It's been a COLD week and 2 days in 5th grade! The cold weather that blew in didn't keep my wonderful family from learning and working hard. Just a recap of the last 7 days:
Math: We are still covering fractions and have moved into adding, subtracting and relating our fractions to a number line. We will continue to work on these skills the week after our Thanksgiving break. We successfully post-tested on comparing and ordering fractions last week and I have to say I not only had 100% pass but had every single one make huge gains from their pre-test! Please keep encouraging and motivating your scholar to work hard and practice, practice, practice. All students are loaded into the Think Through Math and Study Island websites. Please have them log in and practice daily. Even 10-15 minutes a night makes a huge difference!
Science: We covered alternative energy sources last week and even did a mini-project that we presented today. They all did a great job with their mini-research topics and did a fantastic job presenting to our class. Next week we will finish up alternate energy sources and move into our weather and climate unit.
Social Studies: We finished up covering the Bill of Rights and will be testing on it the Tuesday after we get back. Please have your scholar log into the History Alive tutorial site and take the Ch. 15 practice quiz to ensure they are familiar with the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments and can identify what freedoms they each protect. We will be playing review games on Monday to help them prepare. On Wednesday we will move into Ch. 16 and will be covering Manifest Destiny and settling the West!
ELAR: We finished up talking about test features of non-fiction works and your scholar should be familiar with all of them. We just pre-tested on text structures and will be spending the next couple of weeks covering the different ways texts are organized. Inferencing is still an underlying skill that they are all struggling with and it is a very important objective that they MUST master. Please have them work on Study Island on the reading passages and they now have access to IStation which is also another tutorial site. They were given their login information last week and should be able to log in from home.
Don't forget we have two different field trips scheduled for next week: a school-wide field trip to Foster HS on Thursday to watch their production of Beauty and the Beast (no lunch is required for this-we will be eating at school their usual way) and the annual 5th grade field trip on Friday. We will be visiting the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Please remember to send permission slips back for both (I am still missing a few) and if you want to chaperone, please send back the form and the fee for your entrance into the museum. Your scholar will need to pack a lunch for this trip.
I truly hope that your family enjoys the time off to be with family and to celebrate all of the many blessings in your lives. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Thank you to all of the parents who made it out to the Fall Carnival and volunteered your time to help raise money for Huggins! If I didn't see you and thank you personally on Saturday, please accept my gratitude for all you do for our school and students.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with every single one of you in our parent conferences over the last couple of weeks to talk about your scholar's successes and progress. It was nice to put faces to names and to share what has been going on.
This week's happenings:
Math: We are still working very hard on fractions in math. We have talked about proper and improper fractions, mixed numbers, equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, the GCF (greatest common factor) and LCM/LCD (least common multiple/least common denominator). We will continue to work on these skills over the next week and move into adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators and ordering and comparing mixed numbers. I have loaded assignments into Study Island (www.studyisland.com) and to access this site, your scholar needs their username (first initial, last name @huggins ex: tmefford@huggins and their password is their ID number. They are to be working on this site as much as possible to reinforce skills at home. We will have a Spiral Review on Thursday to check their progress on fractions.
Science: We have talked about sedimentary rock layers to study our Earth's past, nonrenewable resources and fossils fuels and weathering and erosion. Next week we will talk about caves and renewable energy. The students will have an at-home mini-project on alternative energy that we will discuss on Thursday. It will be due on Monday with presentations. They also have a major 9 weeks project that will be due on Dec. 13th.
Social Studies: We are still talking about the Constitution and Early America. We are currently finishing up Chapter 14 in the History Alive book so please have your scholar take the practice assessment online at home to review. They will have a Ch. 14 quiz on Wed. We will move into talking about the Bill of Rights specifically at the end of the week.
ELAR: We have been working hard on our inferencing skills and incorporating the skills into our Book Clubs. The students are enjoying the novels they picked and their Book Clubs. Next week we will move into talking about non-fiction and text features. Have your scholar look at a magazine and newspaper and have them point out the different features that make up non-fiction. We will also continue to work on our inferencing in our Book Clubs at the end of the week.
We are close to the holidays and I know that the tendency is for the students to become less motivated in their studies. Please encourage them to continue to work hard. We have just a week and a half until Thanksgiving Break and then just three short weeks after that before Christmas. We want them to rest up during the breaks because we still have a hard road ahead of us before the STAAR testing in the spring. Please remember that this is a crucial year for your scholar. They have three tests: science, reading and math and mastery on the reading and math tests is required to move on to 6th grade.
Thank you for all you do and please have a great weekend!
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with every single one of you in our parent conferences over the last couple of weeks to talk about your scholar's successes and progress. It was nice to put faces to names and to share what has been going on.
This week's happenings:
Math: We are still working very hard on fractions in math. We have talked about proper and improper fractions, mixed numbers, equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, the GCF (greatest common factor) and LCM/LCD (least common multiple/least common denominator). We will continue to work on these skills over the next week and move into adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators and ordering and comparing mixed numbers. I have loaded assignments into Study Island (www.studyisland.com) and to access this site, your scholar needs their username (first initial, last name @huggins ex: tmefford@huggins and their password is their ID number. They are to be working on this site as much as possible to reinforce skills at home. We will have a Spiral Review on Thursday to check their progress on fractions.
Science: We have talked about sedimentary rock layers to study our Earth's past, nonrenewable resources and fossils fuels and weathering and erosion. Next week we will talk about caves and renewable energy. The students will have an at-home mini-project on alternative energy that we will discuss on Thursday. It will be due on Monday with presentations. They also have a major 9 weeks project that will be due on Dec. 13th.
Social Studies: We are still talking about the Constitution and Early America. We are currently finishing up Chapter 14 in the History Alive book so please have your scholar take the practice assessment online at home to review. They will have a Ch. 14 quiz on Wed. We will move into talking about the Bill of Rights specifically at the end of the week.
ELAR: We have been working hard on our inferencing skills and incorporating the skills into our Book Clubs. The students are enjoying the novels they picked and their Book Clubs. Next week we will move into talking about non-fiction and text features. Have your scholar look at a magazine and newspaper and have them point out the different features that make up non-fiction. We will also continue to work on our inferencing in our Book Clubs at the end of the week.
We are close to the holidays and I know that the tendency is for the students to become less motivated in their studies. Please encourage them to continue to work hard. We have just a week and a half until Thanksgiving Break and then just three short weeks after that before Christmas. We want them to rest up during the breaks because we still have a hard road ahead of us before the STAAR testing in the spring. Please remember that this is a crucial year for your scholar. They have three tests: science, reading and math and mastery on the reading and math tests is required to move on to 6th grade.
Thank you for all you do and please have a great weekend!
Friday, November 8, 2013
We've had a very busy week this week!!! Thank you to all of the parents who came out to Open House and also all who supported our wonderful 5th graders at the BBQ dinner and bake sale fundraiser. Movie Night on Thursday night was a fun night for all and I was pleased to see several members of my Huggins family out enjoying the cool weather, concessions and movie! We have wrapped up parent conferences and my family had 100% participation. Thank you so much for finding time in your busy schedules to sit down with me one on one to discuss your scholar's progress! It was so nice to put names to faces and meet everyone again!
This has been a busy week and it isn't quite over! Please come out to Huggins on Saturday from 1-5 and enjoy our annual Fall Carnival. Thank you to FOH and the many parents who have volunteered their time to help make this year's carnival a rousing success!
School pictures are in so please check your scholar's HOWL folder! Don't they look awesome????
Just a recap of this week:
Math: We are still working very hard on fractions, GCF (ask your scholars what this means :) ), and equivalent fractions. We will continue to be reviewing and studying fractions for the next week.
Science: We studied weathering and erosion this week and even did a lab on sedimentary layers to see how sedimentary rock layers are formed (I promise you sent the cereal, cups and spoons up here for a reason!) using different types of cereals to represent the different types of sediments that make up the layers. Next week we will be learning about how to use this information to study our Earth's past.
Social Studies: We have wrapped up talking about the events leading up to the Revolutionary War and the war itself. We will now be learning about our constitution and how our government and country came to be. We will be studying this in our History Alive book with Ch. 14 so please have your scholars practice by taking the assessment on the History Alive website we have been using. (link is on a sticker in their planners)
ELAR: We are still talking about inferencing (such a hard skill!) but are now moving into different genres with our inferencing practice. Remind your scholars that they are to be reading for 30 minutes each night in order to meet their AR goal. To practice inferencing at home, ask them questions about what they are reading at different points and ask them to use their text clues and schema to make an inference about their book!
Please don't forget about our Veteran's Day program on Thursday, Nov. 14th at 1:30 and 6:30. They have been working extra hard on this fantastic program honoring the men and women who have bravely served our country!
Have a great weekend and hope to see y'all at the carnival!
This has been a busy week and it isn't quite over! Please come out to Huggins on Saturday from 1-5 and enjoy our annual Fall Carnival. Thank you to FOH and the many parents who have volunteered their time to help make this year's carnival a rousing success!
School pictures are in so please check your scholar's HOWL folder! Don't they look awesome????
Just a recap of this week:
Math: We are still working very hard on fractions, GCF (ask your scholars what this means :) ), and equivalent fractions. We will continue to be reviewing and studying fractions for the next week.
Science: We studied weathering and erosion this week and even did a lab on sedimentary layers to see how sedimentary rock layers are formed (I promise you sent the cereal, cups and spoons up here for a reason!) using different types of cereals to represent the different types of sediments that make up the layers. Next week we will be learning about how to use this information to study our Earth's past.
Social Studies: We have wrapped up talking about the events leading up to the Revolutionary War and the war itself. We will now be learning about our constitution and how our government and country came to be. We will be studying this in our History Alive book with Ch. 14 so please have your scholars practice by taking the assessment on the History Alive website we have been using. (link is on a sticker in their planners)
ELAR: We are still talking about inferencing (such a hard skill!) but are now moving into different genres with our inferencing practice. Remind your scholars that they are to be reading for 30 minutes each night in order to meet their AR goal. To practice inferencing at home, ask them questions about what they are reading at different points and ask them to use their text clues and schema to make an inference about their book!
Please don't forget about our Veteran's Day program on Thursday, Nov. 14th at 1:30 and 6:30. They have been working extra hard on this fantastic program honoring the men and women who have bravely served our country!
Have a great weekend and hope to see y'all at the carnival!
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