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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

DARE Pizza Party Slips due Tomorrow!

This is just a friendly reminder about the D.A.R.E. Pizza Party Slips.  Also, I wanted to mention how impressed I was with the level of focus the kids displayed during a full morning of PARCC math testing. Great job today!

Monday, March 24, 2014

PARCC Testing and Recent Happenings!

Hi Everyone,

This week and next week we will be taking the PARCC Assessment.  Each 5th grade class is only testing on 3 days but the testing period is over the course of two weeks.  Room 12 will be testing on Tuesday, Wednesday and next Monday.  As a result of the testing we are not switching classes for academic subjects.  Each homeroom teacher will be teaching the enVision Math Program, Topic 15, Classifying Plane Figures.  In other words, we are teaching a geometry unit.  Today we began with Session 1 which was on polygons.  We will also be wrapping up our science research reports this week.  Tomorrow the students will have a mini-lesson on crafting satisfying conclusions.  Last week they had mini-lessons on crafting interesting leads and a mini-lesson on sentence fluency.  They are actively applying these new learned strategies to their own writing.  Being in our homerooms also gives us valuable time to review for science MCAS.  There will be some switching of classes for science and social studies instruction this week.

Last week in math we began our study of the division of decimals and will continue with that math topic after PARCC testing.  In science we will have mini-units on light and sound beginning next week.  During our ELA block we summarized non-fiction text using the Key Word Strategy last week.  We extended our use of the strategy from summarizing single paragraphs to summarizing full stories.  Have a terrific week and stay warm!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Social Studies Map Project due on Monday

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to let you know that there is a map project on the 13 colonies due Monday.  I also wanted to share the current happenings in class.  In ELA we have completed our work on the book Hatchet.  Students have been completing work on the book on  ipads and saving work in their ELA folders in their Google Docs. Some of the activities we have completed are: writing a scene from the book in the first person point of view, quoting the text to show how Brian was full of "tough hope" and sharing a critics review of the book.  Each student took the role of a news anchor and gave their critics review of Hatchet.  These reports are in their ELA folders on the google drive if you are interested in viewing them.  We have also learned a new reading strategy this week called the "Key Word Strategy".  Students read a passage from a text and record 2-3 "key" words in their notebooks.  They then write a summary of what they have read using those words.  The story we studied was about NASA's plans for a mission to Mars in 2035.  We also worked towards finishing up mini-research projects on short non-fiction texts that we read in class.  This work is also saved in students' ELA folders.  In math we are multiplying decimals and applying our understanding of decimals to word problems.  We will have a test on Topic 6 of our enVision math program on Tuesday.  In science we are writing research reports on body systems.  We learned the VIP (very important point) strategy this week.  We are using this strategy to collect important facts about our body systems in research groups.  Next week we will organize our research in flow charts.  The kids can do independent research on their body system by going to Mr. Musselman's Symbaloo Website.  The link to this website can be found in the shared science folder in the students' google drive. Students just need to copy the link and paste it into their browser. Have a great weekend everyone!