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