Thursday, December 22, 2016

Happy Holidays and Thank You All!

To all Family and Friends of 5D,

I wanted to extend my sincere thanks to all of you for all your love and support throughout each and every day.  I feel blessed to have such wonderful families!  

From jewelry, to coffee, jams, homemade items and a Walmart gift card, your generosity was overwhelming!   I'm so excited to get some more seating for the room for all the kids to use!

I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxed vacation filled with lots of quality time.  Rest up and I'll see you all in 2017!

Peace and Love,

Shannon


Mars Projects and Geo Bee

Planning Phase: Groups Hard at Work







Lots of visitors yesterday!



Three finalists for the Geo Bee!

And the winner is SAM!


More MARS!





Clare's cousin, Billy from NASA comes in to talk to the fifth grade 





Friday, December 16, 2016

Week of December 12-16

Happy Friday 5D families!
Once again, another week has come and gone!  I'm in disbelief that we have one more week before winter break!  These kiddos are still working so very hard.  Let's take a peek into our week.

MARS Groups are still working each and every day.  I wish I could bottle up the conversations they have been having to problem solve the location of their school on Mars, how they plan to get food and water there as well as how they will group students and what the curriculum will look like.  On Monday and Tuesday groups will build and then make a video to showcase their building and explain all the features.   Please make sure to ask your child(ren) all about it!

Students will be bringing home a list of things their group needs in order to start building their school on Mars.  We can supply a lot of things at school so their list will only contain things we do not have here.





Don't forget!  Parents are welcome on Wednesday, December 21st from 1:30-2:30 to drop on by to see all the projects!



Check out the winter wonderland we have going in 5D!  The students have been busy making snowflakes and reading by the virtual fireplace with real crackling sounds!

In literacy, we have been working hard on using text structures to write the body paragraphs of our research report.  We've been blogging a lot this week as well as practicing our spelling words.

In math the students took a division assessment today.  Onto order of operations then fractions!

Reminder that next week we will celebrate the holidays as a class on Thursday from 1:30-2:30.  All are welcome.  The kids will do a book swap, enjoy snacks and end on a Kahoot (most likely student made). 

Let's make it happen! :)

Shannon

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Week 14

Happy Friday to all 5D Families!

I cannot believe how fast these weeks of December are going!  The students have been diligently working in all academic areas.  Here's a little about our week...


  • In math we are well into decimal division.  I'm incredibly proud of the hard work and stamina I see in the classroom.  I'm also noticing that many people are enjoying math more than they voiced in the fall!  It's one of my favorites so this makes me SMILE!
  • In literacy the students have researched a ton and flash drafted their first piece of research writing.  Together we looked at many non fiction books as mentors texts and brainstormed how to start an exciting non fiction piece.  Some ideas the students came up with were... start with a shocking fact, ask a question, start it with 1st person like a story, tell a personal reason why you chose your topic, start with something gross about your topic to grab your reader's attention.  On Friday the students worked hard at writing a strong lead!
  • We celebrated Hour of Code during math on Friday!
  • In science we began our collaborative project about building a school on Mars.  Students are in groups of 4 and are collaborating with 5L.  Groups generated research questions, researched together and then discussed the logistics of living on Mars and building a school there.  I witnessed a lot of deep, rich discussions from all groups USING their research to back up their thinking.... a teacher's dream!
  • The Mars Groups will showcase their learning to the school on Wednesday, 12/21 from 1:30-2:30.  Parents are welcome to come visit during this time!
  • Words Their Way is going well.  Each student was assessed last week and brought home their results.  I sent home a sheet to be sorted on Tuesday.
Well, only ten more school days until winter break!  We'll be planning a class party on Thursday 12/22 from 1:30-2:30.  More details will follow.

Enjoy your weekend!  Until Monday...

Shannon

Friday, December 2, 2016

Week 13

What a busy, productive week we had!  Here's a little glimpse into it...

  • In math the students are working diligently with two digit divisors and are really problem solving about their estimations.  They also created word problems based on a theme and given dividends and divisors.  We will work on division with decimals next week.
  • In literacy the students explored five different text structures in pairs.  The lesson really connected as students were thinking about the ways they could write non-fiction as they recognized these structures as a way to build a research report. Midweek, students chose a topic to research. On Thursday and Friday, students researched their topic.
  • We finished reading Pax.  Make sure you ask all about the ending!
  • Spelling assessments happen about every other Friday.  Results will come home next week.
  • Our science unit is going well.  Each day the students have done a challenge from Mystery Science.  This week involved the sun's pattern in each season as well as the moon's phases.  Each day we have had a hands on experience.

Text Structure Pairs


More Text Structures

Enjoy your weekend!

Shannon

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Innovation Day 2





Our first Innovation Day was a success!  The students worked extremely hard all day and their effort showed!  Check out the pictures below!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your children.  I, for one, am thankful I have these 21 students in my classroom!

Gobble, gobble!

 Mrs. DeLello




















Innovation Day