Friday, January 29, 2016

Quarter 3 - Week 22 and 23

Reading: We will continue with our Tiger Rising projects and questions.

5th Grade Writing: We will finish our Columbus Essays. After that, we will learn about the four spheres of earth. We will then create  a diagram where students will label each sphere, describe the sphere, and list the different features of the sphere.

4th Grade Writing: We will continue working on our narratives. Last week, we learned all about introductions and how to "Show, Not tell," in our writing.  This week, we will continue to work on our paragraphs and learn about conclusions in narratives towards the end of the week.

Projects: We will continue to learn about the 4 spheres of earth. The spheres are Geosphere/Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, and Biosphere. Students will learn and write about them in Writing and learn about the different interactions in Projects. This will be the end of our Organisms and Ecosystems Project.

Thank you to ALL who were able to make it for our presentations. I have to say I was very impressed with these kids! They ALL worked so hard and it really showed in their presentations. 


 Here is a quick pic from our Maverick trip! 


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I hope you ALL have a great weekend!




Valentine's Day: Just a reminder, we will not be having a Valentine's Day Party. Please do not send in any treats or valentine's with your child as we will not be able to let your child hand anything out. 

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Week 21 / 22

Please read WHOLE blog for this week as there are a few important events for this coming week at the very END of this blog:)

Reading: We are still working on finishing up The Tiger Rising and the questions that go along with the book. We will start a fun activity of each students choice to go along with the book this week. 

5th Grade Writing: We worked on the standard Compare two counts of the same event. Students are reading two different articles on Christopher Columbus based on fact and opinion. Starting on Monday, they will write a few paragraphs on the similarities and differences of the articles based on what they read using evidence from the text. This will be due on Tuesday, the rest of the week we will do a fun activity learning about INTERJECTIONS!! 

4th Grade Writing: Last week we learned about our new narrative that we will be writing. Students started the 6 Traits Writing Process on Thursday and will continue with this next week. The writing prompt is If you could design your own room, what would it look like? Describe in detail. This will be due on Thursday at the end of class. 

Projects: We learned a lot in projects this week! Students learned about and how to use a bar graph and about the different distribution of water on earth. Students had to work in partners and make their own bar graphs on chart paper. We learned a lot about being meticulous and how important it is :) 
Students will work on putting presentations together this week for you! We are inviting all parents to our classroom on Thursday from 1:30-2:30. These presentations will be on the last few weeks including their terrariums, parts of a plant, the water cycle, and gardening tips in Nevada. These presentations will be a few short minutes, you are welcome to come in and see as many or as few of these as your time is allotted.  

2nd Maverick Trip! We will finally be going on our 2nd Maverick trip on this Thursday as well. We will go around 3:00pm after our presentations so that we can make sure we are back in time for school to be dismissed. Please send $5 with your child. They will be allowed to buy ONLY two small items. 

Valentine's Day: Just a reminder, we will not be having a Valentine's Day Party. Please do not send in any treats or valentine's with your child as we will not be able to let your child hand anything out. 

Thank You! Hope you ALL are having a great weekend and I hope to see you ALL on Thursday :)






Friday, January 15, 2016

Week 20/21 Quarter 3

Reading: Students have still been working on The Tiger Rising and will continue to do so this week. Working on finishing the book and the questions that go along with each chapter. We will still do this in a Daily 3 rotation allowing students to choose between reading, vocabulary, and cursive packets. They get to choose what they do each center as long as they finish all of the required work on time.

4th and 5th Grade Writing: We reviewed verbs with both 4th and 5th Grade. In 4th grade, we will start writing a narrative using the 6 traits of writing steps. We will really focus on introductions and conclusions with this narrative.  In 5th grade, we will compare and contrast two articles on Christopher Columbus.

Projects: We will continue to observe our terrariums, and learn more about the different distributions of water on earth. Students will then start researching gardening tips in Nevada. After their research, they will start putting together a presentation. We will have parents come in to see these presentations the week of the 25th. I will send out an email on exact day and time this coming week. This past week, the students have been learning to use Google Drawings and they have created their own water cycle and parts of a plant. These turned out really good! These will be apart of their presentations.

Just FYI and a reminder for students: There will be a vocabulary quiz on January 27, 2016 on their terrarium projects. Students should have their vocab study organizer in their binders so that they are able to study at home. 

2nd Maverick Trip: I have decided to move the Maverick trip to Thursday, January 28th in the afternoon. This will just work better with our project schedule, as this will be the end of our terrarium project.

Thank you all and I hope you have a Great Weekend :)

Friday, January 8, 2016

Week 19/20-Quarter 3

Hello 5th grade families! Below is a quick overview of what is to come in the next week :)

Reading: We will continue with our book clubs reading The Tiger Rising. Students are discussing their questions in their groups, reading and answering questions individually. We are running this in our Daily 3 Reading Program. Student centers are reading/discussing book, cursive packets, and vocabulary building. 

Students are to answer questions that go along with the chapters. Students are reminded to answer questions completely, using evidence based terms, and restating the questions in their answers. Students are also to double check their work and make sure they are spelling everything correctly while also using the correct punctuation. 

4th and 5th Grade Writing: We will continue to learn new language standards this week. 5th Grade is learning about common idioms and perfect verb tenses. 4th Grade is going to learn about common idioms, past, present, and future verb tenses. 

Projects: We learned all about what we will be building in our terrariums this coming week. We also planted out radish seeds. Thank you to everyone who has donated supplies for the terrariums, we will be building them on Monday:) Also, last week we learned all about ecosystems and photosynthesis. We will continue with photosynthesis on Monday/Tuesday. Students will then learn about the water cycle, parts of a plant, and different percentages of water that cover the earth. They will make their own graphs on this. Students will also be required to fill out a daily log on their observations of what is going on in their terrariums. 

2ND MAVERICK TRIP- The whole class has earned another award and they have chosen to walk to Maverick again. We will go sometime in the next couple weeks. Please send $5 with your child. Students will be allowed to purchase two small items. I will send an email a day or two before we go so that everyone is prepared. 

I hope everyone has a FaBuLoUs Weekend! :)

Friday, January 1, 2016

Quarter 3, Week 19

Welcome Back 5th Grade Families! I hope you all have had a great holiday break!

Here is a quick overview of our upcoming week...

Reading: We are going to start a new whole class book club on The Tiger Rising. Students will read individually and in their groups. They will also answer discussion questions in their groups as well.

4th and 5th grade Writing: We will learn and review language standards. I will also review report cards with each student and set individual goals with them in Writing.

Projects: We will introduce our new 4 week project on Molecules and Organisms. We will learn the vocabulary for this project. Students will make a study guide for a vocab quiz they will have the following week. For this project, we will be building terrariums out of 2 liter soda bottles. Students will be required to bring in one 2 liter soda bottle by the end of the week. We will construct these terrariums the following week. After we review what will be required and learn the new vocabulary for this project, we will then learn some background knowledge on ecosystems and photosynthesis.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their break and I am looking forward to seeing everyone back on Monday January 4th!