WEEK OF MAY 12 - MAY 16

May 30th..... Classroom Auction

*June 2nd- Dunes Field Trip  
*RAIN DATE:  June 3rd 


TRACK AND FIELD DAY 
  It was a little chilly, but I'm SO glad we were able to have this event for the kids. It was great to see them enjoying time with each other, their teachers, their families, and competing. Pictures are on the blog. I could have done a better job with this!If you have any pictures you'd like me to add, just send them my way!

 CLASSROOM AUCTION: MAY 30TH
Items due Tuesday May 27th.
 I usually don't have this until the end of the last week of school, but we have a student who will be gone, and I don't want anyone to miss out on this. I have been purchasing things this weekend to prepare. If you would like to donate things such as $5 and under gift cards for ice cream etc., boxes of candy, inexpensive things for the beach or pool or outdoor summer fun, or any inexpensive items that your own kids like, please send those in a sealed paper bag so it's a surprise by Tuesday May 27th. I need some time to put items together with ribbons etc.

DUNES FIELD TRIP: 
   If you checked that you would like to donate items and/or volunteer for this day, soon you will be receiving an email and/or note about what item we will need you to donate (pop, cookies, chips, etc.) and what we will need you to volunteer to help with for the afternoon. Parents who are joining us for the day will be needed to run games or travel around with groups of students in rotations, and assist in serving lunch. We will need people to help set up games in the morning and clean up- the more we have the quicker this will go. We appreciate your assistance with this. We truly can't make this happen without you!!

   We begin at the Saugatuk Dunes Rides. The hike follows and is about 3/4 of a mile into the beach. It is hilly and a little steep in spots.
You will be given directions to get there, but we start out by the parking lot near the Felt Mansion.

HOMEWORK:    No Homework this weekend! The kids were so sad!  :)

MATH:   
    We have continued to review compound volume and customary and metric units of length, capacity, and weight. We added in line plots this week as well. We will spend time reviewing this week and the test will be the following week. 

We took the Delta math test this week. Your child took home a paper showing what he/she did and did not pass. I am very proud of everyone for their very hard work and all the gains they have made!

READING -      Students took the SRI test, the Dibels test, and the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment this past week. This information will be shared with you. I will send it in report cards. Since report cards do not come to you until the week after school is out, please know that you are welcome to contact me even after school is out to discuss your child's progress!
 
WRITING:                    
  We are wrapping up drafts of Pourqouis - legends that tell why something came to be- editing, revising, and beginning final drafts long necks? Students are in the planning process now and will begin drafting on Monday. We also read an article about whether plastic bags should be banned or not. Each student took a side and used information from the text to support his/her opinion.

SCIENCE:   Everyone is working on their Project-based Learning activity that focuses on the behavioral and physical adaptation - but include other standards-which is the largest focus in this unit. They will work in pairs or individually (their choice) to create a new animal and include its classification, physical and behavioral characteristics, habitat, a learned behavior and inherited trait. They will be doing some simulations on the computer for review and ideas and will have resources to use. Quizzes looked great! - I am having them keep them at school to use for studying for the test. We will discuss fossils and paleontology this week.

SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 31 skills test on Friday. Monday will be the Word test. and it will come home on Monday. List 32 will go home Monday.  You can also find lists under the spelling tab. The skill is adding suffixes. This will be the LAST SPELLING TEST!

 

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

Week of May 9-12

*May 16th- Track and Field Day- 
THERE WILL NOT BE ANOTHER RAIN DATE SET FOR THIS.
*June 2nd- Dunes Field Trip  

*RAIN DATE:  June 3rd 


Thank you for joining us for the Poetry Brunch and for donating items for the brunch! We enjoyed sharing the poems!

TRACK AND FIELD DAY INFO:
A disappointing day on Friday with all the rain! I tried to make it a little less painful by playing a couple games and letting them move their desks wherever they wanted-and that worked out great because they came up with a nice room arrangement in 10 min!
 

HERE IS THE INFO AGAIN FOR THIS FRIDAY'S T & F.
* LUNCH: Students are already signed up for hot or cold lunch- check with your child about their decision on this.
    Parents: If you come that day, you will not be able to eat lunch with your child in the cafeteria at the middle school. Sorry! There is barely enough room for all 8 classes and teachers. You would have time to run home or eat in the bleachers, etc.
* SCHEDULE: There isn't a way for me to know exactly when your child will be in an event. Here is a rundown of the schedule. All students in my class have signed up for field and running events.

  9:30 - 12:30 - Mile Run and 400. Field Events begin for an hour  

                              and continue through morning preliminaries of

                              dashes (50, 60, 75 yd.), 100 low hurdles, and

                              800 meter relay.

  *12:30ish - LUNCH

  *1:15ish - 2:30 - Finals of the dashes, hurdles and 400 meter classroom  

                             relay.

                 - Ribbon presentations

                 - Trophy presentation

 *Dismissal. Please ask students to stay in bleachers until dismissed.

 

DUNES FIELD TRIP: 
ALL FORMS AND MONEY ARE DUE THIS FRIDAY, PLEASE.

PLEASE consider checking the donation section of the note. It would be things like pop, 2 bags of chips, cookies, etc.
- Also remember that if you are there for the afternoon events, the committee will need you to help out with lunch, games, clean-up. Thank you!

A note came home about this last week. This is a favorite field trip and a great way to finish off the elementary years and still focus on some curriculum as this ties into our systems science unit. We will need your assistance to make sure this field trip can happen!! Please read the note carefully. There are 4 items to return by May 16th in order for your child to attend this trip.

An FYI: If an adult wants to accompany us on the Dunes ride in the morning, we can only have parents. We really need to stay with 1 parent per household. There are only so many seats available for the entire group. You will receive more detailed information about this trip later.



HOMEWORK:    Math Homework is due Monday- some students may have other work that needs to be finished over the weekend and are responsible for this.


MATH:   
There are video tutorials and a practice activity for volume in the math tab!
    We have continued to review volume particularly compound volume. We are have been working on customary and metric units of length, capacity, mass, and weight. We will continue to review and will add in line plots this week. We have been working quite a lot on word problems. Last week we took the Delta math test. If your child still has concepts that were not passed, I will let you know this week.

READING -   
Click on the "Reading" tab for practice comprehension passages Non-fiction material mostly associated with our science unit and students' read to Self books are what we will focus on in reading for the remainder of the year, working on individual goals and practicing strategies. This week your child will be taking the SRI test, the Dibels test, and the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment.
 
WRITING:                    
  We had a lesson about Pourqouis which are legends that tell why something came to be. For example, why do zebras have stripes? Why do giraffes have long necks? Students are in the planning process now and will begin drafting on Monday. We will also be writing an opinion piece this week.

SCIENCE:    This week students are beginning a short Project-based Learning activity that focuses on the behavioral and physical adaptation - but include other standards-which is the largest focus in this unit. They will work in pairs or individually (their choice) to create a new animal and include its classification, physical and behavioral characteristics, habitat, a learned behavior and inherited trait. They will be doing some simulations on the computer for review and ideas and will have resources to use. Wednesday there will be a quiz over the first 6 lessons.


SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 30 test on Friday and it will come home on Monday. List 31 will go home Monday.  You can also find lists under the spelling tab. The skill is le, el, al, er, or, ar.

The proofreading part of the test is an important skill. If your child has been needing more practice with this, that is something that they have been working on in class.

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

What's Coming up the week of May 5th - May9th

May 6th:  POETRY BRUNCH @ 9:15

May 7th:  1/2 Day of School
May 9th- Track and Field Day - RAIN DATE: May 16th
June 2nd- Dunes Field Trip - RAIN DATE:  June 3rd 

POETRY BRUNCH: Thank you for filling out the RSVP that your child brought home on Monday. We need a list of what adults will be coming through the building for each class. You may be seated beginning at 9:05 and we will begin at 9:15.

Track and Field Day Info:
* LUNCH: Students are already signed up for hot or cold lunch- check with your child about their decision on this.
    Parents: If you come that day, you will not be able to eat lunch with your child in the cafeteria at the middle school. Sorry! There is barely enough room for all 8 classes and teachers. You would have time to run home or eat in the bleachers, etc.
* SCHEDULE: There isn't a way for me to know exactly when your child will be in an event. Here is a rundown of the schedule. All students in my class have signed up for field and running events.

  9:30 - 12:30 - Mile Run and 400. Field Events begin for an hour  

                              and continue through morning preliminaries of

                              dashes (50, 60, 75 yd.), 100 low hurdles, and

                              800 meter relay.

  *12:30ish - LUNCH

  *1:15ish - 2:30 - Finals of the dashes, hurdles and 400 meter classroom  

                             relay.

                 - Ribbon presentations

                 - Trophy presentation

 *Dismissal. Please ask students to stay in bleachers until dismissed.

 


DUNES FIELD TRIP:
A note came home about this last week. This is a favorite field trip and a great way to finish off the elementary years and still focus on some curriculum as this ties into our systems science unit. We will need your assistance to make sure this field trip can happen!! Please read the note carefully. There are 4 items to return by May 16th in order for your child to attend this trip.

An FYI: If an adult wants to accompany us on the Dunes ride in the morning, we can only have parents. We really need to stay with 1 parent per household. There are only so many seats available for the entire group. You will receive more detailed information about this trip later.



HOMEWORK:    Reading Homework- Homework this weekend is a an article that ties into out science unit-systems and some questions/chart to respond to. Some students completed this on Friday.




MATH:   
There are video tutorials and a practice activity for volume in the math tab!
    We have continued to review volume and have been working on customary and metric units of length. We will continue review and begin customary and metric units of weight, mass and capacity.  Review continues for the upcoming Delta Math test and students have their individual goals to focus on.

READING -   
Click on the "Reading" tab for practice comprehension passages
  We completed The Fighting Ground last week. Next we will be focusing on non-fiction material mostly associated with our science unit.
 
WRITING:                    
  We will wrap up our poetry unit with the brunch on Tuesday. We will be working on summarizing and persuasive writing as well as writing Porquois in the next weeks.

SCIENCE:    We continue to discuss behavioral and physical adaptation as it relates to survival and learned about heredity last week as well. This topic will continue into next week.


SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 29 test on Friday and it will come home on Monday. List 30 will go home Monday.  You can also find lists under the spelling tab. The skill is synonyms and antonyms. The proofreading part of the test is an important skill. If your child has been needing more practice with this, that is something that they have been working on in class.

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

WEEK OF April 21-April 25

April 29th- Outdoor Discovery Center Field Trip
May 9th- Track and Field Day - RAIN DATE: May 16th
June 2nd- Dunes Field Trip - RAIN DATE:  June 3rd 

Outdoor Discovery Center trip TUESDAY, April 29th.
We will be going to the ODC with Mrs. Custer's 5th grade class from Sandyview in the morning on Tuesday, April 29th. There is no cost for this. This trip is focused on our systems unit.
 DRESS: Dress in layers! Wear pants! It will be cool in the morning. Students may be getting into some brushy areas and will not want to get scratched. Students may bring a small drawstring bag if they feel they need to put extra layers in this to carry around.


A Track and Field Day note went home yesterday. This a fun day to be with your child. 
  LUNCH: Students can bring their own lunch but it is easier if they choose to have hot lunch. We will need to take a count for this next week. If your child is already signed up for hot lunch that day, they are all set. If not, if they tell me they will eat hot lunch, it will be taken off their account as usual. If your child doesn't have a ticket, just send in the money for lunch.
    Parents: If you come that day, you will not be able to eat lunch with your child in the cafeteria at the middle school. Sorry! There is barely enough room for all 8 classes and teachers. You would have time to run home or eat in the bleachers, etc.


DUNES FIELD TRIP:
A note came home about this yesterday. You will receive a note from our committee next week to sign up to join us and volunteer. This is a favorite field trip and a great way to finish off the elementary years and still focus on some curriculum as this ties into our systems science unit. We will need your assistance to make sure this field trip can happen. Please read the note carefully next week. I will also attach it when I email the blog.



An FYI: If an adult wants to accompany us on the Dunes ride in the morning, we can only have parents. We really need to stay with 1 parent per household. There are only so many seats available for the entire group. You will receive more detailed information about this trip later.



HOMEWORK:   
Math Homework- Homework this weekend is a math review page. Some students have some reading or writing work to catch up on.
There are video tutorials and a practice activity for volume in the math tab!
 
MATH:   
There are video tutorials and a practice activity for volume in the math tab!
     Students took the test over Dividing Whole Numbers and Decimals. We have started our Measurement unit and worked with finding the volume of a rectangular solid and some students have learned how to  compound (2 or more solids together) We have been working on review math as well as concepts for the upcoming Delta Math test.


  PRACTICE: Aside from homework, please give your child a couple long division problems daily for practice in order to become more fluent. Practicing math facts is also VERY important for passing timed tests and getting through daily work more quickly.  

READING -   
Click on the "Reading" tab for practice comprehension passages
  We are continuing to read The Fighting Ground.
  We have been doing whole class work to work on reading comprehension strategies as well as breaking into groups and pairs to focus on those strategies and student reading goals.

WRITING:                    
  We began our poetry unit last week. We are also reviewing parts of speech as we work on these as many of them are focused on a particular part of speech such as verb, adj, and adverb.

We will be having a POETRY BRUNCH the week of May 5th. I will send the date out on Monday for sure. We will need parents to donate brunch items and would love to have you come to watch students read their poems and act out the poetry of authors who have written poetry books!

SCIENCE:   
The classification system and physical and behavioral adaptations have been the focus of science the past 2 weeks in our Systems unit. Friday students were able to observe hermit crabs. We will be doing more observation of these animal looking at physical and behavioral adaptations. We will begin to discuss heredity this week as well.


SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 28 test on Friday and it will come home on Monday. List 29 will go home Monday.  You can also find lists under the spelling tab. The skill is     The proofreading part of the test is an important skill. If your child has been needing more practice with this, that is something that they have been working on in class.

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

May 9th- Track and Field Day
June 2nd- Dunes Field Trip  

MEAP INFORMATION: Your child should have brought home their MEAP scores in an envelope on Friday.  I also sat down with each student this week and went through their scores with them. We discussed goals for math and reading and wrote these down. We also talked about the improvements and goals that students have reached this year so far. 

Responsible Kids: This year I have really loved how many students have been emailing me questions about homework, telling me when they have forgotten HW and wanting to be responsible for this, and a couple times even telling me that I forgot to send the HW!

The HIV/AIDS lesson will be Tuesday: An informational page will come home with your child.
  
  


HOMEWORK:   
Math Homework- Homework this weekend is finishing up math from Friday- dividing decimal by whole numbers.

MATH: 
     Students took the test over Multiplying Whole Numbers and Decimals. I was very impressed with the kids- they really caught on to dividing by 2 digit divisors! We will continue practice with this for fluency and to be confident. This week we focused on dividing decimals by powers of ten and whole numbers. Next week we will get into dividing decimals by a decimal and review.

  PRACTICE: Aside from homework, please give your child a couple long division problems daily for practice in order to become more fluent.

My fusion page has quite a few math games and tutorials. Here is the link:
Fusion Page 

READING -   
Click on the "Reading" tab for practice comprehension passages
  We began our genre unit, The Fighting Ground. The picture book, Katie's Trunk, is the first book in this unit. This story gives a Torie's perspective, pre-Revolutionary War. This is the last of our genre units and goes along with our social studies unit about the Revolutionary War.
  We will be doing whole class work to work on reading comprehension strategies as well as breaking into groups to focus on those strategies and student reading goals.

WRITING:                    
  The newspaper articles have been fun for the kids to do. The google form is set up like a newspaper with room for 3 articles and a picture/caption for each. 2-3 students can work on a page all together in real time, working and online chatting about their articles and giving editing advice.  I can also have their pages all open on my computer and do the same. I look these over nightly as well to add comments and ask questions. Our goals have been using alliteration in the headlines, using quotes and quotation marks correctly, and writing from the voice of a reporter- not writing it as a narrative story, such as "One sunny day.." 
These are due on Thursday.

SCIENCE:   
  Students took the Objects in the Sky test on Monday. Students have completed their research and projects about the Body Systems (Skeletal, Muscular, etc.) which is our current unit. Presentations will begin on Tuesday. I have been really proud of how students have been checking their work against the rubric for their particular project. This is an important skill!
 
SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 25 test on Friday and it will come home on Monday. List 26 will go home Monday- (Yes, I forgot lesson 25!)  You can also find lists under the spelling tab. The skill is synonyms. 

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

March 24th.................Marchall Music comes- musical apptitude
March 24th................ Puberty Lessons begin
March 26th................ 5th Grade MS Orientation
                                             Parent Meeting 7:00


_________ 
May 9th- Track and Field Day
June 2nd- Dunes Field Trip
 
Puberty Lessons: We will begin Monday, March 24th and go through Thursday, March 27th.  Students are automatically included in the lessons if the letter isn't returned saying you don't want your child participating.
  AN FYI: Students are encouraged to discuss this subject matter with their parents. Your child will bring home homework for some of the lessons. This will need to be signed and returned the following day. I discuss only what the curriculum states. If students ask questions beyond this that can't be answered, I let them know that I can't answer.




HOMEWORK:   
Math Homework- There are 6 division problems from their workbook, Pg 39.
                           (Odds only) 
Writing Homework: Students are to complete their interviews by Monday in order to begin writing on Monday.

MATH: 
     Students took the test over Multiplying Whole Numbers and Decimals. We are beginning our Division unit next and will be reviewing past concepts.
     PRACTICE: Aside from homework, please give your child a couple long division problems daily for practice in order to become more fluent.

My fusion page has quite a few math games and tutorials. Here is the link:
Fusion Page 

READING -   
Click on the "Reading" tab for practice comprehension passages
  Our reading will focus on nonfiction for the Body Systems part of our next science unit. We will also be reading informational material about animal characteristics which is also part of our next unit.Students are also reading in their own books daily.
 We will begin reading The Fighting Ground after Spring Break. This is the last of our genre units and goes along with our social studies unit about the Revolutionary War.


WRITING:                    
  We are now beginning our newspaper articles which has always been a favorite. This week students will need to decide who they would like to interview, write questions and have interviews done in order to begin writing their articles. These articles will be written on a google doc form that looks like a real newspaper set-up.  Students will also write another newspaper article of their choice alone or with a partner. This may be true or made up, but must appear to be true.

SCIENCE:   
  Students will take the test on Monday- I pushed it back from Friday. Students are also working in their groups researching and doing their projects about the Body systems for the next unit. (Skeletal, Muscular, etc.)
 
SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 24 test on Friday. List 25 will go home Monday-  You can also find lists under the spelling tab. The skill is words spelled with the /j/ sound. 

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

DATES: 
Friday March 21st..............Jr. Achievement                   
Friday March 21st.......................11:40 Dismissal 
Friday March 21st...........PTO Fun Night
_________ 
May 9th- Track and Field Day
 June 2nd- Dunes Field Trip
 
Puberty Lessons: We will begin March 24th. Please return the form by March 21st if you have not already done so. Students are automatically included in the lessons if the letter isn't returned saying you don't want your child participating.

Mrs. Blowers out: I will be out on Monday for a discussion of Language Arts Standards with middle school teachers and on Thursday for a conference.




HOMEWORK:   
Math Homework- Lesson 40/41 and finish up work. As always, if your child has difficulty on a problem, just skip that one and we will discuss it at school.

Tuesday Gym: We have been going to the gym on Tuesday mornings since we don't have a special to burn off some energy. Students who have late work the previous week know they will miss some or all of this time.
Once it gets nice out we'll head back outside for our special activity. 

MATH: 
   We will be reviewing and doing the study guide in preparation for taking the test over our unit, Multiplying Whole Numbers and Decimals on Thursday. Some students may be ready earlier. Our next unit is Dividing Whole Numbers and Decimals.

My fusion page has quite a few math games and tutorials. Here is the link:
Fusion Page 

READING -   
Click on the "Reading" tab for practice comprehension passages
  Our reading will focus on nonfiction for the Body Systems part of our next science unit and we will begin reading The Fighting Ground. This is the last of our genre units and goes along with our social studies unit about the Revolutionary War.


WRITING:                    
  Most students have completed their biographies and these will be graded by the end of the week. These have been more difficult to write. Students must learn how to write notes NOT sentences from the information they read in order to write the piece in their on words. We have been discussing how they should not use a word from the book in their writing if they don't understand it. They should be asking or looking it up. 

  We are now beginning our newspaper articles which has always been a favorite. This week students will need to decide who they would like to interview, write questions and have interviews done in order to begin writing their articles. These articles will be written on a google doc form that looks like a real newspaper set-up.
 
SCIENCE:   
We completed lessons and will be working on and studying the study guide for the test that will be on Friday. We have also divided into groups and begun research for their projects about the Body systems for the next unit. (Skeletal, Muscular, etc.)
 
SPELLING:
  Students took the lesson 23 test on Friday. List 24 will go home Monday-  You can also find lists under the spelling tab. The skill is possessive nouns.

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