LAST WEEK OF 2014

Harriet Tubman DWA link for kids today:

http://safeshare.tv/w/DHBQsukNpw


Below you will see some pics of our fantastic Potlatch.  Pablo, our gust speaker, gave a lecture on the Peopling of Americas with artifacts, and he also had a storytelling/music presentation in the afternoon. Students are also doing a great job presenting on their own native American research and you will see some of those projects below too.

This week we have a few things to wrap up in each subject before we celebrate with our Winter Party this Friday.  Below is the focus for each subject this week.
Reading: Finish our read aloud and work on Book Shares
Writing: Nonfiction DWA about Harriet Tubman and word study work sheet
Math: Finish division of decimals; unit test on Thursday; midterm test on Friday
Social Studies: share NA presentations
Science: complete Winter holiday door decoration on Passenger Pigeons

DEC 8 - DEC 12 OUTLOOK

Families, below is our outlook for this week.  Some current highlights include success on our recent science experiment which will go home to view this week, student Native American projects to be displayed before the PTA meeting at 6:00 Tuesday evening, and overall students were more focused this week.

Students preparing "puddles" for our water experiment.

We color coded our notes to organize our writing.

Everyone meets Nola during dismissal! Shhhhh, she is sleeping!

MONDAY:
Reading: Inferences with JR books and science/ss articles
Writing: New word study routine and classroom spelling bees
Math: Intro to decimal multiplication and division
Social Studies: Native American presentations
Science: Passenger Pigeon Winter Door Dec

TUESDAY:
Reading: Inferences with JR books and science/ss articles
Writing: New word study routine
Math: Practice decimal multiplication and division
Social Studies: Native American presentations
Science: Passenger Pigeon Winter Door Dec
COME TO THE PTA MEETING TO SEE ALL 5TH GRADERS GREAT NATIVE AMERICAN WORK!!!

WEDNESDAY
Reading: Inferences with JR books and science/ss articles
Writing: New word study routine and classroom spelling bees
Math: Practice decimal multiplication and division
Social Studies: Native American presentations
Science: Passenger Pigeon Winter Door Dec

THURSDAY
Reading: Inferences with JR books and science/ss articles
Writing: New word study routine and classroom spelling bees
Math: Practice decimal multiplication and division
Social Studies: Native American presentations
Science: Passenger Pigeon Winter Door Dec

FRIDAY:
Math: Practice decimal multiplication and division
Social Studies: Native American presentations/POTLATCH CELEBRATION!!!
Science: Passenger Pigeon Winter Door Dec

THANKS AND 3 WEEKS

Families, all I have to do is review the images and notes on the blog and feel thankful for our class. We have had some fun learning so far this year and I am excited for the next 3 weeks before Winter Break.  I am very thankful for all you do to make Grant a better place.  There are two great opportunities to help out coming up - the Potlatch Celebration and the Winter Party.

Below is a week-long view of the learning this week.  For the Powwow project, presentations finished by Dec. 9 will be on display at the PTA meeting that evening.  I am also emailing each family with a follow up of our conference so look out for that too.

MONDAY:
Reading: review quality reading responses of Just Right books
Math: review 2 digit divisor division
Writing/SS: revision lessons to finish our Powwow projects
Science: water experience/observations

TUESDAY:
Reading: assessment of quality reading responses
Math: 2 digit divisor division test
Writing/SS: revision lessons to finish our Powwow projects
Science: plan water experiment

WEDNESDAY: 
Reading: review reading connections
Math: new unit: multiplying and dividing decimals lesson 1
Writing/SS: revision lessons to finish our Powwow projects
Science: water experiment data, science reading

THURSDAY
Reading: assessment of reading connections
Math: multiplying and dividing decimals lesson 2
Writing/SS: revision lessons to finish Powwow projects
Science: water experiment data, science reading

FRIDAY
Reading: making inferences
Math: multiplying and dividing decimals lesson 3
Writing/SS: revision lessons to finish Powwow projects
Science: water experiment data/graph/conclusion

GOOD WORK

Families, Friday was a productive and relaxing day in the Ecoschoolhouse.  Below are some pictures of scientists working on their Boat science experiment.  Whether traveling or relaxing at home, Thanksgiving Break could be a great opportunity to read or work on Book Shares or make progress on the Native American Museum Exhibit.  NA work completed by December 9th will be unveiled at the Grant School PTA meeting that night. 

On Monday, each student who turned their draft in received notes from me on how to revise and continue their NA writing in class.  Students are practicing double digit division today and tomorrow.  In reading, students are making connections to their Just Right books.  I look forward to getting back in the classroom after break and introducing a couple new solid routines.

UPDATE

Families, below is an update of our current learning and focus through Winter Break.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Social Studies:  Announcing the POTLATCH celebration on Dec 12!  Look in your Friday Folders to see how you can help out planning this event to celebrate our Native American learning.   Experts will be completing their NA museum exhibits next week and we will present our learning the following week.  The final week of social studies before winter break will be an introduction to the Age of Exploration.

Science:  Classroom scientists have produced our science focus for the year: How does litter affect the diversity of stream organisms?  Student interests also included ideas about transportation, sound, and design and we will work these ideas into our community project.  Right now and through December, we are focusing on 3 experiments to support our learning and research some topics connected to our focus.  This week we are constructing boats and researching why things float.  After Thanksgiving, we will have an experiment on properties of water and a third focusing on litter.  Students are practicing their application or experimental design.  As they plan these experiments in groups and then pairs, they are preparing to perform one experiment on their own as an assessment of experimental design.  This won't take place until after Winter Break.

Writing: All of our writing efforts are focused on completing and revising our drafts for our NA museum exhibits.  We are using specific lessons on nonfiction writing, especially organization, background knowledge, and nonfiction features to support our communication about our important NA topics.  After Thanksgiving, I will introduce a word study routine so students can also focus on spelling patterns.

Reading: All student chose a "just right" book this week and we looked at ways to continue picking just right books when we finish this one!  Our reading focus right now is about making connections to your book.  We also started our Book Share sharing routine today.  Each Friday, we will share some Book Shares with the class. I included a link below to help kids make good book choices.  We also downloaded the Overdrive App so students can check out eBooks from the DBRL public library.

Reading Link to quality literature at DBRL:

http://kids.dbrl.org/booklists/ 

Math: Our focus in math right bow is dividing by 2 digit divisors.  Students are working hard on dividing with larger numbers.  This unit will be assessed the Tuesday after Thanksgiving Break,  We will then focus on multiplying and dividing decimals until Winter Break. 

CATCHING UP! PARTY TIME!

Families, it is good to be back in the Ecoschoolhouse and getting in the swing of things.  Below I have outlined our focus for the week and I included some pics of our fantastic Halloween Party (thanks to all the adults who helped make this a success!). As a reminder, I will be out each Wednesday through 2014 and the week of Thanksgiving.  Mrs. Darah Oxford will be our guest teacher during all of my absences.  She is very reliable and knows our routine and learners well. 

Reading: We are focusing on Book Shares this week!  Students will spend reading time catching up on their Book Share work.  We expect each reader to have at least 3 of these creative book reports by the end of the trimester (this Friday!). 

Writing: Writers have completed a Nonfiction writing about a Native American region.  This week they are focusing on completing research for their Native American museum exhibit.  Students are also spending a few more moments making sure their I AM poem is completed in iMovie form.

Social Studies:  Students are using books and electronic resources to collect research on their Native American museum exhibit topic.  Mr. K and I will be revising dates for our Potlatch celebration and other important dates for this work.

Science: Scientists have all shared their inspirations from our community observations.  You can view their wordles on the CPBL page link to the right. This week we are sharing our ideas for our year long science experiment and community project.  We also will complete a science article about pumpkins.

Math: We will finalize our division with 1 digit divisors this week.  There will be a test on Friday.  Then we will continue looking at division with 2 digit divisors.

Please don't hesitate to call or email if you have any questions.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN:

This Week

Families, below is an overview of what learners are focusing on this week in each subject. 

Reading: Readers are continuing to read their Native American themed book club book. This week their literature journal focuses on setting.

Writing: Each student will complete their Native American region website and their I AM poem iMovie.

Math: Mathematicians are working on reviewing and applying division facts. I will grade the multiplication tests ASAP.

Science: Scientists will be reading articles about various science topics and writing about what they read. This type of research we will have to get used to when we decide our research topic for the year. We will also have a guest speaker on Flamingo Conservation and ecology of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Social Studies: Students are choosing and researching a Native American topic they will become experts on.

And here is what the teacher is focusing on this week: