Hello all-
Due to a personal emergency, I had to leave school almost as soon as I got there. The smile on your child's face when I saw him/her after the weekend though, sure was warm, welcoming, and a wonderful sight...I have tears now thinking of all of their love, care, and energy! I really am blessed to have your child and love every single minute with him/her...I HATE missing school!
I do not have much to share except that our Reading class is starting a new Spelling series. I did not feel that the words we were having before were quite the perfect match for us (something just did not feel quite right...or on their level) so I decided to go a different route; a route that could be more up to date and engaging and challenging for your student. This series is entitled "Wordly Wise" and is most definitely in a different format than you may have gotten used to over the previous weeks of school. This series emphasizes the correct meanings and usages of the words so that your child can dive into a deeper understanding of the context in which the word is used and applied through his/her reading. By this, I hope to see our fluency with reading and comprehension soar to new levels! The packet will be due Friday and we will be using it daily to create games with the words of focus. I am so excited to see where we can go from here!
BOO GRAMS... DO NOT forget that the 5th graders will be selling Boo Grams everyday before school for $1 a piece. Send one to everyone you can to help out their Washington D.C. Field trip! If you send one to someone, chances are, you'll get one in return!
ALSO, we are currently in 3rd place in the "Hunger Heroes Food Drive" so let's continue bringing in non-perishable items for our box!!! We REALLY want to help out this AMAZING cause AND have some bragging rights while we're at it!
I missed you all so much today and I love you greatly!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
Monday, October 18, 2010
Happy Friday!
Good Afternoon and Happy Friday to you! Today was yet another BEAUTIFUL Fall Day and we loved every minute of it!
ANNOUNCEMENT FOR MONDAY: BOO Grams return! 5th graders will begin selling BOO grams on Monday morning to help raise money for their Washington D.C. trip so bring some cash and buy, buy, buy for as many friends as you can think of! Wouldn't you LOVE to put a smile on your friends' faces?!? Just think, if you send one to someone, you'll most likely get one in return!!! They cost $1 each...scoop them up while you can!!!
In reading today, we took our Spelling test and then took an assessment over Fact and Opinion so I can gauge our understanding of our content of focus this week. Most students did not get finished so we will complete those on Monday. No Homework...enjoy your weekend!
In math, we reviewed our Homework from last evening and then played two different addition and subtraction games with playing cards. We really had a great time! No Homework...enjoy your weekend!
We were scheduled to have Lunch Bunch this week, but when I went to pick up the class from Art, we had a very bad report of not showing much respect to Mrs. Long and talking too much. Therefore, we again had to forgo Lunch Bunch for this week as well... :(
Finally, we concluded the day with Book Buddies with Mrs. Hubers' Kindergarten class. We had so much! Hope you have a GREAT weekend!
ANNOUNCEMENT FOR MONDAY: BOO Grams return! 5th graders will begin selling BOO grams on Monday morning to help raise money for their Washington D.C. trip so bring some cash and buy, buy, buy for as many friends as you can think of! Wouldn't you LOVE to put a smile on your friends' faces?!? Just think, if you send one to someone, you'll most likely get one in return!!! They cost $1 each...scoop them up while you can!!!
In reading today, we took our Spelling test and then took an assessment over Fact and Opinion so I can gauge our understanding of our content of focus this week. Most students did not get finished so we will complete those on Monday. No Homework...enjoy your weekend!
In math, we reviewed our Homework from last evening and then played two different addition and subtraction games with playing cards. We really had a great time! No Homework...enjoy your weekend!
We were scheduled to have Lunch Bunch this week, but when I went to pick up the class from Art, we had a very bad report of not showing much respect to Mrs. Long and talking too much. Therefore, we again had to forgo Lunch Bunch for this week as well... :(
Finally, we concluded the day with Book Buddies with Mrs. Hubers' Kindergarten class. We had so much! Hope you have a GREAT weekend!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Hi friends! I hope your Thursday found you well and wonderful...especially on this GORGEOUS Fall Day!!! We LOVED being outside today...it really was delightful :)
In reading, we continued working on the concept of Fact and Opinion...however, we began new projects to reinforce our understanding. Groups got a menu to choose from when selecting activities to do so there were NINE different options and a lot of different choices amongst all our reading friends. It was great to see the students pick an activity that interested them most. They also got to choose their Word Work activity where they practiced with their Spelling words and in this menu, they had EIGHTEEN choices!!! It really was a lot of fun and I am confident we will have 28 scores of 100 or above! Remember, Spelling Packets are due TOMORROW, and our Test is tomorrow as well. Study, Study, STUDY!!!
For math. we FINALLY began groups that are modeled in the same way as the Reading groups...except we obviously are not reading, we are working on math...but we have an 'Independent Practice' station, a 'Math Groups' station for playing games and hands-on activities, a 'Guided Math with Mrs. Thomas' station where we clear up any misunderstandings and get some personal time for understanding with the teacher, a 'Success Maker' station where we work on a computer program that reinforces ALL math concepts, and a 'Real-World Math' station where we are presented with situations and problems we would see in real life like at restaurants, stores, the mall, etc. Today, we had Success Maker, math groups, and independent practice. In math groups, we got to play a really fun subtraction game with playing cards. For homework, the students are to completed pages 23 and 24 in their WORKBOOKS.
We did not switch for Social Studies today because we had Junior Achievement! We learned about cities and how they are laid out through zones. Ask your student about the AWESOME things he/she did when our representative came!
Have a great night and remember, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
In reading, we continued working on the concept of Fact and Opinion...however, we began new projects to reinforce our understanding. Groups got a menu to choose from when selecting activities to do so there were NINE different options and a lot of different choices amongst all our reading friends. It was great to see the students pick an activity that interested them most. They also got to choose their Word Work activity where they practiced with their Spelling words and in this menu, they had EIGHTEEN choices!!! It really was a lot of fun and I am confident we will have 28 scores of 100 or above! Remember, Spelling Packets are due TOMORROW, and our Test is tomorrow as well. Study, Study, STUDY!!!
For math. we FINALLY began groups that are modeled in the same way as the Reading groups...except we obviously are not reading, we are working on math...but we have an 'Independent Practice' station, a 'Math Groups' station for playing games and hands-on activities, a 'Guided Math with Mrs. Thomas' station where we clear up any misunderstandings and get some personal time for understanding with the teacher, a 'Success Maker' station where we work on a computer program that reinforces ALL math concepts, and a 'Real-World Math' station where we are presented with situations and problems we would see in real life like at restaurants, stores, the mall, etc. Today, we had Success Maker, math groups, and independent practice. In math groups, we got to play a really fun subtraction game with playing cards. For homework, the students are to completed pages 23 and 24 in their WORKBOOKS.
We did not switch for Social Studies today because we had Junior Achievement! We learned about cities and how they are laid out through zones. Ask your student about the AWESOME things he/she did when our representative came!
Have a great night and remember, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Happy Wednesday all!
We began our day by starting on our first On-Demand practice. This is writing on the spot (or on command) about a certain topic. Students must choose the appropriate form and audience in writing this piece. We did a practice prompt today about going back in time. It was really neat hearing where students would want to go and why.
In Reading, we continued our activities from yesterday and most got them completed. If you stop by the school, be sure to check out our '4' wall where these are hanging! NO HOMEWORK...well, except to read and study your spelling words, of course!
In Math, we continued working on adding mentally and practiced our new math groups. I think the students are really going to enjoy these and get a lot from them. :) NO HOMEWORK tonight!
For Social Studies, the students had a great time discussing legal matters about the United States. In Science, we continued classifying objects as living, nonliving, and once-living.
It was a great day and I can't wait to see you tomorrow!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
We began our day by starting on our first On-Demand practice. This is writing on the spot (or on command) about a certain topic. Students must choose the appropriate form and audience in writing this piece. We did a practice prompt today about going back in time. It was really neat hearing where students would want to go and why.
In Reading, we continued our activities from yesterday and most got them completed. If you stop by the school, be sure to check out our '4' wall where these are hanging! NO HOMEWORK...well, except to read and study your spelling words, of course!
In Math, we continued working on adding mentally and practiced our new math groups. I think the students are really going to enjoy these and get a lot from them. :) NO HOMEWORK tonight!
For Social Studies, the students had a great time discussing legal matters about the United States. In Science, we continued classifying objects as living, nonliving, and once-living.
It was a great day and I can't wait to see you tomorrow!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Today we began with a Morning Jumpstart and welcomed our new student, Madison!! She moved here all the way from Washington and we are so thrilled she has joined our 'Owl'standing class!
We had a GREAT time in Reading today! To practice the skill of differentiating between Fact and Opinions, we did several activities in different groups. Independently, we searched through kids' magazines to read articles and find and cut out examples of facts and opinions as represented in nonfiction text. We then created an organizer and glued down each example we found. In Reading Groups (with our Literature Circles), we created a "Fact and Opinion Clothesline." For this, we used our reading group chapter books and located examples of facts from the text. For example, in Charlotte's Web, it is a fact that the farmer kills pigs when it gets cold outside. After we located a fact, we wrote OUR opinion about that fact so for the fact I listed, I would say, "I think it is really sad that pigs get killed. Although I love bacon and ham, I wish the pigs could just live happily on the farm." Finally, other groups met with me for practice with ORQ writing about truths and opinions in advertising.
In Math, we went back to Chapter 2 to begin Rounding. We worked on number bonds (what two numbers can you break a whole number into - For example, 34 can be broken into 30 + 4 to make it easier to add. If you then had to add 56, you could break it down into 50 + 6 and then you can easily add 30 + 50 in your mind which equals 80 and then 4 + 6, which equals 10. You're now left with 80 + 10 which equals 90) and adding mentally. We were a little shaky at first, but we are getting better. Learning to add mentally takes time and comes with LOTS of practice...so WE WILL GET THERE!!! Don't you worry! :)
For specials we had Library and actually earned all 5 cotton balls! YESSS!!!
Finally, our class switched to Mrs. Ingold for Social Studies where they watched a video about the roles of leaders in our government. In my science class, we went on a walk outside to find examples of things that are living, nonliving, once living, or both nonliving and once living. We ran out of time before dismissal, so tomorrow, we will organize our items into these categories. To my students, DO YOU remember examples of these?!? Hopefully you can point out some examples around your house to your parents!
Have a great Tuesday evening!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
We had a GREAT time in Reading today! To practice the skill of differentiating between Fact and Opinions, we did several activities in different groups. Independently, we searched through kids' magazines to read articles and find and cut out examples of facts and opinions as represented in nonfiction text. We then created an organizer and glued down each example we found. In Reading Groups (with our Literature Circles), we created a "Fact and Opinion Clothesline." For this, we used our reading group chapter books and located examples of facts from the text. For example, in Charlotte's Web, it is a fact that the farmer kills pigs when it gets cold outside. After we located a fact, we wrote OUR opinion about that fact so for the fact I listed, I would say, "I think it is really sad that pigs get killed. Although I love bacon and ham, I wish the pigs could just live happily on the farm." Finally, other groups met with me for practice with ORQ writing about truths and opinions in advertising.
In Math, we went back to Chapter 2 to begin Rounding. We worked on number bonds (what two numbers can you break a whole number into - For example, 34 can be broken into 30 + 4 to make it easier to add. If you then had to add 56, you could break it down into 50 + 6 and then you can easily add 30 + 50 in your mind which equals 80 and then 4 + 6, which equals 10. You're now left with 80 + 10 which equals 90) and adding mentally. We were a little shaky at first, but we are getting better. Learning to add mentally takes time and comes with LOTS of practice...so WE WILL GET THERE!!! Don't you worry! :)
For specials we had Library and actually earned all 5 cotton balls! YESSS!!!
Finally, our class switched to Mrs. Ingold for Social Studies where they watched a video about the roles of leaders in our government. In my science class, we went on a walk outside to find examples of things that are living, nonliving, once living, or both nonliving and once living. We ran out of time before dismissal, so tomorrow, we will organize our items into these categories. To my students, DO YOU remember examples of these?!? Hopefully you can point out some examples around your house to your parents!
Have a great Tuesday evening!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
Monday, October 11, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Welcome Back! I hope everyone had a fantastic and relaxing break! Did it go by fast or what?!? I was so excited to see all my "lovelys" again...I really did miss them a lot!!!
This morning, we began (as usual) with a Morning Jumpstart. Once completed, we finished our "Together we Can" reflections pieces for the PTA and then wrote about our Fall breaks. I took pictures of everyone who said they went somewhere so check back later this evening for some pictures (I forgot my camera cord at home) to see how other kiddos spent their time!
Then, it was time to switch for Reading and we got our new Spelling words. The coinciding packet is due Friday before the test. We are making flashcards for each word with the definition on one side and the word on the other. When studying with your student, please read aloud the definition and have him/ her spell the word that matches that definition, and on the next round, switch it and give the word while he/ she tells you the definition. I really want us to practice these words by not only just spelling them, but knowing the meaning and how to use them in a sentence. This coincides with our reading strategy we continously focus on: Context clues where we use the words around a vocabulary word or word we do not know to figure out the meaning to enhance our comprehension. Our content focus in reading this week is Fact vs. Opinion. A fact is something that can be proven, while an opinion cannot be proven. Sometimes, we can get confused because we may feel something is a fact and we can prove it, but we have to remember that it typically is an opinion unless there is hard evidence. For example, you might think pizza is the best food in the world and we can see you eat loads of it, but that still is not a hard fact that that is true. We have to be able to go back 100 years from now and still prove that fact. Therefore you must ask yourself, can it be proven? The fact that George Washington was the 1st president of the United States is a proven fact as well as Garden Springs Elementary being located at 2151 Garden Springs Drive. The story we read to reinforce this concept was, "What's in Store for the Future"? We will be doing some exciting activities to teach understanding of this concept during the week!
In Mrs. Thomas' math class, we all FINALLY completed our Chapter 4 assessment of subtraction. If your student's was not sent home before Fall Break, it was sent home today. Please look over the test with your child and if any problem was missed, please have your child (on the test, next to the missed problem) explain why it was missed (what he/ she did wrong), re-work the problem, and then explain why it is now correct. Also, please sign next to the grade to acknowledge you saw it. By doing this things, I am teaching for learning to ensure your child sees success with this content and mastery of it as well. It is near impossible to be perfect in math, so this is a process in which we learn from our mistakes. I always tell the students that good mathematicians can observe mistakes in algorithms and correct them. Also, by correcting mistakes, we can learn from them! There is NO homework for students in my math class...BUT...
Mrs. Ingold's math class is now on Chapter 2: Estimation and Mental Math (we previously skipped over chapter 2 and are now going back to it) and those students DO HAVE HOMEWORK: pages 19 and 20 in the WORKBOOK.
For specials today, we had Explorium with Mrs. Mullins.
Our class FINALLY got to switch to Mrs. Ingold's for Social Studies where we will begin learning about communities and our responsibilities as citizens. Mrs. Ingold's class is now coming to me for Science as we begin learning about Unity and Diversity (Life Science). The students today began brainstorming about "Who or what is a Scientist?" and what makes something living.
I hope everyone has a GREAT night and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
This morning, we began (as usual) with a Morning Jumpstart. Once completed, we finished our "Together we Can" reflections pieces for the PTA and then wrote about our Fall breaks. I took pictures of everyone who said they went somewhere so check back later this evening for some pictures (I forgot my camera cord at home) to see how other kiddos spent their time!
Then, it was time to switch for Reading and we got our new Spelling words. The coinciding packet is due Friday before the test. We are making flashcards for each word with the definition on one side and the word on the other. When studying with your student, please read aloud the definition and have him/ her spell the word that matches that definition, and on the next round, switch it and give the word while he/ she tells you the definition. I really want us to practice these words by not only just spelling them, but knowing the meaning and how to use them in a sentence. This coincides with our reading strategy we continously focus on: Context clues where we use the words around a vocabulary word or word we do not know to figure out the meaning to enhance our comprehension. Our content focus in reading this week is Fact vs. Opinion. A fact is something that can be proven, while an opinion cannot be proven. Sometimes, we can get confused because we may feel something is a fact and we can prove it, but we have to remember that it typically is an opinion unless there is hard evidence. For example, you might think pizza is the best food in the world and we can see you eat loads of it, but that still is not a hard fact that that is true. We have to be able to go back 100 years from now and still prove that fact. Therefore you must ask yourself, can it be proven? The fact that George Washington was the 1st president of the United States is a proven fact as well as Garden Springs Elementary being located at 2151 Garden Springs Drive. The story we read to reinforce this concept was, "What's in Store for the Future"? We will be doing some exciting activities to teach understanding of this concept during the week!
In Mrs. Thomas' math class, we all FINALLY completed our Chapter 4 assessment of subtraction. If your student's was not sent home before Fall Break, it was sent home today. Please look over the test with your child and if any problem was missed, please have your child (on the test, next to the missed problem) explain why it was missed (what he/ she did wrong), re-work the problem, and then explain why it is now correct. Also, please sign next to the grade to acknowledge you saw it. By doing this things, I am teaching for learning to ensure your child sees success with this content and mastery of it as well. It is near impossible to be perfect in math, so this is a process in which we learn from our mistakes. I always tell the students that good mathematicians can observe mistakes in algorithms and correct them. Also, by correcting mistakes, we can learn from them! There is NO homework for students in my math class...BUT...
Mrs. Ingold's math class is now on Chapter 2: Estimation and Mental Math (we previously skipped over chapter 2 and are now going back to it) and those students DO HAVE HOMEWORK: pages 19 and 20 in the WORKBOOK.
For specials today, we had Explorium with Mrs. Mullins.
Our class FINALLY got to switch to Mrs. Ingold's for Social Studies where we will begin learning about communities and our responsibilities as citizens. Mrs. Ingold's class is now coming to me for Science as we begin learning about Unity and Diversity (Life Science). The students today began brainstorming about "Who or what is a Scientist?" and what makes something living.
I hope everyone has a GREAT night and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas
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