to be exposed to a wide range of short stories. This piece by Rylant served as a nice example of the type of digging the kids are going to have to do to pull out author's intent and theme. The kids completed a graphic organizer and then did a quick write pertaining to the main idea of the story. 

If anyone is curious, this was the piece we read:

https://www.schuylkillvalley.org/cms/lib/PA02000850/Centricity/Domain/164/TEXT%20Eleven%20by%20Sandra%20Cisneros.pdf

9/28/21

As we move into the next session of unit one in math class, the fifth graders are going to start exploring different methods for solving multiplication problems. Today's lesson was a nice start in that direction. The kids looked to solve two digit by two digit problems. Lots of quality work happened in the classroom today.

We are also going to be starting our first reading book groups this week. The students learned who was in their groups this morning and they also learned which realistic fiction book they will be reading. 

9/27/21

This week will be a significant week for our first writing unit. After working with the short video last week, we are going to be turning our attention to a collection of short stories. These stories will serve as the fodder for the literary essays that the kids will be composing over the next few weeks. Today, the class looked at one story in particular, while I modeled looking for author's intent and main idea points. The kids were invested throughout. 

We also are going to be starting our first book groups very soon. Students will be working together to explore realistic fiction texts. The fifth graders are eager to begin collaborating together. 

Some of the students received a new copy of the emergency information forms. Please return this to the school as soon as possible, if you child brings this home today. They are important documents for the school to have on hand in the office.

9/24/21

We concluded our first full week together by taking part in an informative writing lesson. This literary essay themed lesson saw the kids exploring the Thai youth soccer team in Panyee. After watching a short video, during which the kids were jotting down notes, small groups looked to respond to focus questions that delved into the theme of the story.

Here is the video, in case anyone was interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU4oA3kkAWU

The fifth graders did a nice job with this work. 

We also took our first math quiz during the earlier stages of the school day. This order of operation assessment will gauge how the kids are understanding our first few lessons.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

9/23/21

We spent one more full lesson exploring order of operation problems during math class. This was in preparation for our first math quiz of the year, which we will have tomorrow. 

After having our pictures taken earlier in the school day, we also undertook an interesting free write idea called a "scar map". This activity served as a good way for the kids to gather ideas for potential personal narrative stories. The kids also enjoyed sharing their ideas with a friend later in the period. 

Tomorrow, we are going to explore an interesting youth soccer team that will tie into our larger literary writing unit. 

9/22/21

We launched our first unit of study during our science block this morning. This unit will see the kids exploring the solar system. Our first topic is the sun and its importance to the solar system. The fifth graders worked in pairs to undertake an experiment that saw them trace their shadows with chalk at various times in the school day and make observations in their science journals. The fifth graders seemed eager to learn about outer space.

Our math time was spent continuing to work with order of operation problems. The fifth graders completed a few workbook pages and with the time remaining, some of the kids were able to return to their number puzzles from earlier in the week.

As a reminder, tomorrow is picture day for the Thompson School.

9/21/21

The fifth graders finished up their work with number puzzles during math class this morning. The next few lessons are important ones, as the kids will be working with order of operation problems. A helpful anchor chart that we will be using is the Boss Triangle:

We also spent time working on our first official piece of writing that ties into our read aloud book, Wonder by RJ Palacio. 

9/20/21

After a quality morning meeting, during which we tried a new energizer, we returned to the number puzzles in math class. The fifth graders once again collaborated within small groups to solve problems involving multiples and factors. The groups continued to make significant progress and the level of discourse in the groups was a real positive. 

Later in the school day we responded to some questions about a read aloud story that tied into some of the guiding literacy questions for fictional texts. 

It was a productive day.

9/17/21

We concluded the week by returning to our work with arrays during math class. Today's lesson focused on groups of students working together to solve number puzzles. These puzzles required the kids to create multiplication problems to satisfy a group of rules. There was great teamwork and the fifth graders continue to impress in their early math lessons.

The later stages of the school day saw the members of A303 working on mapping skills during our social studies time. Using maps of both America and the world as a whole, the fifth graders worked to solve some geography questions. 

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.

9/15/21

During our social studies time this morning, the kids continued to hone their map reading skills. Using the directions of a compass rose, the kids looked to guide a partner to different countries on a map of the world. They did a nice job with this and there was good cooperation between partners.

We also had another positive math class. The fifth graders are doing an excellent job of working with both multiples and factors of numbers. 

As a reminder, the kids do not have school tomorrow, Thursday 9/16. 

Hopefully all kids will have personalized their writing notebooks in some fashion before school tomorrow. 

9/14/21

The fifth graders continued their work with the first lesson in unit one during math class. The students used graph paper and colored tiles to create both marked and unmarked arrays that represented multiplication problems. I was impressed with the use of the vocabulary that we have started to learn during this lesson. The work will continue tomorrow.

During read aloud time, the students began using a graphic organizer to start tracking some text-to-text connections that they are noticing. Our anchor text is Wonder and the kids are going to be encouraged over the next few weeks to make connections between other books that they have read. The class seems to be enjoying the book.

9/13/21

We undertook our first official math lesson the new school year this morning. This first unit will see the fifth graders working on multiplication problems and concepts. Today's lesson had the fifth graders working with arrays to solve some problems. The kids worked diligently throughout the day's work and I can't wait to see the progress that is made over this first unit.

The members of A303 also had some time to work on their "Important Me" poems. This ELA work is serving as a nice way for the kids to get to know more about each other.

Homework

For Friday 9/17, decorate the cover of your writing notebook with drawings or pictures of things that are significant for you. Here is a picture of my notebook as an example: