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: