11/30/22

We wrapped up the month of November with some important review work during our ELA time. Although we are approaching the end of our literary writing unit, the fifth graders are still practicing annotation skills. The kids read two short stories by Cynthia Rylant and then responded to some comprehension questions. Many of the students are also approaching the final stages of their writing pieces.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of reading per night, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis. This is due on Friday December 2.

11/29/22

Fifth graders learned and then played a fraction game during math class this morning. The kids continue to devise strategies to compare the value of fractions. Using a deck of fraction cards, pairs of students verbalized their thought process when comparing two values. This was a valuable lesson and the baseline knowledge continues to grow throughout the classroom.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of reading per night, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis. This is due on Friday December 2.

11/28/22

These next four weeks are going to be important ones for the fifth graders. We are going to look to have all of the kids complete their literary essays. In math class, we are going to continue or exploration and work with fractions. Finally, in science class the students are going to learn about the water cycle.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of reading per night, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis. This is due on Friday December 2.

11/23/22

I hope everyone has a nice holiday with friends and family.

11/22/22

We had excellent math lesson this morning. The fifth graders continued to use grids to represent equivalent fractions. We are going to look to have one more quality lesson tomorrow before the holiday break.

Tomorrow is board game day. Each student is welcome to bring one board or card game with them to school.

11/21/22

This last week before the Thanksgiving break will see us working on early fraction lessons in our math time. We are also going to continue to focus and refine our literary essays. The goal is to have all of the fifth graders across the finish line with their writing come the first week of December. 

There will be no homework this week.

11/18/22

We finished the week on a high note. Fifth graders have launched their exploration of fractions and our lesson saw the kids sharing some of their experiences with fractions in the past. We also used fraction strips to start creating a baseline of knowledge. We will continue this work next week.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

11/17/22

Fifth graders met with their book buddies in second grade this afternoon. During this time, the second graders shared with their buddy a story that they recently wrote. After that, the pairs were able to do some reading together. The fifth graders continue to do a great job of working with their younger peers.

Tomorrow, we are going to launch unit three in math class. This unit will see us exploring and working with fractions. This is the start of an important section of fifth grade. I look forward to digging into this material with the kids.

11/16/22

 Fifth grader book groups continue their steady progress. Today was a day for the kids to respond to a writing prompt concerning the choices their main characters has been making. After that, groups continued to read deeper into their stories.

Tomorrow, we are once again going to meet with our book buddies in second grade.

11/15/22

This will be a week that is heavy with writing. The students are approaching the final laps of our literary essay unit. As I am holding individual conferences throughout the next two weeks, the kids are going to be peer editing and making some last minute adjustments to their pieces.

We will also have a quiz later this week in math.

11/10/22

The final day before the long holiday weekend, saw the fifth graders put the finishing touches on the math project that we began yesterday. Each of the groups was able to devise a strategy for solving for the volume of our classroom. Great teamwork during these two lessons.

Next week the fifth graders are going to continue to make progress towards publishing their literary essays and kick off a planet project.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

11/9/22

After the day off the fifth graders returned to their work this morning. We undertook a group project during math class. Using rulers and tape, the kids are attempting to find the volume of the classroom. To do this, they are going to create cubes and then work together to map the length, width and height of the classroom. This project is ongoing and will continue tomorrow.

We also had another productive writing session that included writer's conferences. The literary essays are progressing nicely.

As a reminder, the kids do not have school this Friday in honor of Veterans Day.

11/7/22

This short week began with quality work being done in both book groups and in science class. Today, the kids focused on eclipses during science. We are going to soon transition to learn more about the planets in our solar system. Later this week, the fifth graders will be working on a group activity to classify and group the planets by certain characteristics. They are looking forward to this activity.  

As a reminder, the kids do not have school tomorrow and on Friday.

11/4/22

The fifth graders had a wonderful time at the Museum of Science this morning. They enjoyed their visit to the planetarium and learned a lot from the presentation they took part in. 

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

11/3/22

During math class, the students concluded the second part of a two part project involving volume. Each group was responsible for creating boxes using grid paper. These boxes needed to be able to accommodate smaller boxes created used connecting cubes. Two quality lessons. I applaud the students who were willing to share their method and solutions with the larger classroom.

Tomorrow is our field trip. As a reminder, the kids are welcome to bring a water bottle in a drawstring backpack. Nothing else (including money and snacks should be taken with them). We will be eating lunch when we return to the school.

11/2/22

The kids are eagerly anticipating Friday's field trip to the Museum of Science. We used our science time this week to explore the facets of earth's moon. Many of the students brought valuable prior knowledge to these lessons.

Fifth graders also had another book group session during the morning hours. The groups are making significant strides in their ability to write knowledgeably about the text that they are reading.

11/1/22

We started the month of November off by continuing our volume lesson from yesterday. The kids are working to solve for volume of some irregularly shaped objects. Great discussion and thinking going on throughout the classroom during today's work.

The fifth graders also looked to craft concluding paragraph drafts during our writing time. The effort stood out amongst all of the kids.