Family conferences went very well and I appreciated everyone's attendance and feedback. We had 100% family attendance again! While I won't be scheduling another get together, I do encourage kids to join us on one of our March, April, or May Eco Club hikes (March 19, April 16, May 7). All of our kiddos are making great progress. This has been a great year and a great community and we look forward to these last few months together.
The end of 5th grade at Grant School is a special time with a lot of celebration and sharing of knowledge and good times. Please join us for our annual End of the Year planning meeting on March 22 at 3:45 to help plan for end of the year field trips, graduation, and field day. We can't do it without your help! This year's planning will take some extra effort with the increased size of our grade level.
I was treated to a couple special student events this weekend. I viewed incredible art work from Pearl, Maggie, Harper, Oliver and other Grant All Stars at Harold's Doughnuts. Also, I listened to a smashing piano concert including Oscar and other former All Stars too. I enjoy seeing the kids showcase their talents. It reminds me of what great background and diversity we have at Grant.
Below is a snapshot of this week's learning:
Reading: We will start our Eco Literature reading cycle this week. Look for new chapter books and literature journal assignments. This 4 week cycle will culminate in an Eco Diorama of our books. And of course we will celebrate READ A THON all day Friday!
Writing: This week we will have another word study worksheet and kids may have a chance to shape up some free writing.
Math: Fraction work continues with fraction multiplication and division. Mathematicians will have daily practice and we are also working on fractions within the context of Exploring Parks and Playgrounds designs.
Social Studies: Between now and Spring Break, we will finalize our American Revolution learning.
Science: Scientists will take part in some weather experiments as they start to design their activities for our community project.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Monday, February 22, 2016
READ A THON KICKOFF!!
Families, we are in the midst of our traditional Read a Thon fundraiser. Readers are rising to reading challenges for the next 2 weeks. We will celebrate our efforts on March with an all day celebration.
I look forward to meeting with families later this week. This week we will be focusing on reflecting on our 2nd trimester progress and goals. Students will be adding work to their website portfolio in preparation for conferences. We will spend most of our week developing our portfolios. We will continue our American Colonies and science learning in spurts this week. After conferences, we will begin a new reading unit and focus on the American Revolution throughout March. Math will continue with multiplication and division of fractions before transitioning into geometry.
Look at how much fun we had helping our buddies with their body diagrams:
This year’s theme, CAMPING: The S’more You Read, The S’more You Know! celebrates the outdoors and all of our favorite places to read books. All students received a white envelope to collect donations from family and friends (NO DOOR TO DOOR SOLICITING). To be eligible for prizes, donation envelopes must be returned by Friday March 4th, the last day of our Read-a-thon celebration. On this day we will welcome guest readers into the classrooms, count money and award fun prizes to classrooms that raise the most money. Also, for each challenge completed, students will be entered into drawings for even more prizes. Each completed challenge = one chance to win! Classroom prizes include: a shoot-around and Tiger Stripe ice cream with the MIZZOU women’s basketball team, a trip to MIZZOU football training facilities and player visit, a Columbia College campus tour and visit with the Cougar soccer team, lunch at the downtown Shakespeare’s pizza, and a trip to Tiger BOUNCE. Please remember that this is our biggest PTA fundraiser and helps us to continue all our special Grant events and field trips. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
I look forward to meeting with families later this week. This week we will be focusing on reflecting on our 2nd trimester progress and goals. Students will be adding work to their website portfolio in preparation for conferences. We will spend most of our week developing our portfolios. We will continue our American Colonies and science learning in spurts this week. After conferences, we will begin a new reading unit and focus on the American Revolution throughout March. Math will continue with multiplication and division of fractions before transitioning into geometry.
Look at how much fun we had helping our buddies with their body diagrams:
Sunday, February 7, 2016
FINE FINE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY
We had a very nice week last week, productive, fun, and relaxing.
More congratulations: to all spelling bee participants and to our very own school champion, HANNAH! Impressive job. We will all be rooting for her at the regionals in March.
Next week will be mostly an extension of this week. Below you can see an overview of where we are.
READING/WRITING/SS: These 3 subjects will be integrated throughout this week. Students are creating a "Thinglink" on their ipad to represent aspects of the 13 English Colonies. They will be creating a professional media communication poster on the Thinglink app on their ipad. You may see them writing paragraphs, drawing pictures, and/or linking to embedding images and videos for this project. Their completed Thinglink is due this Thursday. There will be plenty of time in class to complete this project.
There will also be more word study work this week.
MATH: Our current unit is an application of our fraction knowledge using. In class, students are using contexts of Pet Store sales to investigate ratios and adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing fractions. I am also sending home practice worksheets on the same topic. Lately, we have been investigating how to use clocks as fractional representations too.
SCIENCE: We have pored through the NGSS science standards of all grade levels It seems our class is inspired by weather objectives in kindergarten and 3rd grade. This week, we will choose an objective to focus on as we plan our methods for our community project. We will be planning outdoor education activities with younger grade levels to assess how outdoor education affects learner attitudes and knowledge.
And, of course, this week is the Valentine's party. I will provide a class list to students to make cards if they would like. We will spend about 30 minutes handing out cards before the party starts on Thursday. Students may bring a decorated box if they wish or I will provide them with a bag they can decorate while passing out cards. Thanks to all who are volunteering this Thursday at the party.
More congratulations: to all spelling bee participants and to our very own school champion, HANNAH! Impressive job. We will all be rooting for her at the regionals in March.
Next week will be mostly an extension of this week. Below you can see an overview of where we are.
READING/WRITING/SS: These 3 subjects will be integrated throughout this week. Students are creating a "Thinglink" on their ipad to represent aspects of the 13 English Colonies. They will be creating a professional media communication poster on the Thinglink app on their ipad. You may see them writing paragraphs, drawing pictures, and/or linking to embedding images and videos for this project. Their completed Thinglink is due this Thursday. There will be plenty of time in class to complete this project.
There will also be more word study work this week.
MATH: Our current unit is an application of our fraction knowledge using. In class, students are using contexts of Pet Store sales to investigate ratios and adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing fractions. I am also sending home practice worksheets on the same topic. Lately, we have been investigating how to use clocks as fractional representations too.
SCIENCE: We have pored through the NGSS science standards of all grade levels It seems our class is inspired by weather objectives in kindergarten and 3rd grade. This week, we will choose an objective to focus on as we plan our methods for our community project. We will be planning outdoor education activities with younger grade levels to assess how outdoor education affects learner attitudes and knowledge.
And, of course, this week is the Valentine's party. I will provide a class list to students to make cards if they would like. We will spend about 30 minutes handing out cards before the party starts on Thursday. Students may bring a decorated box if they wish or I will provide them with a bag they can decorate while passing out cards. Thanks to all who are volunteering this Thursday at the party.
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