This week guest bloggers Kelli and Samantha will let you know what has been keeping us busy in room 23. 

We have just finished creating PowerPoint presentations for the 13 colonies.  We researched a colony with a partner and then designed slides to teach our classmates about our colony.  We got our pictures off of the Internet to paste on our slides.  We learned to put only one to three words on our bullets.  We learned how to create different backgrounds and have different fonts.  We presented them to the class on the Smartboard. 

We have started our final copies for our personal essays.  We have been working on our rough drafts for about two weeks.  We created a thesis which we must support with specific details.  Hopefully we will be able to persuade our reader to agree with our thinking.

We are finishing up our Andrew Clements author study.  We read lots of his books and completed activities with them.  Some of the books were Things Not Seen, The Report Card, A Week in the Woods, The Janitor’s Boy, Jake Drake Teacher’s Pet, The Landry News and Things Hoped For.  We are now into our second literature circle book.  After that we will write to Mr. Clements, and hopefully he will write back!

 

We are beginning to learn about our earth materials.  We have learned about soil and weathering, rocks and minerals.  We determined different types of rocks by looking at their properties.  We have read about the different types of soil and what effects soil, and how weathering can make caves.  Weathering can also change rocks formation.   

 

 

The fifth grade has just performed it’s winter chorus concert.  Some of the songs were Time of My Life, Dance a Jig, and Just One Small Voice.   In Open Circle we have been learning about leadership. Some children go into kindergarten and first grade classrooms during recess and morning work to help the students learn their flashcards.  Our whole class will be starting buddies with Miss Nally on Tuesday of this week.  We will be helping the children learn how to read!

Happy New Year 2013

We are settling back into our routines very nicely.  We have lots of interesting curriculum to cover before our next break in February.  We are continuing a study of fractions.  Here is a terrific website that offers free printable fraction worksheets, as well as other helpful math resources.   We have begun an author study of Andrew Clements.   We will be reading several of his books as we delve into the Asking Questions unit of study.  We will be writing personal essays over the next several weeks.  We are leaving European Explorers and moving into Colonial America.  In science we are beginning a study of Earth Materials.

Wishing you all the best in 2013.

Curriculum update and conferences

Our determining importance unit is going very well in reading.  The students demonstrate an excellent understanding of how to use text features and text structure to understanding non-fiction, and are now  classifying what's important versus what's interesting. 

We have begun a study of fractions.  The Kahn Academy has numerous videos online which demonstrate how to  do many of the concepts we are studying in math. The videos are excellent because they teach step by step, with the added benefit of being able to stop and rewind to review something that is confusing.  Here is a link to all of their videos on fractions.  I highly recommend that you encourage your child to view any topics which are unclear as we tackle this challenging unit.

In science we are studying states of matter.  Ask your child about the characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases.  

Our study of ancient civilizations has wrapped up, and we are moving on the early European explorers.  We will be researching explorers and creating magazines.  This will showcase our new knowledge of history, as well as give us an authentic reason to write non-fiction articles.

I am looking forward to meeting with everyone next week at conferences.  I want to let you know that I will be adopting a new method of conferencing.  Our meeting will begin with taking 4-5 minutes for you to tell me what you would like me to know about your child.  I will take notes during this portion of our meeting so that I can refer back to them as needed.  I will then take time to tell you about how things are going in the classroom, and answer any questions you  may have.  I realize that the time we have together is extremely limited, and am hopeful that this new method will help to optimize our time together.  

Reading Workshop

          The class has just finished reading Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.  We used an interactive reading approach, and stopped and discussed the book after each chapter.   The children used a variety of reading strategies to deepen their understanding of the text, and learned how to use direct quotes from the book when responding to the text in writing.  They watched how the character changed over the course of the book, and wrote well developed essays including specific details from the text as a culminating activity.  Finally, we will be watching the movie and making comparisons between the two.
          In the coming weeks we will be working on the determining importance unit.  We will be scrutinizing text structure and text features in non-fiction text, and examining how an author uses those to explain things to the reader.  Here is a great poster which explains text structure, and another outlining text features.  Your child will have both of these in their literacy binder at school, however you may wish to print them out to have a copy at home.  We will be working towards a goal of having the children create informational writing pieces using strategies learned in reading workshop.
          Although I do not assign a specific amount of reading each evening, I want to remind families of the importance of reading daily.  Look for as many fun opportunities to read as you can.  Here is a list of suggestions from Scholastic.  Although it is geared for middle schoolers, the ideas are perfect for fifth graders, as well.
          Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Partial product division

          In math we have recently started learning a new way to divide called partial products division. Although this method may appear quite different and more challenging that the traditional way many of us learned, the research indicates that this method reinforces the concept of place value when dividing. Here is a terrific link that breaks this method down into easy to follow steps. 

Inca Posters

Last week the students worked hard researching various aspects of Incan culture.  They then created posters to share their new knowledge with their peers.  Here is what it looked like:

Courtney, Jake, Ben and Yukthi researched Cities of the Incas

Molly, Cloey, Nate, John and Molly researched Incan Agriculture

Lindsey, AJ, Tyler, Will and Sam researched the Inca and his Government

Anthony, Chloe, Camden and Brianna researched the Incan Religion

Tyler, Michael, Kelli and Jacqueline researched Incan Roads and Bridges

Alex, Jalismarie, Trip and William researched the Incas and the Spanish Conquest

They all did a fabulous job working together to research, present and study the information.

Just a reminder that this Thursday we invite all parents to the Living Wax Museum at 9:00 in the cafeteria.  We hope as many of you as possible will join us. 

Virtual Pumpkin Stroll

We were all a little sad that the pumpkin stroll was cancelled due to the hurricane.  Here are some pictures of the doorways that were decorated in anticipation.  Have a safe and Happy Halloween.