11.3.14 - Day FIFTY-FIVE

Happy November, all!  It's our first Monday of one of my favorite months of the year...yippee yo, yippee yay!!!  And don't get me wrong, I love Christmas music and Christmastime as much as the next person, but the holiday music and ads on November 1st?!? Wowza, we are speeding this process along, aren't we?  Poor ol' Thanksgiving gets the brush aside almost every single year and it makes me sad.  I love Thanksgiving; I especially love the symbolism this time of year represents.

We will be discussing in great detail our many reasons to be thankful this year and will be discussing it much!  I feel it is so important for us to continually count our many blessings and gifts. We are so fortunate and so blessed- I know I certainly am to be able to have these sweet babies in 5th grade this year.  They are so magnificent!

Our NEW Blogger for the week is Sam and our new photographer manning the paparazzi pics is ColeMan Cayman.  You can access Sam's first blog post by clicking HERE.  Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to check out Cayman's paparazzi pics for today!

Happy, HAPPY Birthday, Andrew (5S)!  We hope you have the most tremendous day, you delightful guy you!  Oh how we love you so!

TOY BOWL-
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 5TH/ 6TH GRADE MONARCH FOOTBALL TEAM FOR WINNING THE TOY BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP THIS PAST SATURDAY!!!  We are all so, so, soooooooo very proud of you and feel as if we have some celebrities sitting amongst us!  You guys absolutely ROCK!  Thank you so very much to Mrs. Baribeau for sending some pics over from this weekend- you got some behind the scenes photos that capture the enthusiasm and spirit of the day and I am so grateful you shared them :)

Our 5th grade cheerleaders are: Alyssa, Abbi, Kayla, Alexis, Cayman, Courtney, Riley, Baylee, Margaret, Janie, and Hannah

Our EXTRAORDINARY 5th grade football guys are: Brandon, Nate, Andrew, and Luke

HALLOWEEN PICS: I have received only a few pics so far of the kiddos in costume- thank you so much to the parents who have already sent them over!  If you get a moment and have some saved, please email photos to me at abby.thomas@saintmaryacademy.com or send them in with your student.  We are LOVING seeing everyone look so fantastic and have such a wonderful Halloween experience!

Just a sneak peak at one SUPER fantastic photo I've already received :)  Love that Henry!
Now, can I get like 50 more of these, please?!?  

Now (without further adieu), onto our instructional day...

LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK:
We took a unit test over our first unit concepts from reading (main idea, sequencing, drawing conclusions, generate questions, etc.).  It was a challenging necessary evil of reading class, but the students hung in there and did well! They are lengthy, but I should have all 60 graded within the next few days.
HOMEWORK: none tonight; Book Projects (Groups A, B, C, & E) due THIS Thursday Nov. 6th!

SCIENCE:
Students worked on vocabulary in new chapter about weather patterns.
HOMEWORK: comparing and contrasting leaves assignment due Thursday

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students worked on their Study Guides for their upcoming assessment over Native American tribes on Thursday.
HOMEWORK: test is Thursday, Nov. 6th

MATH:
LEARNING TARGET: I CAN divide larger dividends by 1-digit divisors.
Students should be aware that they always follow the same steps for division (estimate, divide, multiply, subtract and compare, and bring down) no matter how large the dividend.  Experience in dealing with division involving large dividends serves as readiness for later work in algebra and our advanced division processes.  When I taught 4th grade (the HUGE introductory year for long division), I always required my students to do two things on every single division problem: write down the acronym for steps next to the problem (DMSBd) and then check each problem using multiplication (multiplying the quotient [the answer in a division problem] by the divisor [dividing number] should give you the dividend [the original number to be divided] and this is how students can check that they divided correctly on EACH problem).  For extra division practice, click HERE. Division process/ step review (Divide, Multiply. Subtract, Bring-down) VIDEO 1; VIDEO 2; VIDEO 3

Notes from our review video

notes from first review video (DIVISION STEPS!)

HOMEWORK: complete long division packet.  On front and back of first page, there are 24 division problems- for each, students need to show where they CHECK their work as well (this will probably need to be done in Math notebooks or on separate piece of paper).

RELIGION:
Students worked on Beatitudes in new unit and did activities in notebook.
HOMEWORK: none

Tomorrow is RESOURCE DAY!
Have a marvelous Monday evening and GO COLTS!


xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
P.S. ELECTION DAY IS TOMORROW!  Don't forget to VOTE!

Thanksgiving is only 24 days away!  And ONLY 14 school days left until Break...whoooo hoooo!!!

Cayman's Paparazzi Pics 11.3.14