Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Here is what we are focusing on this week:


Math: We are finishing up two dimensional figures and will be taking a Module 11/Post-Test on Wednesday.  We will be starting frequency tables and categorical data on Thursday.

Science: Science Adaptation projects were due today.  They are 10 points off for every day they are late.  Thank you for all that finished projects and brought them in today.  I am so excited to see the creativity during our presentations today.  We are studying about inherited traits this week.

Social Studies: We are finishing up the Causes of the Civil War this week and will have a History Alive Ch. 18 quiz on Wednesday. On Thursday we will be starting Ch. 19, the Civil War.

ELAR: We are discussing types of media in Reading this week.  We will also be finishing up this nine weeks' book clubs.  Please sure your students are reading 20 min. per night in order to meet their AR goal.  We will be doing our 2nd composition this Thursday and it will be a cold write: the students will be given a prompt and will have 4 hours to complete their compositions.

***This Friday is “Go Texan” day in the Greater Houston Area as we prepare for the upcoming rodeo season. Our students are welcome to participate that day, and we look forward to seeing all of the cowboys and cowgirls that day!

*** It is that time of year again for the “Pennies for Patients” coin drive where we raise money in order to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, hopefully find a cure soon.  In 2012, Huggins Elementary raised $2,661.75!
Our drive will be for 8 days only - February 23-March 4th, so start looking for coins in the couch!

***Book fair preview begins this week and students will be able to purchase books next week. Due to the book fair the library will be closed. Make sure your child has something to read from home, the public library, or they can select something from my classroom library.

Hope everyone had a great long weekend and stayed warm yesterday as Mother Nature decided to switch from Spring back into Winter :-)!

Here is what is happening this week in 5th grade:

Math: We are finished with our unit on Area/Perimeter/Volume and will be starting our unit on two dimensional shapes. We will have a quiz/spiral review over this on Friday.

Science: We are talking about environmental changes this week and the homework is under the same topic on StemScopes.  Don't forget about the Adaptations project that is due on the 23rd.

Social Studies: We are done with the Industrial Revolution and are starting Ch. 18 in the History Alive book on the Causes of the Civil War.  Our quiz will be next Wed.

ELAR: We are discussing different forms of media in Reading and will still be working on persuasive writing this week in Language Arts.

Don't forget that the Sweetheart Dance is this Friday for all girls at Huggins and will be from 7-9 pm.  It is free for students and $5 for each adult.

Have a great week!

Great job to all of the Sweetheart Stroll participants and to the Science Olympiad competitors!  We had a great showing at both.  Here is what we are studying this week:

We are taking Benchmark Exams this week and the schedule is as follows:
Monday: Reading
Tuesday: Math
Wednesday: Science

These benchmarks are not a grade but the students need to do the best that they can.  We use the data to see where they are still struggling so we can adjust our teaching to meet the gaps.

Math: We are finishing up volume of rectangular prisms and will be starting our unit on 3-D shapes. We have another area/perimenter/volume test on Wed. morning.

Science: We have assigned our "Adaptations" projects and the students will be given the requirements today.  They are to be done at home and won't be due until Feb. 23rd. We will be studying adaptations all week.

Social Studies: We are finishing up the Industrial Revolution and will be testing over it on Tuesday.

ELAR: We are finishing up our first persuasive writing piece and will be doing some practice reading passages this week.

Our Valentine's Day party will be from 8-9 am on Friday and don't forget that it is an early release day at 11:30.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Here are a few things we are working on this week:

Math: We are still working on measurement with area/perimeter/volume.  There will be a Module 9 Assessment on Wednesday over this material. 

Science: We are learning about food webs and chains this week.  We are in the process of building our self-sustaining eco-columns with the donated 2-liter bottles.  As of the moment, we have our elodea, algae, duckweed, fish, and snails in our columns.  They are completely self-sustaining and will not require a pump nor food to keep our fish and snails alive. We are still in need of CLEAR 2 liter bottles for the remainder of the experiment.  Please sent these up as soon as possible.  Thank you!

Social Studies: We are still studying the Industrial Revolution this week.  We will be working on an inventions brochure and will be researching the various inventions from this time period this week.  The students are able to bring their MLD's (Mobile Learning Devices) for research on Tuesday and Wednesday.

ELAR: We are working on our first composition this nine weeks.  We are studying persuasion in both writing and reading.

**Next week we will be taking our Reading, Math, and Science benchmarks to gather data for STAAR prep.  Please make sure your students are present these days and that they are well rested and have had a good breakfast***

***Race Rally this Thursday at the Cross Creek McDonald's and packet pick-up is also available here on Friday***

***Science Olympiad is this Saturday after the Sweetheart Stroll***

We had an awesome short week last week and were able to accomplish a lot even with the field trip to Foster High School for "Once Upon a Mattress".

Here is what we will be learning this week:

Math: We are still in our measurement unit and are studying area, perimeter and volume.  Please still review with your students how to do conversions with both metric and customary units of measurement. Khan Academy has several great videos to help practice these. We will have a spiral review on Friday.

Science: We are still working on our Biomes project presentations.  They are due on Wednesday and the students are hard at work on their posters.  I am impressed with the creativity I am seeing with each of them as they create their posters.  We won't be needing our MLDs this week as the research portion is finished and we are just working on transferring that information to the drawings.  The homework this week is on StemScopes: Food Webs and is due Friday.  The students MUST be working on StemScopes.

Social Studies: We are starting our unit on the Industrial Revolution and will be discussing this over the next few weeks. We will have an in-class project next week and the students will be creating a brochure on the inventions during this time period.  They can bring their MLDs next week.

ELAR: We will be starting our writing process this week on a persuasive writing piece.  We are working on several activities in reading to practice drawing conclusions, making inferences, and providing textual evidence to support our answers.

Have a great week!

I hope everyone enjoyed the extra long weekend.  We have a busy, short week ahead!

Math: We are still working on our measurement unit.  We will be practicing how to do measurement conversions this week using real-world problems, tables, and how to do metric system conversions using the King Henry method.  We will have our Module 13 assessment on Friday over measurement conversions.

Science:  We will be working on our Biomes group research project this week.  The students are allowed to bring their MLDs or Mobile Learning Devices to school for Tuesday and Wednesday (iPods, tablets, smartphones, etc.).  These devices will ONLY be used for research.  Please do not worry if your student does not have access to one.  We also have grade-level laptops that they can use and one class iPad.  They will also need to bring a sheet of posterboard by Thursday to finish their projects.  Their homework for the week will be in StemScopes: Interdependency.  It will be due Friday.  We are seeing a huge correlation between the students who continually work in StemScopes and the ones who do well on their assessments and nine weeks test.  They MUST be practicing in StemScopes in order to be successful.

Social Studies: We are working in History Alive, Chapter 17: The Diverse Peoples of the West this week.  Their HA Ch. 17 quiz will be next Monday.

ELAR: We are starting our Book Clubs this week and all students were given a choice of book and from there we formed our "clubs". They will be meeting twice a week to read together and to have discussions and answer questions about what they have read.  Each week, one club member will be responsible for "hosting" the discussion meeting and they are able to bring snacks for their club.  Please make sure the snacks are simple and not messy and if plates are needed please have them send those as well. The class is really excited about this!

A couple of reminders:
***Thursday: We will be traveling to Foster HS to watch "The Princess and the Pea" production.  Field trip permission slips went home in HOWL folders Friday and need to be returned ASAP. We will be back by lunchtime.

***Report cards will go home on Thursday

***Kindergarten pictures are due by Jan. 30th.  Please send those up as soon as possible if you haven't yet.  If you don't have an actual kinder picture, any picture from that age would be fine.  They WILL be returned to you.

Thank you again for sharing your children with me!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  This week we will be wrapping up the 2nd 9 weeks grading period.  The 9 weeks assessment schedule is as follows:

Wed: Reading and Social Studies
Thurs: Science and Math

Your student were sent home a very in-depth review sheet last week that detailed all of the objects for every subject that they will be tested on.  Please utilize all websites/materials listed on the study guide.

Here is what we will be covering this week in preparation for the end of the nine weeks:

Math: We started last week on measurement and will be working on how to convert units of measurement using both the metric and customary units.  We will be reviewing how to add/subt/multiply/divide fractions for the nine weeks assessment.  Please visit my class Facebook page to see videos for reminders on how to use the different methods.

Science:  We have finished up the section on Earth's rotations and will be discussing the Earth, Sun, and Moon this week.  This week's homework is assigned on StemScopes and will be due Friday.  There will be a major assessment over this section on Friday but if they are prepared for the nine weeks assessment they will do fine on the test just for this section.

Social Studies: We will be reviewing over the three units we covered this nine weeks: the Constitution, the creation of our government and Westward Expansion in preparation for the nine weeks assessment.  Remember that the assessment is not just testing them on their knowledge of this information but also of the application of it.  They will be getting an additional study guide today hitting on the major people/events of these time periods and it needs to be studied in addition to their social studies journal.

ELAR: We are studying sensory imagery this week and prefixes/suffixes.  This is the last week to reach their AR goals so please encourage them to still be reading 20 min/ night and to take their AR tests.

Happy New Year to my entire Huggins "family"!!! I hope that the break was a restful one for everyone!

Here are this week's happenings:

Math: We are wrapping up our unit on coordinate grids and how to plot points using both given points and one based on a rule and an input/output table.  We will be moving into measurement on Thursday. 

Science: We finished up prior to the break our unit on Weather, Climate, and the Water Cycle.  This week we are studying the Earth, Sun, and Moon.  We are discussing the difference between the Earth's rotation vs. It's revolution. Our assessment for this unit will be next Friday, January 16th.  The homework this week is assigned in StemScopes under Earth's Rotation.

Social Studies: We are almost finished with our unit on Westward Expansion.  There will be a History Alive Ch. 16 quiz on Thursday.  Please have your students studying on the tutorial website and they also have been taking notes in their interactive notebooks.

ELAR: We will be beginning our literature circles this week.  We are still working on the elements of Poetry.

Nine Weeks Assessments will be next week and a review sheet was sent home today with your students that had all of the topics we covered in each subject.  Please see the notes at the top of each section that will tell you where to find information in each subject.  The schedule will be as follows:

Reading and Social Studies will be given on Wednesday, Jan. 14th and Math and Science will be given on Thursday, Jan. 15th.

We will have an author visit on Monday.  Please check your email for the attachment.  Thank you and have a great week!

The first semester has definitely flown by and I have enjoyed working with your students.  They are all such neat kiddos and we have had our share of laughs and fun while learning in my classroom. Get lots of rest this next week because come Friday they will be all yours to enjoy for two whole weeks as we bid adieu to 2014.

This is what we are studying this week:

Math:  We have been studying coordinate grids and how to find patterns to generate coordinate points to graph.  They seem to have picked up on this skill rather quickly and are working hard.  We will be continuing this in the last week before the break.  We will be taking a Module 10 assessment and algebra post-test (expressions/equations, patterns, graphing) on Monday, Dec. 16th. On Thursday, we will be taking a Module 14 quiz on ordered pairs and relationships.

Science: We have finished discussing the differences between weather and climate. We are starting the Water Cycle next week.  The homework for the week will be on StemScopes on the water cycle. They will be taking a Weather, Climate, and Water Cycle Assessment on Thursday, the 18th.

Social Studies: We are continuing our unit on Westward Expansion this week and will be discussing the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the War of 1812, Texas Annexation, and the Oregon Trail.  We will not have a quiz/assessment over this material until after the break.

ELAR: We are making inferences and drawing conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry this week.  We will also be writing our second composition of the 2nd Nine Weeks this week.

Our Christmas party will be on Friday from 10:30 - 11:30.  I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and is ready for the last school week of 2014!

We have been working hard and going full throttle in the weeks leading up to Christmas break.  The students are learning new objectives and staying focused despite how close we are to the holidays.  I am very impressed and happy with how hard they are working.  Here's what we are working on next week:

Math: In math we are finished with equations and expressions. We are now moving into graphing and patterns. There were will not be a test next Friday. We will take one on the following Monday instead.

Science: We have finished learning about alternative energy resources, fossil fuels, and fossils.  We are now moving into our weather and climate unit. The weather and climate assessment will be given on the Thursday before we get out for Christmas break.

Social Studies: We are finished discussing the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  We are now starting our unit on Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion.  There won't be a quiz or assessment this week.  There will be a quiz on the Wednesday before Christmas break.

ELA: In reading we have finished our novel study on The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe and will be taking a test over the novel (it is also an AR book) and will be watching the movie during the week before the break.

A couple of reminders:
***Saturday is the Fulshear "Parade of Lights" and our choir will be performing.  Come out and support our 5th grade choir members!
***Tuesday, Dec. 9th is our next Spirit Night at the Chickfila in the Bella Terra shopping center.
***Thursday is our "Coffee with the Principal" and FOH meeting
***Progress Reports will go home Thursday

Have a fantastic weekend!