Friday, October 24

During readers' workshop, your child learned to use dialogue to learn more about their characters in a deeper way.  Using our read

aloud book, Goblins in the Castle, your child used different sections of dialogue to prove that the character, Fauna, was easily frustrated and fierce. They applied this knowledge into their own independent reading book.

During writers' workshop, we analyzed how Chris VanAllsburg concluded his memoir, My First Steps to the White House. (click here to read our model memoir) We learned that memoirists write the ending by reflecting back and talking directly to the reader about what was learned from the memory.  Your child reworked their ending in order to incorporate this new learning.

In science, we continued our conversation about the water cycle.  I posed the question, how much does a cloud weigh? Students were excited to share their answer.  Many students mentioned 0.5 pounds or maybe 1 pound, they soon were shocked.  If you want to be shocked too, click here and watch.

In math, we took today to review some of the concepts from the previous few days such as exponential notation, standard notation, and expanded notation.  Coming up next, multi digit multiplication (they finally get to learn U.S. traditional multiplication).

Thank you for coming to the ice cream social yesterday. I had a lot of fun getting a chance to talk with many of you.  Enjoy the weekend.
Mr. Reed

Homework:
- 30 minutes of reading

Reminders:
- Camp forms are due
- Camp (October 24 - 26)

Show, Don't Tell

In writers' workshop today, students worked together to think about how they can SHOW emotions.  They learned that sophisticated writers show their reader how they are feeling instead of coming right out and telling them.  For example, instead of writing, 'I was nervous.' Instead students would write, 'My stomach was in knots and I was biting my fingernails while I was waiting for my turn.' The students turned around and applied this new knowledge to their memoirs that they are writing on their chrome books. (see pictures below of students writing examples of showing.)

In math, students focused on exponents. In science, we are continuing to learn about the water cycle.

Homework:
-Study Link 2.2
-30 minutes of reading

Reminder:
- no school tomorrow
- book fair is happening all week
- Ice cream social on Thursday (10/13) from 5:30 - 7:00 pm

The Water Cycle

The Water Cycle:

Water Cycle activity

ebook

The USGS website

Interactive water cycle

Reading/Tech Buddies

Today students of room 15 worked with Mrs. Miller's class and taught her students proper routines when using the Chromebooks.  Once the 5th graders taught the 3rd graders how to take computers from the cart and turn them on, the 5th graders taught them how to login and use their Google Drive.  The 5th graders also taught how to start a new Google doc, how to rename a file, and how to add new folders.

In writers' workshop, students added thinking to their memoir plan.  Students put their plan into a page protector and used a wet erase marker to write their thinking on the page protector. This activity physically shows how memoirs have multiple layers.    Tomorrow's lesson will focus on different ways to start and hook their audience.  At this point, many students are very ready to begin their draft.  Your child should be able to explain to you their memoir and what they learned about themselves from the memory they picked.

Homework:
- 30 minutes of reading

Reminders:
-Camp paperwork

October 5

Today in writers' workshop, students learned how to plan their memoir stories. We asked critical questions about the topics/memories we chose to write about.  For example, what did you learn about yourself from the memory you chose?  How did you change because of the memory?  The students worked intently as they reflected on the memory that they chose.  At this point, all students had a chance to choose a topic and plan their writing.  Many students used the following graphic organizer: 

 

 Tomorrow we are going to plan the internal responses to their story.

Homework:

- 30 minutes of reading

Reminders:

- Turn in camp forms