10.16.14 - Day FORTY-THREE

Let me start off this Thursday post by letting you know how absolutely WONDERFUL our babies were in mass today!  To say I am proud of them is a significant understatement!  Matthew and Kayla were beyond extraordinary in their roles as readers.  I am certain that getting up in front of 500+ people is a HUGE feat (mentally, emotionally...) and comes with many shakes and nerves and anxieties, but they handled it better than I could have ever anticipated or imagined and were brilliant! I am just so proud of them!  I knew they'd be terrific, but WOW...they exceeded that tenfold.  Baylee, Gavin, and Laura were shining leaders as servers and Keeli, Owen, Maddie, Isabelle, Abby, Sam, Courtney, and Brandon were the smiliest, most positive gift bearers I've seen.  Seriously, they were BEAMING and it was too, too cute :)

MASS:
Father Jack discussed kindness, service to and acceptance of all, no matter background or appearance.

Then, we practiced our tornado drill in the church basement, so that meant we had a bit shorter...
...LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK:
I passed out the guidelines and discussed expectations and directions for the Book Projects.  ALL groups (EXCEPT Group D) have these projects due by NOVEMBER 6TH.  They will have some time to work in class on the 24th and 30th, but the majority of these projects will be completed at home.  Students had 28 options to choose from and were instructed to pick the option that best suited their learning style and interests.  One major point worth noting is that the comprehension test over the book factors into the project grade and MUST be completed PRIOR to Nov. 6th.  The student can work on the review questions, using his/ her book and with group members and then take the comprehension test (individually and without any aids) whenever he/ she are ready up until Nov. 6th.
Please review these guidelines and project ideas with your student.  They all know they should begin working as soon as possible in order to apply best effort and complete quality work.  These won't be an easy grade and expectations are high :)
HOMEWORK: work on projects/ review questions for books 

SCIENCE:
Students checked over homework and discussed upcoming assessment as well as the Water Treatment Plant and the Water Cycle.
HOMEWORK: none

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students checked over homework with Mrs. Kalmey.
HOMEWORK: none

MATH:
Learning Target: I CAN multiply 3-digit by 3-digit numbers.
I had to leave early for an appt. by this point, so I had Mrs. Pfeifer (our Instructional Assistant) work with our students on more 3-digit by 3-digit multiplication practice.
HOMEWORK: Complete worksheet from class (and YES, PLEASE use scratch paper for additional work space!  ALSO, please work these out as well and allow your student to compare his/ her answers with yours to identify any mistakes and correct them.  We want them to be able to pinpoint mistakes and correct them as this is also a HUGE part of the learning process!)

RELIGION:
Master Gardener came to work with the students!
HOMEWORK: none

Tomorrow is Friiiiiiiday!  And it is our Pink-out Pep Rally!  Please see the newsletter about that below:

Have a thrilling Thursday evening!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

10.15.14 - Day FORTY-TWO

Happy day to you, Wednesday edition!  October 15th has been a day of terrific acclaim for us (school-wise, at least).  I hope yours has been magnificent too.  Thank you for your support of and responses to our behavior letter posted yesterday- all of us working together towards one common goal equals tremendous success for these extraordinary babies!

LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK:
Learning Target: I can identify the realistic elements of realistic fiction by making personal connections.
We began our new unit upon Realistic Fiction.  We first watched THIS short clip to determine our new genre of focus and discussed WHY and HOW this is a work of realistic fiction (the dog is real, the Humane Society is a real place, the situation with the dog can actually happen, etc.).  Then, we learned some important notes about Realistic Fiction from THIS video and got more practice and insight using THIS clip as well.  Finally, we reviewed all elements of Realistic Fiction through a poster created to help us know what to look for when analyzing a fictional text to determine realism or it being within the realm of possibility.  Students then discussed with a partner some movies and books they've seen or read recently and used the elements of realistic fiction to analyze the plot, setting, and characters to determine if it was within the realm of possibility to make it a Realistic Fiction text.  Throughout this unit, we will be reading and analyzing the book, Bridge to Terabithia, as support of our concept.

NOTE: IF you/ your student has this book (Bridge to Terabithia) at home and are willing to send it in with your student (for his/ her own personal use ONLY!) please do so as we only have 12 books to share amongst 57 fifth graders (and it is an absolutely phenomenal asset to this unit so we must use it, for sure!)  Several students have shared that they personally own this book and asked if they could use their own copy and of course, I am happily to oblige in that request!

READING GROUPS: Students used their Literature Circle chapter books to look for realistic elements in characters, setting, and plot and recorded them on a graphic organizer to reiterate and practice our skill of focus.
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: Students were given some scenarios and asked to analyze/ determine if they were realistic. Then, they made personal connections to each.
HOMEWORK: finish reading Literature Circle books; Reading Logs due Friday

SCIENCE:
Students studied groundwater and watched several videos, completing a worksheet.
HOMEWORK: Complete last question from groundwater worksheet

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students went over vocabulary definitions about Northwest Indians.
HOMEWORK: complete worksheet which is answering questions about the Kachinas

MATH:
Learning Target: I can multiply 3-digit by 3-digit numbers.
We reviewed our workbooks pages that were assigned for homework on Monday.  We were able to quickly move through the zeros in the multiplicand concept, but we needed muuuuuch more practice with the concept of 3-digit by 3-digit multiplication.  Thus, I did several example problems with the students and posted the answers to the workbook pages on the SMARTboard.  They then compared their products with the products I posted and circled any mistakes or problems in which they were incorrect.  I asked them to redo any problems in which their answers did not match mine and then identify their mistakes made.  If they could not find their mistakes, they reworked them with a partner or with me and again located their mistakes.  It was a teaching for learning opportunity and we took advantage of those mistakes to learn and grow from them in our quest to become more advanced mathematicians.
HOMEWORK: MATH #1: rework missed problems from page 21 to find mistakes.  MATH #2: complete worksheet assigned

Just in case you wanted to see lattice with 3-digit by 3-digit or 4-digit by 3-digit.  It can be done :)

workbook page 21 answers

RELIGION:
Students took their religion test!
HOMEWORK: none- but bring in a soda can for Master Gardener time tomorrow

Tomorrow is MASS and 5T is in charge of the reading and gift bearing.  Servers are: Baylee, Gavin, and Laura.  Readers are: Matthew and Kayla (prayer).  Gift Bearers are: Keeli, Owen, Maddie, Isabelle, Abby, Sam, Courtney, and Brandon.  We are so very proud of our babies participating in the service!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

PS, Have you SEEN Ava's pics today?!?  She is one exceptional paparazzi!  See below :)

...But first, here is a flyer about our PINK OUT PEP RALLY on Friday!

Chases Awesome day!

Wednesday: Did I make you giggle? Good because its HUMP DAY!

Slap It: Today at math we played this game called slap it! It was fun because you get to duel off  against your classmates. Mrs. Thomas puts a bunch of  numbers on the board and she names out facts and we have to slap the answer on the board with fly swatters. If you get it right your team gets a point!

Short on time: Sorry but I'm short on time your probably thinking this

 Peace out!
~Chase and Ian

 

Chase's Terrific Tuesday!

Tuesday: At least were almost halfway done with the week right? I mean its not that bad because RESOURCE DAY! :) Also we get to do all our favorite subjects.

Class Vote (Favorite P.E. Game Ever)

Capture the Flag:6
Volleyball:1
Wizard Dodge ball:1
Satellite:13
Pac-Man:2
Bouncing Ball Thing (the thing we did two weeks ago) :1
Don't know:2-3


Looks like satellite wins!

Well I'm out! Have a great night!
~Chase

 

10.14.14 - Day FORTY-ONE

Hola mi familias!  It's RESOURCE DAY!!! Today is also Kyra's birthday!  Please see the bottom for an important letter concerning behavior and behavioral expectations as discussed with the 5th graders and Mrs. Zettel yesterday.

Happy Birthday, sensational girl!  Oh how we love you so- your sweet heart and calm spirit are a delightful presence in 5th grade!

ANNOUNCEMENTS/ REMINDERS:

**The Athletic Teams are sponsoring a Diaper Drive.  Please bring in packs of any size diapers THIS FRIDAY to donate to families in need!  

ASSIGNMENTS DUE:

MATH - Workbook pages 19 and 21
READING - Literature Circle Books MUST BE COMPLETED by Thursday; A Wrinkle in Time Group: projects due by Oct. 30th; ALL OTHER GROUPS: Projects due Nov. 6th (guidelines for these coming home this Thurs., Oct. 16th)
RELIGION - Test tomorrow; STUDY!
SOCIAL STUDIES - Book Report over Indians of choice due Oct. 27th
SCIENCE: Test is Oct. 24th; Study Guide due Oct. 22nd

BEHAVIORAL LETTER:

Please contact us should you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this letter and our expectations!
Have a terrific Tuesday evening!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

10.13.14 - Day FORTY

What dreary Monday, we have amongst us, Friends.  Yikes!  I don't know about you, but it made the drive to work all that much more difficult.  No worries, once I saw the bright, smiling faces of these sweet babies, the dreariness subsided and we were good to go!  It was sunshine after the rain :)

We have a new job in our class from here on out- it is the PHOTOGRAPHER!!!  Ava is our first to take on this role and snapped some pics at recess today.  Be sure to check the blog each day for a view on life from the perspective of our awesome kiddos!  Pics from today can be found below...

Students are adjusting to much more difficult morning work because I am asking them questions in a continuous state of review- a spiral, if you will and they're constantly having to access that prior knowledge in order to keep it at the forefront of their minds.

Morning Work Example

LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK:
Today was our final day with chronological order and sequencing.  Students are great with pinpointing order of events, but have needed much more practice with pulling out significant events and writing summaries of timelines given.  Thus, we reiterated and practiced that skill constantly over the past 2 weeks and students are doing much better.  Their culminating assignment was creating the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. life-size timeline using index cards as well as writing a summary of the Jackie Robinson article in which they were assigned for reading.
We completed some guided practice with these skills using THIS site and THIS site first and then later I allowed the students time for completion of their major projects.
HOMEWORK: none- but final readings of Literature Circle book MUST be completed by Thursday! Group D (A Wrinkle in Time), your completed projects are due Thursday, October 30th- remember to take your comprehension test sometime before then.

SCIENCE:
Students read about the Water Cycle in their textbooks, concerning groundwater and the Aquafer.
HOMEWORK: TEST is NEXT Friday (Oct. 24th); Study Guide due NEXT Wednesday (Oct. 22nd) NOT on Edmodo (a hard copy was given!)

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students talked the Hopis, the Pueblos, the Navajos, and Kichwa Indians because students will be completing a project/ book report on the tribe of their choice.
HOMEWORK: none, but Book Report over tribe of choice due Mon. Oct. 27th 

MATH:
Learning Target: I CAN multiply with zeros in the multiplicand. 2) I can multiply a 3-digit whole-number by a 2-digit multiplier.
We played multi-digit multiplication "slap-it" (a student favorite) for warm-up and then dove right into the content of our lesson which was learning to multiply with a zero in the multiplicand AND multiplying a 3-digit number by a 2- and 3-digit number.  We worked on workbook pages 19 and 21 in class as well as a few Common Core practice pages.
HOMEWORK: complete workbook pages 19 and 21 by Wednesday.

RELIGION:
Students reviewed and turned in Study Guides because of the test on Wednesday.  They also took a pretest and reviewed the answers in preparation for this assessment.
HOMEWORK: TEST is THIS Wednesday (Oct. 15th).  Students should be bringing home pretests they did in class to help them study along with study guides. ALSO, please study, "Our Father" in Spanish (students will be reciting this on Oct. 28th)


It was wonderful seeing so many sweet families at the Fall Festival!  My little buddy was a bit overwhelmed with all the attention, but he sure loved it too!  He did NOT stop talking about "Mommy's students" and "I wanna go back, I wanna go back!" Obviously, they made an excellent impression on him and I am already envisioning many a fine babysitter in the future :)

I hope you have a magnificent Monday evening!  Chase is our new blogger- please be sure to check out his daily musings

Tomorrow is RESOURCE DAY...AND Kyra's Birthday!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

Chase the New Blogger!

Monday:
Everyone's favorite day of the week *sarcastic remark*
No one wants the weekend to end. At least I think?











Survey: Favorite Cereal
Cpt. Crunch :
Fruit Loops:3
Frosted Flakes:
Other:10



Funny Memes/Quotes

Me and Ian made this :)

Me and Ian found this and knew we were going to put it on the blog!

An average week.

We've all been there before.

GO PLAY OUTSIDE!

He sure doesn't want a cat.

Columbus Day: 

America was a lie.