Where did Quarter 2 go??

This is our last week of the 2nd quarter and the last week before Christmas break.

JUST A REMINDER: There will be NO SCHOOL from December 21st-Dec 31st due to Christmas break. All students and teachers will return on January 4th, 2016.

Here is what 5th grade will be doing this week.

Reading: We will continue our short narrative and expository book club in our Daily 3.

4th and 5th grade Writing: We will continue to work on our Smarter Balance practice and review.

Matter Presentations: Students will present their science projects on Monday and Tuesday. We will start a new project after we come back on the 4th.

Don't Forget: We will be walking to the movie theatres on Thursday. We will leave about 12:15. Students will eat their lunch before we leave. All students need $6 for a small popcorn and a drink. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY MORE MONEY WITH YOUR CHILD, THEY ARE ONLY TO GET A SMALL POPCORN AND A SMALL DRINK. We will return right after the movie is over. At this time we do not need any chaperones. Also, IF YOU DECIDE TO OPT YOUR CHILD OUT OF THIS MOVIE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW SO WE CAN MAKE OTHER ARRANGEMENTS FOR THEM.

I hope everyone has a FaBuLoUs Christmas!

Reading: We will continue to read small expository and narrative books in our groups, while also continuing on with our Daily 3 Reading Program. We will continue this until Christmas break.

4th and 5th Grade Writing: We will start reading and analyzing two different reading passages. This will be the start of our practicing for the Smarter Balance Testing which will be given in the spring. We will work on this a lot more after Christmas break.

Projects: We started our new "Matter Science Project." All students should have come home with a supply list. We need these supplies as soon as possible so that students can practice their experiments and be ready to present to the class on Thursday.

Auctions: As a class, the students voted on a new way to do auctions. They decided they wanted to make their own products and sell to each other using the class "Mac Bucks." Please let me know if you have any questions on this.
JUST A REMINDER: NO FOOD CAN BE SOLD AT AUCTIONS.

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend! :)

Week 16

I Hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving HoLiDay!

Here is just a quick overview of what we will be doing in 5th grade :)

Reading: We will go back to our Daily 3 groups. Students will read nonfiction article books with their reading groups.

5th Writing: Students will continue writing their illustration narrative. This will be due on Thursday.

4th Writing: We will review and learn some language standards.

Projects: We will start a new Science Project. This will be a two week project on Matter. 

Week 14/15

This week flew by and the students all worked soo hard. ;)

This week the students finished up their Patty Reeds Doll project and they will present on Monday and Tuesday. We also pretty much wrapped up our Human Systems and Environment book projects and will also present these on Monday and Tuesday to the 4th graders. 

That pretty much sums up this week and next week. I hope everyone has a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving.

Just a Reminder: There will be NO school on Wednesday and Thursday November 25th and 26th due to Thanksgiving. 

Week 13/14

Reading: We will start putting together our menu items from Patty Reeds Doll. We will present these on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

4th and 5th Grade Writing: Last week we wrote our first opinion papers on What is the best pet, a cat or a dog?

This week we will write a narrative using illustrations from a picture book. These will be due on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Projects: Everyone has been working hard on theirparagraphs for the books we are building. Students should be done with their rough drafts this week. We will work on their final drafts and putting the books together the end of this week. The books will also be presented on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Scholastic orders: are due by Thursday November 19th if you choose to order anything. 

Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend! 

Week 12/ Week 13

QUICK REMINDER: NO SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, AS IT IS VETERANS DAY.

Reading: Last week we continued to read Patty Reed's Doll. This week we will finish the book on Thursday. Students are going to be given a menu of different projects to do individually on this book, they will pick only one. I will go over these with the class on Monday. Students will have a week to decide which one they want to do. These projects will be done in class, but may require them to bring some supplies from home depending on what project they choose to do.

5th Grade Writing: We reviewed and wrote an evidence based term paragraph. On Wednesday and Thursday students worked on a word builder worksheet. They did this individually and in partners. This week I will introduce a common core opinion prompt and we will start writing opinion papers that are due on Thursday.

4th Grade Writing: We learned how to write an evidence based term paragraph. Students then worked in partners on their own evidence based term paragraph. This coming up week, we will work on language standards. These standards include ordering adjectives and correctly using frequently confused words.

Projects: Students were introduced to their new project on Human Systems and Environment. Monday all 4th and 5th grade classes had a walking field trip to the old A&K building. Students were asked to observe and try and figure out why the old Walmart building was chosen for our school instead of the old A&K building. This was our entry event to the project.  On Tuesday, we went over the rubric as a class and students were reminded how VERY IMPORTANT a rubric is and why they should be using them everyday while working on their project. If you have a chance, ask your child if they remember anything about the rubric they were introduced to on Tuesday. Students were also assigned their groups and started researching. This week they will continue to research and start writing their chapters to the book we are creating. Here is a couple pictures from Monday in the rain :)

Maverick: Our first trip to Maverick was a success. This will not be our only trip to Maverick, the class will hold different challenges throughout the year to earn more trips :)

Here is a quick picture of Maverick..

I hope everyone as a GREAT weekend! :)

Week 12 already??

Hello 5th Grade Families! I have added some new things so please make sure and read this whole blog post ;)

Reading: We started reading Patty Reed's Doll in our book clubs. Students are reading this as a group and taking notes on the characters, setting, and any vocabulary words they do not know. They will continue to the same thing this week. At the end of this book, students will be creating a project of their choice, such as a type of book report. I will give students some options and they will get to choose which project they want to do on this book. I have not yet given out the options.

5th Grade Writing: We finished our "Spooky Stories" narratives and shared them with our 2nd Grade friends in Mrs. Bloomfield's class. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. :) This week, we will change things up and review and write an evidence based term paragraph. At the end of the week, we will work on word building. 

4th Grade Writing: We finished our "Spooky" picture books for the first graders. These kids worked very hard at getting these done. Way to go 4th grade!!  This week in writing, we will learn how to write an evidence based term paragraph. 

Projects:  We took a test on Economics, all students did great! We finished up learning about Economics and this week we will start a new project on Human Systems and the Environment. You should have all received an email about our class going on a quick walking field trip on Monday to start our project off. Please send any rain gear, as we will go rain or shine :)

Halloween Party: A huge shout out to Mrs. Henning and Mrs. McAllister for throwing an outstanding party! The kids had a blast! Also, a huge thank you to Mrs. Starr for coming in and helping:) YOU ALL ROCK! :)

Conferences:  It was nice meeting with all of you! Please feel free at anytime to email if you have any additional questions or concerns. 

A COUPLE REMINDERS:

-Our Maverick trip will be sometime this week. Don't forget to send your child with money, I am asking $5 maximum.

- Walking field trip on Monday. This will be a quick field trip. You should have all received an email regarding this.

SOME NEW THINGS.... I have not mentioned these to the students yet, I will do so Monday morning.

A few of you have asked me about ways to challenge your child outside of the classroom. I have posted a couple things on my blog. Please know THIS IS OPTIONAL... Your child does not have to participate if they do not want to.

*Great Reads- I have added this on the right side of my blog, "Great Reads," this is a list of books that your child can read ONLY IF THEY CHOOSE. I am going to hold a Reading Contest ..again.. THIS IS TOTALLY OPTIONAL. I am going to challenge any students who wish to participate, to read as many books as they can in the month of November. This is a trial run, I want to see how it goes, if it goes well, I will continue to hold different contests for the rest of the year. To participate in this contest, students need to read as many chapter books as they can in the month of November. Students will need to create a list of each book they read including the title and the author. Parents will need to sign or initial next to each book title so that I know they read each book. The winner or winners of this contest will receive a gift certificate for Pizza Barn. Details to come, I believe it is one small pizza. 

*Mastery Club-I have added a link also on the right side of my blog for any student who is interested in doing the Mastery Club. If you go to the blog, look for Mastery Club on the right side, copy and paste the link in your browser and everything is explained on that page. I am still setting this up as well, but I am thinking, students will earn prizes, "Mac Bucks," and possibly pizza coupons. I am even thinking about creating a 'Hall of Fame Wall."  I will figure this out this week and let everyone know when I get all the details figure out. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about these contests...again.. THESE ARE OPTIONAL. 

Have a Fantastic rest of your weekend! :)

Reading - We watched Stuart Little. We created a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the book to the movie. This covered one of our Language Arts standards. We will start reading Patty Reeds Doll this week.

5th Grade Writing- We started creating scary stories to share with Mrs. Bloomfield's class. We will finish those this week and share with our 2nd grade friends on Wednesday.

 4th Grade Writing- We finished our first opinion papers. This week we will write Halloween stories that we will donate to our 1st graders.

Projects- We started learning about Economic standards and had a guest speaker come and talk about profit and non- profit businesses. I heard it was awesome, I am sorry I missed it! This week we will take a test on what we learned last week and then we will continue to learn about more Economics. We will wrap up the Economics standards this week and move on to Science next week.

Halloween - Students will be allowed to dress up on Thursday. We will have a party on Thursday afternoon. No masks during class or super scary, bloody masks.

Parent/Teacher Conferences- Just a reminder, conferences are this week. Signup genius should have sent you or will send you a reminder. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you all!

First Quarter is OvEr.. Moving on to the 2nd!

Reading-We will finally finish Stuart Little on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, we will watch the movie. Students will be asked to take notes on comparing and contrasting the book to the movie. This covers one of our standards. They will then be asked to develop a venn diagram on Wednesday and Thursday.

5th Grade Writing:We have been reviewing and learning new language standards such as conjunctions and prepositions. Next week, we finish this on Monday. Starting on Tuesday, we will begin writing Scary Story narratives. We will begin writing these this week and will share these with our 2nd grade friends in Mrs. Bloomfield's class the following week.

4th Grade Writing: We started writing our first opinion paper. We will continue to work on this next week and finish this on Wednesday and share to the class on Thursday.

Projects: As you all know, we finished up our map presentations. All students worked very hard on this, I was very pleased with them all. Thank you all who were able to come in and see our projects. This week, we will start a very short project where we will learn about Economics. Students will learn how to take lecture notes and have a quiz or test at the end of each week on the information we learn. This will be a short two week project.

Auctions-We were not able to get to these this week with all the craziness of projects, so we will hold auctions all this coming up week.

Reminder to students....Thursday is wear your hair like a monster day. :)

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Most of you have signed up, just a reminder for those few to not forget to sign up for conferences starting on 10/26-10/29. You should have all gotten an email from signupgenius.com. Please let me know if you need help with this.

I hope everyone has a FaBuLoUs weekend! :) 

Reading: We worked more on Stuart Little and will finish up the book this week. The following week, we will watch the Movie. This will cover a standard where the students have to compare and contrast a book to a movie. 

Writing: 5th Graders finished up their first narrative and will work on Language Standards next week. 4th grade will finish up language standards they have been working on and will start writing an opinion paper next week.

Projects: Students finished up writing all of their paragraphs and have been working on their maps. We will finish up the maps on Monday and part of Tuesday. Students will also practice their presentations on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, we look forward to seeing all parents for their presentations from 2:15-3:00. Students will also present their maps to the different grades on Thursday.

Auctions: We will conduct auctions this week because it is the last week of the first quarter! I can't believe how fast the first quarter has flown by. If you have any auction items that you would like to donate feel free to send them in, we still have a lot of items left from the last one. 

Scholastic Orders: The last day for the October orders will be this Thursday, October 15. 

Parent/Teacher Conferences: You should have all gotten an email for signups. Please let me know if you did not receive this. Looking forward to meeting with you all!

I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Working Hard and Doing Great!

I have seen a lot of improvement in the class as a whole this last week!  All students are working hard at all assignments assigned...keep up the AWESOME work 5th grade!

Reading: We continued to read Stuart Little and answer questions, we will continue to do that this week and will finish the book on Thursday.

Writing: We will continue to work on our first personal narrative in 5th grade. In 4th grade, we will continue to work on Language standards and start to write our very first paragraph towards the end of the week. 

Projects: Students started researching their Nevada map they will be making. They also traced their maps. Last week they started their paragraph research and will work  on finishing those up this week. Once they are done with that, they will start to work on their maps. They should have all come home with very short supply lists last week. 

PICTURE DAY -THIS THURSDAY OCTOBER 8TH-PLEASE DONT FORGET!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

6th and 7th Week

Reading: Last week, we played a little catch up on all of our assignments. We also took all day Wednesday and Thursday to finish up our projects. This next week, we will finally start Stuart Little. 

Writing: We will start our first narrative this coming up week. Each day, I will model to them the steps, we will go over the steps as a class, and then the students will complete each step on their own.

Projects: We finished our very first project. I am sure your child expressed their stressful week in projects. They all worked very hard and we all learned so much! To recap on what we learned :
Research needs to be accurate and we also need to understand the research we choose so that we are able to explain it when presenting and also when we are asked questions about our presentations. All research needs to be organized, just like all writing papers. Spelling and grammar count, and fragments are easy to write, but hard to write if we can't remember our original intent. Transitions are a necessary tool to help with our fluency and our comprehension. Also, we learned that we need to use our time wisely to make sure we complete all requirements by the deadline. This requires teamwork, making sure ALL members of each group are actively working towards the end goal. We will continue to work on these instruction points throughout the year. We are already better writers and are becoming more independent in the very important steps of revising and editing. 

 We will start our new projects on Nevada maps this coming up week. 

Scholastic Book Orders: Your child will be coming home on Monday with a Scholastic Book order in their Monday folder. These orders are an easy, inexpensive way to get your child new books. If you decide to order, please send check or cash with the order slip to school with your child. I am asking that all orders be in by October 22, so that we can get all orders in on time. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend :)

Working Hard!

Reading: We have all finished our first book club books! I am really pleased with how hard the students worked to get these finished. This week, we will take a word work vocabulary quiz and finish writing our summaries from our book clubs. We will start a new book club on Wednesday. Students will be assigned new book club groups. I have done some reflecting with my book clubs and I learned a lot with this first book club. I have been working hard at making sure the next book club is more organized and I am sure the students will enjoy the next book. They are all reading Stuart Little. They will read this everyday in Daily 5 with their groups or by themselves, answer the questions and review them with their groups. 

Writing: We have continued to learn and review language standards to better help our writing skills. Next week, 5th grade will start their very first narrative. This will be a slow process, as I want to model every step to them before they do the steps to ensure they understand and know what is expected of them.

Projects: All students have been working hard at this very first project. We are going to be done with this project this week. This has been a tough project as students are learning how to take notes on a T Chart ( informal outline) and they are learning how to do their very own research. They have been transferring their work into paragraphs and have been revising and editing with their groups.

Also, thank you to everyone that donated for the auctions, they were a success! We will have these twice every quarter, so about every 4-5 weeks. If you did not get a chance to donate this week, feel free to send in items anytime as our next auction will be in a few weeks.:)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Here are some pictures from PE this week courtesy of Mrs. McAllister :)

Week 4 and 5

Reading-In Reading, we are working hard at sorting out our reading groups and will finish all of our books by Wednesday. All students have to write a short summary using Evidence Based Terms about the book they are reading. 

5th Grade Writing-I am very impressed with ALL students in Writing! They worked very hard to practice and write their first Evidence Based Term paragraphs. Next week, we will learn about similes and metaphors.This is something they will do all year for Writing and especially in Projects to help them prepare for middle school.

4th Grade Writing-We learned and practiced relative pronouns and adverbs. I am very impressed with this class as well, they are working very hard at this standard! We will take an assessment on this standard next week after all students have mastered it in IXL. We will then will learn about progressive verb tenses. 

Projects-We have been learning how to take notes on an informal outline. They have all been working hard and learning this as well. After taking notes, they are to write a paragraph using their notes and Evidence Based Terms, most students were finishing this up on Thursday. Next week, when all paragraphs are done in each group, students will start building their models or putting together their presentations. There is only one group building a model, the Native American group, they should have brought their brainstorming ideas home to go over with you this weekend. We hope to get their supply list ready by Monday.

Auctions-Auctions will be held this whole week! Please send in at least one item with your child. This can be something small, something from the Dollar Store, something your child wants to make, or something even lying around the house that no one is using. The students are very excited about these auctions. They have been all working hard at earning as many Mac Bucks as they can. :)

Week Three and Four

   Week three flew by! In Reading, we continued with our book clubs, I hope to wrap most of those up this coming week. In both Writing classes, we wrapped up learning about the Writing Traits. In 4th Grade Writing, we started learning about Relative Pronouns and Adverbs. We will continue with this next week. In 5th Grade Writing we started learning about how to write using Evidence Based Terms. We will continue with this in the fourth week. In Projects, we learned to take informal notes. This next week, we will start writing our paragraphs, creating our timelines, and creating our presentations and models.

AUCTIONS:
As, most of you have probably heard, your child has been rewarded with MAC BUCKS for various thing in class. This is my incentive program in the classroom. During the year, I like to have Auctions about twice a quarter, so students can spend their hard earned money. The middle of the quarter is almost here! I am asking if any you are willing to donate any items for this, that would be greatly appreciated! These do not have to be big items, dollar store items, or something that is even lying around the house that no one uses anymore, please just remember no food. :)

I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!

Week 2/Week 3

   Another week down! In Reading, students were assigned Reading groups and started reading in their groups and with me. They each had to write a summary for the chapters assigned. After students finish the books they are reading, I will set up Edmodo and they will complete all reading assignments on there. In Writing, students started to learn about the 6 traits, and will continue to do so this coming week. In Projects, students were introduced to their first project and were assigned to their groups. Students will continue research this project this week and some of them may be coming home with supply lists. 

Hope Everyone has a Great Weekend! 

We are off and rolling....

   We have one week under our belt now. The first week was filled with mainly getting our routines and procedures down. Next week, we will continue to work on our routines and procedures, but we will start our more normal schedule. In Reading, the students will be assigned a Reading Group. Students will meet with their Reading groups and with me throughout the week. This will all take place in our Daily 5, Cafe routine with Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Word Work. In Writing, We will start introducing the different traits of Writing.  In Projects, we will start a new project called, " Who would move to Nevada?' In this project, students will learn about how Nevada became a state as well as learning about the early settlers. 

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend :)

Back to School Night

   Hope to see everyone tomorrow night, open house is from 5 to 6. We will all meet in the lunch room at 6 for a general meeting, then in my room at 6:30-7:00. We will be going over the 5th grade expectations for the school year, as well as handling out the traditional white binder with the student handbook inside. The white binder will be your child's binder for the school year, please send it to school with them on Monday. If you haven't begun to follow this blog yet, please take a minute to do so. It will save you time and hassle later! I am located in Mrs. Bloomfield's old room, #5, look for the red door with the saddle on it.

Fifth grade is gonna rock that Bighorn Blue!

LAST WEEK!!

   We have a busy last week of school. Monday is Ag in the Classroom for the first half of the day. Tuesday we will be cleaning and packing up our room and finishing our Read Aloud. Wednesday is 8th grade graduation and semester awards. Thursday is field day. Report cards will be sent home on Wednesday. That sums up our last week. I hope everyone has a great week :)

Quarter 4, Week 7

In Reading and Writing, we did some fun writing projects and Daily 5, some students were still working on certain standards that they are trying to master in IXL. Next week, we will start and finish one writing paper of the students choice. I will also assess all students in Reading. In Projects, we started building our different spheres. We will finish building them on Monday. On Tuesday, we will present them from 1:30-2:15. We hope you will all be able to make it. We will then start a small, short project where we will learn about space and all of the planets. We will hold auctions the last two weeks of school starting on Monday. Please send in any small items you might have lying around the house. Also, thank you to all for the very nice cards and gifts, I was very spoiled this week :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend. 

Quarter 4, Week 6

We are done with testing, yay!!! Thanks again for all of the snacks. The rest of the week we learned and reviewed reading and writing standards. This week we will have a fun writing project. In projects we learned about our forces of nature project. This week we will start building, please remember to have all supplies in by Monday. Also, just a reminder, we are walking to Maverick on Thursday. Please send your child with some money so they can buy a small treat. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

quarter 4, week 5

Last week was crazy with testing, the kids all worked so hard. I'm very proud of them! We will continue to test this week and HOPE that we will be done with all tests on Monday;) With all of the testing, we were unable to get our supply lists finished, we will finish them this week and start building the following week. Gosh, we only have four weeks left! Thank you to all parents with all of the awesome treats! If the following students can bring snacks on Monday, that would be great;)

Lainee Reid, Cassie Edgmon, Casey Anderson, and Connor Oceguera

Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend! ;)

Quarter 4, Week 4 &5

   This week, we continued to review for SBAC testing (Smarter Balance Testing). In 5th grade, we took a CRT Science test on Wednesday. This coming up week the 5th graders will complete the SBAC Math Test on Monday and the Reading Test on Wednesday. On Tuesday and Thursday we will continue to work and review on Reading, Writing, and Language Standards. In Projects, we did not get as far as I thought, students should come home with a supply list for their new Forces of Nature/Natural Disaster project on Monday. We did get a chance to introduce the project on Thursday, ask your students about what their new project is going to be, I think they are all pretty excited. 

   Thank you to the parents who supplied the snacks on Wednesday for the Science test, and thank you in advance to the parents who will supply the snacks on the next two Mondays and Wednesdays.  Please just send in small, simple, snacks, and please limit the sugar :)  Also, we are allowing gum and mints while testing as long as there are no issues with the gum. 

Just to remind you the schedule for snacks is as follows:

Monday April 20 - 

Jaylee McEwen

Kaitlyn Hert

Gabriela Hockenberry-Grimes

Tayler Felton

Wednesday April 22-

Emma Horton

Seth Dunkin

Karina Taylor

Micky McAlexander

Monday April 27-Lainee Reid

Cassie Edgmon

Connor Oceguera

Casey Anderson

Wednesday 29- 
Ellie Springfield

Rachel Bake

Maddi Davis

Courtney LeBlanc

Thank you again to all, and thanks again to all of our volunteers out there:)

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! 

Week 4/ Quarter 4

   I hope everyone had a great spring break and Easter! I will keep this pretty short and sweet. We will continue to practice for Smarter Balance testing and review Language standards. In Projects we will start our Forces of Nature project. You should be expecting a supply list by the end of the week as we will start building the following week. Also, I am still looking for a parent that could take over PE on Thursdays from 3:15-4:00. If you are able to come in at this time, it is a great way to get volunteer hours and it would only be about 5 or 6 times. Please email me if you are able to help with this. 

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! 

Quarter 4/Week 2

  In Reading, we did Daily 5 Cafe and practiced for Smarter Balanced testing. In Writing, we also practiced for Smarter Balance testing. In Projects, we introduced our new project, "Forces of Nature." This week we are practicing for Smarter Balance tests. We will be working on building stamina for these tests. On Monday, as you all know, we will be going to the park in the afternoon and on Wednesday we will be playing board games and having a nacho bar in the afternoon. Thank you to all who are bringing in items for our fun afternoons. Looking forward to meeting with you all this week for conferences. Please remember, there is no school next week, April 6 - April 9, this is our spring break. Also, please remember to send in earphones for your child, they will need these starting Monday for testing.

                                              Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend:)

4th Quarter/Week 1

Wow! We had quite the eventful week!! In Reading, we finished up our Mr. Blue Jeans project. The students created some Awesome things! We also took a vocabulary quiz and test. Next week, we will continue on with Daily 5. In 5th grade writing, our time was consumed of Mr. Blue Jeans. In 4th grade writing, we worked on more opinion writing and will continue to do the same next week. These papers are practice for The Smarter Balance test. In Projects, we finished our Organisms and Ecosystems project and created leprechaun traps;)  We picked new tribes and started creating new posters. Next week, we will finish the posters, present, and do a few tribes activities. We will also start our new project, Forces of Nature. If you have not already, please sign up for parent teacher conferences. You should have all gotten an email, if you did not, please let me know. Also, if you need another time that's not listed, I would be happy to set up another time. Also, we are going to start practicing on the computer after Spring Break for Smarter Balance testing. If you have not already done so, please send your child in with a pair of headphones before Spring Break. We will put them in a ziplock bag with your child's name on it and I will keep them for them to ensure they have them for the test. 

I think that's it for now, hope you all have a fantastic weekend;) here are some pics of last week..

Quarter 3/Week 10

   Only one quarter left!! I can't believe how fast time is flying by! In Reading, we finished reading Mr. Blue Jeans. This is a biography about Levi Strauss. We also reviewed for the vocabulary quiz and test. Your child should have came home with notes on both of these so they can study. We will review both quiz and test again in class before they take them. The quiz is on Tuesday and the Test on Thursday.  In between the quiz and test, we are going to design and create our blue jeans products. Students will then sell or barter their items in class just as Levi did. I am very excited for this project:) In 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we worked on Opinion Writing and started practicing for the Smarter Balanced test.  We will continue to practice for the Smarter Balanced tests this coming up week.  In Projects, we continued to observe our terrariums and should have taken them home on Thursday. We created our own garden plans and listened to guest speakers from Lattin Farms. This week we will finish creating our gardens and finish up the Ecosystem and Organisms Project. We will change tribes and do some tribes activites. Students will start their new jobs and we will have a couple more days of auctions.  I will also set up times for parent/teacher conferences. I will set this up on signupgenius.com again, so please be looking for that email sometime within the next week.

I hope you all have a great weekend! 

Quarter 3/Week 9

   I was mistaken, we actually have 10 weeks in the third quarter. This coming up week, will be our last week in Quarter 3. :)

   In Reading, we started reading Mr. Blue Jeans, this is a story about Levi Strauss. It is a short book, we will finish this on Tuesday. We will review for the quiz and test on Wednesday and Thursday. Their quiz will be on Tuesday March 17, and their test will be on Thursday March 19. Our blue jean project will also start on Monday, March 16. If you have blue jean material that your child wants to use they can bring it in. If you don't, that is ok, one of our parents brought in a HUGE bag of blue jeans. Thank you for that donation! :) 

   In both 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we have continued to work on Opinion Writing. We will finish up the papers we are working on this coming week and start practicing for the Smarter Balanced tests. 

   In Projects, we have continued to observe our terrariums. This coming up week, we will start designing our own gardens. On Thursday, we have a guest speaker coming to talk to us from Lattin Farms about growing plants in Northern Nevada. Students will take home their terrariums on this day. Also, they should be studying for their Vocab Test on Tuesday. We will review for this on Monday and Tuesday, but please encourage them to study this weekend. They should all have their vocabulary words in their binders.

   Also, students applied for new jobs, they will find out their new jobs on Monday. Students will be able to job shadow their new jobs this week and start their new jobs the following week. 

I think that is everything...I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

   

Quarter 3/Week 8

   The 3rd quarter only has only one more week! I am going to be very sad to see this class go...I enjoy each and everyone of my students so much!  Anyway..here is a summary of our week and a preview of what's to come :)

In Reading, We reviewed Cafe Strategies, while also reviewing how to answer questions on our wonder stories.  We are really going to focus on how to restate our questions in our answers. This coming week we are going to start reading Mr. Blue Jeans.  This is a short book that the whole class will read, it should take us about six class periods to read.  At the end of this book, we are going to do a neat project that includes building something of your child's choice out of blue jeans. This will require blue jeans, if any of you have any old blue jeans laying around the house and are willing to donate them, please start sending them in! :)  In 4th and 5th Grade Writing, we continued to learn and write opinion paragraphs.  This next week, we will continue with opinion writing and start practicing with Smarter Balanced Prompts to prepare for the Smarter Balanced tests in April. In Projects, we continued to observe our terrariums. We will continue to do so this next week, this project will conclude at the beginning of the following week, we are hoping to get a plant professional in to talk with the students. Next week, we are going to design our own gardens on graph paper :) Your child will probably come home with some questions regarding this. 

Also, just a reminder...Auctions will be this week, please send in at least one small item with your child.  This can be anything laying around the house that is no longer needed at home or even something from the Dollar store.  

Also, thank you to those who have donated paper towels! Our class appreciates it! :)

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! 

Quarter 3/Week 7

   In Reading,  we reviewed and learned new Reading strategies in Daily 5/Cafe and will continue to do the same this week. In 4th and 5th Writing,  we learned about opinion writing and we will continue to do the same this week. In Projects, we built our terrariums and learned about the water cycle. The students created some AWESOME posters on the water cycle, if you are in the school, you should come check our bulletin board out! :) We will continue with observing our terrariums this week, learning about plants, photosynthesis, and how to grow plants in Nevada. 

   In two weeks, we will be having our auctions, if you can send any items in that would be great:)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quarter 3, Week 6

   This quarter is flying by!! We are already going to be in our 7th week of the third quarter! In Reading, we learned and reviewed new strategies. We will continue to do the same this week. In 4th and 5th Writing, we learned and reviewed Language Standards. This week we will start working on opinion writing. In Projects, we learned new vocabulary on our new project, "Organisms and Ecosystems." We made supply lists for our terrariums, learned about ecosystems and photosynthesis. This week we will build our terrariums, learn about the water cycle, and movement of matter. We will be building our terrariums on Tuesday, please send in all supplies on Tuesday. Your child should have come home with a supply list for this last Tuesday.  

   The time has come to start thinking about auctions.  We will have auctions on Week 9 of the 3rd quarter, this week we be the start of week 7. If you have items that you would like to send in, you can send them in anytime. 

   Also, thank you to those of you who have sent in paper towels, but we still have a shortage. If anyone can send in more paper towels that would be very much appreciated. :)

Please remember there is no school on Monday, it is President's Day.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and Happy Valentine's Day!

   

Quarter 3, Week 5

   In Reading, we finished up our cereal box book report presentations. On Tuesday, we started right back into our Daily 5 Sessions and will continue to do the same this week. In both 5th Grade Writing, we finished our animal presentations. In both 4th and 5th Writing, we learned, reviewed, and practiced language standards and will continue to do the same this week. We will also start practicing and getting ready for our Smarter Balance test in April. In Projects,  we finished our, "What's the Matter?" Project. This week we will start a new Science project on Organisms and Ecosystems. We are going to build terrariums with 2 liter bottles. If you have any empty 2 liter bottles lying around and are willing to donate,  that would be great! We are going to need 20 and they must have lids.  Your child will be coming home with a supply list that they will need next week to make these. 

   Also, our school is out of paper towels and with these Science Projects, we seem to be going through them like crazy.  If any of you are willing to donate paper towels to our classroom that would be greatly appreciated:)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Quarter 3, Week 4

In Reading, we have been presenting our cereal box book reports. We will finish presenting them on Monday and then continue learning more Daily 5, Cafe Strategies. In 5th Grade Writing, the students started presenting their animal research papers and will finish presenting them on Monday.  We will then start learning language standards and start preparing students for the Smarter Balanced Assessments in April. In 4th Grade Writing, students learned language standards and they will continue to do that this week. In Projects, the students worked on presenting their experiments, they will present to the 2nd and 3rd graders on Tuesday. They will take a vocabulary quiz on this on Wednesday, your child should have their vocab sheet in their binder so they can study for this quiz. 

Valentine's Day-We will not be having a Valentine's Day Party. This is a school wide rule, no classes are able to have Valentine's Day parties because Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday.  You should have received an email about Candy Grams that are going to be sold on certain days during lunch.

Qtr 3/ Week 3

In Reading, the students started working on their cereal box book reports. They will continue to work on them Monday and Tuesday of this week. They will present them to the class on Wednesday and Thursday. In 4th grade Writing, the students worked on Language Skills such as using references, synonyms, and antonyms. In 5th grade Writing, the students are still working hard on their animal research papers. They will continue to work on them Monday and Tuesday. They will present them to the class on Wednesday and Thursday. In Projects, they are working on finding an experiment on matter. They will continue to work on these all next week and will present to another grade the following week. Some students already know what they are doing and may have come home with supply lists that they will need to present their experiments.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Quarter 3/Week 2

   We have a lot going on in this quarter! In Reading, we learned a few new Cafe 5 reading strategies. This next week, the students will create and present their cereal box book reports. Thank you to all who sent in cereal boxes, all students have a cereal box for their report.  Please remind your child to have their books finished by the time they come into school on Tuesday. I have told them they need to have it finished by January 19.  We will start working on the book reports first thing Tuesday morning.

   In 5th Grade Writing, the students have been busy working on their animal research papers.  Your child should have come home with a rough draft of their paper.  They were not required to come home with it, but I encouraged them to do so in hopes that you would help them revise and edit the papers. What you are looking for is correct spelling, complete sentences, and correct formatting. We will continue to work on those this week, when students finish their paper, they will work on a slideshow to present their paper to the class. We will present these papers on Monday January 27, that is when they need to be completely done with their papers.  All students have been working very hard on these papers. 

   In 4th Grade Writing, the students finished their first Expository paper on their New Year's Resolutions.  I have started grading a few of them and I have to say I am pretty impressed with what I have seen so far. :) This week, we will start working on different grammar and various Language skills such as, learning how to use reference materials, synonyms and antonyms.

   In Projects, we have learned more about Matter and will continue on with Matter this week.

Thank you to all that sent in auction items! It was very successful this week! We will have two more auctions, one at the end of quarter 3 and one at the end of school. Feel free to send in items anytime. It can even be something that is lying around the house that no one uses anymore. The Dollar Store has a lot of great things too! 

   I hope everyone is having a great long weekend! 

Quarter 3/Week 19

   We are off and running in the third quarter! Here is a little summary of what we did last week..

In Reading, we practiced Stamina and the students all picked their book report books, just a reminder..these books need to be finished by January 19th. We will start our book reports on the 20th, everyone needs to have a cereal box by this time.  In 4th Grade Writing, the students have started working on an Expository piece of writing on their New Year's Resolutions, they will continue working on those this week. In 5th Grade Writing, the students have started an animal research paper, they will continue to research and start their rough drafts this week. In Projects, we have started learning about Science. The first project will be about three weeks and it is on Matter. Last week we reviewed what the Scientific Method was and practiced using this on an experiment. The students also picked new tribes and presented their new posters.

   Thank you to all who have donated items for our Auction.  Since we did not get a lot of time to conduct our auctions last week, I am going to extend them one more week. If you have not yet done so, please feel free to send in any auction items this week. These items can be something small, maybe something even lying around your house.  

   Report Cards should have came home with your child on Thursday. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

   The students and I have had some discussion this week about what we really need to focus on this semester, I thought you should all be aware so if you have the chance you can help remind your child.

-Monday Folders, please collect any papers your child brings home on Monday and initial that you have received them. If not, your child will go to study hall, this is my way of communicating with you in regards to your child's work.

-Assignment Notebooks are to be filled out, all the way, everyday, this is something that is school wide unless your child is absent.

-Reading logs. Please make sure all parts are filled out, such as pages read and minutes read. Also, even if your child is absent, they will still need to make up their Reading logs.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy New Year Everyone!

   I hope everyone had a great Christmas Break! I am going to make this post short and sweet... We have lots planned for the first week back, we will be going full force since we are already in the 3rd quarter! I just wanted to remind everyone about the auction this week. We will be having the auction for quarter two all week, so if you can't bring any items in on Monday, that is ok. We will be taking items all week :)  Thats all for now...I hope everyone has a GREAT rest of their break!