12.21.14 DAY EIGHTY-SEVEN

Hello there 5th graders!! I hope you all have enjoyed your Christmas Breaks so far! We had such a great time on Friday on our last day of school in 2014! We played Christmas games before going down to see the adorable K-3 Christmas program. When we came back up to the classroom Mrs. Thomas was there to greet us!! We were all so excited to see her again & I know she loved seeing her babies :) Our party was a lot of fun & very "emotional" as Kayla put it. We had to say good bye to our dear friend Isabelle & also send off Mrs. Thomas to get her rest for baby Harrison! All in all it was a great day & I know you guys enjoyed it thoroughly…you should've seen the classroom after dismissal HA! I want to thank you all for the great gifts I received…they were such a surprise & awesome gifts I'm already using! Below I'm going to list the rest of our Advent Calendar days & hopefully you all can do those over your break with your family & friends. I also have a few pictures from Friday that are pretty hilarious as well :) Thank you to the parents who came and helped during our Christmas party…we couldn't have done it without you!! I want you all to ENJOY your Christmas break & remember…Santa is watching :)

Advent Calendar 

Talk to you all very soon!!

xoxo- Ms. Ray

12.18.14 DAY EIGHTY-FOUR

SHEW!!! I don't know about you guys but today was a super busy one! We had our last Mass as a school today before Christmas break. It was a great Mass talking about how Jesus is our #1 gift during the Christmas holiday (and ALWAYS). You can't spell CHRISTmas without CHRIST in it :) 

Isabelle worked on her blog for today & you can find it HERE. She was so kind enough to bring in TWO cookie cakes for us for treats since we will all miss her after tomorrow. YUMMY!! We wish luck to you & your family with your big move!! 

**DON"T FORGET**

• Red/Green Christmas wear is allowed tomorrow. You may wear jeans or your school pants as bottoms. Girls may wear Christmas dresses or skirts. And all are invited to wear a nice red or green (Christmas or plain) sweater.
• The K-3 Christmas Program is from 9:00 AM- 10:30ish AM.
• Our Christmas parties are from 10:45-11:45
• EARLY DISMISSAL @ 12:00...woop woop!
• Mrs. Thomas will be able to come by for a little bit tomorrow...yayyyy!!!

DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?!

LANGUAGE ARTS:
We worked on finishing our Reading TV Commercials & presented them in front the class. We also picked what we would like to do for our Reading Book Projects...due dates are below.
HOMEWORK: Finish reading your books over break. If you were done with your book by today, your Book Projects are due January 15. If you need to finish reading over break, your projects are due January 22. Everyone has a study guide/ guided questions that should be completed BEFORE presenting your book projects. All book tests are going to be after Christmas break BEFORE the projects are due. 
**The Famous Stanley & James and the Giant Peach books are to do a typed summary of the book for their study/review guides over break**

MATH:
 Learning Target- I CAN find the prime factorization of a number & the Greatest Common Factor of 2 numbers.
In Math #1 we did more practice using factors & factor trees.
In Math #2 we corrected our homework & played a JEOPARDY GAME over what we have learned this week. We also practiced GCM with THIS game! Play them at home too :)
HOMEWORK: NONE.



Have an amazing Thursday evening!! I can't wait to see you all in your beautiful Christmas clothes :)

xo- Ms. Ray

12.17.14 DAY EIGHTY-THREE

HAPPY WEDNESDAY 5TH GRADE!! We had a very busy day today learning lots of new things :) Isabelle did the blog below...tomorrow she will be bringing in treats for us since this is her last week with us. Only 1 1/2 more days of school until Christmas Break! Will you all be doing anything fun?? I'm going to UL's bowl game :) **UL football fan & UK basketball fan** (I get a lot of grief from it!) HA!

I hope you all enjoy your evening and listed below is the homework for each subject for tonight...

LANGUAGE ARTS:

LEARNING TARGET: I CAN make inferences in pictures & texts. 

We started discussing how we can make inferences in pictures...tomorrow we will focus on making inferences in texts. We also worked with our reading groups & some groups received their Study Guide Questions to work on during this time. They also started making LIVE Television Commercials for their books...they're having a BLAST with that :) We will hopefully have time to present them tomorrow. 

HOMEWORK: Try to finish books by Tomorrow. Book projects are due Jan. 15 if book finished by tomorrow, Jan. 22 if you have to finish reading over break. Electronic Reading Logs due tomorrow.

SCIENCE:

HOMEWORK: none

SOCIAL STUDIES:

HOMEWORK: Read Lesson 3 in Ch. 4 and do 1-4 Review Questions @ the end of the lesson.

MATH: We touched base again with Prime Factorization & started looking at finding the greatest common factor of numbers. There are a few links I've attached at the bottom of the blog for extra help with those!

LEARNING TARGET: Math #1- I CAN find the factors of a number, identify prime & composite numbers, & find the prime factorization of numbers.

HOMEWORK: Redo Factor worksheet if didn't get all correct.

LEARNING TARGET: Math #2- I CAN list the common factors & find the greatest common factor of two or more numbers.

HOMEWORK:GCF worksheet.

RELIGION:

HOMEWORK: Study for test that is tomorrow.

Math Links:

Flocabulary Song

SHMOOP

See you all bright & early in the morning!! 

-Ms. Ray

Isabelle's Blog Post

Isabelle's Blog Post

Does your elf hide somewhere where it is hard to fine?
Does your elf hide somewhere where it is easy to find?
Does your elf hide somewhere it is funny?



 

Can you Believe it's almost Christmas. Only 8 more days till Christmas. My favorite part about Christmas is that you get to spend time with your family and friends and also give to other people. Down below we will be doing a vote on what we like to do during break.

 

 

 

 

What are you doing over the Christmas holiday..............

• Baking cookies:3
• Decorating:2
• Gingerbread houses:0
• Seeing Family:2

• Other:3
• Everything:20 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the winner is ......................

 

 

 

 

 

EVERYTHING!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!

 

 



12.16.2014 DAY EIGHTY-TWO

Good afternoon families!! Yes...I'm one of those that isn't too fond of cold weather! I looks like it will be here before we know it though! As you know, today was resource day for the kiddos. They had PE in the classroom since the K-3 Christmas Program was going on today...they did great with the change :) Isabelle has been working on her blog the past 2 days and you can get that HERE! 

I figured I could take this time for everyone to get to know a little about me since I'll be here a couple months! (Keep that baby nice & warm Mrs. Thomas!) 

I was born and raised here in Louisville, Ky & went to Catholic schools growing up. I attended St. Pius X for grade school, Assumption High School, then moved to Lexington, Ky to UK. I was at UK for a year and a half before moving back to wear my roots are. I then attended Galen College of Nursing and received my LPN Nursing Degree. (I currently work at Baptist East Hospital and they have been wonderful with allowing me to take on this long term substitute position!). In 2010 I decided to go back to school to get my Elementary Education Degree. I graduated 2 years ago from Spalding University & have been subbing ever since. My goal is to land a permanent teaching position for the Archdiocese of Louisville!

                                                                                                            

                          

Some fun facts about myself:

* I just bought my very 1st house (ME, MYSELF, & I) in September!

* My little sister, Audrey (only sibbling) just got married this past summer to Jacob (Louisville Fire Fighter) in St. Marteen!

* I with out a doubt am obsessed with my nephew...the DOG (Oakley);)

I absolutely LOVE working with children & am so excited for this amazing opportunity to teach 5th grade at SMA! I can't wait to get to know the kids even better!! With that said, I will have access to Mrs. Thomas' e-mail if you need to contact me for any reason while she is out :)

LANGUAGE ARTS:

HOMEWORK: Try to finish reading your books by Thursday. Online Reading Logs due Friday.

MATH: I CAN find the factors of a number.  2) I CAN identify prime and composite numbers.  3) I can find the prime factorization of numbers.

HOMEWORK: 3 Factor worksheets due tomorrow.

RELIGION:

HOMEWORK: Study Guides & activity due tomorrow.

Below are a few links we used in Math from yesterday's lesson!

PRIME VIDEO

PRIME FACTORIZATION VIDEO

I hope everyone has a nice afternoon & stays warm out there!! We all can't wait for Friday...Christmas is most definitely in the air!! 

xo -Ms. Ray

12.15.14 - Day EIGHY - ONE

Hey there & happy Monday afternoon before Christmas break! Just 4 more days until an exciting Christmas break!! I know the kids are ready for it! We have a NEW blogger for this week (Isabelle)! We let her pick which job she would like to have this week since this is her last week with us :( We will miss her sweet face so so much! 

So if you haven't guessed yet, this is Ms. Ray blogging (for the first time) ;) I'm going to do my very best to keep things exactly the way they are for Mrs. Thomas while she is gone. I'm so excited to be blogging with all the families while I'm here! I know I've already met some of you, but I'm trilled to get to know everyone! 

Our Christmas party is from 10:45-11:45 this Friday morning…the kids are allowed to wear red or green Christmas sweatshirts/ sweaters with jeans. Friday is also a 12:00 dismissal day…woohoo!!

Mrs. Thomas and I talked about READING PROJECTS yesterday afternoon. If your student is finished with their reading books by THIS Thursday, their book projects will be due January 15, 2014. As always, they will pick what they would like to do for a project so they can work on it over Christmas break. If students are NOT finished with their books by THIS Thursday, then their projects will be due January 22, 2014. They should finish reading it over Christmas break. 

I'm so excited for the Christmas party on Friday & am praying that Mrs. Thomas will be able to make it!! 

LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK:
Today we did some Winter Writing Prompts from our Advent Calendar…we will start back with Literature Circles on Wednesday. 
HOMEWORK: finish reading books.

MATH: 
1.) I CAN find the factors of a number. 2.) I CAN identify prime and composite numbers. 3.) I CAN find the prime factorization of numbers. 
I introduces this new Fraction Sense unit to the classes on Friday. Today we did a review over what we learned by going over important definitions & several examples of each of our I CAN statements. We all took notes in our Math notebooks together. On Friday the classes watched a few introductory videos & completed a few practice worksheets.
HOMEWORK: Three practice worksheets on factors, prime & composite numbers, and prime factorization. (due Wednesday)

REMINDERS: 
**Stories for Library are due tomorrow. 
**Music quiz tomorrow. 
**Electronic Reading Logs due Thursday. 

I hope you ALL have a great Monday evening & talk to you soon!!

-Ms. Ray

12.10.14 - Day SEVENTY-SIX

Aloha!  I hope you're well and wonderful on this Wednesday!  Today, we had our staff Christmas lunch hosted by our PTO and it was just LOVELY!  Thank you so, so much for all you do for us teachers- we are certainly spoiled by you and your willingness to support us through every endeavor within the school year and beyond!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

With that said, our schedule was a tooch off today since I was gone from the classroom from 11:30-1 and had to adjust our schedule accordingly (you will see this in our day's activities)...BUT, I did get to keep our sweet homeroom babies all afternoon and that is always a nice treat!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE alllllll of my 5th grade babies, but sometimes it is nice to spend some QT with your homeroom cuties, ya know?!?

ADVENT DAY 10 (Wednesday, December 10th, 2014):

1)    Make a top ten list outlining your ten favorite aspects of Christmas.

2)  Brainstorm a list of holiday traditions.

LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK/ MATH:
We completed our MATH Division summative assessments from Monday.  Poor kids barely had any time because we had a flip flopped schedule then, so now, we had to use our reading time to work since we did not have math class in the afternoon.  Thus, everyone should be finished with the test and ready to put long division behind them (chalk that subject up to a learning success, please!) and move onto FRACTIONS!!!  Can I get a WHOOOOO-HOOOOOO?!?
I gave them a good 60 minutes for MATH, and then we spent the remainder of class completing our Christmas stories/ books from Library time in which they've been focusing and working upon with Mrs. Pfeifer.
HOMEWORK: complete division error sheet (MATH); Literature Circle readings/ roles due TOMORROW

SOCIAL STUDIES/ SCIENCE:
Students took notes about Incas, Aztecs, Cortez, and Pizzaro
Science activities were completed during our Afternoon activity time for Mrs. Schleg
HOMEWORK: T-chart comparing and contrasting how Pizzaro treated Incas and how Cortez treated the Aztecs if in complete in class

MATH:
SEE ABOVE for class happenings...
HOMEWORK: Complete Division Error Sheet (coming home today); and REMINDER: MATH 2 ONLY: Grocery Store Prices Project due THIS FRIDAY (Dec. 12th)


HOMEROOM ACTIVITIES:

1. Students had some Advent activities and other Christmas themed work from Religion for Mrs. Schleg
2. Students completed their Advent Day 9 for me
3. Students completed their Advent Day 10 for me
4. Students worked on Science activities for Mrs. Schleg
5. Students worked on Long Division Error sheet (from Math time)
6. Students worked on their Christmas stories for Mrs. Pfeifer/ Library class time

REMINDERS:
**TODAY/ TONIGHT is Chick-fil-A day!
**Barnes and Noble Book Fair is Dec. 12th (we earn 20% of any purchase that uses a voucher which I've been attaching below each day and you can also find in Mrs. Zettel's weekly SMA newsletter email)
**Christmas parties - Dec. 19th (10:45 - 11:45 AM)
**Half-Day of school - Dec. 19th (Dismiss at 12:00 PM)
**Christmas Break - Dec. 22nd - Jan. 2nd (back at school Mon. Jan. 5th, 2015)

I hope your Wednesday evening is WONDERFUL!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

Christmas is 15 days from today and we only have 6 1/2 school days left in 2014!

12.9.14 - Day SEVENTY-FIVE

Hola mi familias!  It's Tuesday which means that it's RESOURCE DAY for the Thomasites and the Schleggers...

First, I want to extend my sincerest thank yous for the oh-so-very DELICIOUS treats that were given to me yesterday!  Yum, yum, yummmmmmmmy!  My waistline may not be so delighted, but this little nugget in here is...as are my heart and spirits, BIG Mr. Thomas, and the soon-to-be-big-brother little Mr. Thomas too.  We thoroughly enjoyed sampling and indulging in ALL of your goodies and cannot thank you enough for sending some treats our way- it was incredibly thoughtful of you (you did NOT have to do that AT ALL) and we are most grateful!

this was seriously me all day yesterday and last night.  But for real though...

ADVENT DAY 9 (Tuesday, December 9, 2014):

It was a writing assignment, so I put the students in partners to choose and complete the prompts as shown below:

NOTE: SCHLEGGER STUDENTS- Pick a prompt and just complete 2-3 paragraphs in this prompt independently.  I absolutely CANNOT wait to see/ hear what you creative kids come up with!

HOMEWORK:

MATH: We will be completing our Division Unit Assessment on Wednesday.  2) MATH 2: Grocery Store Prices Project Due Friday, Dec. 12th
READING: Literature Circle readings and roles due Thursday, Dec. 11th
SCIENCE: 5S- You will have a QUIZ on Wednesday
RELIGION: Complete activity on page 319

HERE's what has us giggling today (and THIS one and THIS one too)

Click HERE to make one of your own!

REMINDERS/ ANNOUNCEMENTS:

*Chick-fil-A Day is Dec. 10th
*Barnes & Noble Book Fair is Dec. 12th (we earn 20% of any purchase that uses a voucher!)
*Christmas parties - Dec. 19th (10:45 - 11:45)
*Half-Day of School - Dec. 19th (Dismiss at 12:00 PM)
*Christmas Break - Dec. 22nd - Jan. 2nd (Back at school Mon. Jan. 5th, 2015)


Have a truly terrific Tuesday!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

Christmas is 16 days from today and only 7 1/2 school days left in 2014!

12.8.14 - Day SEVENTY-FOUR

Happy Monday, all!  I hope your weekend was sensational!  Mine?  Well, any with THREE UK wins is a total slam for me :)  (Texas on Friday, UofL [Women's] on Sunday, and EKU on Sunday). We are dropping like flies around here- so many of our babies were out today/ left early with sicknesses, so be on alert and take every precaution necessary in order to avoid coming down with something during this eventful and wonderful time of year!  We are getting so very close to Christmas and the end of school in 2014 which is just bat-crazy, but I want you here and I want you healthy!

Our day was flip flopped with Thursday because of our school Liturgy for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Thus, we followed our normal Thursday schedule and not our Monday schedule and will not be having Mass this Thursday since we had it today.  Confused?  Don't be...we just switched Thursday and Monday- got it?  Good.  :)  Also, congratulations to any 2nd grade aged siblings of ours on Reconciliation!

ADVENT DAY 8 (Monday, December 8, 2014)

Take a familiar Christmas story and adapt it into a reader's theater piece. Enlist the aid of friends or classmates to perform it.

If you did not get a chance to check out some of our Santa Stories (Advent Day 2) that we composed last week, please click HERE.  Students are adding to these as we can per our schedule!

LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK:
LEARNING TARGET: I CAN analyze and describe the characteristics of a memoir.
Since we just completed a unit in Reading, I did not feel it would be best practice to start a brand new one here in these last few days before Christmas break.  Thus (and since we needed to anyway), we are learning about the Memoir writing piece.  Today, students learned that memoirs describe an author's memory of an important event or series of connected events.  They share the author's experience (most important point/ characteristic of noting) and make better sense of our own lives or feelings through the author's telling of that time.  As readers, we need to consider more than just the events (what happens in the story or to the character/ author) in a memoir; we also need to think about the author's experience (thoughts and feelings) of those events.  An event is something that happens, but an experience is is how the author feels about what is happening and is the most important concept and characteristic of a memoir.  This is difficult to differentiate and move to doing, so we spent today just discussing what memoirs are in this capacity and read an of example one, noting the author's feelings through his experience.

the students recorded this in their Writer's Notebooks

HOMEWORK: Literature Circle readings and roles due by THIS Thursday, Dec. 11th

SCIENCE:
Students in 5T had a quiz, but students in 5S did not, otherwise the majority of focus was within Social Studies.
HOMEWORK: 5S may have a quiz on Wednesday

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students reviewed and compared the Incas and the Aztecs
HOMEWORK: none

MATH:
LEARNING TARGET: I CAN demonstrate division concepts and my understanding.
Students took their summative assessments over Division.  Skills addressed: Dividing Multi-Digit Whole Numbers by 1- and 2-digit Divisors (with and without remainders); Divisibility Rules; Dividing Money; and Order of Operations.
HOMEWORK: none- we will be beginning FRACTIONS on Wednesday!  MATH 2: Grocery Store Prices Project DUE FRIDAY (Dec. 12th)

RELIGION:
Students went over the Advent of the day and went over a story from the Bible (Luke Chapter 3, verses 1-20).
HOMEWORK: Complete activity on page 319 

REMINDERS:

*READING LOGS are ONLINE this week!  PLEASE be sure to get online and log those minutes and summaries/ comments!
*Chick-fil-A day is Dec. 10th
*Barnes & Noble Book Fair is Dec. 12th (we earn 20% any purchase that uses a voucher.  NOTE: Voucher is attached below!)
*Christmas parties - Dec. 19th (10:45 - 11:45)
*Half-Day of school - Dec. 19th (Dismiss at 12:00 PM)
*Christmas Break is Dec. 22nd - Jan. 2nd (Back at school Jan. 5th, 2015)

Have a magnificent Monday!
Tomorrow is RESOURCE DAY!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

Christmas is in 17 days and only 8 1/2 days until break!