Friday, October 25, 2013

Phew! We made it!

We have successfully made it through the first 9 weeks grading period!  Your students worked so hard to master their 9 weeks' objectives.  Just a recap of the last 9 weeks:

Math: We studied place value up to the hundred billions (WOW!  So many zeros!), adding and subtracting decimals, multiplication with 2 and 3 digit multipliers, and division with 2 and 3 digit dividends. We started our guided math groups and they have been working beautifully in their small groups and self-managing their behavior.  We are now moving into fractions.

Social Studies: We explored the world of the Native Americans, dove deep into the depths of the oceans to see what the early explorers carried to the New World, sailed across the Atlantic with the Pilgrims, colonized the original 13 colonies, reenacted "No taxation without representation" with the activity "King's M&Ms" and understood how unfair King George III was to the colonists (no one liked losing their money -M&Ms- to unfair taxes), declared our indendence from Britain and are now fighting in the Revolutionary War. We will continue to study the beginnings of this great nation in the 2nd 9 weeks.

Science: We studied science lab safety, what tools scientists use, the properties of matter (we even made ice cream to show changing states!), types of energy, electricity and  the effects of force and motion.  We participated in numerous labs: making a circuit, and even designing our own experiment to test force and motion using the scientific method.

ELAR: We studied how to write good sentences, types of verbs, and types of nouns in language arts.  In reading, we spent a lot of time studying our schema, metacognition (thinking about our reading), foreshadowing, comparing texts, and inferencing---all very hard skills.  All students took the "fake reading" pledge to prove their determination to go deeper into their reading, using textual clues to draw conclusions about the plot, setting, and characters.  We will continue to study inferencing this next 9 weeks!

A big thank you to all of the parents who have continuously supported us by sending in supplies for our classroom for activities and labs.  Please continue to be on the lookout for SignUp Genius invites for future events/activities.

Our Fall Carnival is on Sat., Nov. 9th from 1-5 p.m. and we are still in need of parent volunteers to man our two 5th grade booths.  Please check the email from SignUp Genius.

Parent/Teacher conferences are coming up.  In order to receive your student's report card you MUST attend a face-to-face conference with me.  I no longer have slots for 10/30 or 11/4.  I still have several on 11/7.  Please sign up for a slot!

Don't forget that Nov. 7 & 8 are early release days.

Thanks so much for all you do and have a great weekend!

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