Week 9!

Happy Birthday, Derek! 

We welcomed Dyson to our class this week!  All of us in 5D are very excited to have him as a part of our amazing community!  

Team Building with 5L... Tarp Flip

Math Games: multiplication War, Salute and Factor Football

Book Club Reading

Happy Friday friends and families of 5D!

Can you believe we have completed NINE weeks of school?  Time flies!  Thank you for the donations for an informal Halloween party!  We celebrated late in the day with the delicious treats and a Kahoot!

Here's a little glimpse into our week...

• In math we started unit 3 which is all about multiplying, dividing and problem solving with whole numbers and decimals.  The students also had a game day on Monday (which we often do after a unit assessment) and a pre-assessment on Tuesday.
• New book clubs have formed in reading.  I have been impressed with all students as readers and book club has really pushed their motivation and love for reading.  Two book clubs decided to stay together and read the next book in their series.  I've also seen students share and encourage others to try their book for the next club!  Some books for this club are Auggie and Me, Max the Mighty, Hatchet, Freak the Mighty, and Wonder.  
• We've done a lot of writing focus lessons this week with 5L.  Our goals this week are for all students to raise the level of their narrative.  We first looked at mentor narratives to get ideas of what writers do to convey their story.  Then, Mrs. Loh and I modeled a writing partnership with a conversation about coming up with powerful ideas for personal stories.  We asked two extremely important questions... "So what?" and "What is your story really about?"  When students can answer those questions, they know they have a powerful idea for their narrative.
• We are through the three worlds in social studies and now beginning our next phase about reasons for exploration and the impact on each world.  This unit will culminate with a project where students will showcase what they have learned.
• Words Their Way and Spelling City are in full swing.  The students learned how to log on and find their spelling lists.  There are a ton of games, practice and resources on the website.  On Friday, I had the kids take their first spelling assessment right online.  I'm going to have the students write down their color and sort number right in their agenda.

Important dates!

11/2 Early Release: dismissed at 12:50

11/8 No school: Teacher Workshop 

11/11 No School: Veterans Day

Questions to Promote School Talk

1. What is your narrative really about?
2. Tell me about your Flocabulary song.
3. How's multiplication going?
4. Tell me about the new book your reading for book club.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Shannon

Reading Buddies

Last week our reading buddies worked on creating their science journals for our science walks to SHP.  Weather permitting, we plan on going this Friday after lunch!

Week 8

Happy Friday to all of you!

With the end of our 8th week, here are a few happenings from our week...

• We completed unit two in math with an assessment today.  The students are working hard on word problems and explaining their thinking.  We start unit three on Monday (Multiplying and Dividing Decimals).  
• Book clubs are going well and their first club finished on Friday as well.  New clubs will form early next week.  The students worked on thinking and writing deeply about theories and themes in their books.
• Our first narrative is also complete!  We will start raising the level of our writing with another narrative.  Students will ask themselves one essential question about their story.  What is this story really about?
• Students have visited all three worlds and are almost onto the next phase of our Three Worlds Meet unit.

MYSTERY SKYPE! Please see the pictures above!

• Ask your child(ren) all about our first Mystery Skype and their job!  We had reporters, a supervisor, spokespeople, NH experts, runners, notetakers, think tank and lead thinker.
• Here's a blog our reporters wrote about the Mystery Skype!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jxOJGOi7tzNKFX55PBO9mIhRig_4DAR8ozZiKC2uij4/edit?usp=sharing

Remember we have a half day next Wednesday for conferences.  Below is the link you can use to check your conference time.  Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lCKOzW7PiL568U4NvbkTUAQr1Pdu_USk0Uznzdr9r2U/edit

Enjoy your weekend!

Shannon

SHP Team Building!

Words cannot do justice to how powerful our day was... but I'll try my best!  We started the day walking to the park as a class and then talked as a team about why we as teachers, do days like this with the students.  We do it to help them grown cooperatively while living a growth mindset.  It's our hope that each and every student will take what they learn from the day of team building back to the classroom and all through life!

Mrs. Bastille and I took a back seat to observe the kids at work.  A few times we stopped to have them look critically at how they were communicating and if everyone was taking part.  The students reflected, thought carefully and problem solved ways to work better as a unit.  The change I personally saw in my group from the first challenge to the last was an incredible one!  It gave me joy and some goosebumps (and maybe a tiny tear).  

My hope is that each and every child will share with you about the day.  Another hope is that this day furthers transforms and strengthens our classroom culture.

Have a wonderful weekend.  I'll see you at Family Fun Day!  Come down... I'll be volunteering at the games from 5-6:15!

-Shannon

Week 7!

Happy Thursday to all of you!

I'm posting about our week a day early since we have all day tomorrow to team build at Stratham Hill Park.  The class of 20 will be placed into two groups of ten.  I'll be in charge of one group and Mrs. Bastille will be in charge of another.  The students will need to work together to plan, problem solve and communicate to complete their mission.  They will have 8 different tasks throughout the day (we will give them some free time too and of course lunch).  Remind your child(ren) to dress for the weather and bring plenty to drink plus snacks and lunch.  We are leaving for the park at 10:15 and it may be chilly then.  Sneakers or hiking shoes are a must plus plenty of layers!  I'll post some pictures from our day later!

Here's a peek at our week...

• In math the students took a pretest all about adding and subtracting decimals.  We began with drawing decimal addition and subtraction and then working through the problem.  They students played games to support as well.  More problem solving next week followed by a unit assessment.
• In reading students met twice as a book club to first discuss characters and then theories.  Students are working hard at writing about reading (which isn't as simple as it sounds).
• In writing the students attempted to finish their first draft of their narrative (this has been extremely difficult with some tech difficulty we had this week!)
• In social studies the students have become world travelers!  My class has been split into thirds and mixed in with 5W and 5L to visit each world.  I'm hosting the Americas, Mrs. Loh is hosting Africa and Mrs. Wentworth is hosting Europe.  Each student will spend three days in each world.  They will be learning what it was like in that world PRE exploration.  Then our worlds will collide! 

                                                  Book Clubs!

Reminders!

Picture Retakes and 5th grade picture on Thursday, 10/20!

Two Early Releases coming up for conferences on 10/26 and 11/2

No school on Tuesday 11/8 (Teacher Workshop) and  11/11 (Veteran's Day)

Until Monday!!!

-Shannon

Week 6

Happy Columbus Day weekend to all of you!

What a week we had in 5D!  Here's a little taste of what our week was like.

• In math we completed unit one which was all about decimals in our base ten, place value system.  The students have done a wonderful job problem solving, multiplying/dividing base ten exponents as well as rounding/comparing/ordering decimals!  To review all of this we played "TRASHKETBALL" (one of my favorite review games- see the pictures below). Our next math unit is one all about adding/subtracting decimals.  It should be a quick one!

• In writing the students have worked on raising the level of their narrative with picturing their story like a movie in their mind.  We then joined 5L to look at leads in books from our libraries.  Some ideas the students came up with for leads were... adding humor, starting at the end of the story, using vivid details, starting with a quote, starting like a poem.  After, students tried three different kinds of leads for their narrative.

• In reading our first book clubs have been created!  The clubs will involve analyzing themes and literary elements in the book.  Some titles they are reading are...Wonder, Absolutely Almost, Fire Girl, Loser, Freak the Mighty, Maniac McGee.  For homework, all students will bring their book club books home to read.

• We began our first social studies unit with 5L and 5W on Monday.  Our first unit is called "Three Worlds Meet" and is all about early exploration and its impact on our world.  This week we learned about the five themes of geography, how to take notes using the five themes, identify, perspective, our place in the world as well as how to think like a historian.  Over the next two weeks each class will visit a world.  5W will host Europe, 5D will host the Americas and 5L will host Africa.

Accessing online content

• If your child is logging into IXL, they use their normal login name.  Their password is the same as the one they use to log onto the Chromebook and sau email.
• To access 5D Kidblog, please use the sms.sau.org website, scroll to class blogs and find DeLello KidBlog.

REMINDER!

Friday, October 14th we are team building at Stratham Hill Park.  Kids need to dress for the weather (considering it can be 37 degrees at 7am and 70 degrees at 1 pm) and bring drinks and abagged lunch.

Literacy Partnerships for Reading and Writing

TRASHKETBALL!!!!

5D, 5L and 5W learning about the themes of geography

That's all folks!  Enjoy that extra day with your child(ren)!  I know I will!

Until Tuesday....

Shannon