5M Highlights 12/9 - 12/13

5M Highlights:

·        Students spent a little extra time this week in Chorus preparing for the concert. Witnessing first hand, I am seeing all their hard work and effort paying off. We have such a talented young class. If you haven’t already, be sure to mark your calendars for the concert: Thursday, January 16th at 7:00 pm at SPHS.

·        During Math Workshop, students worked on factors using three specific methods. The methods included: using array, multiplication combinations, and the curtain method. Students did a great job using all methods throughout the week. As a class, we are finding parts of it challenging due to the emphasis on knowing our multiplication facts to find factors. To help strengthen our multiplication facts, we have done a lot of activities during morning meeting focusing on those skills and have worked together to come up with helpful strategies in remembering them.

·        We covered a lot of ground with our Book Club this week and found some great descriptive vocabulary. We continued working on adjectives this week, in our book groups, writing,  and the read aloud. We started a new book for read aloud, Among the Hidden. We are all looking forward in seeing how the story will unfold.

·        This week we started looking at how Geology influences our lives. The students researched their own birthstones and found some great information about its origin and symbolism. Students also picked a profession they may pursue in the future to research, and how it uses Geology. I am excited to see what they find as we continue our research.

·        On Wednesday you should have received your student’s progress report and portfolio. I hope the portfolio was a helpful tool in understanding your child’s progress up to this point. If you haven’t already, please send back your child’s portfolio by Monday. Please feel free to write any comments on your child’s portfolio on the back of this report. We’d love to know what you think.

·        This week I have learned a new online resource called Blogger. I am going to attempt to use this as a classroom website, as it is easier to update than what I used formerly. It is still a work in progress, but please check it out if you have a chance: http://mrsmaxwellsfifthgradeclass.blogspot.com/

5M Highlights 12/2 - 12/6

5M Highlights:

·        Last week was the official end to the first trimester of school. Trimester 1 Progress Reports will go home with red totes next Wednesday, December 11^th.

·        To prepare for a new trimester, students have been invited to apply for a new classroom job. They are excited to receive checks for their first trimester jobs.

·        In Language Arts workshop we focused on adjectives, both in writing and reading. We searched for adjectives in our book club books to notice how they make the writing rich and detailed. Student listened for adjectives in our read aloud book. We played games involving adjectives at morning meeting. After all this work, students were tasked to include 5 new and interesting adjectives in their Travel Journals. Some of my favorites were scintillating, exhilarating, and scorching.

·        During Math Workshop, students worked on using patterns and function machines to make ordered pairs. Many students were excited at the idea of solving equations and are actually looking forward to taking Algebra someday! We have now moved on to finding factors of numbers.

·        In our See the USA Project this week, students began researching points of interest around the country. Students are researching a variety of places from Disneyland to Chimney Rock National Historic Site and everywhere in between.