WEEK OF JANUARY 16-JANUARY 20

MONDAY, JAN. 23..... PTO MEETING – 7PM
FRIDAY, JAN. 27 ........NO SCHOOL
TUESDAY, JAN. 31.....January Book Project is Due

CONGRATUALTIONS to Karina Stork our 5th Grade Spelling Bee winner and to Tori Folkert our runner-up!
All our spellers did well!
Allyssa Vandenberg, Karina Stork,Tori Folkert, Sydney Ruiter, Sam Sprik, Peyton Remick
Alex Murphy, Will Jordan, Hannah Wettlauffer, Bradley Osborne, Georgia Timm, and Alaina Copeland

  MATH:
We continue in Chapter 8 fraction operations unit reviewing adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators. We added in adding mixed numbers. Students completed the Ch. 7 study guide and those who have not taken the test yet will do this on Monday. We will practice subtracting mixed numbers, continue to work work on problem solving skills, and have a quiz over previously covered concepts.
 
READING:
We are working in guided reading groups reading the novels Tuck Everlasting, Gilly Hopkins, Stone Fox, and Bridge to Terabithia. Students are working with me and together as small groups discussing components of their novels, reading aloud, working on vocabulary in context and character, and story elements.


WRITING:
We read a few more newspaper articles this week to look at the difference between writing a story and a story for a newspaper. We broke down the articles into the who, what, when, where, and why and how. We discussed what questions reporters may have asked to get the responses we were reading. Students are working on their questions and pre-writing. Some students are choosing to interview others and write true news and some students are writing fictional articles that are meant to sound like true news.
We also practiced a little with the newspaper template. 


SPELLING:
Our skill this week has been consonant diagraphs- ch, sh, ph, wh, th.



SCIENCE:
This week's focus was again on simple machines. We experimented with ramps to see how they make work easier. We discussed and worked with wheels and axles. The students enjoyed watching a Bill Nye video that gave us a recap on simple machines. Flight is next- Time to make and fly paper airplanes!

Week of January 9th-January 13th

Upcoming Dates:
FRIDAY, JAN. 13 ........PTO BINGO NIGHT 7:00-8:30 in the MS East Gym
FRIDAY JAN. 13..........RELEASE TIME
MONDAY JAN 16:......MARSHALL MUSIC comes to visit 5th grade
TUESDAY JAN 17.......5th GRADE SPELLING BEE in Hamilton El cafeteria
FRIDAY, JAN. 20 ....... PTO POPCORN
MONDAY, JAN. 23..... PTO MEETING – 7PM
FRIDAY, JAN. 27 ........NO SCHOOL



The Spelling Bee is at 2:15 in the cafeteria Tuesday, January 17th.





Our school psychologist has been coming in each week for the past four weeks to give 20 minute lessons focusing on positive behaviors, behavior choices and appropriate peer interactions. She will continue to come in over the next few weeks. These discussions have been good talking points as a class as well as when students have issues arise during the week. 


MATH:
We have been reviewing concepts in our fractions unit. We began working in the Chapter 8 fraction operations unit learning about the Least Common Multiple, adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators. We have practiced these concepts by working problems on paper and looking at what the concepts look like in pictures using drawings and computer games and lessons.
We will do the Ch. 7 study guide Monday and take the test Wednesday over Chapter 7.

READING:
We worked in nonfiction guided reading groups this week. We practiced determining importance, main idea/detail, vocabulary meanings in context, and text features. Students will begin book clubs, reading chapter books next week.


WRITING:
Our next project is writing newspaper articles for a class newspaper we will post on my fusion page.
 Skills we worked on this week in order to prepare for this piece: 
Alliteration and using it in headlines, Quotation marks in dialogue and writing dialogue in the correct format, fact versus opinion, and parts of a news story. We read and discussed example news stories and searched articles for the skills we learned and how they were applied in the article. Students are choosing topics and will begin writing next week.


SPELLING:
Our skill this week has been the 'ou/ow' sound in "house", 'ow' in "snow", and the "toughies" that don't fit in this category such as your, bought, and though.


SCIENCE:
We worked on the study guide for a quiz for lessons 5-9. We have discussed this as a class and students have been spending time in class studying for Friday's quiz. We also began our lessons on simple machines focusing on levers. We watched a couple video clips of Rube Goldberg set-ups as they feature various types of simple machines and are fun to watch!


Have a wonderful weekend enjoying the snow!

WEEK OF DECEMBER 3rd- DECEMBER 6TH

WELCOME BACK! I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday.

Upcoming Dates:
FRIDAY, JAN. 13 ........PTO BINGO NIGHT 7:00-8:30 in the MS East Gym
FRIDAY JAN. 13..........RELEASE TIME
TUESDAY JAN 17.......5th GRADE SPELLING BEE in Hamilton El cafeteria
FRIDAY, JAN. 20 ....... PTO POPCORN
MONDAY, JAN. 23..... PTO MEETING – 7PM
FRIDAY, JAN. 27 ........NO SCHOOL

MATH:
We have been reviewing concepts in our fractions unit, particularly simplifying fractions, changing fractions to decimals and vice versa, and placing them on number lines. We will take the unit test over fractions once we are into unit 8 "Fraction Operations". We find students perform better after working in the next unit as they practice many of the same skills within the new concepts. Students have also done some work reviewing rounding, long division, and multiplication.
 
READING:
We worked with nonfiction texts this week. We read "Deadly Hits" from the Storyworks magazine and worked on author's purpose, differentiating between our opinions and what the author is saying, comprehension skills, and vocabulary. Students took the SRI test on Friday.


WRITING:
Our focus this week has been sentence fluency. Students received a page with examples of various sentence types. We discussed and gave numerous examples. Their assignment is to choose 1 of 2 prompts and write a short story including at least 5 of the 10 sentence types we have practiced. 


SPELLING:
Our skill this week has been homophones.


SCIENCE:
We are discussing the difference between mass and weight and applying it to Newton's second law of motion: An object's acceleration (speed or direction) depends on the mass and size of the force acting on it." We discuss repeatedly what this means in kid-friendly language. Experiments have centered on comparing the speed and distance of 3 balls of different masses and weights.

Week of December 12th-16th

LOG CABINS were brought in on Monday. The pictures are below-take a look! I really enjoy the creativity that students are able to use with this project. The variety is what makes it interesting and fun! Students in other grades enjoy viewing them.

SPELLING BEE: We have our top 12 spellers! They will compete in the Scripps Spelling Bee on January 17^th in the gym. The top two spellers will advance to the regional competition representing our school. I was very pleased that most students chose to give this a try! Congratulations to our 12 competitors.

Allyssa Vandenberg
Karina Stork
Tori Folkert
Sydney Ruiter
Sam Sprik
Peyton Remick
Alex Murphy
Hannah Wettlauffer
Will Jordan
Bradley Osborne
Georgia Timm
Alaina Copeland

ELOQUENCE DAY:

We spent some time Thursday and Friday learning about and practicing manners. The kids thoroughly enjoy it- no matter what they say! J We dined at the Café de Eloquence here in Hamilton and used our manners-most of the time! We appreciate the assistance of all our parents cooks and servers! It was a fun event for all. Please check below for pictures! THANK YOU to all of our parent volunteers for making this event happen! We appreciate it!!!

5^th GRADE CHRISTMAS CHARITY EVENT: 5^th graders practiced the gift of giving by buying a ticket and candy cane for $1 with the money going to a pool for one of 5 charities we chose. Mr. Hoekstra drew Eddie Soerens' ticket and he chose to donate to St. Judes Children's Hospital. We raised $276 for this charity! Thanks to all!


     MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Eloquence Day:

Week of December 5th-9th

            Mrs. Blowers' Blog
December 12:  Log cabins are due.  Please do not bring them to school any earlier than 3:40 p.m. on Friday, December 9.  I will be here Monday, Dec. 12 by 7:40 a.m. if you would prefer to drop it off before the start of the school day. 

December 15:  5^th grade spelling bee begins.  We will have our first round of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in the morning- this a change in day we needed to make.  Any fifth grader who would like to participate is welcome to do so.  The top 12 spellers will advance to the next round in January-the top 2 spellers will advance to the regional Bee.

December 16:  Friday, December 16 will be Eloquence Day.  All fifth graders are expected to dress up for this event.  Dress as nicely as you can without going to purchase anything new. This is supposed to be fun a fun way to practice manners, not stressful worrying about buying new clothes! We will be dining at the Café de Eloquence here in Hamilton.  There is no cost for this event, as we will be using our read–a–thon money. 

Christmas Party:  The Eloquence Day lunch is considered our Christmas party.  We will not have a gift exchange.  Last week you received a note about a way in which you can honor teachers and classmates this year. Please read below:

         This year we are planning an opportunity for our students to be involved in supporting a charitable organization.  On Friday, December 9, students will be asked if there is an organization that they would like to suggest.  If there are more than 5 suggestions, the fifth graders will vote for the top 5.  Once the 5 organizations are identified, students will have a chance to purchase a “ticket” for a friend, teacher, or classmate.  Tickets will be sold for $1.00 each.  Every ticket will then be put into a large jar.  The last day to purchase them will be on Dec. 16.  On the 16^th, we will have a drawing and the name that we pick out will be the name of the person who will get to choose which of those five organizations will go to!  I would like to ask that if you would choose to honor me at this time of the year that you put your money toward tickets- I am looking forward to this opportunity to teach your children about charity and giving.  

 Students will be able to purchase a ticket for someone at recesses, put the ticket and donation in a jar, and receive a candy cane to give to the person in whose name they bought the ticket.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

MATH:
We have been reviewing concepts in our fractions unit (fractions as division, fractions as part of a set and part of a region, and improper fractions and mixed numbers.) We also worked with equivalent fractions, greatest common factor, and simplifying fractions. Students are expected to be able to perform the operation as well as draw the fractions to show their understanding. We have been using some websites to practice concepts this week.

READING:
We completed Sign of the Beaver and reviewed for the test that was on Friday. Monday students will present their book projects. We will also be reading some shorter non-fiction texts to continue to practice skills needed for this type of text.


WRITING:
Students completed their persuasive letters to either their parents or Santa. They put them in envelopes to deliver to you in hopes they will be able to persuade you to get what they would like for Christmas!


SPELLING:
Our skill this week has been using apostrophes to show possession and in contractions.


SCIENCE:
We began talking about and experimenting with friction as a force. We also used the spring scale to measure force in Newtons.


 

WEEK OF Nov 28-Dec 2

Report Cards went home today (Friday)

Homework this weekend: Work on log cabin and November reading project.

December 12:  Log cabins are due.  Please do not bring them to school any earlier than 3:40 p.m. on Friday, December 9.  I will be here Monday, Dec. 12 by 7:40 a.m. if you would prefer to drop it off before the start of the school day. 

December 13:  5^th grade spelling bee begins.  We will have our first round of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in the afternoon.  Any fifth grader who would like to participate is welcome to do so.  The top 12 spellers will advance to the next round.

December 16:  Friday, December 16 will be Eloquence Day.  All fifth graders are expected to dress up for this event.  We will be dining at the Café de Eloquence here in Hamilton.  There is no cost for this event, as we will be using our read –a – thon money. 

Christmas Party:  The Eloquence Day lunch is considered our Christmas party.  We will not have a gift exchange.  More information will be sent home soon regarding a way in which you can honor teachers and classmates. 

Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

MATH:
We began our unit on fractions and have learned about fractions as division, fractions as part of a set and part of a region, and improper fractions and mixed numbers.


READING:
We continue reading Sign of the Beaver, and work on vocabulary in context, context clues for comprehension, finding descriptive detail, and author techniques. We will also be reading some non-fiction pieces to continue to practice those skills needed for this type of text.

WRITING:

We have discussed persuasive techniques, examples of using persuasion, and read persuasive pieces. We also reviewed friendly letter form. Students began writing persuasive letters to either their parents or Santa. 

SPELLING:
Our skill this week is prefixes.

SCIENCE:
We have been performing activities showing balanced and unbalanced forces. We have played tug-of-war, arm wrestled, and made balloon rockets to show these forces.