YAY! HAPPY TO BE BACK!

It's so nice to be back in the swing of things.  We are starting to reach normalcy for Class C after all my absences and snow day and days off.  I realized I had not had a full 5 day week of school in all of January!  The kids had 8 different teachers in 9 days and THEY WERE AWESOME.  Our projects and class work kept moving right along and the class did great for our guest teachers!  So I am rewarding them with a small class party next week.  Thanks, All-Stars!

In terms of classwork, below you can read about our current focus for each class.  Also, please be sure to check the Friday Folder this week.  There are important papers such as the Grant Dispatch, library notices, scoliosis screening letter, Language Club, Chili and Game Night form, Celebration of Cultures form, a Grant School Legacy Brick Campaign form, and more!

READING:  Reading is mostly being integrated with other subjects: writing, ss, and science all have a reading component right now. However, the kids will be getting 30-45 minutes every day to work on Book Shares also.  Each student has had time and guidance choosing a book and they should have 6 completed book shares by February 19.

WRITING: Our writing time this week was filled with classroom spelling bees so we could choose our class representatives for the Grant School Spelling Bee.  Next, we will get back to our narrative writing.  We will be looking at narrative techniques in texts and using our background knowledge to craft stories of individuals on journeys.

MATH: We completed UNIT 4 and the kids did awesome on the test!  We have moved on to UNIT 5 focused on Operations of Fractions.  Students are currently working on finding common denominators to add, subtract, and compare fractions.  Eventually, we will multiplying and dividing fractions too.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We finished Discovery today!  The most successful colony will be revealed next week and we will have a little celebration for each Colony's success.  Next, our focus will be on the 13 English Colonies leading up to the American Revolution.  Our focus for social studies will lead us through Westward Expansion and Civil War time period by the end of the year.

SCIENCE: We are finishing up our matter unit and students are applying their new knowledge to planning their info-graphic.  The info-graphics are a part of our community project this year and the final products are intended to decorate our new 5th grade classrooms in the new building next year.  Our next focus will be on matter in ecosystems, and weather systems, including looking at the solar system, weather patterns, and the hydrological cycle.

Enjoy these FLASH BOOK SHARES about MLK, JR.

SCIENCE VIDEO RESOURCES

MATTER LINKS

PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

OIL SPILL

OIL SPILL FAST FACTS

PIPELINE SPILLS

HEY KIDS AGAIN!

It's Nola's turn this time.  She was singing and dancing and then lays down and says, "I just don't feel well." Check the temp and sure enough its a fever and aches and coughs and all that.  So I am home this morning taking care of Nola.  I am sorry to miss decimal subtraction practice with you but I will be back after lunch so you can tell me all about it.  Please enjoy your morning with Mr. Ryffe.  See you soon!

HEY KIDS!!!!

All Stars, I am super bummed I can't join you today.  Its going to be a really great day for you and you are doing something super important and cool - saving monarchs.

You all know I was still not feeling well yesterday.  Well, after I left early to go to the doctor and listen to Sprout, I got home and walked in ready to rest for the night and hike with you today.  I opened the door and it was like SPLPPHLHSPPPSHLLHLPSPPJ!!!!!!!

There was water shooting like a cannon out of a pipe in the wall and my house was flooded!  I thought I was going to get some rest, but I ended up moving and cleaning and dealing with, well, a flooded house.  So today I am still not feeling well, maybe worse actually, but I also need to be at home to start the process of cleaning up and making the house a home again.

Thanks for understanding and have a wonderful day with Mr. Persky.  I will tell you more about my adventure on Monday.  Be ClassC today!

Here are some monarch butterfly links you might enjoy:

1. AMAZING LIFE CYCLE OF A MONARCH BUTTERFLY VIDEO CHICAGO NATURE MUSEUM

2. THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY KIDS ZONE

3. MONARCH BUTTERFLY (DANAUS PLEXIPPUS) RAINFOREST ALLIANCE

4. MONARCH BUTTERFLY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

5. MONARCH BUTTERFLY DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE

6. MONARCH BUTTERFLY ANIMAL DIVERSITY WEB

7. MONARCH BUTTERFLY GARDEN ECOSYSTEM WEBSITE

COLORING PAGE

1/17/18 LINKS

READING:
MARTINS BIG WORDS
PBS VIDEO: NONVIOLENCE

SOCIAL STUDIES:
PS 46 EUROPEAN EXPLORERS
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG KIDS ZONE
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG PBS

SCIENCE:
BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY: ATOMS AND MOLECULES
BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY: PHASES OF MATTER

LOTS OF LEARNING

December is usually a productive month in the classroom and this year is no different.  As we transition into new books and a new math unit, we also find ourselves managing a few projects and fun topics in science and social studies.  These next two weeks aim to be full of enjoyable learning activities as we head into a deserved winter break.  Below is the learning snapshot for this week with a couple new categories.

MATH:  We will spend Monday revising our work on the unit test from Friday.  Starting Tuesday, we will jump into our new Unit 4: Decimals and Coordinate Grids.  Family letter will go home Tuesday evening with background information for the unit.  We will be in the middle of Unit 4 when Winter Break starts.

READING:  This week students will read the 2nd section of their books.  Literature Journal 2 A/B is due this Friday.  For this work, readers are comparing real world information about explorers from our textbook to scenes in our chapter books, focused on characters who are on a journey.

SS/WRITING:  We are slowly entering our Discovery theme work.  This unit is turning out different than past years just due to timing.  Usually, we finish most of it before break, but it looks like this year we will pick up in the middle after break.  As a part of our learning about the Age of Exploitation and colonization of the "New World", students are creating Passport assignments in the classroom and for homework.  3 Passport assignments with a total of 21 points will gain each student passage to a 5th grade "journey" on Dec 21., the last day before break.  We are working on Passports in class a bit and also beginning to plan our role playing game, Discovery, where colonies of students attempt to sail to the New World and start a successful colony despite realistic hardships.

SCIENCE:  We are planning our 5th Grade Community project a little bit each week.  Also, we are focusing on Matter.  Our first activity spurred a lot of discussion about elements, atoms, and states of matter.  Some of our Matter work will also connect to our community project.

CATTV:  Each 5th grader is in a group to plan some aspect of filming footage for our CATTV project.  Each group has a topic connected to our school construction.  Students are collaborating in person and via technology to plan their portions of our filming.  There's a lot going on!  So we are working 2 days a week on this project.

This picture below is from our preschool Buddy Time.  We enjoyed the Kindergarten winter performance together. 

CLASSY MUSEUM OF NATIVE AMERICA!

Our Native American museum exhibits are wonderful.  Historians did a fantastic job presenting their work last week.  Their projects, ranging from NA shelter and hunting to masks, pottery, and kachinas, are still decorating our classroom.  As always, this class pulled off impressive work and we enjoyed sharing.  Thank you for all your help getting kids prepared to share their projects.  Enjoy pictures of projects and more of the Potlatch celebration below.

This week we are transitioning in a few subjects and there is a description of our work below.

MATH: We will finish the fraction unit this week with a math test on Friday!  There will be a study guide and math homework each night this week.

READING: This week we are choosing new books based on a Journey theme.  Each book has a character going on a type of journey.  This dynamic will match our studies of the Age of Exploration in Social Studies.  Some students will choose to read in a book club, but they also have a choice to read a journey book by themselves too.  There will be weekly literature journal assignments with this reading cycle.

SS/WRITING:  We will spend a day reflecting on our Native American work.  Then we will start getting into the Age of Exploration.  Our work will be nestled in a theme we call Discovery.  This integrated work includes weekly projects in writing, mapping, and other skills.  There will be a packet for the theme in next week's folder but we will start the foundation this week.

SCIENCE:  We are working on many things during science time.  Each student will finish sharing their community inspirations on Monday. We will discuss and choose our 5th grade community project.  We might have another beeclipse lesson or we will start our matter unit.  Our science time will also be used to help plan our CATTV projects.