Wednesday 10/28

Today in Writers' Workshop, students worked on publishing their

Memoir.  Also, students learned a technique that some writers use called quick writing. A technique where writers will quickly write a stream of thoughts sometimes based on topic or events for a specific length of time. I taught students to look at a picture and try and implement the picture into a story.  For 4 short minutes students had to write the entire time using the picture on the right.  These quick writes have helped build stamina and also incorporate previously learned lessons such as adding dialogue, sounds words, precise words, etc.

Take a look at the picture and ask your child what they wrote about.

Homework:
-Study Link
-30 minutes of reading

Reminders:
-Fun Run Friday 10 AM
-Halloween parade Friday at 2 pm

Tuesday 10/17

Today, students learned in Readers' Workshop a summarizing strategy called Fab Five.  We practiced with our read aloud, Goblins in the Castle. Students paired up to write cohesive paragraphs using the Somebody, wanted, but, so, then strategy. In Writers' Workshop, we learned about dialogue and how authors use dialogue in their writing. Students practiced using dialogue, a variety of speech tags, and punctuation in their memoir.  Most students are finished publishing their memoir and working with me to polish their final piece.

In math, students had a review day.  We were reinforcing traditional multiplication (3 digit by 3 digit) and also checking our work with estimates, partial product multiplication, and area model multiplication.  Since students entered 5th grade with such a solid foundation of partial products and area model multiplication, teaching students the traditional method of multiplying was much simpler. 

Homework:

-Study Link 2.9

-30 minutes of reading

Reminders:

-Planners will be checked tomorrow

-Fun Run this Friday at 10 AM

-Halloween parade Friday at 2 PM

Monday

Today in Readers' Workshop, students learned to use evidence from text to make claims. In addition, I read to the students, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, and students used information from the text to develop thick questions and quality predictions.

On Friday, we will be celebrating Halloween.  In the morning, your child will be participating in the Fun Run from 10:00 - 10:35. The rest of the morning, we will be working.

Our annual Halloween Parade will take place at 2:00 that afternoon. Please remember our costume guidelines: No weapons, masks, scary or bloody costumes. Please have your child bring all costumes to school. We will have time for them to change before the parade. After the parade, we will have an activity and a snack.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Homework:

Study Link 2.8

30 min of reading

Making Quality Predictions

Today in Readers' Workshop, students independently made quality prediction and thick questions based on character traits. We used a book called The Sweetest Fig to analyze the character and write about how the story was going to unfold. By thinking about character traits, students were able to make bold predictions that were accurate.  Effective readers use these strategies and today I let students take more of the learning.

In Writers' Workshop, students used thesauruses to revise their memoir. Our goal was to be more precise with our language.  The online thesaurus helped many students to accomplish this goal.

In math, students are learning the traditional algorithm for multiplication. Today we practiced two digit by two digit multiplication and compared it with partial products and the area model of multiplication. Many students agreed that they wanted more practice.

Homework:

Study Link 2.5

30 minutes of reading

Making Predictions

Today in readers' workshop, students learned how to make quality predictions based on their character's traits.  As an example, we used Goblins in the Castle and decided that William, the main character, had a negative character trait: being too secretive. Based on this thinking, we created predictions that were more accurate.  Students learned that making quality predictions is a strategy that effective readers use.  During independent reading time, students practiced this strategy.

Homework:
- 30 minutes of reading
- Home Link 2.4

Cloud Weight

So...what do you think?  How much does a cloud weigh?

I recently asked that same question to my scientists.  Many students said, "as much as a feather,"  "500 pounds," and "next to nothing.  A majority of my students thought clouds weighed very little; most students believed that since clouds are suspended in air that they must way very little . I then asked them how much a hurricane weighs.  My scientists were shocked when they watched the video clip: CLICK HERE TO WATCH!


Homework: 
- 30 minutes of independent reading
- Home Link 2.4

Tier 2 words

Fifth graders of Room 15 started this morning calculating the average number of pages they read at school per day.  Each morning students record their starting page on a calendar found in their literacy notebook.  By looking at data from over one and half months, students were able to find their average pages read.  We discussed what that number represents and how we can  set goals to read more and more every day. 

We talked about Tier 2 words focusing on the word: apprehensive.

Tier two words consists of high frequency words/multi-meaning words that occur across a variety of domains. That is, these words occur often in mature language situations such as adult conversations and literature, and therefore strongly influence speaking and reading. 

The following is a list of standards for tier two words: 

• Important for reading comprehension 
• Characteristic of mature language users
• Contain multiple meanings 
• Used across a variety of environments
• Increased descriptive vocabulary (words that allow students to describe concepts in a more detailed manner)

Examples of tier two words are: masterpiece, fortunate, industrious, apprehensive, and benevolent.

Homework:
- Home Link 2.3
- Reading for 30 minutes

Friday Update

Today in math, students learned about exponents and powers of 10.  The students were able to explain patterns in the number of zeros when multiplying by powers of 10. Also, they used whole-number exponents to show powers of 10. 

Students can login to ConnectED math at anytime to practice more problems pertaining to the lesson and also to play math games that connect to our curriculum. Student passwords and usernames can be found in the front cover of their planner.

http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/connected/login.do

Homework:

- 30 min of IR 

- Home Link 2.2

Ice Cream Social tonight

Today is the Ice Cream Social. It starts tonight at 6 pm and goes until 7:30. The 5th graders are ready to show off what they've been working on in Room 15. Here are some things that we want to show you:

• Inside our desks
• Biopoem
• Memoirs
• Literacy Notebooks (readers and writers' notebook)
• Our classroom library
• Mrs. Rohde and Mrs. Faley/Athan's classrooms
• Chromebooks
• Evaporation experiments
• Book Fair in the Media Center
• Switching Binder
• Anchor Charts
• Our morning routine
• Picture books we've used in class

BA Testing

Today, students completed their first math benchmark test.  Many students found the test to be tricky, but doable!  They were very confident as the tests were being collected that they had done well.   We will begin our new math unit on Thursday which will focus on Whole Number Place Value and Operations.

On Thursday, WLE will have it's traditional ice cream social open house.  The doors will open at 6 pm and close at 7:30 pm. The media center has a book fair that will also be open during that time.  I know that the students are eager to show you around the school and some of the projects that they are working on in class. Hope to see you there.

Friday

Today students took the iReady math test.  Some students still need to finish this on Monday.  Students worked very hard on the test.

In Math, your child received a math study guide.  They can study for the math test which is on Tuesday (10/13). Click here for the study guide. 

Homework: 
- 30 min of independent reading
- Study for math test

Wednesday - 10/7

All of fifth grade has been a buzz this week as they have been writing letters about science to Mr. Shaw. He contacted the students last week regarding Pluto's reclassification as a Dwarf Planet.  My scientists were ecstatic to write to their former media specialist.  Using evidence from text, discussions in class, and videos from the New Horizon space probe, the students worked together to inform Mr. Shaw. Click here to read the letters.
(THANK YOU, MR. SHAW!!! You still have an effect on us!)

In reading, students are focusing on Fluency. We created an anchor chart today that explains that effective readers: read smoothly, with expression, read punctuation, phrase words by grouping them together to create a certain effect, read dialogue if the character is saying the words by looking carefully at the speech tags.  Ask your child today about their reading fluency practice of Goblins in the Castle.  They've been repeatedly practicing.

Homework:
-30 min of reading
-Practice fluency with Goblins in the Castle

Reminders:
-October 30th: Halloween Parade at 2:00 (Halloween Party afterwards)
-Students can bring in ear buds/headphones for use with their laptops

Friday

We had a wonderful week and accomplished so much.  The fifth graders were busy today learning about tier 2 words. We created a word study notebook and focused on the word; vast.  Using the Frayer Model, students wrote sentences, definitions, and sketches in order to feel like they could use VAST in their every day language.

Homework:
- 30 min of reading/day
- NO math homework

Thursday - Picture Day tomorrow

Today for Science, we worked on finding evidence to back up our claims about whether Pluto should be a planet or a dwarf planet.  Below, you'll see students working hard in groups finding evidence for and against their claim.

Link 1 - Pluto Discoveries

Link 2 - The Scale of the Universe

We read a book called Guys Write for Guys Read.  In the book, we read a short story called My First Steps to the White House. Student read this story and focused on what made this piece of text a memoir. We created a list of traits that are found in memoirs.  Students agreed that in a memoir the writer learns a valuable lesson about themselves.  The ultimate goal is for students to write their own memoir, but our first step is learning everything about this new genre.

In math, we are still working on finding Volume. After days of laying the foundation of volume, students used the formula for finding volume: length x width x height = Volume

Homework:

- Home Link 1.9

- Writers' Notebook artifacts (5 artifacts of pictures, newspaper clips, tickets, etc.)

- Decorate the writers' notebook

Reminder:

- Picture day is tomorrow at 10AM