Week 9!

Wow, we are already at the end of week nine here in 5th grade!  This time has flown and the students are really working hard to raise the level of their thinking and working.

First, a couple important reminders!

Students will be hiking with their first grade buddies on Halloween.  We will hike in the woods behind the school around 1 pm.  Students should wear appropriate shoes and jackets.  We will go weather permitting.

Halloween celebration will be on the 31st at 2 pm.  Our room parent sent an email.  Food can come in Monday or Tuesday.  I like to keep things simple in 5D! :)

Conferences will be 11/1 and 11/8.  Each conference will have 15 minutes.  I have no breaks in between so please be prompt.

Here's what we did this week.

Math:

• Problem solved +/- decimals
• Played Trashketball to review
• Finished unit 2 with an assessment
• Shopped for HALLOWEEN candy at Can-De-Loh Depot (REAL LIFE DECIMALS!!!)

Literacy:

• Book clubs discussed character growth
• Read more to try to finish and talk about all the literary elements we've talked about
• Began a book club project on a website called Buncee (have your kids show you at home)
• Brainstormed realistic fiction stories
• Began writing using all our narrative focus lessons

Social Studies:

• Students presented projects
• Green screen, music, iMovie, skits, news shows were among some of the exemplars

Word Study:

• We are starting Words their Way and the whole class will be working on homophones for their first sort

Math Assessments are coming home today so students can rework any errors to earn back a little credit.  You'll see the grade as a fraction for now! They should return this with all corrected work to me on Monday.  Thanks for your help.

Book Clubs!

Three Worlds Meet Projects

Trashketball

Enjoy your weekend!

Shannon

Some Extra Fun from Today

It's so important to find joy each and every day.  Here's some joy we found today... 

Field Hockey in PE....

 Who had more fun?  I think I did.  Kids got to see my competitive side... 

Science Buddies starting our Science Journals in the Garden

End up Week 8!

Happy Friday to all of you!  What a fantastic week we had!  Here's a look into what we did....

Math:

• Began Unit 2: Adding/Subtracting Decimals
• Saw addition and subtraction visually
• Understood money and lining up decimal points
• Learned to add zeroes with subtraction and regrouping
• Played games with 5L on Friday

Literacy:

• Made sure our theme of our narrative was obvious
• Self and peer edited our writing
• Met as book clubs to talk about our books
• Took a spelling pre-assessment (groups will begin soon)

Social Studies:

• Researched, created and practiced our Three World's Meet projects

Garden Help!

• 5D/5L went out and helped in so many ways to put the SMS garden to bed (I sort of wanted to bring them all to my house next... there's a lot on my outdoor to do list) :)

Important Dates

10/31 Halloween Celebration (email will come from the room parent)

Early Release days on 11/1 and 11/8 for Conferences!!!

Weeks of November 1st and 8th.  Let me know a time for you if you haven't already signed up.

Garden Helpers 

Enjoy your weekend!

Shannon

End of Week 7!

Good afternoon friends and families of 5D!

Well, for a shortened week, the students sure did a lot of exciting learning!  Here's a little about our week!

Math:

• Played TRASHKETBALL to review our unit 1 concepts
• Took our assessment (scores will go home next week and students will have an opportunity to rework mistakes)
• Game Day Friday to celebrate conquering our first unit
• Pre-Assess for unit 2 on Monday- Adding and Subtracting Decimals

Literacy:

• Fishbowled a book club in action to see their moves and talk
• Book Clubs met to practice what we saw in the Fishbowl
• Gave characters advice from their problems
• Created a story mountain to help organize our narrative
• Learned creative elaboration to make small moments sound exciting

Social Studies

• Worked on a planning document as a group on our Three Worlds Meet Project
• Highlighted notes that will help with our projects
• Began doing more research for our project
• Received help from some 5D and 5L graduates who are now 7th graders!

Important Dates!

Conference sign ups!  

Early Release Days... Wednesdays, November 1st and 8th

See link below

5D Conference Sign Ups

Social Studies Projects

TRASHKETBALL- Backboard Round!

More Trashketball!

Book Clubs in Action!

Have a fantastic weekend to all!  Enjoy your kiddos most of all!

Shannon

Week 6!

Hello friends and families of 5D!

Another fantastic week done.  I cannot believe how hard the students are working in each and every part of the day!  It definitely makes me smile to see the amount of learning and effort in 5D!

Here are some of the things we did this week...

Math:

• We worked HARD on multiplying and dividing decimals by powers of ten
• We learned 1/10th and ten times a a number and beyond
• We tried hard to read decimals to the millionths and achieved it!
• We read Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar as well as One Grain of Rice
• We played games with 5L
• A unit assessment will happen next Thursday (we will review Tuesday-Wednesday and students will bring home a study guide)

Literacy:

• We worked as book clubs to talk about character problems and possible lessons they may learn
• We dabbled in themes for The Honest Truth
• We opened up our minds in book club as we shared different perspectives
• We wrote POWERFUL leads for our narrative using author insipation
• We continued writing our narrative
• Scar Island is our new Read Aloud

Social Studies

• Europe is complete and now the students are better understanding the perspectives of all three worlds on exploration.  Exploration was GREAT for some and TERRIBLE for others.  The students brainstormed topics for a projects and ways to showcase their learning.  Next week they will work in groups to begin their project.

Social Hour

• This time was spent talking about safety and letting adults know when one is frightened or anxious about something going on.  We addressed this due to an incident during our Team Building day at SHP. 

Buddies

• We met our Koala reading buddies today briefly.  We will be hiking with them occasionally to being our science walks and work.  I'll let you know ahead of time when these happen so students are dressed appropriately.

Fun with 5L

• This afternoon we had a blast with 5L.  After a little friendly competition of "sprinting and high knees", we enjoyed a 5D vs 5L kickball game.  I'm not sure who had more fun... the students or the teachers!

SeeSaw Reflections

Math Games with 5L

Enjoy your three day weekend!

Shannon

Week 5

Hello all,

What a great day we had a Stratham Hill Park.  Through many activities, the students needed to work together to solve problems.  We all learned a lot about each other and how we work best as a team.  These days help us exponentially!

Here's a glimpse into the rest of our week...

Math

• Rounded decimals
• Explored powers of ten to get ready for next week
• Completed a diagnostic assessment in iReady that gives me great information

Literacy

• Attended our first book club and worked on the constitution of set rules and norms
• Studied our internal and external character traits
• Benchmarked most students in reading (I learn so much from this and will share it during conference time)

Social Studies

• Put ourselves in the shoes of an early explorer
• Learned about Africa and what it was like before exploration
• Learned about why the people of Africa were taken to the Americas

Art: Kids will be going out for art this Monday so make sure they are dressed for the weather.

Blind-folded Explorers

SHP Team Building

Tarp Flip and Knot Tie

Human Ladder and Build a Shelter

Noodle Stroll 

See you Monday!

Shannon