5-2 Updates ~ 12/8/18

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

We had another busy week in 5-2 today! I hope you all found some time to relax together as a family this weekend.

Important Dates
Class T-shirt Form ~ due Monday, 12/10 ~ The 5th Grade Committee sent home order forms for your child's class t-shirt this week. They are all so excited to receive their t-shirts!! These forms are due on Monday - there is no cost for the first t-shirt, they just need to know your child's size and how you would like their name to appear on the 5th grade memorabilia. If you would like to receive an additional t-shirt, the cost is $6. Please let me know if you child misplaced their order form, and I'll send home another.  They'll receive their t-shirt the day we take our 5th grade class photo, currently scheduled for 1/25. Students are asked to wear their class t-shirts on our 5th grade field trip to Camp Edwards and at the 5th grade breakfast.

MAP testing

Monday, 12/10 ~ 1:15-2:15 ~ Reading 

Tuesday, 12/11 ~ 1:15-2:15 ~ Reading 

**New this year - students will have TWO days to complete each test. We have found that some students felt rushed in past years when only given one time slot to take the test, so all students will be given two blocks to finish the test.

Please encourage your child to take their time and do their best on these tests as they are used for placement in middle school. You can support your child's best effort by ensuring they get a full night's sleep before the test and eat a healthy breakfast and lunch. 

We also ask that you minimize absences on MAP testing days if at all possible.  While we do offer makeups the following week, we have found that students who need to makeup the tests experience more anxiety because they miss instruction during the makeup test.  Anxiety can negatively impact test performance.

Science Behind Drugs ~ Friday, 12/14 ~ 9:10-10:40am

This program outlines different types of drugs including alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants and medicines and their impact on the brain and body.  Students will begin learning refusal and coping skills and become Peer Prevention Specialists.  The Science Behind Drugs program incorporates a comprehensive, blended learning approach to substance abuse prevention education. Tied to both SEL and Health Standards, the program structure includes an interactive e-learning lesson (on Thursday afternoon) prior to the classroom visit from the Robert Crown educators, whole and small group work infused with games, activities and discussions and an app-based post activity to help assessments for teachers.

Robert Crown Health educator facilitates a classroom program that includes:

• interactive learning stations for exploration on alcohol, smoking, marijuana, inhalant abuse and medicines and how they affect the brain and body
• small and large group scenario based activities to explore peer pressure and apply refusal skills
• discussion on how drugs can impact the adolescent brain
• question and answer opportunities with a health educator

For more information about the Science Behind Drugs program, please visit the link:  https://www.robertcrown.org/category/science-behind-drugs/

Math

We continued working hard to master multiplying fractions and mixed numbers in math, and began practicing dividing fractions this week. We're moving a little slower through chapter 4 than originally planned, and with the interruptions to our schedule (MAP testing and Science Behind Drugs), I have decided to move our final assessment one more day.  The Chapter 4 Assessment is currently schedule for Tuesday, 12/18. Please encourage your children to continue to practice multiplying and dividing fractions at home by logging on to Khan Academy and Freckle.

Social Studies

We worked on their Revolutionary War Battle Research all week, and turned in their final poster on Friday. I have been impressed with the progress your children are making in their research skills with each of the projects we've worked on this first half of the year! They are growing in their ability to identify the most important information in the text they read, and they are learning to paraphrase the information in their own words! This is a difficult skill to learn, but one that is essential as they move forward in their education. I'm please with how hard they are working to master this skill!

The final Unit 13 Assessment is scheduled for scheduled for Tuesday, December 11th. To prepare for the assessment, your child could re-read the chapter in their History Alive textbook, review he completed organizer posted on Google Classroom as a study guide, and create flashcards for the vocabulary words in the chapter.

Reading
We finished up our Notice & Note Signposts, and returned to our Schoolwide curriculum in reading this week with a focus on story in historical fiction. We discussed the impact of a historical setting on the different story elements. Next week, we will dive deeper into characters and conflict, focusing on how those story elements influence the overall story. We will finish our Fiction unit before Winter Break, with the Fiction Summative scheduled for Friday, 12/21.

We continue to work on our Cereal Box projects this week - you children have been given a great deal of time to work on this project in class. I'm impressed with the quality and care so many of your children are putting into their cereal boxes! These projects and presentations are due on Monday, 12/17. To review the project descriptor and expectations, please ask your child to show you the assignment on Google Classroom. They are expected to submit the graphic organizer by 12/17, as well as be prepared to present their cereal box to the class with notecards.

Writing
We have been using the nonfiction text George vs George to practice our research and note-taking skills, while adding to our background knowledge of the American Revolutionary War. The conversations during our writing block have been engaging!

Fixed vs Growth Mindset
We dove deeper into Fixed vs. Growth Mindset with Mrs. Watanuki this week, and what a great time we've had learning about the latest brain research and how we learn! Your child should be able to tell you about the different parts of the brain, as well as how neurons impact our learning.  Then we spent the rest of the week learning about GRIT. If you're interested in learning why we're taking so much time to teach your children about GRIT, please watch the short TED talk by Angela Duckworth - I've included the link below. We ended the week by studying some famous failures, and sharing them "speed dating" style. Your children's interest and curiosity during this unit has been contagious!  Next week, we will work on all those things that improve our GRIT, including identifying our learning style and personality, positive self-talk, and strategies for when we get stuck.

Angela Duckworth ~ TED Talk

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  

Grit is that 'extra something' that separates the most successful people from the rest. It's the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality. 
~ Travis Bradberry

Cheers ~

Theresa Fowler

5-2 Updates ~ 11/30/18

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

What a surprisingly quick and fierce start to the winter season! I hope you are all staying warm and safe, and weren't too inconvenienced by the power outages many of our families experienced as a result of the storm. Though it was a difficult time for many, it was beautiful to see our community pull together to support one another!

Now that we have snow on the ground, please be sure your child is dressed warmly enough to be outside for a 30 minute recess every day. They need boots, snow pants, and gloves to be able to play on the snow. If they do not have the appropriate winter gear, they will stay on the blacktop. I would also encourage you to label all outerwear as we end up with quite a bit of clothing in the Lost & Found this time of year!

Even though it was a short week, we've been busy!  Sit down and get comfy - this is a longer blog post than usual ;)

Important Dates

MAP testing

Monday, 12/3 ~ 11:10-12:00 ~ Math 

Tuesday, 12/4 ~ 11:10-12:00 ~ Math 

Monday, 12/10 ~ 1:15-2:15 ~ Reading 

Tuesday, 12/11 ~ 1:15-2:15 ~ Reading 

Advanced math students will MAP test with our homeroom at the time listed above.

**New this year - students will have TWO days to complete each test. We have found that some students felt rushed in past years when only given one time slot to take the test, so all students will be given two blocks to finish the test.

Please encourage your child to take their time and do their best on these tests as they are used for placement in middle school. You can support your child's best effort by ensuring they get a full night's sleep before the test and eat a healthy breakfast and lunch. 

We also ask that you minimize absences on MAP testing days if at all possible.  While we do offer makeups the following week, we have found that students who need to makeup the tests experience more anxiety because they miss instruction during the makeup test.  Anxiety can negatively impact test performance.

Science Behind Drugs ~ Friday, 12/14 ~ 9:10-10:40am

This program outlines different types of drugs including alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants and medicines and their impact on the brain and body.  Students will begin learning refusal and coping skills and become Peer Prevention Specialists.  The Science Behind Drugs program incorporates a comprehensive, blended learning approach to substance abuse prevention education. Tied to both SEL and Health Standards, the program structure includes an interactive e-learning lesson (on Thursday afternoon) prior to the classroom visit from the Robert Crown educators, whole and small group work infused with games, activities and discussions and an app-based post activity to help assessments for teachers.

Robert Crown Health educator facilitates a classroom program that includes:

• interactive learning stations for exploration on alcohol, smoking, marijuana, inhalant abuse and medicines and how they affect the brain and body
• small and large group scenario based activities to explore peer pressure and apply refusal skills
• discussion on how drugs can impact the adolescent brain
• question and answer opportunities with a health educator

For more information about the Science Behind Drugs program, please visit the link:  https://www.robertcrown.org/category/science-behind-drugs/

Math

We continued working hard to master multiplying fractions and mixed numbers in math. With the break for MAPS testing on Monday and Tuesday, we won't finish Chapter 4 until the following week.  The Chapter 4 Assessment is currently schedule for Monday, 12/17. Please encourage your children to continue to practice their skills at home by logging on to Khan Academy and Freckle.

Social Studies

We began our unit on the Revolutionary War with a tug-of-war game in the classroom on Tuesday. What fun the kids had re-enacting the battle with an actual game of tug-of-war!! The red team represented the British, and the blue team represented the Continental Army - ask your child how unfair the game seemed at first with the largest students on the British side. There were several rule changes to the game that represented the actual events, and the Continental Army was actually able to win the game - ask them how the blue team won!

After reading chapter 13 in their History Alive textbook and completing an organizer this week, we began work on our Revolutionary War Battle posters today. They chose a specific battle to research further and will use the research to create a poster to display on a timeline of the battles of the Revolutionary War. Their research notes and poster are due on Friday, December 7th. The assignment and a few research links are posted on Google Classroom.

The final Unit 13 Assessment is scheduled for scheduled for Tuesday, December 11th. To prepare for the assessment, your child should re-read the chapter in their History Alive textbook, review he completed organizer posted on Google Classroom as a study guide, and create flashcards for the vocabulary words in the chapter.

Reading
We continued our work on Notice & Note Signposts this week - learning about Tough Questions and Words of the Wiser. We have been practicing finding these signposts together as a whole class while reading portions of engaging stories, and they are expected to continue practicing finding these signposts in their novel as exit slips independently.  

Your child should be reading a novel every night for at least 20 minutes - please be sure your child does not skip this most important part of their homework. This week, students chose a specific number of pages their novel groups are expected to read every night - if your child is a reluctant reader, please check in with them to be sure they are reading the assigned pages. The single greatest way to increase comprehension and vocabulary is to read! If they are not reading on their own every night, they will struggle to make progress in their comprehension.

We began working on our Cereal Box projects this week.  These projects and presentations are due on Monday, 12/17. To review the project descriptor and expectations, please ask your child to show you the assignment on Google Classroom. They are expected to submit the graphic organizer by 12/17, as well as be prepared to present their cereal box to the class with notecards.

Writing
We began our unit on Research and Content Area writing this week. This unit is focused on improving their research note taking skills as we read George vs. George, a nonfiction text about King George III and George Washington. This text supports our social studies unit on the Revolutionary War. We will continue for the couple of weeks practicing how to pull the most important information out of a nonfiction text and put it into our own words. Once we finish the text, the students will choose a specific topic from the text to research further, and use to write an editorial (persuasive essay) for a newspaper from the era of the Revolutionary War. 

Fixed vs Growth Mindset
On Thursday, your children were introduced to the difference between a fixed vs a growth mindset through a challenging activity. Ask your child about how they felt through the activity, and some fo the things we recorded them saying!  Mrs. Watanuki joined us to explore the importance of understanding the difference, and pushing ourselves toward a growth mindset. She will be returning every afternoon next week to teach them a little more about the brain, how to develop a growth mindset by learning to persevere through the challenges they encounter in life. 

In a fixed mindset, people believe their qualities are fixed traits and therefore cannot change. These people document their intelligence and talents rather than working to develop and improve them. They also believe that talent alone leads to success, and effort is not required.

Alternatively, in a growth mindset, people have an underlying belief that their learning and intelligence can grow with time and experience. When people believe they can get smarter, they realize that their effort has an effect on their success, so they put in extra time, leading to higher achievement.

Carol Dweck, a researcher at Stanford University, introduced these ideas and wrote a book to describe each mindset in more detail.  According to Dweck, when a student has a fixed mindset, they believe that their basic abilities, intelligence, and talents are fixed traits.  They think that you are born with a certain amount and that's all you have.

People with a fixed mindset always want to appear intelligent because they believe that they were born with a fixed level of intelligence that cannot be modified. These people have a fear of looking dumb to people because they do not believe that they can redeem themselves once other people look at them as being unintelligent.

In a growth mindset, however, students believe their abilities and intelligence can be developed with effort, learning, and persistence.  Their basic abilities are simply a starting point for their potential. They don't believe everyone is the same, but they hold on the the idea that everyone can become smarter if they try.

Character Education

Every week for a month, we spend time in circle discussions and engaging activities focused on one character trait. We've focused on gratitude for the month of November!

Both expressing — and feeling — gratitude are important parts of life. A sense of gratitude can benefit children (and adults!) in a variety of ways. It can decrease stress and has other important emotional health benefits. A person who is grateful tends to spend less time comparing him or herself with others and feeling envious. It also helps people, especially children, step into someone else’s shoes and realize that another person did something nice for them even though he or she didn’t have to. We want our children to be able to relate to other people’s feelings and to feel a sense of belonging in their classrooms and community - cultivating a sense of gratefulness goes a long way toward this goal.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life, and turns what we have into enough.
~Melody Beattle

Cheers ~

Theresa Fowler

5-2 Updates ~ 11/16/18

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

Can I just tell you that your children are hands down the most special group of 5th graders around?!  If they didn't already come home and tell you, your beautiful children threw me a surprise birthday party today. It was the most adorably touching thing ever ♡  They enlisted the support of Mrs. Watanuki a few weeks ago to supervise them today as they decorated another classroom during lunch, then they paged me to the room at the end of lunch to surprise me. We, of course, stayed in the room to celebrate for a little while, and enjoyed a class game of Silent Ball :) I've included a few pictures at the end of the blog post.  

My heart is just so incredibly full of gratitude as we begin our Thanksgiving Break that I get to spend my days with your children.  Thank YOU for raising such an amazing group of kiddos!!  

Important Dates

Progress Reports ~ you should have received your child's email by now. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Thanksgiving Break ~ Monday, November 19th - Friday, November 23rd. Enjoy the time with your family!

Math

it took our class a little longer to take the Chapter 3 Assessment than I anticipated, so the Owl Scorecards won't come home until we return from break.  We did begin Chapter 4 - Multiplying and Dividing Fraction. Today we worked on word problems, and a few of them didn't finish up the problems, so they may have a bit of math homework to complete over break  You might want to encourage your children to spend some time over break reviewing their math facts and skills to keep them fresh!

Science

Our Earth and Space unit ended this week with final quiz on Monday. I will be sending home the final Owl Scorecards when they return to school after break.  We will begin our social studies unit on the Revolutionary War when we return with a game of tug-of-war!

Reading
This week, your children were introduced to Notice & Note Signposts. These "signposts" alert readers to significant moments in fictional text and encourage them to read more closely.  Learning to spot these signpost and question them enables readers to explore the text and find evidence to support inferential comprehension.  This week, your children were introduced to 2 signposts: Contrast & Contradictions and Aha Moments.  When we return from break, they will learn about 4 more signposts. They were given a bookmark to keep in their novel with all 6 signposts - they should hang on to it as they will need this bookmark when they complete the exit slips associated with each signposts.

Your children also chose a novel this week to read over Thanksgiving Break. The novel should be complete by the time they return to school in order to complete a Cereal Box project based on skills learned during the fiction unit. They will need one large cereal box when they return to school on Monday, November 26th.

Personalized Learning
I was so impressed with the engagement during our Personalized Learning Experience this week! They worked so hard to answer their questions through research!  These questions were challenging, open-ended questions that were not easy to answer with a simple internet search. As they struggled to find research to answer their questions, they strengthened their critical thinking and problem solving skills. After they answered their questions, they created a project to share their findings with the class. Have your child take you to our Google Classroom stream to check out their project!

Hoping your Thanksgiving Break is filled with many moments of relaxing and refreshing time with your families.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  

It's not happy people who are thankful, 
but thankful people who are happy.
~ Loris Malaguzzi

Cheers ~

Theresa Fowler

5-2 Updates ~ 11/11/18

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

Happy Veterans Day!  My deepest thanks to any of you who have served in our military - today we celebrate your great sacrifice for our country! Tomorrow we celebrate Veterans Day in the classroom. As a school, we will place red, white, and blue pinwheels along Arlington Heights Road and Olive Street to honor our Veterans. We'll also engage in a few classroom activities learning about the importance of Veterans Day. Encourage your children to wear red, white, and blue to join in the spirit of the day!

Important Dates

Progress Reports ~ Friday, November 16th.  Progress reports will be emailed to you from our district this year.  Please don't hesitate to reach out should you have any questions after you receive your child's progress report.

Thanksgiving Break ~ Monday, November 19th - Friday, November 23rd. Enjoy the time with your family!

Math

Our math class spent a little more time preparing the final unit assessment, but we will be wrapping it up with our Unit 3 Assessment tomorrow. Your child should have been practicing adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers, as well as converting division expressions to fractions and decimals this weekend.  Please look for the Owl Scorecard to come home with the graded test this week.  

We begin Unit 4 ~ Multiplying and Dividing Fraction on Tuesday, and finish it after break. Please encourage your children to continue to practice their math skills over break!

Science

Last week, your children spent time learning about and modeling the sun and other stars that appear in the night sky. We looked at 8 different constellations in detail, studying when these constellations appear throughout the year. They ended the week researching a constellation of their choice - ask your child which constellation they chose! They truly seemed to enjoy the connection between these constellations and their past Greek Mythology units.  Their final product was a drawing of their constellation and a paragraph written to include the facts they discovered. Most of the students finished up this project in class, but a few brought it home over the weekend to finish up. Look for the Owl Scorecards for their Constellation Research to come home this week for a sign and return.

Tomorrow, we will take the final quiz in the Earth and Space Unit.  After break, we will return to the Revolutionary War.

Reading
Your children really seem to be enjoying the stories we're reading in our Fiction Unit! They can hardly control their giggling when they're reading them :)  Ask them which one is their favorite! Last week, we spent time looking for challenging words in the text we read, and spent time using the context clues around the work to unlock the meaning.  At the end of the week, we spent time thinking about the overall theme in the stories we've been reading.  Your children learned how to identify the theme, then defend their choice by using specific evidence from the text.  We'll spend one more day practicing tomorrow, then we'll move on to study two different genres of fiction this week - historical fiction, and fairy tales.

Look for a couple of Owl Scorecards to come home for reading this week as well - Context Clues and Theme.

Writing

Your children submitted their Final Personal Narratives on Friday - I've enjoyed the chance to read their stories about a special person in their lives.  You have some adorably sweet children who clearly love their families :)  If you're interested in reading their stories, as them to log you on to their Google Classroom - I think you'll be touched by who they chose!

Please look for the Owl Scorecards to come home for their Personal Narratives this week!

As you read in the email this week from Nancy Brown, our LMC Director, your children did a great job engaging in their science debates this week. After 6 weeks of research, your children worked as a team to develop a ThingLink to share their ideas with the class. Opposing teams engaged in a lively debate about whether or not we should spend money on space travel, or whether or not we can live in space. Look for these Owl Scorecards to come home this week as well!

Personalized Learning
During science and writing times this week, your children will engage in a personalized learning experience. They will get to choose a topic of interest, then develop and open ended question about that topic to research. At the end of the week, they will present their findings to the class in their format of choice. All research will be posted on the Google Classroom Stream - please feel free to log on and check out what the kiddos are interested in!

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  

Our task is to help children communicate with the world, using all their potential, strengths, and languages to overcome any obstacle presented by our culture.
~ Loris Malaguzzi

Cheers ~

Theresa Fowler

5-2 Updates ~ 10/28/18

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

Shout out to our room reps for putting so much energy into planning an amazing Halloween party for your children - Claudia Melachrinakis, Sophie Gryfakis, and Amy Duffey!!  They've worked so hard to make sure your kids will enjoy their afternoon :)  Be sure to thank them when you see them!

Important Dates

Halloween Parade & Party ~ Wednesday, October 31st ~ 1:10pm.  The kiddos are getting excited for our Halloween celebration Wednesday afternoon!  Our Annual Halloween Parade begins at 1:30pm, with the party immediately following.  It looks like we may have some beautiful weather for the parade ~ yay!  We look forward to seeing many you all along the route!  Please refer to the Olive Blog for more information on rain plans, as well as Halloween costume expectations.

Progress Reports ~ Friday, November 16th.  Progress reports will be shared electronically this year - more information to follow!  

Math

We continue our work on adding and subtracting fractions in chapter 3.  Converting fractions to like denominators is challenging for many of your children, but their diligent practice is beginning to pay off!  Keep practicing these skills at home, and encourage your children to watch online videos and practice skills on Khan Academy.  The Chapter 3 Assessment is currently scheduled for Thursday, November 8th, but may change as we move through this unit.  I will keep you posted! 

Science

We spent some time tracking the sun and shadows last week, and recorded observations in their Science Notebooks.  They used their data to create graphs, then analyzed them to make some claims about the sun and shadows. Your children learned that the sun is always opposite their shadow, that the position of the sun impacts the length of the shadow, and that the sun travels in an arc across the sky. They took a performance assessment on Friday demonstrating these skills, so they will be bringing home Owl Scorecards for a sign and return this week. 

To clarify our classroom policy - if a student does not meet standards on a scorecard, they are expected to correct the work and turn it back in the following day.  They will meet with me to review the concept or skill, and they are given time to correct their assignment in class so they can continue to seek support. If they do not finish the re-do work in class, they may bring home the assignment for homework. If your child continues to struggle with the work at home, please encourage them to return to me for support!

Reading
We continue our work investigating story elements in fiction by digging deeper into characters this week.  Your children have really enjoyed the stories we've been reading in class!  They've been entertaining and thought provoking, so they've prompted a great deal of discussion.  I've been so pleased with the way they are leaning in and engaging in these lessons!  They will be trying their hand at independently analyzing a character on Tuesday - look for the Owl Scorecard to come home later in the week. 

Writing

We will be wrapping up our personal narrative lessons early in the week, then beginning to work on our final personal narratives at the end of the week.  These final personal narratives will be due at the end of next week. They will be working on these in class, and should only need to work on them at home should they be absent or miss a lesson for band.

Just a reminder - students continue to work on research in their weekly LMC lessons to prepare for a debate.  They will engage in a debate about one of the following two topics:

Should we spend money on space exploration?
Would it be safe to live somewhere other than earth?

Ask your child which debate they are focused on, and which side they are on.  They will be working to gather research to support their debate over the next couple of weeks. The debate will be on Wednesday, 11/7 during their LMC time. Students will be assessed on their ability to gather information from multiple sources for research (writing standard), as well as their ability to support their claims with evidence (science standard) with this research.  Some of your children have missed a few lessons due to band, so they have fallen behind in their research. They may need to complete some of the research at home.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.
~ Mr. Rodgers

Cheers ~

Theresa Fowler

Happy 11th Birthday, Jake!!

Happy 11th Birthday, Flavia!!

5-2 Updates ~ 10/21/18

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

It was so nice to have a chance to speak with so many of you at parent-teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday!  I appreciated having the opportunity to meet earlier this year to share what I know about your child, and our plan as we move through the remainder of the trimester.  As I said to many of you, when the progress reports come home in November, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Did you see that snow yesterday??  It was actually referred to as graupel on the forecast, so my family learned a new word.  Who knew there was a specific word for that snow-like hail that so angrily came down yesterday?!  At any rate, with the snow comes the colder temperatures.  Please be sure your child is dressed appropriately to be outside for at least 30 minutes at a time as we do go out for recess every day, and please be sure all outwear is labeled with their name. It's amazing how many things end up unclaimed in our lost and found. (See my note in science for this week!) 5th graders can push the line with independence in what they wear, so they do need the reminder they must be dressed appropriately for the temperatures outside.  If the temperatures are below 60 degrees, we expect the children to wear a jacket or coat.  

Important Dates

Team Building with the Principals ~ Monday, 10/22 from 2:15-3:15pm ~ Dr. FitzPatrick and Ms. Davis will be taking the 5th graders for an hour on Monday afternoon for a team building activity.  This has become a treasured activity for both our principals and the 5th graders as they always have such a great time getting to know each other a little better, while building community.

Family Reading Night ~ Tuesday, 10/23 from 6:30-8:00 ~ Families are invited to attend the Olive-Mary Stitt Family Reading Night!  Many families have already registered to attend the evening.  They will be provided with individual family schedules.  Please try to arrive 10 minutes early so that you have time to pick up your schedule for the night.  If your family missed the deadline to sign up, you may still attend two events that evening.  All families will be able to view the opening presentation from The Grove (a Glenview Park District nature center) at 6:30pm.  In addition everyone is invited to visit the OMS Library Media Center to work on activities related to our One Book One School event and to decide if they'd like to sponsor a book for our collection.

Read Aloud with the Principal ~ Friday, 10/26 from 9:10-10:10 ~ Dr. FitzPatrick will be back with your kiddos on Friday with a read aloud on Friday!  Focusing on the Owls for Others theme, she will be reading Do Unto Otters, then following it up with an activity.

Math

Most of you saw your child's performance on the chapter 2 assessment at conferences.  It was a challenging test, but I was pleased with their overall performance.  They really worked hard to master skills in this unit!  Give them a pat on the back for a job well done :)  If your child received 'developing' in either the Basic or Application category, I will continue to work with them during Target Time to help them meet the standard. 

With the end of chapter 2, we are moving on to adding and subtracting fractions in chapter 3, which means we will finally be working on a different standard!  We will actually be covering two standards in chapter 3 - adding and subtracting fractions, and performing operations on decimals as we will convert fractions to decimals.  This unit isn't quite as long as the previous unit, but we will work in it for the next 2-3 weeks.  as we get closer to the end of the unit, I will post our assessment date.  As in previous units, I will post assignments on Freckle and Khan to help your children gain extra practice on the skills.

Science

We will continue to make observations about the earth's rotation this week, so we will be outside on Monday and Tuesday multiple times throughout the day if it remains sunny as predicted (no more graupel, thank goodness ;).  If it's not, we will be out on Thursday and Friday.

We will collect date about the movement of the sun and shadows, then we will analyze that data to make assumptions and ultimately build models that accurately represent earth's rotation.  The only assessment in science this week is scheduled for Friday morning.  If we stay on schedule this week, they will take that quiz, and you will receive an Owl Scorecard early next week.

Reading
This week, we will be diving deeper into comprehension by focusing on story elements common to all fictional text - characters, setting, plot, conflict, resolution, and theme. Writers of fictional text use these elements to build meaning in stories, so good readers know how to break down these elements and uncover deeper meaning.  We will spend time identifying the story elements in several stories this week, but there won't be any assessments in reading until next week.

Writing

We will continue to sharpen our ability to show details in our writing this week by choosing strong verbs, especially in dialogue.  Toward the end of the week, we will focus on strengthening the organization in our writing with lessons on sequencing.  Next week, we will begin to pull together our final personal narratives - these will be scored as a summative assessment for our writing unit.

Students have also been working on research in their weekly LMC lessons to prepare for a debate.  They will engage in a debate about one of the following two topics:

Should we spend money on space exploration?
Would it be safe to live somewhere other than earth?

Ask your child which debate they are focused on, and which side they are on.  They will be working to gather research to support their debate over the next couple of weeks. The debate will be on Wednesday, 11/7 during their LMC time. Students will be assessed on their ability to gather information from multiple sources for research (writing standard), as well as their ability to support their claims with evidence (science standard) with this research.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; 
but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, 
he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.
~ Clay P. Bedford

Cheers ~

Theresa Fowler

5-2 Updates ~ 10/14/18

Hello 5-2 Parents ~

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you this week at conferences and sharing your child's progress thus far in the trimester.  We will discuss their beginning of the year benchmark scores, I will have their midterm standards based grading report for you, as well as their goals for the remainder of the trimester.  Please let me know if you had any trouble setting up a conference on Sign-up Genius - I'd be happy to help you out!

Important Dates

CogAT ~ Students will be taking the Cognitive Abilities tests the week of October 15th - I listed the specific dates and times below. These tests are used for placement in middle school, so we encourage the students to do their best. Typically, students enjoy taking these tests because each test is a series of three 10 minute tests. Please do your best to ensure they will be in school at the times listed below, as students are pulled from instruction for makeup tests. If you have any questions about these tests or the advanced placement process for middle school, please do not hesitate to ask.

Monday, 10/15 ~ 9:10-10:10am ~ Verbal Battery (verbal analogies)

Tuesday, 10/16 - 9:10-10:10am ~ Quantitative Battery (finding patterns) 

Wednesday, 10/17 - 1:15-2:15pm ~ Nonverbal Battery (spatial reasoning)

Parent-Teacher Conferences ~ Thursday, 10/18 & Friday, 10/19 - No School

Math

We spent the majority of this week on word problems.  Your children are developing their ability to read and break down a real-world problem, and then apply the computation to solve the problem.  Some parents have reached out to me to ask if there is a specific way we ask the students to solve the problems.  We do teach Bar Modeling as a strategy, but your child can use any strategy to solve the problem. So long as they arrive at the correct answer, I am not particular about the method.  If you would like to review Bar Modeling, just look back into the chapter.  You'll find several examples at the end of each chapter with the word problems.

Our Unit 2 Assessment is still tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, October 16th, but this chapter has been difficult for many of them, so I will assess their skills tomorrow and determine if they would benefit from an additional day of practice.  If you would like to support your child in this chapter, please review the Chapter Wrap-Up on Student Book pages 116-117 or the Self-Assessment I gave them at the beginning of the unit.  Both of these resources will help identify the areas your children still need to practice in this unit.

Please continue to encourage your child to log on to Khan Academy and Freckle to practice multiplying and dividing whole numbers. Many of your children are still struggling with the automaticity of their multiplication facts, which is causing computation errors during this unit.  Please ask your child to log on to one of the math fact games site for 10 minutes every night - it's an engaging way to practice their math facts!

Science

Your children were very excited to begin the Earth and Space science unit this week!  They had a great time exploring Google Earth and creating models of the earth, then we moved into a lesson on earth's gravity, where your children thoughtfully created models of earth's gravity. As I mentioned last week, their science work will primarily be completed on the Science Companion website.  Your child should have introduced you to the site this week as they were asked to share the Family Link with you from the website.  You can also review the work they are doing in their science journals online.

As you noticed with social studies, our science standards are very different this year.  We will discuss this more at conferences, but until then, you will see two Owl Scorecards coming home for the work they did in the first two science lessons. They were assessed on their ability to create models, as this is a critical component of the scientific process.  Please look for the Owl Scorecards to come home for a sign and return.

Reading

Your children wore their Book Review t-shirts with pride on Thursday, and they did an excellent job presenting their Book Review Talk!  I was SO impressed with the quality of the t-shirts and the effort so many of them put into preparing their presentations!  We gave the 5th graders 30 minutes on Thursday to share their t-shirts and book talks as an entire group.  They were so engaged in conversation with each other, and so many were recording book titles they were interested in reading.  I loved their enthusiasm for their book and encouragement of each other's creative work! I've included some pictures below for you to check out :)  The t-shirts are hanging in the hallway so you can check them out when you come in for conferences.  I'll send them home in a couple of weeks.  Look for the Owl Scorecards to come home this week for a sign and return.

Writing

We finished up our focus on showing this week, so I had students choose their favorite entry from this section of our writing unit and submit it to me for grading.  I will score these as I did the Focus submissions, and I will suggest a Revision Assignment.  After they submit those revisions, I will formally score the entry and send home another Owl Scorecard.  I hope to get those scored this week so I have them for you at conferences, but it's a short week, so we may run out of time!

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  

Education begins the moment we see children as innately wise and capable beings.  Only then can we play along in their world.
~ Vince Gowmon

Cheers ~

Theresa Fowler