Nies Class News: Room 86, Grant School 5th Grade: December 2018

Friday, December 14, 2018

SUCH AN IMPRESSIVE GROUP!!

Families, I am not sure which to be more excited about this week: time with buddies, awesome math test work, welcoming a new All Star, starting a new science experiment, or any of the other great things going on in our community. This really is a fantastic class and we are doing a super job academically and socially. I have the weekly update for each subject below. Next week also includes our Winter Break party. Please use the sign up link below to help plan if you'd like.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080848A8AF2BA46-grant12

READING: Most students have completed their Native American themed chapter book. The last Lit Journal assignment is due on Tuesday. We will also complete the STAR reading test on Tuesday.

WRITING/SS: We are organizing our research for our Native American museum exhibit. Students are working on a rough draft which is due next Thursday. We will be brainstorming what our final exhibits will look like. We will work on the final after Winter Break.

MATH: We finished our Fraction Unit 3 and tested Thursday. Kids did an excellent job and were pleased with their work. I will send home the tests next week. We will do the math STAR test on Tuesday.

SCIENCE: We finished synthesizing 5th grade community projects form the past. We have held class in the Ecoschoolhouse. We started an experiment plan on spider plants today. Next week, we will continue setting up our experiment and brainstorming our community project for this year.

Friday, December 7, 2018

GREAT WEEK!

This was a very successful week in Room 86. We made great progress in all our work and kids have been focused and positive, as usual in our fantastic community. This is an exciting time in school, with the break approaching, celebration in the air, and creative projects to work on. We do have some important work coming up to focus on. There is a snapshot of each subject below.

READING: In reading, we have finished reading the 3rd section of our Native American themed chapter book. Students are completing the writing on Literature Journal 3A/B which is due next Tuesday 12/11. We will then finish our books with one more Lit Journal assignment and then readers will have some class time to complete a Book Share for this book before Winter Break. Each reader should have at least 4 book shares completed when we leave for break.

MATH: In math, we continued our work on Fractions, specifically equivalent fractions and adding an subtracting. We will review the unit next week and take the Unit 3 Fraction test on Thursday. Student will have 2 study guides and they also can review the unit work in their Math Journal and Homelinks pages to help prepare.

SS/WRITING: Our focus continue to be research on our Native American museum exhibits. We have webbed plenty of notes from books and internet research. We also visited the MU Museum of Anthropology today to get ideas about creating our museum exhibits. Next week, we will be focusing on organizing our notes and then it will be time to create a rough draft. Rough drafts will be due before Winter Break. Our final museum exhibits will be celebrated and presented in January, after we return.

SCIENCE: In science, we have been talking about community projects within the context (and space) of the Ecoschoolhouse. The Ecoschoolhouse is a perfect example of a community project. We had all our science classes in the Ecoschoolhouse this week. Our focus was looking at past community projects we have completed in 5th grade. We took notes of noticings, wonderings, and personal connections as we viewed past 5th grade science posters, physical projects, and websites. Next week, we are synthesizing our thoughts and then starting to plan this years community project.

Please enjoy the pics of today's trip to the museum!