Monday!

Today in readers' workshop, students read a book called Voices in the Park.  This sophisticated picture book has multiple layers of meaning and symbols. Students applied a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, and evaluate the text.  

In math, students used their knowledge of fractions to check if their answers to fractional addition was reasonable. By estimating fractions to 0, 1/2, or 1, students were able to check their work.  

Homework:
- Math game
- 30 minutes of reading

Reminder:
Holiday Shop - December 8 at 11:30 AM

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today, students in science learned about concentrated and diluted solutions.  I created 2 solutions of Kool-aid; one had a lot of solute and the other had a little.  Students compared the 2 Kool-aid solutions (taste, smell, and color) and created a definition for each term.  They loved taste-testing the experiment.  

I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy time with your amazing kids.

Mr. Reed

Tuesday Science

Today, students learned about the word solubility in science. For the past few days, we've been experimenting with citric acid and salt.  Students have created saturated solutions with these substances.  By adding spoonful after spoonful of these substances into water, students eventually noticed that no more salt or citric acid would dissolve.  Almost all of the students agreed that they would dissolve differently, but they were surprised to see how much one dissolved more than the other in 50 ml of water.  Ask your child today, which substance was more soluble in water: citric acid or salt. And of course, ask why?

Homework:
-Home Link 3.4
-30 min of reading

Reminder:
-Please sign your child's planner

Diversity Project with our K Buddies

Today, students worked with a Kindergarten buddy.  They teamed up to color a kaleidoscope picture together. When the kids are finished, we are going to cut out the work and glue them together.  I was so proud of how the 5th graders maturely worked with their Kindergartner.  

We worked a long time today going over the math BA.  I'm sending it home so you can see how they scored.  The very last page has a spot for your signature.  Please take a look, sign the BA, and return the entire test by Tuesday, November 24th. 

Homework:

-Home Link 3.2

-30 minutes of reading

Have a great weekend!

Social Studies BA day

Today in writers' workshop, students worked on using more sophisticated transition words to write clearer fiction stories.  Using the transition word list and the beach photo, students had 5 minutes to quickwrite a story practicing transition words, figurative language, openings, etc.  Using the lesson, students continued writing their fiction story.

In readers' workshop, students read a short story called A Bad Road for Cats finding evidence of how the main character changed over time. They wrote an essay on how the main character, Magda, very harsh and strict in the beginning of the story, transformed to a forgiving person. Your child used evidence from the text to back up their claim in the essay.

Today in math, all students finished the math BA (scores will be given tomorrow).  We moved on to unit 3 and we're learning about fractions as it relates to division.

Homework:
-Home Link 3.1
-Math Journal pg. 71, problem 4
-30 minutes of independent reading

Michael won Ga-Ga Ball today (you're welcome, Michael)

Geography Information System

Today students had an exciting lesson from Mr. Malone about Geography Information Systems.  Mr. Malone explained to students how incredible amounts of (BIG) data are transformed for people to 'read' the information more clearly most often in the form of a map. Students were taught different forms of maps that show information for example, a tsunami risk area map and Ann Arbor's fire department travel time map. Thank you, Mr. Malone.

Students worked very hard on their math BA.  Many students will need additional time tomorrow.  

Homework:
-30 min of reading

Reminders:
- Send your child to school wearing orange on Thursday Nov. 19th for diversity week
-Planners will be checked tomorrow for signatures

Tomorrow's P/T Conferences

Today, students and I met to go over their report card.  We talked about how they felt the first marking period went.  Students identified areas that they were proud of and areas of the day that they needed to work on.  By the time we were finished, students agreed to set goals for the next marking period and then they created 2 goals in areas that they wanted to work on for the next few months. 

Tomorrow is parent/teacher conferences. Please see the list below for times.  Please knock on the door (room 15) when it is your conference time; I know it can be uncomfortable but it helps me stay on pace. Thank you and see you tomorrow.

9:20 - 9:40	Lizette
10:00 - 10:20	Bryan
10:20 - 10:40	Megan
10:40 - 11:00	Adam
11:00 - 11:20	Nayuta
11:20 - 11:40	Jude
11:40 - 12:00	Autumn
12:40 -1:00	Gabby
1:00 – 1:20	Anush
1:20 - 1:40	Eduardo
2:00 - 2:20	Gaby
3:40 - 4:00	Chris
4:40 - 5:00	Judith
5:00 - 5:20	Preston
5:20 - 5:40	Kaitlyn
5:40 - 6:00	Haider
6:00 - 6:20	Joey
6:20 - 6:40	Sophia
6:40 - 7:00	Marie
7:00 - 7:20	Suhani
7:20 - 7:40	Michael

Tuesday

Today, students in Readers' Workshop learned a strategy to track characters of books.  Students practiced this strategy on our read aloud book, Holes.  By keeping track of characters and by thinking about who the characters are as people (i.e. brave, cooperative, etc.), students can grow ideas about while reading and comprehend stories at deeper levels.  This character mapping strategy will eventually be independently done within your child's books.

In Writers' Workshop, students continued to practice embedding figurative language into their writing.  Students also learned how to add more descriptive words to their writing in a more sophisticated way. For example, The evergreen trees, green and pointy, spread across the horizon.

In math students are still learning long division. We've started talking about remainders and what to do with them.


Homework:
-Home Link: division practice
-30 minutes of IR

Reminders:
-Thursday is parent/teacher conferences

Another Great Week

Today in Readers' Workshop, students learned more about figurative language. Students are learning about figurative language to ultimately use it in their writing.  However we just started learning about them in Readers' Workshop.  Students learned about metaphors, similes, idioms, alliterations, hyperbole, personification, and onomatopoeia. 

In Writers' Workshop, students had a publishing day where they took pieces of writing that they've been working on in their notebooks and typed them in google docs. Students shared these pieces with me and other students for peer revision.  We will continue to learn about narrative fiction for the next couple of weeks.

Student received their Science BA scores and we also had time to go through the BA together.  Overall, students did well.

Homework:
-30 minutes of reading
-Study Link (long division)

Reminders:
-Thursday, November 12th is Parent/Teacher conferences

9:20 - 9:40	Lizette
10:00 - 10:20	Bryan
10:20 - 10:40	Megan
10:40 - 11:00	Adam
11:00 - 11:20	Nayuta
11:20 - 11:40	Jude
11:40 - 12:00	Autumn
12:40 -1:00	Gabby
1:00 – 1:20	Anush
1:20 - 1:40	Eduardo
2:00 - 2:20	Gaby
3:40 - 4:00	Chris
4:40 - 5:00	Judith
5:00 - 5:20	Preston
5:20 - 5:40	Kaitlyn
5:40 - 6:00	Haider
6:00 - 6:20	Joey
6:20 - 6:40	Sophia
6:40 - 7:00	Marie
7:00 - 7:20	Suhani
7:20 - 7:40	Michael

Conference Schedule Next Week - Thursday 12, 2015

Take a look at Room 15's conference times, please let me know if the time you signed up for does NOT work for you.

Conferences will be held in our room on Thursday 12, 2015.

Thank you

9:20 - 9:40	Lizette
10:00 - 10:20	Bryan
10:20 - 10:40	Megan
10:40 - 11:00	Adam
11:00 - 11:20	Nayuta
11:20 - 11:40	Jude
11:40 - 12:00	Autumn
12:40 -1:00	Gabby
1:20 - 1:40	Eduardo
2:00 - 2:20	Gaby
3:40 - 4:00	Chris
4:40 - 5:00	Judith
5:00 - 5:20	Preston
5:20 - 5:40	Kaitlyn
5:40 - 6:00	Haider
6:00 - 6:20	Joey
6:20 - 6:40	Sophia
6:40 - 7:00	Marie
7:00 - 7:20	Suhani
7:20 - 7:40	Michael

Choosing the Right Opening

Today in Writers' Workshop, we tried different ways to begin our fictional writing.  Students learned that authors make choices of how they want to begin a piece of writing depending on the goal of their piece.  There are so many ways to begin, however we learned 6 different ways.  When students tried a certain opening, they wrote their name next to the opening they incorporated into their fictional story.

In Readers' Workshop, we read a book called Two Bad Ants.  We focused on point of view and inferencing. Students had time to read and practice the strategies in their own independent reading books. 

The Science BA will be on Thursday afternoon.  Students have a completed study guide which will help them study for the test.  We talked about studying a little every night, instead of waiting until Wednesday night to study.

Homework:

-30 minutes of  reading

-Study Link

-Study for Science BA (Thursday)

Reminder:

-No school tomorrow (Tuesday)

-Bring Your Own Device permission slip

( click here to download a copy)