--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BRAINSTORMERS: The Brainstormers visited us last week and presented skits about writing. Students were active participants and Ellary Haverdink was even on stage! Students will have the opportunity to write a story and submit it in hopes of having their piece chosen to be acted out for the school. Below are sponsors of this event, and we appreciate their help!

DATES:
Friday MARCH  21st................PTO Fun Night - this is a change in date!
Wednesday Feb 12th........4th/5th grade Field Trip to Van Andel Museum, Ford Museum & a play at Ford Museum.
Friday February 28th........5th grade field trip: Symphony and tour Calvin College

Mrs. Blowers will be gone a few days in February:
Feb. 10th I will have a surgery on my foot. I will be out Monday - Thursday for sure, but I am hopeful I will be back on Friday the 14th!!
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HOMEWORK: Lucky for them there was no school Thursday so homework was not able to be given!

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BRAINSTORMERS:
The Brainstormers visited us last week and presented skits about writing. Students were active participants and Ellary Haverdink was even on stage! Students will have the opportunity to write a story and submit it in hopes of having their piece chosen to be acted out for the school.
Below are sponsors of this event, and we appreciate their help!

 

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MATH:  Check out the Math Tab for fraction tutorials!!
    RTI: We took the Delta Test on Wednesday. Each student will have his /her personal goals revised and will monitor their own progress along with me. Mastered concepts will continue to be reviewed.
     Our new unit is multiplying and dividing fractions. We will begin dividing fractions on Monday.


PLEASE have your kids work on their math facts!! They are able to do XTRAMATH at home on the computer in addition to flashcards and other practice activities.
  
READING -  
Click on the "Reading" tab for practice comprehension passages
  We will be starting book clubs this week with students working in groups of 3-4 students reading a novel and practicing reading strategies. You will be hearing more about this later.

WRITING:
  We will complete revisions, editing, and final drafts of "Fruit and Vegie of the Year" research reports/campaign speeches.The kids are pretty excited about our current writing piece. Students will present by Friday and then the following Monday. So if your child wants to bring in their fruit/vegetable I'm letting you know this so you are able to get it when you are shopping sometime this week. It does not have to be to share with the class- just one to show is fine.

SCIENCE:   
We continue in our lessons about what causes the seasons. We graphed cities in 3 different regions of North America to show how there are more hours of daylight on the summer solstice everywhere on Earth, the fewest daylight hours during the winter solstice, and on the two equinoxes the amount of daylight hours are the same everywhere. We will be having a quiz on Friday about the seasons.

SPELLING:
  Students will take the lesson 16 test on Monday since we missed Thursday. This coming week's skill is making words plural. List 17 is under the SPELLING tab. and will come home on Monday.

If your child wants to play games/do practice tests, go to: Spelling City

Have a terrific weekend!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FUSION PAGE Mrs. Blowers Fusion Page You can find fractions and other math links here as well as spelling, grammar, and sites for reading.

DATES:
Monday Jan 20th............. PTO Mtg
Friday Jan 24th.................No School PD Day
Friday Feb 21st................PTO Fun Night 
Wednesday Feb 12th........4th/5th grade Field Trip to Van Andel Museum, Ford Museum &
                                                          a play at Ford Museum.
Friday February 28th........5th grade field trip: Symphony and tour Calvin College

Mrs. Blowers will be gone a few days in February:
Feb. 10th I will have a surgery on my foot. I will be out Monday - Thursday for sure, but I am hopeful I will be back on Friday the 14th!!
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HOMEWORK: Students are to read the article and answer the "quiz" questions 1-8 and question 9. They were told to highlite and/or write the page number where the answer was found.

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FUSION PAGE   Mrs. Blowers Fusion Page
You can find fractions and other math links here as well as spelling, grammar, and sites for reading.

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MATH:  Check out the Math Tab for fraction tutorials!!
    RTI: We continue to review these concepts. Each student has his /her personal goals and is monitoring these as well as doing continued practice of goals mastered. 
     Our new unit is multiplying and dividing fractions. This is a concept students find difficult to hold onto and need a lot of concrete practice with pictures and manipulatives as well as frequent review the remainder of the year. 
  Currently we have been learning the algorithm for multiplying fractions by a whole number and a fraction times a fraction. We are looking at it as repeated addition, solving as an equation, and modeling with playdough and drawing pictures. We are problem-solving to see what real life situations would be like using fractions in this way. Ex: recipes.


PLEASE have your kids work on their math facts!! They are able to do XTRAMATH at home on the computer in addition to flashcards and other practice activities.
  
READING
  Nonfiction is our focus for part of January. We will then be doing reading partnerships with students pairing up to read, discuss, and practice strategies with a partner reading the same book.

WRITING:
  The kids are pretty excited about our current writing piece. Each person chose a fruit or vegetable and must write a campaign speech to promote their fruit/vegie and get voted as the "Fruit or Vegetable of the Year". Students are researching their topic for the facts to write into a plan. They must then find a way to use these facts to promote their fruit/vegie in an interesting campaign speech. We discussed and looked at campaign slogans and the kids are also making slogans and posters to promote their topics. 

  Students are encouraged to bring in their fruit/vegetable if possible and even dress in a way that would promote it. I will be happy to help students get what is needed if necessary.
I will videotape these and share them out to you.

SCIENCE:   
We did a lot of review in class for the Forces and Motion Test. We took this on Tuesday and these have been sent home. We began our unit entitled "Objects in the Sky". Our first lessons are about what causes the seasons: 

1) The tilt of the Earth’s axis affects the amount of sunlight different locations receive.

2) The amount of the sun's light energy a particular region receives.

SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 15 test on Friday. I will send these home on Monday
Next week's skill is 'blends'. List 16 is under the SPELLING tab. and will come home on Monday.

If your child wants to play games/ practice tests, go to: Spelling City

Have a terrific weekend!

DATES:
Monday Jan. 13th.............Girls on the Run shoe fitting 4:00-5:30
Tuesday Jan 14th..............Dentists R Us
Friday Jan 17th.................Release Time
Monday Jan 20th............. PTO Mtg
Friday Jan 24th.................No School PD Day
Friday Feb 21st................PTO Fun Night 
Wednesday Feb 12th........5th grade Field Trip to Van Andel
                  _________________________________________________________________
This will be a short blog for a short week! It was great to see all the kids again! Being gone so long and having a short week with some additional events, we weren't in our regular routine. I'm ready for a full week and getting that routine back in place.

This week we focused on reading comprehension of nonfiction, retelling, fluency, our Power Word vocabulary, and math review.

SPELLING BEE: Congratulations to Zach Fitzwilliams- winner and Jenna Fynewever- runner-up.
                              They will compete in the regional bee in February.
  
LOG CABINS:  They were fabulous and thank you for helping your child and bringing them in! 

CHRISTMAS CHARITY: 5th grade classes raised over $200 for charity! We want students to know the importance of giving as you are already showing them at home! Kaleigh Kenyon's name was drawn and she chose the Humane Society to benefit.

ELOQUENCE DAY: FINALLY we were able to have our Eloquence Day event. Thank you to all our coordinators and volunteers for making this happen for us- We so appreciate you! It was beautiful in the dining area and the kids all really enjoyed their time there.
  I put the pictures below instead of in the photos section. You can view log cabins in the previous blog. My camera battery went dead for our class picture at the Trestle Stop so if any parent has 1 or 2 to send, me I would appreciate it!

And thank you to the Trestle Stop for allowing us to use their dining room!!!

Have a terrific weekend!

Eloquent

Not so eloquent!

Eloquent!

Hmmm...

Some of our wonderful parent volunteers

More volunteers...

And more- and I know I missed some of the other important people!!

Great lesson in word choice!- The kids loved how fancy the menu made cocoa, a candy cane, chicken tenders, green beans, french fries, and a fancy ice cream sandwich sound!

Polite dinner conversation

Collin telling an interesting story!

Brecken enjoying Eloquence Day!

No elbows on the table here!

 Kaleigh's name was drawn to choose the charity for the money we raised to go to- she chose the Humane Society.

 Some topics discussed at our table were hydroponic gardening, moms who caution their children to be careful and are then the ones to spill, get burned, etc (guilty mom here!) and how best to prepare and eat squirrel and alligator. There was also some critiquing of Holland restaurants.

Justin showing his serious side!

A very eloquent-looking group!

 A great event! When I see past students, this is a 5th grade event that is very fondly remembered.

      

A Look at Log Cabins and Spelling Bee Partcipants

Our 12 Finalists: Avery Reimink,Carly Mollitor, Seth Parrish,Travis Boeskool, Marinus Reister, Niran Liravongsa, Madelynn Jurries, Lexi Kramer, Josh Linkous                                                        Runner-up: Jenna Fynewever and 1st Place Zach Fitzwilliams