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Friday, September 27, 2013

Back to School Night

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for a terrific Back to School Night.  It was great to see so many of you.  As promised last night here are the online sign ups that you will want to access for your child.

Vocabulary Workshop-  You need to go to the page to the left of the Contents page and enter the student access code found on vocabularyworkshop.com.  You will need to first choose the edition and grade level of the book before entering the code. The grade level is the newest one listed (2011-2013) and the level is blue.  Choose student. Please let me know if you have any difficulty.

Grammar Workshop- Follow the procedure for the Vocabulary Workshop. However, you will go to the website grammarworkshop.com. Choose the 2013 edition, blue, and then student.

envision Math- A parent letter went home recently about envision.  The letter has directions that will walk you through the process for setting up an account.

Reflex Math- Students need to be given passwords to start using Reflex.  I have not done this with my math class yet.  If your son or daughter's math teacher has given them a password they can get started by following their math teacher's instructions.

Quizlet-  Directions for setting up an account on Quizlet are in the letter Mrs. Jaffe talked about last night.  The letter was attached to the 5th grade teacher contact information.  If you need another letter or never received one you can let any of the fifth grade teachers know and we'll get you one

This week in my ELA class we have continued our study of the elements of fiction (setting, character, plot, and theme).  We have searched for them in the Junior Great Books story "Barbie," and mapped the elements of fiction on graphic organizers.  We have written stories that demonstrate the elements of fiction on our ipads using the Book Creator app.  In math we have completed our first topic of the year, Place Value.  We will have our Place Value test on Monday.  We prepared for the test by studying math vocabulary today and playing place value games.  In Science we are studying Classification.  Have a nice weekend.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Camp Foxy

Hi Parents,

I hope everyone had a good week.  Yesterday at Camp Foxy we created "Harmless Holders", can holders that are animal friendly.   Today Mr. Musselman took us on a nature walk around the school grounds and we spent a good part of the day classifying leaves.  This was a very interesting experience and helped the children to develop their powers of observation.  I've posted some pictures below.





Friday, September 13, 2013

Recent Happenings

Hi Everyone,

This week was a great one in Room 12.  During our ELA block we launched our new vocabulary and grammar programs and played an interactive grammar game on our Touch It Board. We also used our Daybooks to study setting and character in fiction.  We learned what "active readers" do and practiced being active readers by marking up text, making predictions and asking questions about what we are reading. In math we are studying place value and have worked with both whole numbers and decimals. In science Ms. Pavlicek guided the children through a science experience called "What's In Your Backyard."  The children studied various objects that had been found in Ms. Pavlicek's backyard and had to identify what they were and how they got there.  Today we wrote reflections on this science activity in our Interactive Science Notebooks.  The children brought home book order slips.  If you are interested in purchasing books from the book club please send the form in by Monday, September 23.  Thank you and have a great weekend.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Hi Parents,

We had a great first week of school!  The children adjusted well to our classroom routines and expectations.  As a fifth grade they drafted a classroom constitution that will be hung in each classroom.  We had our first assembly of the school year today.  The theme of the assembly was Belonging.  Many fifth graders presented the class work we did on our constitution and Mrs. Johnson was impressed. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Hi Parents,

I've updated homework for today.  Since the homework page is a separate page from the front page of this blog I don't know if you'll receive updates when I update the homework.  However, you can plan on something new being written on the homework page daily.  Each time I update the front page of the blog you will get update notices sent to your email address.