November 27- November 30

I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving break! It's been fun getting back together with your kids. 

Eloquence Day: Earlier I mentioned that Eloquence Day would be December 20th. We have changed this to December 21st. Students are expected to dress up- girls skirts or dresses if possible. Boys wear khakis/slacks and a nice shirt. I would NOT expect anyone to purchase something new for this. Boys frequently don't have anything but jeans. If that's the case, wear the nicest ones you have. This should be fun, not stressful.
 

In January we will be having a Grand Valley student, Scott Klunder, in to assist 3 mornings and 1 full day each week from 
January 7th -April 16th.
  
NEW ON MY FUSION PAGE:

Under the topic "Comprehension Pages" your child can click and go to a site that has many short passages and 10 questions to respond to. There are various levels. A goal for the January 5th grade Dibels testing is to be able to read 120 words per minute with 98% accuracy. Another is goal is to be able to read a passage aloud and retell the main idea and 3 details. These could be used for practice.

Study Stacks: I have shown the class Study Stacks which is a vocabulary study site. I have linked it to their science Edmodo page but will get it on the fusion site soon. You can read more below in the science section.

 

November Book Projects: Students should be finished or nearly finished reading their November books. Everyone has chosen their project and have rubrics- I passed them out a 2nd time before Thanksgiving for those who needed them. They know this is due December 3rd. I am happy to help at school and they have been offered materials if necessary. Powerpoints, etc. can be sent to my email and presented from my computer.

There will be no project for December, but I expect students to read. They will be able to give me a short summary, written or verbal, and receive a certificate to Pizza Hut.

HOMEWORK: Students have a reading comprehension passage and should finish Lesson 22 if it wasn't completed. 
 

 Math:   

   We took the multiplication test Thursday. I am showing kids their percentages so they are aware of what their grade would be in middle school. We have talked a lot about how small mistakes from not checking work can be an issue. 
We will continue to review multiplication and decimals. We began our dividing whole numbers unit on Wednesday. We have been giving dividing a lot of attention during RTI. Students are working the problems using the regular algorithm, but will be learning another way which they will also have to show.
The fusion site has some practice activities.
 

Reading: The students loved "A Long Way from Chicago". We wrapped up our discussion today.We are beginning our next genre unit tomorrow. The theme is "Facing a Challenge" and the novel is Sign of the Beaver. Just a heads up- this is the unit where students make the log cabin using a description from the book.I will send more info early next week. We are going to make log cabins an OPTIONAL project. 

Writing: 

Students wrote a paragraph about what it would be like if they lived in a snow globe to place on our bulletin board entitled, "If I were in a Snow Globe". These were so fun to read! We began a new persuasive paper. Students are choosing a fruit or vegetable to research. They will then write a persuasive election speech trying to get us to vote for their choice for "Fruit or Vegetable of the Year". Our focus is using a persuasive voice, idea development, and public speaking. Today they researched and took notes. They will write and present their speeches. Many of them want to make campaign flyers, signs, and bring in the fruit or vegetable of their choice. We'll tape these and put them on their web pages.

Spelling: 

This week's skill was prefixes. Prefixes change the meaning of a word and the base word does not change. We also began looking at rules for using commas. Today was how a comma is used with a city and state and when addressing someone else. 
 I sent home this week's and next week's lists on Tuesday.

Science: Science will be much more hands on with this unit! Yea! It is "Forces and Motion". They will need to cooperate in groups to design investigations, run trials, and record their information. We often run into issues with cooperation with this unit, and it is a good place to discuss cooperating skills, sharing, delegating, and compromising.
  This week students have been working in groups to make a marble take the longest amount of time to go from one end of the table to the other. They are designing and testing various set-ups. I have had them videotape this to share on their websites later.
 
This is a long unit with A LOT of vocabulary. Science vocabulary can be more difficult for kids because these are not words they regularly use or encounter. Students can study the vocabulary online in Study Stacks. I have shown them this and how to use it. It is on their science Edmodo account. I will continue to add more vocabulary as it comes up.

 Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Week of Nov. 12 - 16th

Please visit the fusion page to view the iMovie trailers the groups made for Pumpkin Day! They are so fun! I can't put them on the blog because they won't work as a URL- and if it does, I haven't figured it out yet! You can use the directions I sent you to get to the fusion page or click on the link in the email reminder I sent.
    Once you get to the page, scroll down to the "videos and podcasts". Click on what you want to watch- there are 5 of them, you just need to click "more" to see them. Once you view one, you'll most likely have to click on "fusion page" and "homeroom" to get back to the others.
ALSO ON THE FUSION PAGE are the digital books some students did. They will be under "Student work" - click on it and you will see the names.

November Book Projects: Students should be reading their November books. Everyone has chosen their project and have rubrics. They know that they should bring their books home over Thanksgiving and get any materials needed from me. This is due December 3rd.

HOMEWORK:  Students have a math review page due Monday and should read the article and respond to comprehension questions sent home.

 Math:   

   We took the Algebra test on Thursday. We will continue to review theses concepts weekly with decimal review pages. We began our multiplying whole numbers unit. We have been giving multiplying and dividing a lot of attention during RTI. Students are working on the working the problems using the regular algorithm. Teachers at all grade levels can't impress upon kids and parents enough how important it is that students know their facts. We will be using them constantly with the math they are doing. It also allows students to perform better on timed tests such as the Delta.
 

Reading: The students are really enjoying the book, "A Long Way from Chicago" a novel set in the 1930's. Students are working in small groups reading and practicing comprehension skills and fluency. I meet with 2 of the 4 groups each day to read and work on comprehension skills and reading strategies. Some topics we are focusing on are author's purpose, genre, word study/vocab. inferencing,event mapping, & comprehension strategies such as rereading, asking questions, being aware when we are confused, retelling and summarizing.

Writing: 

Students presented their "Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups" project based on a book of that title.  We have 3 more to go on Monday. They had fun working on this together. We also read an article about junk food commercials. Students needed to choose whether or not they thought these commercials should be banned, use examples from the text to support their choice and write a persuasive paper.

Spelling: 

There will be no spelling test next week due to the short week. Friday's test will be sent home on Monday.

Science: We have been reviewing all week for the test which is Monday, November 19th.   The students have a study guide to study for this test.

WEEK of November 5th- 9th

Tues. Nov. 13..............Kids' Art Fair in Gym 6-8

Students made iMovies on the iPads to document their Pumpkin Day activities. Since we used the iPads it is a little more complicated to get them onto the blog, so I will let you know when that happens!
 

November Book Projects: Students have chosen a book to read in November. We discussed choosing appropriate books for their level. They have 4 options for projects this time. The presentation is due December 3rd. Students need to learn to organize their time for this. You should see your child reading this book a few times each week right now, not waiting until a week prior. They will need time to complete their chosen project.

HOMEWORK:  Students have a math review page due Monday and should read a minimum of 30 min for their November Book project.

 Math:   

  We are working with pre-algebra concepts that include exponents, multiplying whole numbers by powers of 10, and multiplying & dividing decimals by powers of 10. The test will be Wednesday with a study guide home on Monday. In RTI we are working on division, multiplication & some fraction concepts. Once there is knowledge of the concept, they need to continue to work on accuracy and fluency.

Reading: We are reading "A Long Way from Chicago" a novel set in the 1930's. We looked at a Power Point yesterday for some background knowledge about this time period - Great Depression, Dustbowl, gangters... that were around then. We started chapter 1 together and now students will be working in small groups on their own and meeting with me to work on reading strategies and comprehension. Some topics we are focusing on are author's purpose, genre, word study/vocab. inferencing,event mapping, & comprehension strategies such as rereading, asking questions, being aware when we are confused, retelling and summarizing.

Writing: 

A few of the River Tour pieces are graded later than normal as I was waiting on students to make one last pass at revising and editing their document.

We changed our mind about the Halloween project and are working in pairs on a "Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups" project based on a book of that title. This is short and creative.

Spelling:  Spelling test will be returned on Monday. Forgot to send the spelling list home every day this week! I sent home the lesson 8 and 9 list today. We will take the lesson 8 test on Monday. I have next lesson's list ready! The skill is est/er.
 

Science:We are finishing the last couple lessons and will do review and a study guide. The test will likely be Monday, November 19th. 

DATES:
Wed. Nov. 7th..............Donuts with Dad

Thur. Nov. 9th.............picture retakes

Tues. Nov. 13..............Kids' Art Fair in Gym 6-8

Pumpkin Day!

I have an awesome class. They handled this time very well. Cooperating, doing what was asked, and enjoying themselves!  

*We estimated weight, amount, weighed the pumpkins,did some division, and counted seeds- ate them on Friday!

*Then the kids designed and carved their pumpkins with no injuries! 

*Each group took pictures with an iPad and are going to use them for a group project on Monday. We will upload the project to the blog so you can check it out!

*Thank you Cindy Kleinheksel for donating a couple pumpkins and helping out. Thank you Jody Heavilin for bringing us some cookies!

Field Trip: I was nervous as this was a new field trip, but it went well and all centered around the native American learning students are doing coupled with science since we were able to visit the Planetarium. Thank you to parents for going along! Lori Haverdink, Jody Heavilin, Cherish Nyboer, Jen Heyerman. We appreciate it!

October Book Presentations: Because of the field trip, we will finish presentations on Monday. They are doing a great job! It helped us have a good discussion of what information is important to include in retelling a story to others. 

November Book Projects: Students have known since Monday that they need to have another book chosen to read in November. We discussed choosing appropriate books for their level. They will have 4 options for projects this time. I will review the options again on Monday.

 Math:   

Students took the math test today. I will have those back on Monday. We are starting an algebra unit that includes exponents, multiplying whole numbers by powers of 10, and multiplying and dividing  decimals by powers of 10.

Reading: We finished Guests and our story map. We reviewed the characters, setting, problem/resolution and theme. We will have a test on Monday and Tuesday over identifying the above story elements, simile, and personification. These are items we have worked on since the beginning of the year. Students will also be required to read a selected passage and respond to questions. A third part is responding to the question, "How has Moss changed throughout the novel?" We discussed how to set this up, how to find the information, how it would be graded, etc. We have talked about this all along in the book and the students have a grasp of this- they need to be able to use text examples and/or quotes which we have worked on a lot.

Writing:
River Tour pieces are done. Your child will have a rubric with typed comments and if he/she typed it into google docs, there are additional comments there as well- students can direct you to that. Some students wanted theirs made into a digital flipbook which I did last night, and will upload them to their individual webpage this weekend. Students also wrote persuasive papers in response to an article about girls being allowed to play on boys' sports teams. Most have been returned graded- if your child doesn't have his back, it needed some work and I need to regrade it.

We also discussed a new short Spooky Halloween story that uses onomatopoeia, or sound words, such as "crash", "boom", etc. Next week we will also write a short persuasive piece. We couldn't get to it before Halloween, but the kids still want to write it, so we are! Should only be a 2-3 day project

Spelling:  Spelling test will be returned on Monday. Spelling list sent home Monday. Spelling skill for next week is ways to spell the sounds of /s/.

Science:
 Projects have been presented- I enjoyed the variety of posters, powerpoints, and iMovies!