Week of January 23rd

Tyler and his cat, Buddy, getting lost in a good book!

TJ's mom, Angie, had her baby this week! Isn't he soooooo adorable?! Welcome to the world, Coy!

These cute girls matched and didn't even plan it! 

Dylan and Mya made the sweetest picture for me. Love you, girls!

This week in reading we are moving on to Unit 3, Week 5. We will focus on the essential question: How is each event in history unique? We have several history-buffs in our class, so I know students will bring lots of great background knowledge to this week's readings. The expository texts we will read are: "Riding the Rails West!" "Discovering Life Long Ago," and "The Long Road to Oregon." We will focus on the skills are summarizing, sequencing events, suffixes, and combining sentences with verbs. 

Our spelling words this week are: 

And we will focus on the following vocabulary words:

 

In math, we will finish Chapter 8: Understanding Fractions. So far, we have been working hard on representing fractions using a bar model, as parts of a group, using a number line, and with a circle model. We will dive deeper into fraction concepts such as comparing fractions and equivalent fractions in the following weeks.  Please keep encouraging your child to work on ST Math and Xtra Math at home -- it really does make a difference!

In science, we have learned about different forces and six different types of simple machines. The six types of simple machines are: Inclined Planes (ramps, slides, ladders), Levers (a bat, teeter totter, wheel barrow, light switch), Wheel and Axle (cars, bicycle, wagon, Ferris Wheel), Pulley (flagpole, window blinds), Wedges (ax, knife), and Screw (bottle cap, jar lids, light bulb). Simply put, simple machines make life/work easier. This week we take out the PLTW and begin building different simple machines, beginning with an inclined plane. 

This week for Social Studies, we will focus on the stories from our Wonders series to learn about our country's past. 

Several students are not bringing a snack or water bottle to school each day. Please make sure your child is bringing a healthy snack to school every day -- if they don't, they are starving by lunchtime! Thank you to the few families who have donate "extra" snacks to those students who bring any. This helps ease the burden for me financially a little, as I have spent A LOT of money on snacks for students this year. Long story short, snack donations are greatly appreciated ;)

Also, I have several students beating me to school in the morning. Technically, students should not arrive at school until 8:00, when there is a teacher to supervise morning walk. If you need to bring your child earlier than 8:00, please let me know so that we can figure out a plan. Thanks!

Please sign and return your child's report card envelope. And, as always, if you have ANY questions/comments/concerns, please call or email me.

Have a lovely, relaxing, enjoyable weekend! See you Monday!

Code Word = Inclined Plane

Week of January 16th

Upcoming Events

                   16 -    PIR Day - No School

                   19      5th Grade Band Concert @1

                   20      Report Cards sent home

                   23      5th Grade Orchestra Concert @ 1

                   24      Reflections Deadline!!!!

                   27      Family Fun Night at the Reef   4:00-9:00

                   31      5th Grade Spelling Bee at 8:30am

First of all, thank you to those of you that have reached out regarding my son Bennett's health. Over the break, we ended up in the ER three times and in the hospital for six nights. It was a loooong couple weeks, but he seems to be improving every day. Again, thank you for your well wishes and prayers. There is nothing worse than seeing your child suffering and not being able to do anything to help!

This week we celebrated Evan's birthday. I simply cannot say enough great things about that boy. He is clever, creative, funny, bright, and respectful. I just love being his teacher! He passed out cute treats and Star Wars pencils for his special day. 

On Thursday we celebrated the wonderful Nathaniel's birthday. If you know Nathaniel, you love his humor, warm smile, and fun personality. He is smart and kind and we are so lucky to have him in our class!

Tyton always cracks me up. This time I caught him playing his harmonica at recess.

Eden made a spectacular snow angel. 

This week in reading, we will be moving on to Week 4 of Unit 3. We will be answering the essential question: what ideas can we get from nature? We will read the myths "Perdix Invents the Saw" and "Bats Did it First." We will also read he expository text "Big Ideas From Nature." We will work on the skills of summarizing, determining the main idea, future tense verbs, and prefixes. 

Our spelling words this week are:

This week's vocabulary words are:

In math, we will continue learning about fractions. I don't love the Go Math materials for teaching fractions, so I plan on supplementing with quite a bit of other materials and resources I have collected over the years. 

With testing last week, we really didn't get to Science or Social Studies. So this week I promise we will begin our Simple Machines unit for PLTW.

Most students made AWESOME growth on their Winter NWEA and SRI tests. As I told the kiddos, you only become a better reader by reading. And you only become a better mathematician by working on math. So we will keep practicing and working hard for the remainder of the year!

I hope everyone has a lovely three day weekend! See you Tuesday! 

Code Word = Hello, Third Quarter!

Week of January 9th

The most important thing to note this week is that we will be taking our Winter NWEA tests and our SRI test on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Please make sure your child gets a good night's rest and eats a healthy breakfast! A nutritious snack and water would be great, too. I can't wait to see the growth students have made thus far this school year! 

This week in reading we will be moving on to Unit 3, Week 3, which will focus on the essential question: What do we know about Earth and it's neighbors. We will be focusing on expository (informational) texts this week. We will read "Earth and Its Neighbors" and "Coyote and the Jar of Stars." We will be working on the skills of summarizing, determining the main idea vs. details, past tense verbs, and words with -y and -ly suffixes. Our spelling words this week are: careful, stared, shared, pair, stairs, wear, bear, where, there, dear, rear, gear, here, career, peer, share, carve, storm, square, and clearly. We will focus on the vocabulary words" surface, amount, astronomy, globe, solar system, support, temperature, and warmth.

In math, we will take our Chapter 7 assessment. By now, students should be equipped with enough strategies to solve any division problem thrown their way. Also, they should have a basic under standing of Order of Operations. Ask your child if they can tell you what "PEMDAS" stands for! We will begin Chapter 8: Understanding Fractions. We will learn about fractions as an equal part of a whole, equal shares, unit fractions of a whole, and fractions of a whole.

In Science, we will begin the next part of  Project Lead the Way: simple machines.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am anxious to see my students' smiling faces on Monday. Seventeen days away from them has been tooooooo long!

Code Word = Simple Machines

Week of January 3rd

A sincere thank you for all the gifts, cards, and love this Christmas season. I am one spoiled teacher. You filled my heart -- thank you again soooooooo much for everything!

2017 is going to be an amazing year - I just KNOW it!

Sam's wreath treats were DELICIOUS! Thanks, Sam and Laura! Those are seriously my favorite Christmas treat!

Before the break, Laurel's pet hamster, Buddy, joined us for the day! The kids loved him!

Thanks for the cute reindeer treats, Easton! Yummy and adorable!

After the break, students will have the fabulous Mrs. Loveless as their guest teacher for the week. Bennett (my son) is having his tonsils and adenoids removed, so I will be at home with him as he recovers. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I know it is a common procedure, but my momma heart is still anxious/worried! I know students will be on their best behavior for Mrs. Loveless. And I am only a call or email away! :)

Students will continue on with Unit 3, Week 2. Make sure to study those spelling words -- our last test was the worst yet! :( Also, please make sure to return those reading logs from over the break. It is crucial that students maintain those good reading habits in order to see growth on their winter NWEA tests. We will be taking our winter NWEA tests on January 8th and 9th. I am anxious to see the growth the students have made so far this school year! 

I hope everyone has/had a lovely Christmas and enjoys the break. I will see you in the new year! :)

Week of December 19th

Tyton got a new haircut! I am obsessed - he wasn't as thrilled ;)

This week in reading we will be answering the essential question: How can one person change the way you think? We will be focusing on the genre of Historical Fiction with the stories "A Great American Teacher" and "Finding Lincoln." We will be focusing on the skills of visualizing, cause and effect, idioms, and prefixes (un-, re-, and pre-).  Our vocabulary words for the are:

In math, we will finish us Chapter 7, which is focusing on division. Here is a glimpse at what we've been working on:

Soon we will begin Chapter 8, which will focus on fractions! Some students have started working on fraction concepts in ST Math, so they should have some great foundational knowledge. 

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Stay warm! I plan on NOT leaving the house!

Code Word = Fractions