MOVING RIGHT ALONG

It seems we are finally in the swing of things with a full routine of academics and a bit special learning opportunities this week.  Below you can see pictures of Youkin presenting on Chinese New Year.  We all got to try dumplings and writing Chinese characters.  Today, we enjoyed reading books with our buddies at the library.  Tomorrow, we will enjoy  watching our classmates compete in the Geography Bee.  Congrats to our competitors: Jack, Andrew, Jimmy, and Kate.  Also, we have decided on our community project for this year's science learning.  We will be building a stream table for Grant school learners to learn about stream ecosystems!  This learning has already starting and you can view our progress on the CPBL 2016-2017 link.

Thank you for sending in family conference time forms.  Please let me know if you need another sheet or you can email a conference preference for Thursday evening (2/16) or Friday morning (2/17).  I will send time confirmations in this week's Friday Folder.

Following is a snapshot of the learning in each subject.

READING:  We are in our 3rd week of our Ecoliteracy book cycle.  Students are writing about theme this week, making predictions, and answering comprehension questions.

WRITING:  Writers are actively drafting their Explorer narratives using techniques we practiced in class.

MATH:  After finishing up our Algebra unit, we are heading right into decimals and fractions.  Most of this work will be on comparing and ordering before we start to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We are now looking at the original 13 English colonies in America.  Each student will be a part of a group presentation on a colonial region.

SCIENCE:  We are taking notes on stream table designs and discussing stream ecosystems.  The rest of our science units this year (water cycle, weather, mass, solar system, ecosystems) will be integrated with our community project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!

Next week we might even get a full week in!  Our days in school and out in January are about equal and that has made for an ease in back to school in 2017.  The Fine Arts Extravaganza was a great trip and kids were well introduced to the arts opportunities they will have in middle and high school.  I am happy to hear many students made it to an Instrument Night to try out some band and orchestra instruments.  Please let me know if you could not make it and would like more information about the band program.

This week we got back into some familiar routines and wrapped up our Discovery game.  Below is a breakdown of our work in each subject and some pictures from the Fine Arts Extravaganza and a couple book shares.  I'm looking forward to seeing you all at the Hoedown next Friday. Finally, great job to the choir and their performance of Joust!  The performance was wonderful and enjoyed by the whole school community.  Great job, choir!

READING:  In reading students had one more class day to work on Book Shares and students are expected to be at 4.  We also chose new books for this next literacy cycle.  All of our books in this cycle have a setting that is important to the plot.  We will be creating a cool fiction/nonfiction Ecodiorama at the end of this cycle and students can use it as a book share.

WRITING:  In writing, we are continuing to focus on narrative writing traits.  Students have practiced writing quotes, using commas, and writing descriptively.  Next week, we will look at a plot graph and plan a fiction narrative with a colonial/journey theme.

SS:  In social studies, we wrapped up our Discovery unit in a fun way.  We will start to focus on New England colonies leading up the Revolutionary War.

SCIENCE:  In science, we have been watching a variety of curriculum themed video shorts (solar system, ecology, water, etc)  and writing reflections.  Some of these videos and reflections may influence our community project decision which are decided on with Mr. Kuenstings class next week.

MATH:  Our math focus has been on Algebra (variables, patterns, and order of operations).  We have tried some totally new skills for most 5th graders and are learning a lot.  Students will have a quiz on this unit next week.  The quiz will focus on solving equations with variables (2 + t  OR 6n, etc) and also the order of operations which we will hit hard next week.  I think the kids are enjoying something besides division and we are also being challenged with new concepts.

 

 

COMMUNITY SERVICE MATH WORK

Our students have completed our math manipulative kits!  These kits are full of great math tools any teacher or student can check out to use.  And check out the cool math posters they completed to show their math thinking.  Great job, All Stars!

 

 

 

 

 

 

INSTRUMENT EXTRAVAGANZA SURVEY LINK

https://goo.gl/forms/jeqmhs8nYIt5GN8B2 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We eased on in to 2017 this past week.  All students did a wonderful job transitioning back to school time.  It was especially more challenging with all the cooped up indoor recess!  Hopefully, the playground will thaw out for next week.  In our short week, we focused on a narrative District Writing Assessment, finishing up our math service project left over from last year, enjoying our Discovery game in SS, making progress on Book Shares, and reviewing some principles of experimental design in science.  We also enjoyed a wonderful presentation from the Missouri Department of Conservation on the Bear and Elk population in Missouri.  The main event this week is the Instrument Extravaganza field trip on Wednesday.  This trip highlights fine arts opportunities in middle and high school and leads up to Instrument Try Me Out nights coming up soon at middle schools.  Below is our focus for next week in all subjects.

READING:  One more week to focus on book shares.  Each student should have 4 completed by this Friday and then 5 by the end of January.  This week, we will also be choosing new books for our next book club.

WRITING:  We will be incorporating narrative writing techniques during our Discovery time in Social Studies.  Each student will begin drafting and planning an Explorer narrative from the point of view of an Explorer.

SS:  We will likely finish our Discovery game this week while working on narratives and learning about a few more European Explorers, leading up to the English/American Colonial period.

MATH:  By Tuesday, we should complete our math service project.  For this project, our class is dividing up manipulatives into kits for check out by teachers and students.  They are documenting their work in math posters. After the service project is complete, we will move on to Algebra and Variables.

SCIENCE:  Each student will be completing their own experiment this week.  This experiment will serve as an assessment for the experimental design components we studied and reviewed recently.