Week of Oct. 17th - 21st and PHOTOS FROM OUTDOOR DISCOVERY FIELD TRIP

Please view the photos from last week's field trip below the newsletter!

On the note of field trips: Our 4th and 5th grade classes are planing a joint field trip in November. we will see a play, go to the Planetarium, and the Ford museum. We are very excited about this opportunity for your children! We are having a READ-A-THON Fundraiser in order to raise money for this. You will receive information about this at conferences.


On the note of conferences! I look forward to seeing you at conferences. You should have received a note about these conferences involving your child. You may bring your child and have him/her join us the entire time or part of the time.
  My schedule is full. I apologize in advance if I need to stop you in order to have the next conference. If you need more time, we can arrange that.


NO SCHOOL Oct. 27th and 28th.

MEAP testing has taken up much of our time this week. I really appreciate the hard work of your students! As a little reward, we learned how to play Yahtzee, discussing chance, probability, and strategy, and played a little both MEAP days.

Reading: We completed our Genre Unit novel, Guests. We also read Brother Eagle, Sister Sky, and discussed theme, and how it relates to history. We have been discussing historical fiction, pourquoi, and legend elements. We have also done vocabulary work, practiced comprehension strategies, and worked on simile and metaphor. We have reviewed and will take a short test on Monday.
  BOOK REPORT PROJECTS ARE DUE OCT. 31st. I went over directions again this week and took questions, gave more examples.

Math: We've been working on division (chapter 3). This week we practiced dividing by 10, 100, and 1,000 and long division with 1 divisor divided into a 3 and 4 digit dividend. We also practice these same concepts, but with decimals. We will complete this unit next week, review when we return from break, and then test.

Writing:  Most students have completed their River Tour pieces. They are due Monday. Some students were able to finish early enough to type them and asked me to make theirs into a flippable book. Those will be posted on my fusion site found on the district website. I should have them completed by Monday. They will be attached in the links section. Click on "Student work" and they will be under students' names.


Science: Students finished presenting their posters- I was quite impressed at the effort they gave to make these look like polished projects. They were graded on a rubric which will be sent home. We have 2 more lessons to finish, will review, and take the test the week we return.

Have a great weekend!!

The class had a lot of fun on the Outdoor Discovery Center last Thursday and learned information that applies to our social studies units. Here are some pictures!

WEEK OF OCT 10TH-14TH

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 IMPORTANT DATES:

MEAP TESTING This week was our reading MEAP.
Next week we finish these tests.
Make sure students are rested and eat breakfast!
Oct 11th & 12th:  MEAP Math
Oct 13th:               MEAP Science

Oct. 18th:               Art Show-high school


OUTDOOR DISCOVERY FIELD TRIP:   
Students enjoyed the field trip and the weather was  nice for them! Ask your child about a fun activity and something that he or she learned!

MATH:

Students took the Ch 2 multiplication test on Wednesday. I had enter them into Powergrade and since I had a sub on Thursday and Friday, I will have to return the tests on Monday. Friday was our first day with division. 

All students took the Delta Math assessment awhile back. This tests 6 concepts from 4th grade that we would hope students will know. We break up into groups on Tuesday and Thursday for students to focus on these content areas. 

WRITING:

The class continues to write their "River Tour" piece. We are focusing on word choice, transitions, topic and details, and revising.

READING:

We continue to read our genre unit chapter book, Guests.We have been doing vocabulary work, and discussion focusing on comprehension skills such as making inferences. We have learned about and read legends and talked about literary devices.

Spelling:

This week's skill was spelling the 'k' sound. Students know they are able to study the spelling words on Spelling City for practice. The tests were Friday.

SCIENCE:

Students are working in pairs to research a planet. Students will finish their posters and present for this lesson. We are nearing the end of this unit. Students will have a study guide in order to prepare for the test when we are near that time.

Have a great weekend!!

WEEK OF OCT 3RD-7TH

* Our class has created a flippable digital book. Each student chose an animal picture and wrote a caption for it.You can click on the link below to see it. You can also access it on the fusion site.
http://www.youblisher.com/p/184697-Caption-writing/


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 IMPORTANT DATES:

MEAP Testing begins next week. Below is the schedule.
Please avoid making appointments during these times!
Make sure students are rested and eat breakfast!
Oct 11th & 12th:  MEAP Reading
Oct 13th:               MEAP Writing Day 1

GO HAWKEYES!
 Hope you enjoyed the Homecoming events Friday!
Today we learned about how the homecoming traditions began, did our Hawkeye cheer, dressed in black and yellow, and walked to the Hawk's Nest for ice cream.

OUTDOOR DISCOVERY FIELD TRIP:   
Your child brought home a note on Thursday about our October 13^th field trip and the cost. The money is due Monday, October 10^th.

MATH:

We have completed all new learning in our multiplication unit. We have done quite a lot of review as well. We will complete the study guide on Monday and do more review on Tuesday. The test over Ch. 2 will be on Wednesday. Our next unit is division and we will begin on Friday.

WRITING:

This week read a book about a hen that ends up in a basket on a river and has several adventures. Student began a piece of writing where they somehow end up on a boat or raft on a river. There they have their own adventures encountering several animals. The kids are excited about this writing project!

READING:

We began reading our genre unit chapter book, Guests. This novel ties in with social studies curriculum as well.

Spelling:

This week's skill was silent letters. Students know they are able to study the spelling words on Spelling City for practice. The tests were today.

SCIENCE:

Students are working in pairs to research a planet. They are working on a poster and presentation for this lesson.

SPELLING CITY

Spelliing City directions

(Displays 9/11/2011)

Spelling City

Go to -- http://spellingcity.com

Click on "find a list".    

In the "search" section, click on "teacher" and then type in "Maxson".  

 Click on Robin Maxson at Hamilton Elementary.You may try any lesson.   

Try each area:   Teach, Test & Games.  You must go through each of these activities in order.

WEEK of September 26 to September 30

FIELD TRIP:  Your child brought home a note on Thursday about our October 13^th field trip and the cost. This is due October 10^th.

SCHOOL PICTURES: Oct 6th

HOMECOMING-BLACK AND GOLD DAY: Friday, October 7^th Wear as much black and gold as possible. We’ll do a couple fun activities as well.

POPCORN FRIDAY:       Oct 7^th

MATH:

We took the chapter 1 test over numeration and the test was sent home today to be SIGNED BY A PARENT and returned on Monday. Your child has gone over the test with me individually, and knows what has been missed. I will be giving those needing it extra assistance in class as well as sending some things home to work on in order so we can be sure concepts are understood. We began our multiplication unit. We have worked on using patterns of 10’s to multiply mentally, the distributive property, and multiplying whole numbers.

WRITING:

This week we practiced writing summaries, a skill they will be using frequently over the next few years. We also wrote a short piece about fall focusing on descriptive language and similes.

READING:

We began our genre unit by reading the book, Encounter. We discussed vocabulary, author purpose, and used text clues to make inferences. Students made a step book describing the setting, characters, conflict, resolution and theme.

Spelling:

This weeks skill was irregular verbs. Students know they are able to study the spelling words on Spelling City for practice. The tests were today.

SCIENCE:

We finished our discussion of the moon phases and then moved on to solar and lunar eclipses. We discussed a power point about eclipses and looked at some awesome photos.

WEEK OF SEPT. 19th-23rd

HOMEWORK IS DUE MONDAY, SEPT. 26TH

MATH TEST WILL BE WEDNESDAY SEPT 28TH

FUSION PAGE: I apologize if you have not been able to regularly access my fusion page- the program began having difficulties when school started. Hopefully it works correctly by Monday for good.

MATH: 

We continued prepping for the MEAP test with review activities and a couple games. We will completed our first chapter (Numeration) and will do the Study Guide Monday with the test on Wednesday. Tuesday we'll begin our 2nd chapter which is multiplication. 

WRITING: 

Some students have completed their "Summer" writing piece and emailed it or handed it to me. Those who have not finished must have them to me by Monday.  This week we also had MEAP prep activities- reading and responding to written pieces. We'll begin a short project on writing captions and practice writing captions for pictures, focusing on sentence types and descriptive vocabulary.

READING:

We have read several nonfiction texts this week and practiced going back into the text to locate the answers. We discussed "right there" questions, 

We also read the book, "My Lucky Day" and used it to practice inferencing (reading between the lines) skills.

SPELLING: 

We took the lesson 2 tests. I will have those in Powerschool this weekend and they will come home on Monday. We continue to do grammar work which is focused on nouns and types of nouns.

SCIENCE: 

We continue to learn and try to understand the concept of seasons. We watched a couple Bill Nye video clips. Students made a model of the Earth and Sun and the presented their demonstration of the relationship between the Earth and sun and answered questions about it. We had a quiz on Friday and next we begin talking about the moon.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 12

BOOK ORDERS DUE MONDAY, SEPT. 19TH.

HOMEWORK IS DUE MONDAY. (Reading and math)

Constitution Day: Students learned about the preamble in Mrs. Maxson's room. She taught them motions to go with the words and all of 5th grade presented it to classes during lunch. We also had cake and cupcakes decorated in Read, White, and Blue to celebrate our constitution.


MATH: 
We continue prepping for the MEAP test with review activities. We will complete our first chapter (Numeration) this coming week. The test will be Monday, Sept. 26th. Next week we'll work on rounding whole numbers and decimals, adding and subtracting decimals, and reviewing concepts.


WRITING:
Students began writing a prompt about their summer. These should be completed by the end of next week. Our next project is to learn about captions and practice writing captions for pictures, focusing on sentence types and descriptive vocabulary.


READING:
We discussed the text structure of comparing and contrasting then practiced this concept in our reading and writing. We read two historical fiction books about Japanese internment camps and compared/contrasted them as well as focused on comprehension strategies. We also focused on text features found in nonfiction texts and next week will complete an activity based on these features.


SPELLING: 
We took the lesson 1 tests. I will have those in Powerschool this weekend and they will come home on Monday.

SCIENCE: 
We continue to learn and try to understand the concept of seasons. Why do we have longer or shorter days in certain seasons? We have read, made models, and watched a couple good video clips to demonstrate what is happening. By the way, it is the Earth's tilt and the relationship the Earth to the sun in its orbit.

Social Studies:
Students have been studying the constitution and latitude and longitude.