5th Grade Blog for 9/15/22

 How can it already be mid-September? The first month of school has gone by so quickly! Students are now comfortable with classroom routines and expectations! They are especially enjoying our daily featured routines: Math Problem Monday, Tell me What You're Reading Tuesday, Word Ladder Wednesday, Fun Fluency Thursday, and First Chapter Friday! And... I'm not sure who enjoys our "Book of the Day" routine more--myself or the kids! :) We even had a "special reader" for Monday's book: our very own principal, Mr. Senatore! He read us the book What the Road Said, which is a basis of this year's school-wide theme!

Here are the concepts we are currently/planning to work on:

 

Literacy

Last week, we finished our first shared text, Night of the Spadefoot Toads. Using this text, we practiced utilizing direct quotes from the text to answer comprehension and inferential questions. By identifying important events within the chapters, we worked on our summarizing skills. At the beginning of the week, we read about Cesar Chavez and his work to help labor unions and practiced finding the author’s main point and reasons that they use to support it. We have now shifted back to fiction and have started a short story called Shells, by author Cynthia Rylant. This text provides a springboard for giving us more practice in quoting, identifying theme, and describing characters’ challenges.We have been building on skills learned last year in 4th grade by practicing using the RACE method to write complete cohesive, short responses. Be sure to ask your student what the letters in RACE stand for!

 

Writing

Currently, we are in the process of planning and writing our first narrative! Within Night of the Spadefoot Toads, a character named Frankie displayed many characteristics of a bully. Using our shared text as a springboard, students are writing a story that includes a "bullyish" character. In the midst of planning and writing their narratives, students are working on developing elements of narratives, such as plot, point of view, characters, and setting.

 

Math

We are building up our knowledge of solving numerical expressions using the order of operations and writing numerical expressions. Using a variety of strategies, we are solving multi-digit multiplication problems. Multiplication strategies include the over strategy, doubling and halving, partial products, and five is half of ten. We are also finding the volume of rectangular prisms by using the volume formula (length x width x height) and math manipulatives (Omnifix cubes). We will be taking our Post Assessment for Unit 1 next week! Yesterday we started our review with a fun and challenging digital escape room! Students were challenged to solve problems and puzzles in eight different escape room! In teams of three, they used collaboration, perseverance, and great problem-solving skills! Today we played "Show down!" Ask your student for the details!

In Number Corner, we are reinforcing skills regarding volume and practicing skills with fractions and decimals.

 

Science

We are continuing to learn about ecosystems. In the past weeks, we learned about the role of producers and how producers make their own food through photosynthesis. During an investigation, we explored the necessities that help plants survive. We learned that it is essential for plants to receive adequate sunlight, water, and air. However, we were surprised to find out that plants do not necessarily need soil to grow! I even brought in a bamboo stalk from home to show how it grows perfectly without soil!

 

Upcoming Events

• Monday, September 19th- PTO Book Fair, Conference sign up email will be sent to parents

• Tuesday, September 20th- Early Release (Dismissal @ 2:05 PM)

• Tuesday, September 20th- PTO Book Fair

• Wednesday, September 21st- PTO Ice Cream Social & Book Fair

• Friday, September 23rd- PTO Special Lunch (Papa John’s)

• Monday, September 26th- No School (District Holiday)

• Wednesday, October 5th- No School (District Holiday)

• Thursday, October 6th- No School- Conferences

• Friday, October 7th- No School- Conferences

• Monday, October 10th- No School (District Holiday)

 

Friendly Reminders

• Please remind your student to charge his/her iPad and Logitech Crayon every night

• Please remember to send your student with a healthy snack. We eat a LATE lunch and the kids get quite hungry!!!

• Please continue to have your student practice their multiplication facts up to 12

• Our class will be going to the Book Fair Preview on Monday.

First Blog post for 2022 School year!

 Good Afternoon Families!

Our school year is off and running! It was an absolute pleasure meeting many of you at curriculum night last week. I hope you found it to be an informative and useful evening.  Your involvement and support is greatly appreciated! Welcome to the first installment of our bi-monthly blog post! It is my goal to keep you informed and up-to-date about the learning that is taking place in the classroom, as well as making sure you know about important dates and and events. If you have a Twitter account be sure to follow me at  julie_holzhauer  to hear about some of our educational adventures!

In addition to becoming comfortable with all of our organizational and academic routines, we have been doing a variety of teambuilding activities in order to establish a level of trust between classmates! Each Friday, we try to end the week with a team builder in order to start the weekend on a positive note. Last week I introduced the card game Spoons to the class. They played in groups and really enjoyed it! Be sure to ask your student about it!!

Also, the Stevenson Math Team would like you to know about a special opportunity for 5th graders! Here is the message they wanted us to pass along:

Hello parents! The Stevenson High School Math Team is excited to invite you to their annual Math Carnival on Thursday, October 13 from 6 - 8 pm. Students from 3rd to 5th grade will have the opportunity to play fun and engaging math games to win prizes ranging from candy to Stevenson Math Team t-shirts. Admission is FREE upon registration. For more info and to register, visit the event webpage at this link.

Here are the targets we are currently / planning on working to master over the next couple of weeks:

Literacy

 Our students are currently working on finding the theme of fictional stories and passages. This will lead to learning about how to summarize important events and noting the reactions and responses of important characters. We are also working on “quoting accurately” within a text which involves students supplying text support for their answers. We are greatly enjoying our shared reading book, Night of The Spadefoot Toads. Because some of the chapters are quite lengthy, students are being required to read portions at home. They are able to use their print copy of the text, or read the story on their I-Pads. Students are welcome to use this reading towards their daily required reading of 20-30 minutes. Once we are finished with the book, students are expected to use their own self-selected books for at-home reading.

This week we also had our first “status of the class” where students let me know what book they are currently reading, and what page they are on. This helps me keep track of progress from week to week. I will also be “conferencing” with students individually about what they read. This is a fun way to informally chat and make sure that their reading is progressing along! Students also have the opportunity to volunteer to do book talks and share what they are reading with their peers!

Writing

Our current instruction has involved “laying the groundwork” for students to plan and write an original narrative story. As we progress through this instruction, students will compose original story with the goal of including an effectively written introduction, well-developed body paragraphs, and an effective conclusion. 

Math

Our students are currently working on writing and evaluating numerical expressions with parentheses. The first few weeks have also involved getting used to our math routines. In fact, since September started yesterday, we also started our daily Number Corner routine. 

Science

Instruction utilizing our TCI science curriculum is well underway!  Our current focus is on understanding the makings of a various ecosystems around the world. We’ve learned about how members of an ecosystem interact and depend on each other. Currently, we are also learning more specifically about the producers, consumers and decomposers who make up our ecosystem. We have a very engaging science investigation to look forward to at the end of our current lesson! Fortunately, our ecosystems unit in science ties nicely into the reading we are doing with The Night of the Spadefoot Toad book we are reading during our literacy block.

Upcoming Events

** Monday September 5th - No School (Labor Day)

**Friday, Sept. 16—Ivy Hall Fun Run (more details to come!)

**Wednesday, September 7— PTO sponsored ice cream Wednesday

**Tuesday, September 20th- Early Release @ 2:05

**Monday, September 26th—No School District Holiday

Friendly Reminders

** Please remember to send your child with a healthy snack.  Nothing feeds the brain like a healthy snack!  

** Please continue to have your child practice their multiplication facts up to 12.

Have a great long weekend!