9/30/24

Hard to believe that the first month of the school year has concluded. If September was any indication, this school year will be a great one. We are going to continue to progress with Esperanza Rising in ELA class and with our multiplication work in math class in the month of October.

We spent some valuable time during All Block were on some key vocabulary words from the novel. The fifth graders continue to build their working vocabularies.

As a reminder, the kids do not have school on Thursday October 3rd in celebration of Rosh Hashanah.

9/27/24

The fifth graders took a map quiz during our social studies time. The last two weeks have seen them familiarizing themselves with the United States and the capitols. I am sure the hard work that the kids put in will be reflected in the results.

 I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

9/26/24

We continued to explore the sun's role in our solar system during science class this morning. Tomorrow, we are going to look to do a partner science experiment concerning the creation of shadows.

In math class, the kids learned and played a partner multiplication compare game. This was a fun and informative lesson and the kids did a fine job working together on this important material.

9/25/24

The kids returned to their reading of Esperanza during ELA time. We are making excellent strides in dissecting the structure of this story and in building our vocabulary base. The fifth graders also seem to be enjoying the text a great deal. Definitely make a point to ask your child about their thoughts concerning the novel.

9/24/24

The fifth graders did a wonderful job on yesterday's order of operations assessment. The hard work that they were putting into their daily work is reflected in these grades. For the rest of this week, the kids are going to be looking to practice their two digit by two digit multiplication strategies.

We are also going to continue to read deeper into Esperanza Rising while talking about the structure of the story and responding to some prompts.

9/23/24

This is going to be a busy week for the fifth graders. In math class, we are going to have our first quiz of the year, involving order of operation problems. The kids are also going to refine their strategies for solving multiplication problems.

In science class, we are going to start exploring our solar system. We have some interesting experiments and lesson in store for the fifth graders these next two weeks.

9/20/24

We wrapped up a busy, productive week in room A303 this Friday afternoon. The fifth graders crushed another important lesson concerning order of operation problems in math class. The kids were tasked with inserting grouping symbols into a batch of problems to match the given answer. This was a challenging lesson, but the kids worked well in pairs and did a fantastic job.

Our ELA time was spent reading deeper into Esperanza Rising. Each of the fifth graders responded to some focus questions about the latest goings on and then read with a partner. 

The kids deserve a relaxing weekend. I hope everyone enjoys the days off and I will see the kids back at school on Monday.

9/19/24

Some of ELA time was spent looking at effective summaries and their characteristics. We are going to look to have each of the kids craft a short summary of the most recent chapter in Esperanza Rising during our reading time tomorrow.

We also continued our dive into order of operation problems in math class. Each of the students is making some quality progress in their understanding and they are showing that by responding to some workbook pages.

9/18/24

The point of emphasis over the rest of this school week is order of operation problems. During our math time this morning, the fifth graders looked at a series of problems and we practiced solving these step-by-step. I was encouraged by the level of persistence the kids were showing.

9/17/24

We dug into the next chapter of Esperanza Rising this morning during our ELA module block. The fifth graders paid special attention to the story structure of this chapter as well as the idea of what makes a comprehensive summary. Later this week, the kids will respond to a new prompt.

The rest of this week will contain an emphasis on order of operation problems in math class. I am eager to undertake these important early lessons with the members of A303.

9/16/24

The fifth graders returned to their series of number puzzles during our math time. Working in small groups, the kids were able to collaborate on these number sense puzzles. The last two math classes have been excellent.

During social studies time, we explored hemispheres and responded to some clarifying focus questions.

9/13/24

We kicked off a two-part math lesson that will see small groups of students working on number puzzles. Using number sense and their prior knowledge, the kids are going to collaborate and continue to build up their strategies for multiplying numbers. Today was a positive first step and the group work was a strong positive during the time.

It was wonderful to meet with families yesterday evening. Thank you for those that stopped by the classroom. I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

9/12/24

During our math time, the fifth graders worked to identify properties of numbers. Out math vocabulary continues to grow and we worked with prime, composite and square numbers this afternoon. The partner work was quite good as well. At the tail end of next week, the kids will take their first math assessment of the new school year.

I am looking forward to meeting parents and caregivers during tonight's open house. This begins at 6 pm.

9/11/24

One of our goals with their first unit in our ELA curriculum is to build a healthy amount of background knowledge pertaining to the novel. To further that goal, the kids worked in pairs to do a mini-research project about the history of Mexico. This is going to make for a more enriching reading experience and will continue into tomorrow's lesson.

9/10/24

The students began reading the first dozen pages of Esperanza Rising this morning during ELA class. After quickly mentioning our norms for partner discussion and work, the kids dug into the novel. The session was ended with the fifth graders responding to a prompt about the work of fiction.

Multiplication arrays continued to be the point of emphasis during math class in the afternoon. The students had another quality lesson that built on work started in fourth grade.

9/9/24

An important day in A303 this Monday. The fifth graders officially launched unit one of our math curriculum as well as our brand new EL language arts material. We are going to explore and review multiplication during our early lessons in math. Today was a nice reintroduction for the kids to some important concepts that they touched upon last school year.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan is going to be our anchor text for our EL work. The members of A303 set some expectations and norms for our work this year. This important lesson will pave the way for the steps to come over the next few weeks.

As a reminder, this Thursday the 13th is Open House night at the Thompson. Starting at 6 o'clock and running to 8 o'clock. Please contact the office for further details.

9/6/24

Hard to believe that the first week of school is already in the books. The members of A303 had an excellent three days. We continued our community building during our morning meeting time this morning. Next week, the kids will take part in three new energizers.

We also spent some time working on "Important Me" poems. These will be completed next week and parents will be able to take a look when they visit during Open House next Thursday night.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

9/5/24

Our first full school day together saw the fifth graders continuing to familiarize themselves with the classroom norms and procedures. We had an excellent morning meeting to start our school day. Later in the day we also had a small math lesson that centered on factors and multiples. 

My compliments to the kids on their flexibility and enthusiasm for these early days. We will look to finish the week up on a strong note tomorrow.

9/4/24

The new school year has officially launched. It was great to get to meet the new members of room A303. After having their first gym class of the year, we made our way up to our classroom and began the day with our first morning meeting. This block of time will be a daily part of each day. The kids shared out some of their summer memories with their peers.

We spend the remainder of the rest of this early release day taking part in some get-to-know-you activities and familiarizing the kids with the classroom.

A wonderful first day. Tomorrow and Friday the fifth graders are going to continue to learn about the practices and procedures of the room and continue to learn more about their peers.