Here is a link for the Christmas Party showing what everyone signed up for :)


https://docs.google.com/a/oasisacademyfallon.us/document/d/1jENfx1aifw9r9tD17ovSvPgl4J23IwKkDodYQlm3ebU/edit

Quarter 2, Week 9

   The second quarter is coming to an end fast! We have a lot scheduled this next week, I know it is going to FLY BY!!:) A quick review of last week:

In Reading, we learned new Cafe Strategies.  This week we are going to just review our Cafe Strategies. In 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we started our Christmas gifts and we will finish them this week. I can't wait for you all to see them, all students have worked VERY hard on these. :)

In Projects, we had two dress rehearsals for our Wax Museum. This week, as you should have all gotten an email, the students will present their important person of the Revolutionary War.  We will present them on Monday from 2-3 in the school cafeteria.  All 5th grade students will be presenting.  All my teacher friends, please feel free to bring your classes in, so you can see your child's presentation:)  Hope to see you all there! If there is someone who can not make it, please let me know, and I will try and video your child's speech.

Here is a quick schedule of important events for this upcoming week.

Monday- Wax Museum -2pm-3pm

Tuesday-Penguins of Madagascar-leaving @ 10:10, will return as soon as movie is over

Wednesday- Revolutionary War Vocab Quiz-1pm (Students will have time to study in class, but if you are able to, please encourage them to start studying this weekend.)

Thursday- White Elephant Candy Bar Game-We will do this sometime during Reading or Writing, Please send any candy bar, wrapped, in with your child. ALSO ON THURSDAY- We are going to have a small nacho party. We are going to have centers of cookie decorating, playing board games, and nachos. :) Your child should have already told you which item they were assigned to bring. Please let me know if you are unable to send something in. 

NO AUCTION TILL THE WEEK AFTER CHRISTMAS BREAK. JANUARY 5-8.  Feel free to keep sending items in, but I figured with everything that is going on, it would be nice to have one less thing to worry about.  It will also be a nice thing to look forward to when coming back:)

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

The Count Down is on for Christmas Break! :)

  The end of the second quarter is coming to an end quickly and we have A LOT going on in the next two weeks. I am going to apologize now because this post may be quite long compared to the rest. I encourage you to read all of it, to ensure you are aware of all that will be happening in the next two weeks.

  First, a quick summary of last week...

   In Reading, we have continued with Daily 5. We will have a Sitton Spelling/Word Work test on Monday. The words that the students miss will begin the start of their very own, "Individualized Spelling Test." Don't  panic if your child doesn't have a word list to study, they will start creating this on Monday. 

  

 In 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we have worked on Writing skills such as introductions and conclusions.  This next week, both grades will begin creating their own Christmas gifts.  

   

   In Projects, we have chosen our important person of the Colonial and Revolutionary times.  Most of the students are almost finished with their research and have started on their speeches.  Some of them have chosen to continue their research at home.  They will have Monday and Tuesday to finish and practice their speeches.  These speeches will need to be memorized and at least 1 to 2 minutes long.  I have encouraged them to start memorizing their speeches now if possible.  The clothes that they will need to be wearing for the wax museum will need to be to the school No Later than Wednesday, Dec 10th.  We will have a dress rehearsal on Thursday.  We will present these on Monday, December 15th.  All parents will be invited, we are not sure yet of location and time.  I will let you know as soon as I know. I do know it will be after lunch. Please let me know if you have any questions about the clothing. You should not have to spend a fortune on these costumes. A lot of the clothes you should be able to get from home.  What you don't have, you can probably find at one our local thrift stores, such as Thrifty Finds. 

   We will be having another Auction the week of the 15th-18th because it is the end of quarter 2.  The students have worked hard to earn their money.  If any of you would like to donate again to our auction that would be great! These items do not have to be big, just any small item that you know your child would enjoy from the Dollar Store. Food is great too! :) If you have items to send in, you can send them in anytime.

  Most of you are all aware of the  Field Trip to the Theater on December 16th, those of you that have not done so, you can send your child's permission slip and money in at anytime. 

 We will be creating Writing Christmas gifts for 5th Grade this week and next.  These are really neat books that the students will create using fabric for the cover.  If any of you have any fabric, batting, or ribbon laying around that you are not using and would like to donate to our classroom that would be great! This fabric does not have to be Christmas.  

Also, if you have any Christmas Decorations that you are not using and would let our class borrow, that would be great too! 

Two more things...

  The students would like to do either a Elephant Gift Exchange or a Secret Santa.  We have not voted yet. Both of these would either require a candy bar or a small gift costing $5 or less.  Please let me know if this is something that you would not like to do.  I know money is tight this time of year:) 

  I would like to have a small Christmas party for the students on Thursday, even though they are going to the movies on Tuesday.  This will be small, not like Halloween.  

This is what I was thinking... We will have a few centers. One center would be a cookie decorating station, I already have one parent that is willing to make the cookies and run the center.  If there is anyone that would not mind donating some icing or toppings, please let me know!  Another station would be a board game station. If you have one that you would be willing to let us borrow, please send it in:) The other centers would be things like creating snowflakes, crosswords, or coloring.  I was thinking one small snack, like fruit, veggies or popcorn? which I can provide. (any ideas would be great)

Thank you for reading this LONG POST! As you can see, there is just sooo much going on! I hope I remembered it all :)

Please contact me if you have any questions :)

I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Quarter 2, Week 6

     Last week was short and sweet. In Reading, we finished learning how to do all of our word work.  We completed another Wonder Story for our "Read To" session. We will continue to do the same this next week. In both 4th and 5th grade Writing, we continued to work on Expository Writing. In Projects, we continued to learn about the Colonial and Revolutionary times.  This week, the students will complete a timeline and will pick their important person so they can start preparing their wax museum.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Quarter 2, Week 5

   In Reading, we have continued to do Daily 5. The students have learned Word Work. The Word Work is from Sitton Spelling.  We will be having Spelling tests, but the tests will be about every two to three weeks and the spelling lists will be more individualized based on the words each student needs to work on based on high frequency words.

   In 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we learned about expository writing and learned how to write an accordion paragraph.  We have been working on gratitude  journals and you will be seeing those come home on Tuesday. We have also been working on our Spelling in Writing as well.

   In Projects, we started learning about Colonial and American Revolution times.  The students made bonnets, Yankee Doodle hats, and powdered wigs for their entry event.  We will start researching important people of this time this week. The students will have to choose their important person for their wax museum.  

   Here are a few pictures from our entry event :) 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quarter 2, Week 4

    In Reading, the students are working hard in Daily 5, Cafe! We are learning how to be independent learners :) We are working on Read To Someone, Read to Self, and Work on Writing. We were not able to introduce Word Work last week, so we will do that this week. 

    In both 4th and 5th grade Writing, the students chose one of the three narratives they have written. They revised the narrative to make it "even better," using the writing strategies we have been working on.  Fourth Grade finished and turned theirs in on Thursday.  Fifth Grade will have 20 minutes on Monday to finish and print theirs. This week, the students will learn and start Expository Writing.

   In Projects,  the students finished and presented their Native American Projects. Thank you to all who were able to come! The students did such a great job! This week, we will start a five week project on Colonial and Revolutionary times.

Here are a few students from Presentation Day:)

                                     

Hope everyone has a great week!:)

Quarter 2, Week 3

   In Reading, we started our Daily 5 program. We are working on Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Work on Writing. This next week we will bring in Word Work. I am enjoying getting to work with each student one on one.

   In both 4th and 5th grade Writing, we worked on quality sentences. We learned how to find and correct run on sentences. We also learned how to find and correct fragment sentences. This week, the students will pick one of the three narratives they have written and revise it.  They will  work to see if they can make their paper "even better," using all the strategies they have been working on.

  In Projects, the students started and finished building their Native American Projects. This week, they will work on their presentation on Monday and present on Wednesday. Students will reflect the project on Thursday.  
   In the next few weeks, I am going to incorporate Spelling into our Daily 5.  I am working with Mrs. Stockard to see exactly how we are going to do this.  We feel this is an area all students need to work on. I will let you know when we come up with a final plan. 

  Don't forget Tuesday is Veterans Day and there will be no school.

  

 Hope everyone is having a great weekend! :)

Quarter 2 / Week 2

   In Reading, we started our Daily 5 literacy blocks, Read to Self and Work on Writing. This week we will introduce Word Work and Read to Someone.  I will start meeting with the students in small reading groups and will also start reading with them individually each week. This will allow me to give them their own personal reading goal to work on. 

   In 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we were able to get a lot of "Author's Chair" in.  This allows the students to share their writing to each other.  We also worked on different writing conventions. We will do the same this week before we start another paper.

   In Projects, we started our Native American Project.  The students seem really excited about this. They were put in groups of three (triads) and were assigned a Native American Tribe in regions across the United States.  I sent an email last week to let you know your child will be coming home with a supply list.  I am hoping to get the supplies in the classroom by Monday because we will start building them on Tuesday. We are asking that no projects be done at home, we ask that all building is done by the students in the classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

   Parent Teacher Conferences went well and I thank all of you for keeping your appointments:) I enjoyed meeting with you all.

   The Halloween Party went well, I want to thank all of the parents who sent in food and supplies and also a big thank you to the parents that were able to come in and help with the party.

Hope you are all enjoying the rain.... have a great weekend! :)

Quarter 2/Week 1 & 2

  In Reading, we presented our Tuck Everlasting Projects, I was very impressed with what the students came up with in their bags.  We will finish our Tuck Everlasting test tomorrow.  We will then start our Daily 5 Cafe sessions. For those of you not familiar, this is a great program that is used throughout the whole school. It allows me to learn your child's reading levels better, they are able to work in small groups of the same reading level, and they also learn and work on independent learning while learning new reading and word work strategies.  

  In 5th Grade Writing, we finished our Julian Chapter, we will share them this week. In 4th Grade Writing, we worked on our third narrative, the Imagined Narrative.  We really focused on learning how to revise our work.  Those narratives will be printed out on Monday. 

  In Projects, we finished up our economics Project, "The Game of Life," and presented to the class how well the groups were able to manage their money.  We also moved around, and have new tribes. The students worked on new tribe posters, and presented those to the class. We will start our Native American project this week. This project will last for two weeks. 

Parent Teacher Conferences

I was able to meet with some of you on Friday, thanks to everyone for keeping your appointments:) I look forward to meeting with the rest of you this week. If there is anyone that needs to schedule a different time, please feel free to email me and we will figure a time that works for you.

Halloween

We will be celebrating Halloween on Thursday. Halloween is a "Big Deal," at Oasis, everyone is able to dress up in costumes.  Please keep the costumes school appropriate.  We are having our Halloween Party on Thursday from 1:00 -2:30.  You all should have gotten an email for a food sign up.  If you would like to help with this please let me know. 

Hope you all are having a great weekend:)

Parent Teacher Conferences/Tuck Everlasting Movie

   We have made it through the first quarter, it has flown by! In Reading, we finished Tuck Everlasting and will be doing a project and test this week. On Thursday, Mrs. Stockard and I are going to show the Movie, Tuck Everlasting. We are showing this movie for educational purposes only, this is not a party, there will be no snacks at this time.  Watching the movie will cover the following standard:

RL.5.7-Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, beauty of a text.

The students will have to complete an assignment while watching the movie and then write a paper comparing the movie to the book. This movie is a Disney movie, but is rated PG, so if you do not want your child to watch this movie, please let me know and I will make other arrangements for your them.  We will show this on Thursday afternoon, so the other option is to come pick your child up after lunch if you wish for them not to watch the movie. 

   You should have all gotten an email from signupgenius.com to sign up for your parent teacher conference. If you did not get an email please let me know and we can schedule an appointment. Most of you have signed up, but there are a few of you that have not. I look forward to meeting with you all.

Summary of Week 9

   In Reading, as you know, we finished Tuck Everlasting. In 5th Grade Writing, we practiced writing complete sentences and using quotations. We also started our third narrative, we read a book in read aloud time called Wonder.  The students are writing their own final chapter of this book called "The Julian Chapter." They seem to be having fun with this. We will finish this next Tuesday or Wednesday.  In 4th Grade Writing, we practiced using quotations and writing complete sentences as well. The 4th Graders will start their third narrative this week.

   In Projects, we finished are own "Game of Life," the students will present how well their budgeting went on Monday.  This week in Projects we will change Tribes and create new Tribe Posters.  We will start a new Project the following week. 

   The auctions went great! Thank you to all who donated items to our auction. We will have an auction at the end of each quarter. The students all had to apply for new jobs, they will start their new jobs on Monday. We will switch jobs every quarter. That pretty much sums up Week 9:)

Have a Great Weekend!

Week 8 / Week 9

   We are continuing to read Tuck Everlasting in Reading.  The students seem to be enjoying the book and we have had some great class discussions.  We will finish the book this week and will have a test the following week.  

   In both 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we started and finished their First Person Biography Narratives. This week we will work on conventions in their writing. 

   In Projects, we are off and running with playing our very own "Game of Life." The students have to pay their own bills every month(Each day is representing at least one month). They have to draw their own life cards and they have to enter all of this data on a budget spreadsheet that I have provided them with. We will continue to do this in Week 9.  The students will have a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday or Thursday, please encourage them to study this weekend. I will allow time in class a few minutes a day. We will wrap up this project in week 10, the students will then have to present to the class how well they did with their budgeting.  Some of the groups are learning how they can pay their cars or other loans off ahead of time, its been a fun project. 

Drama

   The students will be performing a play on Thursday from 2:30-3:15 in the cafeteria. I hope you can make it, they have been working hard on this.  I know this is in the middle of the day and a lot of you have to work. I will try and find someone to record this so maybe I can share on my blog somehow so everyone can watch. If anyone is willing to record this, please let me know :)

The students will start with new specials in Week 10.

Auction

   Thank you to all of you who have donated items for the auction, we have some really neat things! We will auction off items each day this week at the end of the day.  If any of you still have items, please bring them in anytime or send them with your child.

Parent Teacher Conferences

  Parent Teacher Conferences will begin on Friday, October 24th.  I will email more information on that next week so we can start scheduling your appointments. 

Thank you to all who have sent in Halloween Decorations! The students have done a fabulous job at decorating our room. 

Hope everyone has a Great Weekend!

Week 7

Tuck Everlasting, Narratives,The Game of Life

   We are still reading Tuck Everlasting, the students will have their final vocabulary quiz on Monday.  In both 4th and 5th grade Writing, we are have been working on "Strong Verbs!" In Week 8, we will start a new biographical narrative. In Projects, the students have all picked their houses in their tribes and their cars. In Week 8, each tribe will have to budget their money each day in a ledger.

   Halloween and Auction in Week 9

   Thank you to all who have sent in Halloween decorations, the students have had fun decorating.   Also, Halloween will be here before you know it, if anyone would like to help plan for our party please let me know! 

   Just a reminder for our auction in Week 9, if anyone is willing to send items in for the students to bid on, you can send them in anytime. I will let everyone know this week what day in week 9 that we will be having the auction for those of you who have homemade food items.

Have a Great Weekend! :)

Week 6 - End of 1st quarter is almost here!

Tuck Everlasting-Quizzes

   We finished Chapter 8 on Thursday, and will read through Chapter 11 in Week 7.  We will have a vocabulary quiz on Monday. Don't forget to have your child study, they should have been studying all week. We will learn ten new words after quiz on Monday and have one final vocab quiz on Tuck Everlasting next Monday, October 6th.

Personal Narrative

   We have been working hard this week on our personal narratives, we will wrap these up on Monday. Students will work on revising, editing, printing, and illustrating a picture for these narratives. Students will also have a chance to share their stories in class this week during authors chair. If your child chooses not to share, they do not have too. I can't wait to read all of their stories. :)

Game of Life

   We played the Game of Life this week. I will send the games home with your child this week. It took us a little longer to finish because we added up everyone's scores so that we knew who our winners were. We had three categories, a tribe(table) winner, highest winner at each table, and an overall class winner.  The students had fun with this. :) Here are some pictures from our game.

End of Quarter Auction

   We will be having an end of the quarter auction in week 9. This is a fun incentive for your child because this is where they finally get to spend their Mac Bucks that they have been earning. They earn Mac Bucks for many different things such as good behavior, working hard, academics, going above and beyond, etc.  I am asking parents to please bring in any items that they think the class would enjoy bidding on.  These items don't have to be big, they can be small items, such as toys, candy, school supplies, homemade items, food, drinks such as Gatorade, or anything you know your child enjoys.:)

I think that wraps up week 6, I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Game of Life, Tuck Everlasting, and Typing Club

   Last week we started reading the book Tuck Everlasting. We will read this book for the next few weeks in our reading block.  Students will have a vocabulary quiz from this book for the next few Mondays.  You should have seen them come home with a vocabulary organizer this week, I had them put it in with their reading logs, in their binders so they will always have it with them. Be looking for these organizers for the next few weeks and encourage them to study :) Our quizzes will be first thing Monday mornings.

   In projects we did a lot of fun activities where the students were able to work with their new groups and get to know each other better.  They all came up with new tribe names and made posters, they came up with some really creative names. 

   The Game of Life project will begin this week. Thank you to all the families who are letting us borrow their games and also a big Thank You to the Bake family for donating one for our classroom! We will start playing the Game of Life on Monday and Tuesday and then we will learn all of the Economic Vocabulary on Wednesday and Thursday. This vocabulary quiz will not be until the end of the four week project. I promise I will be better in letting you know ahead of time when we will be having quizzes and tests. 

   We also started Typing Club, students will get to work on their typing skills a couple times a week for a short amount of time in their writing block. Typing Club is a free website where your child could practice this at home as well.  They have to get three stars to move on to the next level. If you have any questions about setting this up at home please let me know. 

   Also in Writing, we have started brainstorming and using a quick sketch method to plan out our personal narratives. We will begin our rough drafts this week on their chrome books. We have been learning to pick the "seed out of the watermelon." This means that we are writing a personal narrative on one small part of a big story.  You should ask your child what "seed" they are writing about:)  

   I cannot believe we are already going to start our 6th week! Time is Flying! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Hello all!

Here is a little overview of what we were doing in week 4 .

Week Four Overview

 In Reading, we continued to practice building Read to Self stamina, we made it to 20 minutes. I was able to assess each student individually and will be placing them in reading groups in the next week. 

 In 4th and 5th grade Writing, we were still working on parts of speech, we are going to start writing narratives this week.

 In Projects, we finished our United States Regional Map Project, I was very impressed by all of the presentations. We will be working on Tribes Projects this coming up week and starting our Economic Project the following week.  If you have any "The Game of Life" games, please drop them off anytime this week.

Picture Week

  School Picture Day is this week, September 15-17th. Our Picture day is on Wednesday, the 17th at 2 pm.  Students must wear school uniforms.  I sent an order form home with your child on Friday, there was also an email sent out to you where you can print out the order form yourself if you wish. Please send a separate payment for each student, meaning if you have two students, please send two checks. If your child is going to be absent on the 17th, please contact the office right away, so they can fit your child in on another day(Mon or Tues).

   

Class Representative

Last Thursday, we had an assembly, where we listened to the middle school give speeches as they were running for student council.  Both 5th Grade classes have the opportunity to elect one student from each class to represent their class. These students will attend the student council meetings.  We will be having a little class election of our own this week to elect one student as our class representative. This is a great opportunity because next year, your child will get to run for a student body officer if they wish to do so.

Wrapping up United States Regional Maps/Planning our very first walking field trip!

Projects

   Our regional map project is wrapping up this week, everyone has been working very hard on these, ask your child to tell you what they have learned about their region. 

   We have been working a lot on team work and what it takes to contribute and be a good team member.         Students will present their projects on Wednesday to all 5th graders.  We will hang our maps and charts in the hallway on Thursday to show off all of their hard work.  

   

Reading and Writing

   In Reading, we are still working on building stamina and I have started assessing each student individually so we can set their reading goals.  In both 4th and 5th grade Writing, we have still been working on the parts of speech, we will start actually writing very soon. 

GO Time

   GO time is something we do every afternoon.  GO time is a time where we get ready to go home, students gather all of their belongings, complete their jobs for the day, and when they are done, they are asked to read quietly.  I am going to start letting them have snacks during this time, so if you would like to send an extra snack for your child you can. 

Monday Folders

   Monday folders will come home this Monday, please initial the grid on the Monday folder to let me know that you have received your child's graded papers.  

Parent Journals

   Parent journals will continue as normal this week, so please expect those on Thursday.

Field Trip

   On, Thursday, all 4th and 5th graders will be going on a walking field trip to City Hall for the 911 Ceremony.  I will need a couple parents to come along with us.  I have not yet been to this ceremony, but I know Mayor Ken Tedford will be there and in the past, the Governor has been there as well. Please email me if you are available to come and we can go over the details. We plan on leaving the school around 9:15 and returning between 11:00 and 11:30.  Please remember to make sure your child has comfortable walking shoes.  

New Project

   We are going to be starting a new Economics project soon, to start this project off, we wanted to have the students play the game of life as the entry event.  If anyone has this board game and would be willing to let us borrow please let me know. All 4th and 5th graders will be doing this project and all of us teachers are very excited about this new project. Students will learn how to manage and budget money.

   I think that is all I have for this week, looking forward to another great week!

   

We are off and rolling as we near our third week of school. I did send a parent journal home this weekend, but I normally won't send them home on a holiday weekend. So, to make up for that, I will not send a parent journal home this Thursday, but expect to see them the Thursday after that. We are going to try and be consistent with these.

We have not sent any Monday folders home yet because we have no graded work to send home, but expect to see those next Monday as this Monday is a holiday.  When this comes home, just initial inside on the grid to indicate you have the papers and send back to school the next day.

We accomplished quite a bit last week, in Reading, we are working on building stamina in Reading and Writing. For those of you not familiar, building stamina is part of the Daily 5 program. In Writing, the students finished their Bio Poems and they are hanging up on the bulletin board outside my classroom. We have started to go over Parts of Speech, we have reviewed Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives so far.  In Projects, they are working in groups creating their own regional map. They are looking great!

Everyone is doing great with their Reading Logs, next week we are going to work on summarizing.

I am so impressed with this class, they are a great group!

Hello to all!

 This week has been great, and I have enjoyed getting to know all of my students.  I want to remind all parents that your child needs to read 20 minutes per weekend and fill out Thursday on their Reading Log, so this means they have Thursday night through Sunday night to read 20 minutes. Next, your child should have brought home a parent journal for you to read and then write a short note back to them. These journals will come home every Thursday night and are due every Monday morning. One last thing, please make sure your child has a water bottle at school every day so that class time is not disrupted by leaving the room to go get a drink. In closing, I am looking forward to teaching your children this year.

Intro and Supply List

Hi Fifth Grade Families,

My name is Jenna McElhannon. I am a Fallon native, but new to Oasis. I am excited to get to know everyone, here's some things you'll need to start the year off right. You can bring these into Back to School Night or on the first day. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. jmcelhannon@oasisacademyfallon.us

Oasis Academy

5th Grade Supply List

2014-2015

Shared supplies:  The following items will be collected from your student and distributed as needed during the school year.

• 3 Tennis balls for chair and table legs, to protect the floors
• 1 4-pack of toilet paper
• 1 large box of tissues
• Disinfecting cleaning wipes
• 30 pencils - no mechanical pencils please
• 2 large pink erasers
• 4 large glue sticks
• 2 black fine point Sharpie markers
• 1 pair of scissors
• 1 box of 24 crayons

Hopefully this won’t be too confusing - bring only the supply that goes with your last name.

• Last name A-D - two rolls paper towels
• Last name E-M - one box of 8 color markers
• Last name N-Z - one box sandwich size zip- top baggies

Individual supplies:  These items will be kept by your students.

• 1 gently used sock or eraser to erase individual white boards
• Non-disposable water bottle, labeled with name, to stay in classroom
• 2 blue or black pens
• 4 highlighters
• 1 box of 8-12 colored pencils, basic colors
• 2 composition books, with hard covers (no spirals)
• 3 sturdy 2-pocket folders, no prongs in the center
• 1 zippered pencil pouch for binder
• 1 Plastic pencil box to hold classroom supplies (pens, highlighters, colored pencils, eraser)

I have a classroom set of rulers, so no need to send those in.