RAMBLIN' ON UPDATE

Families, please read the update on our 5th grade work for this week.  It's Travel Show week!  Please join us anytime from 1-3 on Thursday to celebrate our geography learning with the Travel Show.

Reading:  This week is the last week readers have class time to finish their first book share.  Next week, we will be in chapter book book clubs focusing on Native American themes.

Writing:  In writing this week, we will be preparing for the Travel Show.  Also, we will find time to take a fall spelling assessment and a pre assessment for narrative writing.

Math:  Math work will focus on multiplication of whole numbers.  We will be focusing a lot on application to multi step word problems.

Science:  We will finish up our wind speed/garden animal experiment this week.  We will also visit Peace Park on Friday for some science and art integration.

Social Studies: All this week, we will be wrapping up our Travel Show geography work.  Hope to see you on Thursday afternoon.

Please see this note from Dr. Wingert about free/reduced lunch:

Lunch:

Free and reduced lunch applications are due October 1, 2015.  Each year, families are encouraged to fill out Free and Reduced Lunch applications if needed to help in paying for school breakfast and/or lunch.  Families must complete the application EACH YEAR in order to be eligible for free or reduced meals.  Coverage for this from last year’s application ends on October 1, 2015 so please fill out another application prior to October 1st for this school year.

WEEKLY UPDATE

Families, please enjoy an update from each subject below.  I am also sending home graded work in the Friday Folder.  Please make sure this work returns to school for our student portfolio work.

READING: We have been integrating social studies geography reading into our reading time.  These reading lessons from the textbook help inspire ideas for our island work.  Students are also getting time to reading book share books and get a solid start on book shares.  Next week, we will continue with this format before starting Native American themed book clubs in October.

WRITING: Most of our writing time has been focused on our Gazetteer work for our islands.  Writing skills demonstrated in this project are basic writing mechanics, alphabetizing, and formatting.  Students also completed their I AM poems.  They look fantastic.  Several writers have had time to collect images and begin recording their poems in iMovie.

MATH: Our current math unit has been a review on addition and subtraction methods, applied to decimals too.  We will spend Friday and Monday preparing for a Tuesday assessment on this unit. Next up in math will be multiplication.

SCIENCE: We spent time observing and discussing the garden areas at Grant School.  Then groups designed an experiment to study if wind speed affects animal presence in our gardens.  These mini experiments are intended to give scientists experience with experimental design: planning variables, questions, hypothesis, etc...

SOCIAL STUDIES: We spent all our ss time on our island gazetteers this week.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their creative islands and viewing their interesting maps.  Today, we are introducing the travel brochure writing.  We will be writing our travel brochures and preparing for the Travel Show between now and Oct. 1.

BUDDY TIME!!!

Yesterday, we went back to the library with our preschool buddies.  Our focus was to help our buddies choose books and find a quiet spot to read books.  You can see we did an excellent job!

 

 

 

 

WEEKLY UPDATE

Families, please enjoy an update below of our work in each subject.

Reading:  We completed our DRA work this week and I will be analyzing each student's performance on this written reading assessment.  Through the rest of September our reading work will focus on nonfiction reading from our social studies textbook, focusing on geography themes to enhance our Where in the World project.  When students finish our daily work on nonfiction features, they will be reading their book share books.

Writing:  Next week in writing, we will complete our I AM poems and craft them into iMovies to share digitally.  We will also be writing about our islands a fair amount during social studies time.

Math:  Our work has turned to rounding, estimating, and mental math applied to the addition and subtraction of decimals.  This work will be integrated into our field experiences and science experiments as much as possible.  Throughout the year, we will focus on tow main parts of mathematics: application and communication, especially as they relate to multistep problems.

Social Studies:  For the rest of September, we will be writing about the geography, resources, culture, and economy of our islands.  We will be creating our Travel Brochures in preparation for our Travel Show on Oct. 1.

Science:  We completed our first experiment this week and I will be giving feedback to kids next week.  Observations have been a focus of science while we are on our field experiences.  Next week, we will continue our observations in the field and we will also prepare our next experiment, focused on Grant School outdoor ecology.

Ipads:  We introduced iPads this week to the delight of the kids.  So far, we have only downloaded a few apps but we have not used the devices in our learning routines yet.  Hopefully, we will start next week with using iMovie in writing, Google Docs in social studies and science too.

This week I will be updating photos for our field experiences this week.  Our observations connect us more to the community but will also shape our community project and learning focus for the year.

MEET NOLA! AND KAYA AND JOSHUA.

Families, it's not all snakes and fish and birds and plants in Classroom C!  We also observed a young human child last week - Nola Rose, my daughter, came to visit Friday afternoon.  You can see Max presented her with a gift and she has loved it all weekend.  Thanks Max.  It occurs to me I never took time at Open House or Back to School Night to introduce my family.  I also have a 17 year old, Kaya, and a 14 year old, Joshua.  They both attend Hickman High School.  Kaya is the captain of the dance team and is anxiously preparing for college.  Joshua is on the soccer team and just figuring out what high school is all about.  My wife, Kristin, is also an educator. She has taught 5th grade at Paxton Keeley for many years.  This year she teaches a couple UMC courses for aspiring teachers and spends time at home with Nola.  In Classroom C, we enjoy learning about each other so there is a little about me!

Thanks Max for Teddy!

MEET MAIZIE

We had a chance to view Maizie in her somewhat natural element this week.  Our jobs table got a nice shot of her striking her lunch.  You can see some nice shots of the artifacts we viewed on our trip to Ellis LIbrary by clicking on the 2015-2016 CPBL link to the right.

WEEKLY UPDATE

Families, please read the update for each subject below.  Let me know if you have any questions.

General heads up:
Homework: Some students have expressed concern and demonstrated some difficulty with our homework routines.  We discussed in circle time on Friday.  Most students stated they thought our routine was acceptable and even appreciated.  As a class, we decided kids need a homework folder and I will provide them with one if they need it.  Please know we post the homework daily on the this blog. I expect students to work no more than 45 minutes at home, unless they want to of course. Our assignments are intended to support our class projects.  Sometimes the due dates are the next day or later in the week or month.  This is to allow kids to manage their time wisely.  We think our routines are similar to middle school and hope learners will be prepared when they enter the next level of academics.  You can also check the homework daily in the planners.

Family Conferences:  Next week, I will post days and times families can schedule a conference with me if they want.  I will do this monthly so we can meet as needed to support success, answer questions, or just say hi!

Graded work:  I will send graded work home in the Friday Folders.  Please return this work so students can add to their portfolios.

Reading: I have listened to every reader read a few pages aloud.  On Monday, each reader will complete a short story and respond to comprehension tasks in writing.  I will have a stronger idea of each student as a reader after looking at this work.  We turned in our 6 best reading responses today and we will use these as models of great reading work throughout the year.  Next week, we will also read nonfiction material in our social studies books about resources, climate, and land forms to support our island map ideas.

Writing:  Many students have completed their I AM sketch and descriptive autobiographical poem.  Next week, the completed poems will be due on Thursday.  Students who have already completed this work, will have time to create an iMovie of their work on their iPad.  We will also introduce writing a Gazetteer for our island maps next week.  The rest of our writing in September will focus on creative writing to prepare for our Travel Show on Oct 3.

Math: We completed our place value unit this week. I will be grading the tests over the weekend and sharing this work in the next Friday Folder.  Next week, we will start our unit on Adding and Subtracting Whole Numbers and Decimals.  Some of this work will be integrated and enhanced with numbers reflecting our field experiences.

Social Studies:  This week we focused on land forms and creating our island maps.  Their maps are very creative and colorful.  Maps are due next Wednesday.  On Tuesday, we will add our map scales together as a class.  Then we will focus on our gazetteers for the rest of the week.  Our work learning about landforms has provided many opportunities to discuss real examples of how nature and humans interact and shaped each others behavior.  Some of our social studies next week will be integrated with writing and our community field experiences.

Science: In science this week, we focused on experimental design.  Our first class experiment is centered on leaf length of trees in Stewart Park.  After we complete our conclusions on Tuesday, we will visit Thursday with a Forester about our results.  After completing this experiment, we will plan our next one in groups.  You can see the development of our science work by clicking the link 2015-2016 CPBL to the right.

Back to School

I had a wonderful time at the Potluck last night and I appreciate those who were able to make it to Back to School Night.  Let me know if you have any questions about anything covered.  Next week, I will be setting dates for optional family conferences for the month of September.  Any family is welcome to come in and chat about the school year or their child's progress.  For now, I want to make sure families are aware we have a walking field trip to the Ellis Library rare books section on Friday.  Our class will leave about 12:30.  Due to the heat, we will be taking our time and taking water breaks along the way.

Now its time to publicly announce the winners of our All Star Poster contest:
Maggie's design was chosen by the class to be our large All Star poster.

Ethan's design was also a class favorite.

I included a few more to demonstrate students efforts and fantastic designs.