ROOTS N ARTS N BLUES!!!

We are entering one of the best weeks at Grant School - Roots n Blues week.  So many event connected to this fun week are coming.  We have the Blues Corps working with our guest musician TJ Wheeler - they will perform at Grant School and during the Root n Blues Festival downtown on Saturday.  Also, Thursday night is our Arts n Blues night.  This night, with raffle items, helps fund our program for the week.  There will be donated art items and teacher prize giveaways too.  I will be hosting a canoeing afternoon for a lucky winner.  I hope to see families out celebrating this fun week at Grant or at the festival.

This week in the Friday Folder you will see a Portfolio Folder of work.  Some of the work is graded and some is not.  We save all our work in 5th grade so we make electronic portfolios to share during conference time.  Please look over the work and SEND IT BACK TO SCHOOL!!!! If you have any questions about the work please let me know.

Also in the Friday Folder is an invitation to the 5th Grade Travel Show on October 3rd.  We will be sharing our geography work and islands from 12:30-2:30!  Fun!  Please join us at anytime.

Below is an update for our work next week:
READING: This will be our last week to have class time for Book Share work.  We will also take the STAR test again to monitor our improvement.

WRITING: Almost all our writing will be focused on the island project.  We may revisit our I AM poetry work also.

MATH: Our next unit is on place value and the umber system.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Our lessons will be on geography and finishing our island work.

SCIENCE: We will revisit our Beeclipse study with the UMC biology department.  The data is in and kids will start looking it over.

KEYS TO THE CITY!!!

I BOUGHT THEM ICE CREAM  - BEST LESSON EVER!!!

HURRICANE HARVEY DONATIONS!!!

 

MOVING RIGHT ALONG

This was a productive week in Classroom C.  Students make progress individually on there Where in the World work and as a class we progressed through math and reading routines. Some students have donated items to our Hurricane Harvey relief drive.  We are accepting items until next Monday. Next Friday, our Blues in the Schools program begins at Grant School and there are many musicians in our class that have signed up for the Blues Corps to work with our guest musician, TJ Wheeler. Below is an outline for our academic work next week.

READING: We have had discussions about choosing Just Right books and books for book shares.  Every student should be finished or finishing a book share book.  The next two weeks will be the only class time we have for a while to work in class on book shares.  I have already collecting a few from students.  Ideally, a reader would finish 1 a month.  While we are reading our book share books, we are also practicing our reading communication by recording and expanding reading thoughts.

WRITING: We have two writing projects going on.  Every student has completed a draft of their I AM poem and we will revise and edit those next week.  Also, we will begin our Travel Brochure project for our islands.  Students will be making a brochure for their island, describing elements like climate, resources, transportation, and more.

MATH: In math, we have finished the lessons for our first unit.  We will have the unit test on Tuesday morning.  Until then, we will be practicing volume and area.  Students have plenty of resources to help them prepare.

SCIENCE: We have 2 walking field trips next week.  They are posted in the Important Dates section.  We also have Plant Tower presentation on Monday.  5th graders will be responsible for maintaining Grant School's Plant Tower, growing indoor plants to use with our cafeteria lunch menu.

SOCIAL STUDIES: While we work on our Travel Brochures, we are also studying the geography chapter of our textbook.  This helps us understand how to use nonfiction features (headings, pictures, bolded words, etc) to write about climate, resources, etc... Our walking filed trip to the City Council building will help us develop ideas also as we listen to the City of Columbia's Sustainable Design coordinator.

Enjoy pics of these great maps below:

FANTASTIC WEEK!

I was impressed with our All-Stars all week.  They did a great job on our field trip and we caught up on all our creative work.  Thanks so much for those that attended Back to School Night/Potluck Night.  I can send home or email the PowerPoint I shared if you could not make it.  Also, I am happy to meet with anyone at school or digitally to answer any questions.  Below is a snapshot of our focus for next week.  Have a great weekend!

READING: I have finished listening to all students read and have a good idea of each child as a reader.  Next week, we will focus on how to pick just right books and students will get time to choose and read books for Book Shares.  We will also meet in small groups to read some nonfiction text about geography.

WRITING: We have two writing jobs to focus on next week.  First, we will make final drafts of our I AM poem and put them together with our sketches.  Also, we will be creating Gazetteers describing places on our islands.

MATH: In math, we will continue our work in the first unit.  The lessons have extended area into volume.  My goal is to finish the first unit next week and prepare for an assessment over the material.  I will let the class know when the test will be so they can prepare accordingly.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will take a closer look at landforms throughout the week.  Also, students will be creating their Gazetteer for their island.  This writing will describe places on their island and help others locate them on the map.  

SCIENCE: We will keep working on our observations of Columbia to inform or science work for the year.  Next week, we will be observing the Daniel Boone Regional Library and learning about their resources, including how to read books on our ipads. 

CATTV: Another special project in 5th grade is our partnership project with CATTV. Our community TV station is training our All Stars on cameras and sound equipment.  Our students will then be capturing Grant School's transition this year.  We will be sending students in groups of 4 or 5 throughout this month and October to get trained.