2/28/22

It was great to return to the classroom after the vacation week. The kids spent some time during our morning meeting sharing the highlights of their time off. 

Today was a big writing day for the fifth graders. Conferences have begun in earnest with individual students. While those are taking place other kids are working to add rich details and sourcing to their body paragraphs. We will have another writing session tomorrow morning.

Homework

Reading - 25 minutes of reading per night and fill out logs on a nightly basis. These are due on Friday 3/4

2/18/22

I hope everyone has a great vacation week and I look forward to seeing everyone back at school next week. 

2/17/22

The fifth graders continued to work on area and perimeter problems during math class using math manipulatives to help them solve word problems. Quality work was being done throughout the classroom during this time. 

As a reminder, this Friday, will be board game day. Each student is welcome to bring a board or card game to school with them.

Homework

Math - finish pages 313 and 314 if not done in class

2/16/22

We moved into the second half of unit five during math class. This series of lessons will see the kids reading and constructing coordinate graphs as well as analyzing mathematical patterns and relationships. Today was a nice table setting lesson and I look forward to digging into this material over the next two days before the break.

Fifth graders also officially concluded their 13 colonies projects. These posters and write ups turned out great. Tomorrow, the kids will have a chance to present their work to their peers.

As a reminder, this Friday, will be board game day. Each student is welcome to bring a board or card game to school with them.

 Homework

Math - finish pages 313 and 314 if not done in class

2/15/22

We continued to work to interpret the shapes of graphs in terms of the situation that graphs represented in math class. By building on the work done the last two weeks, the fifth graders are becoming terribly adept at creating data tables and then plotting the information. Really impressive lesson today all the way around.

The class is also approaching the conclusion of our latest read aloud book, Number the Stars. The fifth graders continue to respond to writing prompts at the conclusion of each chapter. We will finish this book later this week.

2/14/22

The final week before the February vacation will see the fifth graders wrapping up some important pieces of work. Today was the second to last day of colonial poster/report work. The kids are in the home stretch and the posters are turning out great.

We are also going to finish the first portion of unit five in math class. The work with line graphs and data tables has been uniformly strong these past two weeks and I anticipate that will continue this week.

On Friday, we are going to have another board game day, so the kids are welcome to bring in one board or card game.

2/11/22

We concluded a productive week with another batch of growth stories leading to the creation of data tables during math class. The work that the boys and girls of A303 did this week in math class was top notch. 

The fifth graders were also able to put into another solid amount of time with their colonies posters. These are turning out great and I can't wait to see the finished products next week.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

2/10/22

The fifth graders took part in a science lesson that focused on decomposers. This lesson was lead by Sarah Huber, the district science coach. There were also some animal guests who took part in the lesson as well. The kids learned a lot and enjoyed this lesson a great deal.

Homework

Reading - 25 minutes of reading per night and complete log on a nightly basis. Due Friday 2/11

2/9/22

The fifth graders had an SEL lesson lead by Thompson parent Judy Hsu this morning. This was a nice addition to our normal Wednesday and the kids were a receptive audience. 

We also continued our opinion writing work. The fifth graders worked to craft their lead paragraphs during our time this afternoon. We will return to this work on Friday.

Homework

Reading - 25 minutes of reading per night and complete log on a nightly basis. Due Friday 2/11

2/8/22

The fifth graders continued to work with temperature during math class. Using data tables to collect and organize information and then responded to some questions. These first two lesson in our new unit have gone very well. 

Homework

Reading - 25 minutes of reading per night and complete log on a nightly basis. Due Friday 2/11

Math - homework later this week

2/7/22

We kicked off our next unit of study during math class. Unit five will see the students working with data tables. To ease into the new work, the fifth graders worked with temperatures ranges of major American cities and answered questions pertaining to the changes throughout the course of the year. 

Today was also a significant day in regards to our writing. Each student began to officially craft their opinion piece pertaining to zoos. Using graphic organizers, we worked to clearly state our positions in a lead paragraph. This work will be ongoing over the next few weeks.

Homework

Reading - 25 minutes of reading per night and complete log on a nightly basis. Due Friday 2/11

Math - homework later this week

2/3/22

Fifth graders took their last unit four math assessment during our math time. This division test will serve as the culmination of a productive unit that saw the students engaging in a variety of division and multiplication review.  

The kids also were able to continue their work with their social studies project. We will look to have all students cross the finish line with this sometime next week.

2/2/22

Our groups returned to their colonies project this afternoon. There has been much headway made in their posters. Each group has officially begun and there was great teamwork on display. We will look to have groups conclude this work sometime next week.

2/1/22

The second half of the school year began with a productive reading lesson pertaining to our anchor text from our reading unit. The students watched two important speeches, one from Lou Gehrig and the other from Malala Yousafzai. After watching these two speeches, the students practiced their skills of looking for main ideas in the content.

Math homework will be given tomorrow.