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Monday, September 29, 2014

End of September Update

Hi Everyone,

It was great meeting everyone last week at Back To School Night.  I hope you will find the informational packets we sent home helpful.  If you have any difficulties accessing any 5th grade online curricula please let me know.

In ELA we have been writing personal narratives that fall under the heading, "A Focused Moment in Time."  The children have been evaluating their own writing based on a narrative writing rubric and making revisions based on their own personal evaluations of their work. Final copies of these stories are being published in their ELA folders on their google drives.  Our work in reading has focused on the elements of fiction: plot, character, setting and theme.  We have completed Daybook lessons on these elements and applied our understanding of these concepts by identifying these elements in our independent reading notebooks.

In math we are currently working on Topic 2 of our enVision Math Program- Adding and Subtracting Decimals.  An important skill in this topic is "rounding" and it is part of my instructional focus on a daily basis.  A letter about the new math topic was sent home today.

Our science work is focused on learning to classify objects and living organisms based on their physical traits.  We are writing "Is It Alive" stories.  Finished stories are being published in student science folders on their google drives.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Camp Eagle-Fox

Students not participating in Camp Bournedale will be part of Camp Eagle-Fox.  Camp Eagle-Fox will take place on Thursday and Friday of this week.  Students will meet with me in Room 12 both days.  Today I sent home a permission slip which I need for Thursday's special activity. Please send this permission slip in tomorrow if possible.  On Thursday Fox Hill Students participating in Camp Eagle-Fox will be taking a bus to Memorial School for a community building activity with Camp Eagle-Fox students there.  On Friday our own Mr. Musselman will be working with Fox Hill and Memorial students at Fox Hill School.  This promises to be an excellent learning experience for our students.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Our First Two Weeks

Productive is the word that comes to my mind when I think of our first two weeks of school.  In ELA we have learned the strategies that Active Readers use and we've applied those strategies in our own reading.  We have also learned how to write Book Recommendations.  We have shared those recommendations as a class and based on those recommendations individual students have recorded the names of books they will be reading in the future.  We have also written brief essays about our Hopes and Dreams for the school year.  In math we have been learning about place value from the billions down to the millionths.  We read a book called Can you Count to a Googol? by Robert E. Wells.  Then we wrote a Googol.  Ask your child how many zeros the number contains.  In science we have sharpened our observation skills through sketches of shells, rocks and feathers.  We also inferred what was inside a Mystery Tube based on what we could observe when we pulled the strings that were attached to it.

Recently I sent home a letter with my blog address asking for any information you would like to share about your child as a learner.  Please don't hesitate to let me know anything that you think will help me to better help your child to be successful in school.  Some types of things that would be helpful would be letting me know if your son/daughter is a visual, kinesthetic or auditory learner.  I look forward to meeting everyone at Back-to-School Night.  Have a great weekend.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Welcome Back!

Dear Parents and Students,

I hope you will find this blog a useful tool as you navigate your way through the 5th grade experience at Fox Hill School.  Following the blog will give you an alert when I post a new news entry on the home page.         Homework is assigned daily.  Simply click on the homework tab to see the day's homework.  One important note: there is no way to get a homework alert even when following the blog.

 So if your child is in my homeroom they will do the homework posted on my blog.   Mrs. Lee, Mrs Jaffe, Mr. Lisano also post homework on their blogs.  You will find links to each of their blogs on my blog.  If your child has Mrs. Lee for ELA simply click on the link to Mrs. Lee's blog to see what she has assigned for homework.  Each teacher posts homework for his/her own ELA class.  Your child will be able to tell you who his/her ELA teacher is after the first day of school! Math is taught in homerooms this year.

 The most efficient way to not miss homework assignments is to check the blog daily regardless of whether I have updated the home page.  I will always update the homework on a daily basis.  Parents often ask me how they can support teachers.  The number one way to support your child's education is to make sure they have completed homework and brought it to school.  Fifth grade homework reinforces concepts learned in class.  Doing homework builds self discipline in students.  Also, when homework is completed your son or daughter is ready to move on to new concepts and is not caught up in searching for the missing work or making it up. The first homework assignments will be covering text books and reading 30 minutes a night.  I will post these activities on the homework page.  Please help your son or daughter learn to use this blog on a regular basis and check the homework daily.  They will also be given a homework planner that they will be responsible for filling out each day.  Please check the homework planner to make sure your child is filling in accurate information that corresponds to what is on the homework page on the blog.  Note taking is an important skill for fifth grade and moving forward.  

Please note that "Follow by E-Mail" and "Contact Form" are in the bottom right corner of the blog.  You will need to scroll down to find them. I'm looking forward to working with your children and will post more important information to this site as I think of further ways to assist you.