2/28/23

The month of February ended with the fifth graders taking a unit five assessment in math class. This assessment offers a glimpse into the kid's understanding of ordered pair graphing and organizing data into tables. I look forward to going over the results.

Homework

Reading - read and complete The Goop Monster, due Friday March 3.

2/27/23

After we checked to make sure our three fish survived the vacation week, which they did, we began our first week back from the winter break. It was nice to hear the kids get to share their favorite moments from vacation week during our morning meeting. This share out topic will continue throughout the week.

This week is going to be a big writing week for us. Conferences are ongoing and peer editing and sharing will also be going on in the classroom.

Homework

Reading - read and complete The Goop Monster, due Friday March 3.

2/17/23

I hope everyone has a nice vacation week. Look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday the 27th.

2/16/23

Students continued to explore their non-fiction books during ELA. We are highlighting various text features of these books and the kids are still in the process of gathering information to correspond to various features (compare and contrast, sequence and order, description, etc.). Some students have started work on a magazine project using Book Creator on their Chromebooks. In the early stages, these are shaping up nicely. We will continue work on this project after the vacation.

I also wanted to welcome our new students, Potato. The kids made him feel right at home.

2/15/23

A productive writing day saw many of the students turn their attention to their concluding paragraphs. We were focused on leaving the reader with a final thought. Some of the fifth graders were able to included wonderful quotes from influential writers or biologists to further their point of view.

Tomorrow, the kids are going to meet with their book buddies.

Homework

Math - some students need to finish workbook pages 313 and 314

2/14/23

The fifth graders learned who they were working with for their colonial region project. Using graphic organizers, the kids started gathering information concerning their region, using a short video and article. this work will be ongoing over the next three weeks.

We spent time later in the day celebrating Valentine's Day. Many of the kids brought in cards so we were able to exchange those. It was a nice way to conclude the day.

2/13/23

This final week before vacation will see the kids working with computer simulations of changing ecosystems during science class, working with groups on colonial region posters and continuing to work on their opinion writing during ELA time. 

There will be no homework written homework this week, but there will be math homework either tomorrow or Wednesday.

2/9/23

The fifth graders continued to work on drafting of their opinion pieces during ELA time. Work also continued on our biosphere designs during science class. Both of these items are progressing well.  

Homework

Reading - The Year-Round School Debate, due on Friday 2/10

2/8/23

The kids continued to work with growth stories during math class. They organized heights into data tables then plotted the data on graphs. Quality work across the board.

Homework

Reading - The Year-Round School Debate, due on Friday 2/10

2/7/23

A fair amount of work was accomplished during our writing time this morning. Each of the fifth graders has crafted a lead paragraph for their opinion pieces. Today's time was spent writing our first body paragraphs, with special attention given to including quality factual evidence. We will return to this important work on Thursday.

We also began an incredibly interesting activity during our science time. After finishing our food web posters last week the kids turned their attention to designing a biosphere for a potential research mission. This will be an ongoing project over the next two weeks. The kids were heavily invested in this today.

Homework

Reading - The Year-Round School Debate, due on Friday 2/10

2/6/23

This week will see the kids digging into the draft of their opinion piece. We had a quality lesson on Friday and another one this morning. Many of the fifth graders were able to complete their lead paragraphs today.

Later in the day, we also traveled to the southern colonies and learned about the region. 

Homework

Reading - The Year-Round School Debate, due on Friday 2/10

2/3/23

Compliments to the fifth graders who all brought in their homework today. We spent some time sharing out answers and wrapping up that work.

We also continued to work with data tables and graphs during math class. Each of the fifth graders selected an American city and plotted the temperature over the course of a year. This work will continue next week.

Have a nice weekend.

2/2/23

We kicked off unit five during math class. This unit will see the kids exploring tables and graphs and parsing the information contained in each to help them solve problems. A nice start to the work this morning. Next week, the kids will have a piece of math homework.

Fifth graders in room A303 were also able to work with their book buddies to create Valentine's Day cards which are going to be delivered to a local senior center. My compliments to the kids for the creativity. These turned out great.

Homework

Complete "Nature's Little Helpers". Due Friday February 3

2/1/23

The new month saw the kids take their unit four assessment. Although this unit focused on reviewing concepts from earlier in the year, the rigor was increased a great deal. I was impressed throughout the last few weeks with the effort on display in room A303. I am sure the results of this assessment will be strong ones. We are launching the next important unit tomorrow.

Homework

Complete "Nature's Little Helpers". Due Friday February 3