MID OCTOBER UPDATE

Last week was very successful and productive.  I am very proud of our kids for collecting about $250.00 to help CCUA fight hunger.  We enjoyed our time there and sharing our donation.  We look forward to working with this group more this year. At the same time, students were very focused and productive this week on the projects out lined below.  I am taking time on Thursday to reward the kids for their recent efforts.   Let me know if you have questions about the work below.  The POWWOW theme packet will come home this week. The 5th grade team needed more time to solidify dates.

READING: Book Clubs and Literature Journal #3 with a focus on predictions
WRITING/SS: Each historian is writing a paragraph that will turn into a comprehensive website on a NA topic
SCIENCE:  While we wait for our red clover plants to grow for experiment #3, we are organizing our most inspirational observations to begin planning our community project
MATH: We will practice 2 different division strategies this week


Thank you for all the birthday wishes for Nola.  She had a blast at her party as you can see below. There is also a picture of an organism Max identified in a guide book.

OCTOBER OUTSET UPDATE

Families, the Travel Show as a huge success.  I created a page to the right with pics of geographer's creative presentations.

With the end of the Where in the World Unit and the dawn of October brings a transition for our integrated social studies learning.  Our next theme, Powwow, will be another integrated experience for our historians.  During this theme, students will explore Native American culture and choose an aspect of NA culture as the topic of a "museum exhibit" each student will create.  This integrated work will be the focus of reading, writing, social studies, art, technology and as much science and math as possible.  We will send a calendar and information packet home about Powwow this week.

Reading: We will choose NA book next week.  Each student will be reading a "just-right" historical fiction chapter book with a NA focused theme.   These book clubs will have weekly assignments.  We will also be reading volumes of nonfiction NA topic books/websites/maps/pamphlets during social studies.  Each book club book can also be a book share choice for our readers.  Ideally, each reader should have one book share completed already.

Writing: After a writing prompt assessment on Monday, our writers will begin an experience in crafting nonfiction research writing.  Students will begin by creating a short piece on an aspect of a NA region.  This piece will be published, with corresponding images and student art, to a class website on NA regions.  As the class discusses each region, students will be choosing the aspect of NA culture they wish to research for their museum exhibit.

Social Studies: Our focus will be on NA history and culture.  Students will work in groups to research  and create and present a website page on an aspect of a NA region.  We will spend our SS time focused on various fiction and nonfiction resources from different NA regions.  We will use everything from the textbook to short videos, images, maps, books etc... Students will also be working on a NA piece in art.

Science: This week we are meeting with a Dendrologist to discuss the results of our Stewart Park tree experiment.  He will also share with us the tools and science of his work in the field. Thanks to Matt Struckhoff for making time to come in.  Through October, we will have one and maybe two more field experiences: CCUA and maybe Grindstone Park.  Students will be spending this month sharing their observations from our field work so far.  Scientists will explore their notes and create a presentation Wordle of their inspirations in the field.  Also, we will begin another mini experiment this week.  So far we have collected data on tree leaves, wind speed and animals, and now we will make come observations on compost as we continue to work outside on our natural areas.  Thanks to Sarah Linsenmeyer for helping our scientists work in outdoor classroom areas.

Math:  Our focus on math will continue to be multiplication and solving multi step problems.  It appears we need a little more practice on 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication.  As we start to apply multiplication to solve problems, it is very helpful for students to fluently have their multiplication facts through 12.  Further down the road, mastering these facts fluency will also provide a strong support as we extend their division experience.  This would be a great time for practicing facts at home through flash cards, games, or apps.  I am posting multiplication digital resources in the Weekly Resources page.

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!