GREAT BLUE HERONS, DRAGONFLY NYMPHS, SYCAMORES AND MOSQUITOES OH MY!

What a day!  Scientists shared great ideas in the field today.  We now have had 2 days of outdoors experiences.  Students have collected and observed stream and pond organisms, prairie insects and plants, and some impressive birds.  Many scientists have also noticed the forests around and how many trees have fallen.  Of course they are coming up with many questions and lists of natural resources.  At the same time, we have successfully added the new iPads to our experience.  In the field, students have reading, writing, math and social studies work loaded on their devices set in the context of our trip. This week we have worked on questioning in reading and reading nonfiction, writing descriptive words from the thesaurus and science notes, a math pretest and some adding and subtraction practice, and writing about our island in social studies. I was impressed especially with the kids today.  They have improved a lot with their observations and they were very inspired by the outdoors the past two days. Please enjoy the pics of all our trips on our 2014-2015 COMMUNITY PROJECT BASEd LEARNING link to the right.

OUTDOORS WEEK!

We start this week hot off the heels of our inspirations during our week of arts experiences.  This week, we will focus on outdoor experiences and observations while organizing our notes.  Below you can see the focus we will take in each subject.  Homework is becoming a challenge for many students.  Please know we will have homework assigned every night.

Reading: We will focus on Asking Questions as a reader through carious genres.  In 5th grade, we expect our readers to answer their questions, even with an inference or prediction.

Writing:  We will focus on descriptive phrases and words while completing our I AM poems.  We will apply our writing descriptions knowledge into our scientific descriptions in science.

Math:  Following our first unit test, we will make revisions and students will practice a few skills as needed before starting our next unit, focused on adding and subtracting decimals.  We have already been adding and subtracting decimals in science.

Science: We will continue to organize our community observations while planning our bird feeder experiment.

I will be sending home information about our outdoor field trips for this week which will be bus field trips on Wednesday and Thursday to local parks.

QUICK THINGS

Families, I wanted to make sure everyone was in the know about homework since there is homework assigned nightly.

1. Students write the same homework in their planner everyday as I post on the blog to the right.

2. The due date is always posted too. Notice some assignments are long range and some are due daily.

3. Even if students finish homework in class, I expect them to take it home to share with families.

4. I never want students to work more than 45 minutes at home.  If assignments cannot be finished, please write a not for me.

5. Usually, incomplete homework is finished during free time or independent work time.

6. Students who are absent will always have adequate time to make up work.

7. When I catch up with graded work I will send it home in the Friday Folder for families to view.  Students will bring back the graded work on Monday to file in their portfolios.

Please feel free to email or call me anytime if you have questions.

Enjoy this observation by students right in our own backyard.  Ysana and Lucy captured this image on a bush after lunch today.  We will take a closer look tomorrow.

BUSY WEEK AT GRANT!!

Families, I am excited to see everyone at the Grant School Potluck/Back to School Night from 5-7:30. There is a 5th grade parent iPad meeting starting at 4:45 in the Media Center.  This meeting will cover what parents need to do to set up their child's iPad.  There is a second iPad meeting on Thursday at 7:45 am covering the same information for those who need a morning time.

We had a nice day in the city today viewing a few iconic downtown spots.  Tomorrow, students will start organizing and reflecting on their notes about our downtown experiences.  You can see pictures of today by viewing the 2014-2015 tab to the right.  We will visit Lucky's on Wednesday and the Bridge/Artlandish on Friday.  See you tomorrow night!

ROLLING ALONG!

We finally finished our literacy assessments!  I now know the children a lot more as learners and individuals.  Soooo... desk change!  We will be moving around this Monday into new seats.  I must say I have been very impressed with the improvement we have made as a class in terms of transitions and staying focused during independent work time.  This week we will have even more independent work time since it is a full week and our field trips are shorter.  We will make a lot of academic progress this week in all subjects.  Here is what we are focusing on in each subject:

Reading: making predictions with various genres

Writing: I AM poem

Math: test on place value, ordering and comparing; practicing adding and subtracting decimals

SS: Geography from the text book, island maps

Science: experimental design with our bird feeders; organizing our place observations

I look forward to seeing families at the Potluck/Back to School night this Tuesday, September 9 from 5-7:30.

Check out the new Grant web page and find info about Tj Wheeler, our exciting Blues in the Schools at Grant week and the second annual Arts & Blues Night at Grant… http://www.cpsk12.org/gre 

THE WORLD IS YOUR CLASSROOM

Today we had a productive morning of work before heading out to observe on campus.  Upon walking below Memorial Union, Margaret spotted a poster advertising for study abroad.  The poster states our theme this year: ...the World is Your Classroom!"  So we had to take a class pic!

HAPPY LABOR DAY

I hope all have enjoyed their three day weekend.  We are right back to work today!

Most students finished their DWA today.  I was impressed with their focus as they finished writing a narrative about a time they experienced a strong emotion.  These will be graded and the results will help me know the students as writers.

We also started the DRA today.  We will finish our reading assessments this week and I am excited to learn about each student as a reader.

In math, we played a decimal game.  Kids have the cards to bring home and play at home.  Our recent math work revealed students are ready to practice decimal place value.  Each student has an independent work sheet to work on in the classroom too.  I crafted this work to match what each student showed me they could do on a pretest.

In social studies, I shared World Map scores with the students today.  Some students are bringing them home today to revise a few parts of their map.  Geographers can also start on their Island Map as well. We will have time in class this week to work on the Island Maps.  Today we looked over the scoring guide and theme calendar which each student has a copy of.  Each day we are also looking at various landforms and sometimes using those lessons to make math connections. For instance, today we looked at the average rainfall in various deserts around the world.

In recent science work we discussed scientists creating systems to study a scientific question.  We will be making bird feeder systems this week to study successful bird feeder designs.  I used experience to introduce some of the interesting science work students have done the past couple of years.  The pictures below are of students brainstorming their feeder designs.

 


Tomorrow we have a field trip to campus.  Students will observe the UMC children's garden and help plant spinach, weed, and view insects.  We will also tour the School of Natural Resources exhibits
Students will have work connected to these experiences.  Fun learning!