Week of 12/17-12/21

Happy Holidays!

Bloggers: Chloe and Eesha

Photos by Chris

It was a great week for 5DL! We learned how to write poems, we painted, and we started a new unit in math!

Math

In Math we…

• Started Unit 4 Division with Decimals Unit
• Learned about Divisibility Rules
• Learned how to turn remainders into decimals
• Learned whole number division
• People came to observe our Math Menu from Dover
• We continued more division!
• Started our planning for Gingerbread Math Project
• Started making our Gingerbread project.

Literacy

• We picked a current event and a social emotional we were interested in and picked main questions and brainstormed supporting ones.
• We picked out which world changers really changed the world
• We did more with world changers
• We got a special visit  from Peri! (Mrs. Belanger’s dog!)

Houses

• In houses we got introduced to the gingerbread house project!
• Each  student brought supplies to make their own gingerbread house in a group, which will be part of a bigger class gingerbread community!
• We watched a video on a guy that made a huge city out of gingerbread in about 10 days for inspiration for our project

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What is your theme for the Gingerbread S.T.E.M project?
• What does gratitude mean?
• What is an I Can statement that you’re working on in Math?
• What topics did you pick in literacy?
• What did you do for your winter pomey craft?
• What did you learn in choose love? (Hint: Sam said it 3 times in the Choose Love part)

Choose Love

• We learned more about gratitude
• We learned the gratitude breath
• We learned how to be courageous and have gratitude

THANK YOU so much for helping out a family in need this holiday season! This 

meant the world to me! I wish you all a happy vacation filled with tons of memories to last a lifetime! Also, THANK YOU for the gift card to Golf and Ski!!! It will go 

to good use to make sure our experiences this winter are top notch! So generous and kind of all of you!

Love and Light,

Shannon

Week of 12/3-12/7

Week of 12/3

Guest Bloggers: Chloe T and Eesha S

Guest Photographer: Chris P.

Another great week of 5DL! We played Trashketball, had a test, the houses got together to make holiday cards for soldiers and did a huge brain dump in literacy!

Math:

In Math we:

• Played Trashketball to review for Unit 3
• Had our Unit 3 Post-Assessment
• Did a Math Reflection
• Had our Unit 4 Pre-Assessment

Here’s everyone doing an awesome job at Trashketball and being great sports!

Houses:

For our house meetings we:

• Made holiday cards for the soldiers!
• Everyone put their best effort into it!

Science:

• Went to other 5th grade classes
• Learned about Homogenous and Heterogenous mixtures in Mrs. Craig’s class
• We did  experiments in Mrs. Pinsonnault class
• We learned about measurable and observable objects in Mrs. Wentworth’s Class
• We learned about the difference between physical and chemical changes class with Mrs. DeLello and Mrs. Loh. We also did an experiment involving dirty pennies and salt vinegar.

Here we are in Mrs. Pinsonnault class observing water droplets, making diagrams and explaining our thinking!

Literacy

In literacy we:

• Started our Non-Fiction Reading unit a week ago.
• Learned 3 different ways to take notes on Non-Fiction books.
• Did a brain dump about Current Events, World Changers/Improvers and Social/Emotional.
• Split off into partnerships to practice getting good solid questions.
• Everyone had awesome ideas and questions!

Here are all of the sticky notes we brainstormed in our brain dump. Everyone participated and shared their ideas. Great job guys!

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What topics did you decide to ask questions about in Literacy?
• Where are you in math?
• What topic in Literacy from the Brain Dump was your favorite?
• What are you learning in Choose Love?
• What is the C.A.L.M way to work out things?
• How do you like the way you do math?

Important Info/Dates

• Early release 12/13
• Gingerbread house materials due 12/17
• Puberty 12/17-12/18

Choose Love

• In choose Love we learned about gratitude, and gratitude breaths
• Choose love is a social/emotional curriculum that teaches how to have Courage, gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion

Blogging by: Eesha and Chloe 5D and Sam and Josh 5L.

Pictures by: Chris 5D.

Week of November 26-30

Happy Weekend, 5D Families!

What a busy week we had!  Your children are working so hard in each and every part of their day.  Here's a glimpse into our week...

Math

• Math Menu is continuing with multiplication of whole numbers and decimals
• Explored area models
• Learned the traditional method of multiplication
• Practiced a lot
• Problem solved
• Understood that the product gets smaller with a decimal X decimal

Literacy

• Began our Non-Fiction unit
• Noticed how these kinds of book are written
• Read aloud from an amazing book on animal defenses
• Practiced taking notes as "Topic-Sub Topic-Details"
• Also practiced "Boxes and Bullets" to organize our notes

Science

• 5D students visited other classrooms this week
• In 5W, they worked on observable and measurable properties of matter
• In 5P, they worked on properties of water

Choose Love

• This week's lesson focused on CALM, a strategy to use when faced with a problem
• C = Cooperate
• A = Ask Questions
• L = Listen
• M = Make Your Move
• Mrs. Loh and I modeled arguments students may encounter and then students in groups modeled their own

Congrats to 5D's Bhumika for being the Artsonia Artist of the week!  Go on over to Artsonia to check it out.  If you are not yet on Artsonia, let me know and I'll send you a link to join!

Enjoy some pictures from our week...

"Non Fiction Noticing"

Reading Non Fiction

Until Monday....

Shannon

Week of November 13-16

Happy first 2 hour delay!

Wow, I cannot believe the snow amounts we got over last night!  I wonder what the rest of our fall/winter will be like!  

The students have been working really hard this week.  Here's a glimpse into what they've been working on...

Literacy

• Writing different kinds of poems based on their narrative (Lyrical, Free Verse, Ballad)
• Practiced their poem on SeeSaw to see where to improve
• Practiced with partners as well
• Book clubs started up again
• Groups did a SeeSaw activity on a character

Math

• Unit 3 began
• Students met with me to discuss where to start in the unit based on their pre-assessment
• Full menu began with students in may different places and going at a pace that works for each individual

Science

• New unit on Matter
• Students have worked in 5D and 5L on many experiments showing the difference between PHYSICAL and CHEMICAL changes
• Students will travel to the other 5th grade classrooms after Thanksgiving break

Choose Love

• Please ask your child about the important lessons we've done this week
• We talked about being courageous and how that can make you a happier and healthier person
• We talked about the brain and how it works when you are feeling anxious or scared
• Kids created personal mantras and their own brave breath stance for a "Choose Love App"
• We have a bulletin board showcasing all this important work!

Read Aloud

• We started a new book called Restart.  Ask your child about it! It's hard to put down!

Next week we only have Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday is a day off to prep for your holiday!  Time to be thankful and grateful!

Choose Love Apps

Enjoy the weekend!

Shannon

November 5-9

Happy Friday 5D Families!

Want to help out the Book Fair?  Here's a sign up!  

 https://volunteer.scholastic.com/#/signup/oZH4ELaZP 

This week the students were quite busy in all academic areas!  Here are some pictures to enjoy and questions to ask about their week.

Questions to promote school conversation...

• What did you put on SeeSaw this week?
• What was Trashketball like?
• What kinds of poems did you learn about?
• How are you changing your narrative into a poem?
• What have you learned about matter so far?
• What kind of experiment did you do?
• How were Houses on Friday afternoon?

Some pictures of Trashketball

Students put a few things each week on SeeSaw.  It's a great way to showcase learning.  If you have not signed up yet, let me know and I will send the link again.

A reminder of items we need for a craft and science experiment if you have them to spare.  It would be great to have these items early next week.  Thanks in advance!

For science

graham crackers

hershey's chocolate bars

oreos

heavy whipping cream

marshmallows

For a craft

mason jars (no top please-medium size)

ribbons

gems 

hot glue sticks

Have a wonderful THREE DAY weekend in honor of our VETERANS!

Shannon

Week of October 29- November 2

 Happy Friday to all!

Thank you to the parents who came in this week for conferences.  It was great to celebrate your child with you!

A few nuts and bolts for this week...

• Reminder that the conference notes will be the report card for this quarter.  Look for an envelope in your child's bag. (The ones from this week will go home Monday.)

• Make sure your child shows you their Digital Reader's and Writer's notebooks on a regular basis!  They should be proud of their work in progress.

• We work on these each and every day and it'll keep you updated on what we are working on in literacy.

• IXL practice:  You are more than welcome to have your child practice IXL.  Use any topics they need to review or strengthen from grades 3 and 4 (place value, decimals and intro to fractions).  5th grade concepts can be studied during our units. You can also use beyond 5th to challenge if he/she is ready for it!

• Every student should be reading each and every night for 20-30 minutes.  This will really help boost their reading muscles!

• Math facts should be done nightly if your child has not mastered them.  I used to keep cards in my car and have my own children read them to me on a long car trip, during carpool, or at a simple stop light.

• Thank you for all the goodies on Wednesday.  The new Wellness policy is in effect so no worries if your stuff wasn't sent to Nurse Lilly prior to 48 hours.  It's a work in progress.

Buddy Nature Craft on Wednesday

Have a wonderful weekend!

Shannon

Week of October 22-26

Hello families,

The kids have been busy this week reflecting on quarter one.  They've also started Three Worlds Meet projects in groups.  Make sure to ask your child about these things as well as our new "Choose Love" social curriculum and playing games with buddies.  Thanks to the parents I sat down with this week!  I look forward to meeting with the rest of you next week.

Early Release this Thursday at 12:50.

Enjoy some pictures of our Buddies!  We had a blast.

More importantly, enjoy the weekend with your children!

Shannon

October 15-19

Happy Friday 5D Families!

The students have been working diligently in all curriculum areas so far this year.  See what they've been working on!

Math

• Math Menu is still going well with check ins each day to make sure the students know what they need
• We have worked on multiplying and dividing decimals by powers of ten
• Reinforced the decimal point moving to the right with multiplication
• Reinforced the decimal point moving to the left with division
• Practiced ten times more and 1/10th of within place value
• Reviewed our first unit
• Played TRASHKETBALL and then took a unit assessment

Literacy

• Book Clubs have continued with character problems as well as plot versus theme
• Book range from The Thing About Jellyfish to Schooled,  Wringer,  Absolutely Almost and Rules
• Students should be reading nightly from their book AND keeping track of their things on sticky notes or in an electronic document
• In writing, students took a second look at their lead and reworked it using a mini-lesson on effective leads (Mystery, Dead End, Onomatopoeia, Descriptive, Question)
• Students were asked to work with literacy partners to get to the bottom of what their story is truly about ( the "SO WHAT?" of the story)

Social Studies

• We've visited all three worlds in depth, pre-exploration
• Push and Pull factors of exploration were discovered
• Students worked on the Venn-Doodle Gram to add these factors
• Ask your child if they thing exploration was a good or bath thing depending on who you were
• Ask them about how Africans ended up in the Americas and how slavery began
• History and perspective is an amazing life lesson

Remember we have conferences on 10/25 and 11/1 so those Thursdays will be early releases at 12:50.

Our school day will end at 2:55 starting on 10/29.  Also, lunch and recess have been changed to 25 minutes a piece.

Wellness Policy can be found here.  Letter

Halloween Party will be on 10/31 starting after lunch.  A signup will go out and you can send things in with your child.  

Literacy Partners

Math Games to Review!

Book Clubs

Have a wonderful, crisp fall weekend with your children!

 ☼ Shannon