Holiday Shop

Students visited the Holiday Shop today.  They were so excited to buy gifts and they all had specific plans for each person on their list.  Overall, students did an awesome job!

Today in readers' workshop, we are reading the book, Holes, together and students are learning about author writing strategies.  Students are learning how Louis Sachar, the author of Holes, writes side stories and flashbacks within the text. The complexity of this book occurs because often times it will move into a flashback or side story without warning.  Your child is learning quickly how to pay attention to these shifts.

In writers' workshop, our fiction unit is coming to a close.  Students learned about a writing craft called a Circular ending (having a detail appear in the beginning and the end of their story).  Many children tried to incorporate this lesson into their fiction stories.

In math, students continue to learn more about fractions.  We are focusing on making estimates prior to adding fractions.

Homework:
- 30 minutes of reading
- Home Link 3.7

Tuesday, November 29th

Students worked together in Science to measure the weight of water, salt, and then a salt water solution. They learned that 50 ml of water is equal to 50 grams.  This work will benefit us as we work towards creating new solutions.

In readers' workshop, students learned about character motivation. We read our read aloud book Holes to find more about why characters says and do certain things. Students then read their own books thinking about the motivation behind decisions their characters make in their book.

Homework:
-Math: either play the math game or complete the Study link (or both)
-  30 minutes of reading

Reminder:
HOLIDAY SHOP IS TOMORROW 11/29 ~ (11 - 11:30 AM)
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please enjoy the four day weekend and hope its filled with family, friends, food, and fun times!  

 

Making Mixtures

Today in science, students were creating different kinds of mixtures.  Once the mixtures were made, the students decided on best methods to separate the mixtures.  When students mixed gravel and water, students used a screen to separate them.  When students mixed Diatomaceous Earth and water, students decided to use a coffee filter to separate the mixtures.  Next, students mixed salt with water, students immediately noticed that the salt dissolved making separation more difficult.  After further discussion, students realized they are going to need to let the water evaporate in order to get the salt back.  Through this experience, the students realized that the salt water mixture was different then the other 2 mixtures. They learned today that when something dissolves into water, this creates a special kind of mixture called a solution.  Ask your child today about the difference between a mixture and a solution.

Homework:
- 30 minutes of reading
- Study Link 3.4 (I'm noticing many students not completing their homework.  Please contact me if your child is having difficulty completing the work.)

Reminders:
-no school on Thursday and Friday
-Holiday Shop: Nov 30 at 11:00 - 11:30.

 

Notes from the November PTA Meeting:

Notes from the November PTA Meeting:

WLE Spirit Wear-orders due Monday, Nov. 21.  A link should go out in this weeks WLE Weekly, or there is a link on PTA Facebook Page.

Cookie Fundraiser-all items should be in, if you are missing some items, call the school and let them know.  The fundraiser did really well, thank you to all who supported it!

PTA-membership-if you haven’t turned in your application, please do.  One of the benefits is the school roster-which is a great resources for setting up birthday parties, playdates and coordinating rides.  The roster will be going out soon.

Giving Tree-will be online this year!  Look for a sign up genius going out soon from Mrs. Nickel.  This program helps families in our WLE community during the holidays. Please participate if you can.

Questions?  If you have any questions about PTA, please contact Mindy at mindyfernandes@gmail.com.  Our meetings are the first Monday of the Month, at 7 pm in the Media Room at WLE.  It is a great opportunity to hear about all the great things going on at WLE from the parents, teachers and Mrs. Nickel.

Mindy Fernandes

PTA Representative

Thursday, 11/17

Today students worked in the computer lab this morning and practiced typing as well as creating a word cloud on a website called Tagul.  

During readers' workshop, students are looking closely at text (picture). They are stopping and thinking when the story gets complex and also identifying difficult words and defining them.

In math, we went over the Unit 2 math BA.  Your child will be bringing home their BA to sign tonight.  If you would like to have the BA for over the weekend, please let me know.  If not, please sign the attached letter and send it back to school.

In science, we started our unit called Mixtures and Solution and examined 'gravel' with hand lenses.  Students were writing down observations; they were observing color, particle size, shape, etc.

Homework:
-30 minutes of reading
-Math BA signed
-Home Link 3.1  (we will do this tomorrow)

Reminders:
-Spirit Wear sale ends Monday

 

Happy Friday!

Today your child learned more about long division in Math.  We practiced 4 digit by 2 digit long division.  The extra practice has really been helping.  Please take some time this weekend to see how your child is doing with this new learning.  The expectation in 6th grade is that students feel very comfortable with traditional long division.

The students of room 15 created a commercial to advertise Socktober.  This event runs through November; we will be collecting warm clothes for people in need.  Please watch our commercial: click here.

 In science, we completed the Water Planet study guide.  I asked the students to study 10 - 15 minutes every night until the BA (Nov. 9)

 Homework:
- math study link
- 30 minutes of reading
- 10 - 15 minutes of studying for Science BA

Reminders:
- parent/teacher conferences Nov. 8

Thursday, November 3

Today in readers' workshop, students are working on a summarizing strategies.  We are using a strategy called SWSBST.  This strategy is best used with fiction. The acronym stands for Somebody wanted something..., But...., So..., Then....; (Finally,  we added that). 

Once students identified those parts of the story, they wrote a short 5 sentence summary in their readers' notebook.  We will continue to use this writing/reading strategy in the upcoming weeks.  

In math, we continued our comparison of different division strategies.  We are introducing long division and comparing it to the other division strategies students already know. Eventually we will be using only traditional long division as it is most efficient.

Homework:
- 30 minutes of reading
- math homework
- study for science BA (Nov. 9)

Reminder:
- Parent/Teacher conferences are Nov. 8, please sign up on Family Access
 

Wednesday, November 2

Welcome November!

Students have been working hard in Readers' workshop applying their ability to find character traits and applying a new strategy. The new strategy called Contrast and Contradiction is a strategy students can use to find when a character is acting 'out of character.' When students find a contradiction many times the author is trying to get the reader to make a prediction or infer about the plot and conflict.  To introduce the strategy, we watched this little video clip; first trying to identify the character traits and then watching carefully for a contradiction.   Ask your child about contradictions.

In Science we are making a shared study guide for the Water Planet unit. The unit has finally finished.  The assessment will be next Nov. 9 after parent/teacher conferences.

In math, students are learning traditional long division.  We began today with 3 digit by 1 digit division.  They have homework today.

In writing, we launched a new unit into fiction writing.

Homework:
- 30 minutes of reading
- Math homework on division

Reminders:
-   sign up for parent teacher conferences over Family Access