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!