9.8.15 - Day FIFTEEN

Hello all and welcome back from your long weekend!  I hope you celebrated with some nice time off with your families!  I've so enjoyed hearing the stories of your students' Labor Day excursions!  They are quite the story tellers and I could listen to them all day!

It's our dear "Kuhny's" Birthday today!!!  Happy. HAPPY Birthday to you, sweet sir!  Oh how we love you so!

Friday was Lexi's Birthday and I totally forgot to wish her well here on our little blog :(  Boo on me!  Thus, Happy Belated Birthday, sweet Lexi Loo!  We hope you had the best day!  Oh how we love you so!

It was resource day around 5T and 5S so while I could've listened to them all day, I didn't get to.  We DID start the day with a little Language Arts instruction...Did you know that today just happens to be International Literacy Day?  We discussed what it means to be illiterate and that almost 1 billion people worldwide do not have access to the quality education that we do here in the United States. The students found it hard to believe that so many adults in this world could be illiterate and we discussed what that must be like for them and completed a written response.  We then discussed advocated for awareness of this concept.  In Library time of our resource day, students created posters for awareness and advocacy of this worldwide epidemic and we hung them around school to continue raising awareness around SMA.  The students are truly fascinated and in awe of this and truly enjoyed the activity.  For more information, please visit: http://internationalliteracyday.org/ 
Download the Little Free Library HERE!

REMINDERS:

LANGUAGE ARTS: 
LOSER QUESTIONS (pages 101-150 due tomorrow)
Vocabulary Quiz Friday.  New pages uploaded to Edmodo and last week's pages will be sent home tomorrow for studying (no worries, these are nothing to freak out over, okay?!!!?  Promise?!!!?)

MATH: 

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

MATH#2 SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT IS MOVED TO FRIDAY, SEPT. 11TH!!!!
BOTH CLASSES: Simple Solutions 14, 15, & 16 due Friday Sept. 11th

Flashbacks - Day 11

Grandparents' Day is Thursday, September 10th.  Please join your grandchild for Mass and then doughnuts afterwards, followed by an activity with us in our classroom!  We so look forward to seeing you!

See you tomorrow, Friends!
-Mrs. Thomas

9.4.15 - Day FOURTEEN

Happy Friday, all!  And, HAPPY THREE DAY WEEKEND TO YOU!  This morning in our prayer, we stopped to reflect on our gratitude for those who work so very hard to provide for us and the reason for our celebrating of Labor Day on Monday.

Behavior Note:

We had a rough start behavior wise across the 5th grade today (we're talking as soon as the bell rang, Mr. Burt was redirecting our kiddos) and it went downhill from there and affected us negatively throughout the course of the rest of our day. Mrs. Schleg was affected in her instruction and I was in mine.  I hardly got to much with my Math class nor with my reading classes because I was constantly having to redirect off-task behaviors and talking and Mrs. Schleg expressed the exact same sentiments.  And we're not just dealing with talking, we had pencils and erasers being thrown, rulers as swords, running, yelling...the works...definitely NOT behavior on par with that of a fifth grader or THAT of THIS group of kids!  They are such an outstanding class as a whole and capable of SO, SOOOO very much more. Thus, both classes had quite the chat from Mrs. Schleg and myself and did some walking at recess for their consequence, but as of Tuesday, upon our return from Labor Day holiday weekend, we are beginning our Strike Chart system.  This system basically means three strikes and you're out (...or "out" in this case means a behavior referral to the office for a call home.  After 3 of these, a detention is earned).  This is how middle school runs things and how we did it last year.  It worked well and we anticipate it running smoothly this year as well.  Please contact us should you have any questions or concerns.  We have high expectations for these awesome children that we've heard such wonderful things about and can't wait to get things under control so that our learning can take us up, up, and away to far away lands!

LANGUAGE ARTS:
VOCABULARY- We reviewed our vocabulary from this week according to our roots, bases, and prefixes.  I took up their sheets that had been assigned via Edmodo.
READING & WRITING: We reviewed all of our rules and parts of Reading and Writer's Workshops we've learned and practiced up to date by revisiting our anchor charts we made on our SMARTBoard notebook documents and in each of these class response journals.  The students then got in groups of 4 and made actual anchor charts to be hung around their classroom to refer back to if needed when in their homeroom and their notebooks or response journals are not out or available.  Students then reflected on this process in their writing notebook of how it could help them as a reader or writer and why it is important to remember all these steps and parts of the workshops.

HOMEWORK: LOSER questions over next pages (101-150) due Wednesday Sept. 9th

MATH
MATH #1 LEARNING TARGET: I CAN add & subtract decimals up to thousandths
Our exit slip yesterday proved that students are still not grasping the concepts of comparing and ordering decimals as well as rounding decimals.  Thus, I gave them a Bellringer on decimals that required much additional practice and attention.  We did not get to do much "fun" stuff and had more of a lecture type class on how to round and compare and order these decimals because that what was needed by the students.
HOMEWORK: none (Labor Day weekend)
MATH #2 LEARNING TARGET: Enrichment
Students had a mixed application review of skills where they worked with a partner on problem solving challenging concepts and problems for review of this unit's content.  It was FUN!
HOMEWORK: Decimals SUMMATIVE Unit Assessment THURSDAY, Sept. 9th 

SCIENCE:
Students went out to the garden and weeded, and then came back to review bug project expectations.
HOMEWORK: none (Labor Day weekend)

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Social Studies time was taken up by the Science garden time and bug project discussion.
HOMEWORK: none (Labor Day weekend)

RELIGION:
Students finished their maps of the Old Testament and began their maps of the New Testament.
HOMEWORK: none (Labor Day weekend)

Flashbacks 9 & 10

Have a truly wonderful and relaxing three day weekend!
See you TUESDAY for RESOURCE DAY!
-Mrs. T

P.S., NEXT Thursday (Sept 10th) is GRANDPARENTS' DAY here at SMA!

9.3.15 - Day THIRTEEN

Day lucky number 13, folks!

We attended MASS this morning and then began our day with our usual Thursday adjusted schedule where we have BOTH Math classes in the morning prior to lunch.

MATH
MATH #1- LEARNING TARGET: I CAN compare, order, and round decimals.  Prior to Mrs. Burke coming in, I had the students do a little human math where I lined them up with numbers I had written on paper and we started all the way over in the thousandths place and began rounding.  We first rounded the hundredths place  and moved all the way up to the hundred millions place using our rules we've learned and practiced with in class, subbing in zeroes or a place-value digit up as we determined the rounding value as we went along.  The students were hilarious when they had to sit down and be subbed in for a zero as this illustrated to them that after you round a number, everything after it drops to a zero.  It was FUN!
HOMEWORK: complete Common Core worksheet (front and back); Simple Solutions #s 12 &13 due tomorrow

Math #2- LEARNING TARGET: I CAN add and subtract decimals up to thousandths.  We worked on adding and subtracting decimals and lining them up in order to do so.  When lining them up, we noticed that the bottom number often had more digits than the top, so we had to add magic zeroes to the top top in order to began subtracting or adding.  The students caught on EXTREMELY quickly and began their homework in class.  Many finished it altogether.  They will be having their summative assessment over decimals next Thursday or Friday.
HOMEWORK: complete Common Core worksheet; Simple Solutions #s 12 & 13 due tomorrow

SCIENCE
Students took their Social Studies test
HOMEWORK: none

SOCIAL STUDIES
Students took their tests!
HOMEWORK: none

LANGUAGE ARTS:
I am working on assessing the independent reading levels of your students so in order to do so, many students were independently working and writing summaries on those, while other were finished or waiting to be assessed by/ read with me so were working on another reading passage assignment I had given to them, free-writing in their Writer's Notebooks, or writing a reading response in their reading response journals.
HOMEWORK: vocabulary assignments (3 pages uploaded to Edmodo) due tomorrow; new set of LOSER questions made up by opposite class over pages 101-150 due by NEXT WEDNESDAY (Sept. 9th)

RELIGION
Students worked with partners over maps of places in New Testament
HOMEWORK: none

FLASHBACKS 8 & 9

Don't Forget!  Grandparents' Day is NEXT THURSDAY! (Sept. 10th!)

Have a thrilling Thursday evening!
-Mrs. Thomas

Wonderful Wednesday!!

Would You Rather? 

• Would your rather... have a long inney or a fat outy (bellybutton)?
• Would you rather... eat chocolate covered crickets or beetles in a milkshake?
• Would you rather walk on water and get eaten by a shark or fly and get hit by a plane?
• Would you rather cry tartar sauce or sneeze hot sauce?
• Would you rather read a book and get a paper cut every time you turn the page or have it slap you every time you put it down?
• Would you rather only eat green food or only eat foods that start with a C? 
•   Would you rather write your own book and have terrible reviews or act in a movie and get bad reviews?
• Would you rather live inside a shark our a giraffe?
• Would you rather be a superhero or a villain?
• Would you rather  have a really weird name like looptilop or have an upside down nose?
• Would you rather be in a pool of marshmallows or m and m's?
• Would you rather shoot spaghetti out of your fingers or sneeze meatballs?
• Would you rather always get a nose bleed when you walk or always vomit after you talk?
• Would you rather be hot or cold?
•  Would you rather read an awesome book or watch an awesome movie?
• Would you rather have a cook or a maid?
• Would you rather be busy or bored?
• Would you rather be an Olympic gymnast or a noble peace prize winner?
•  Would you rather be the oldest or the youngest?
• Would you rather work at the desk or outside? 
• Would you rather explore the ocean or space?`
• Would you rather have blue hair or feet?
• We asked your class these questions and here are our results. Everyone would rather have a long inney rather than a fat outy. 7 out of 8 people said they would rather sneeze hot sauce rather than  cry tartar sauce. Everyone said they would rather be cold rather than hot. 3 out of 5 people said  they would rather be busy rather than bored. 3 out of 5 people said they would be a villain other than a superhero. 3 out of 5 people said they want to be the youngest instead of the oldest. It was a tie between who wanted to have a cook or a maid. 3 out of 4 people said they would rather only eat food that starts with a C other than green foods.More people said they would rather explore the ocean rather than space.Most people want a weird name rather than an upside down nose.It was a tie between shooting spaghetti and sneezing meatballs. More people would swim in a marshmallow pool other than pool of m&ms. Everyone would eat chocolate covered crickets instead of beatles in a milkshake.Most people would rather live in a shark.

Sorry I did not finish but I got close see you tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9.2.15 - Day TWELVE

Hello and Happy Wednesday, all!

LANGUAGE ARTS
Students went over their LOSER questions due today with a partner and then created questions over the next 50 pages (101-150) for the opposite class.  This is all a part of our first 30 days of Routines and Rituals within our Reader's Workshop as we learning appropriate questioning strategies and appropriate responses to these questions (elaborating instead of just yes, no, or "I guess", etc.).
Students then had silent reading time while we began our Benchmark Literacy reading levels assessments.  These should be completed and communicated to you within the next few weeks (it will take me some time to administer and score 60 of these) :)
HOMEWORK: complete 3 VOCAB sheets uploaded to Edmodo

MATH
Mrs. Burke was in to work with Math #1 on place-value of decimals and rounding including decimals.  We ran out of time to administer independent practice before lunch.
HOMEWORK: Simple Solutions pages 12 and 13 due Friday
Math #2 had a pop quiz over decimal place-value and rounding of decimals and I'm happy to report that so far, the score are looking mighty niiice, so YAY!
HOMEWORK: Simple Solutions pages 12 and 13 due Friday 

SCIENCE:
Students worked on and went through the Scientific Method and then Mrs. Schleg checked it for a grade.
HOMEWORK: none

SOCIAL STUDIES
Students went over what kind of questions will be on their test tomorrow.
HOMEWORK: test tomorrow --> STUDY!

RELIGION
Students finished Maps from the New Testament in their notebooks.
HOMEWORK: none

FLASHBACKS 7 and 8

Do NOT forget that NEXT Thursday, Sept. 10th is Grandparents' Day!  Grandparents are welcome to attend Mass with their grandchildren and then come back to our school for a visit.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
-Mrs. Thomas

Thursday, Sept. 10th, 2015 at SMA is our celebration!

9.1.15 - Day ELEVEN

Resource Day, Friends...BUT a few reminders...

LANGUAGE ARTS:
LOSER questions (click there for questions) made up by 5T or 5S due TOMORROW (5T answers 5S and 5S answers 5T).
VOCABULARY:
HOMEWORK: Complete 3 sheets uploaded to Edmodo by Friday

MATH
MATH #1 WkBk pages 4 & 5 due tomorrow
MATH #2 WkBk page 6 due tomorrow (possible quiz tomorrow...hint, hint!)
BOTH CLASSES: Simple Solutions 9, 10, and 11 due tomorrow; pages 12 & 13 due Friday

SOCIAL STUDIES:
HOMEWORK: page 47 Vocab (define and illustrate) and page 51 1-4

^Test THURSDAY^

FLASHBACKS 6 & 7 (again, these are NOT mandatory, but strongly encouraged for some discussion and review...and yes, students are MOST DEFINITELY allowed to use any research tool at their disposal!) :)

Have a terrific Tuesday!'
-Mrs. Thomas

8.31.15 - Day TEN

Happy Monday, all!  Boy, that weekend went by quickly, didn't it?!?  Yowza!  Whim, bam boom...Monday again.  womp womp.

Congratulations to our 5th/6th grade football team as they remain undefeated!!!  Yay boys, WAY. TO. GO!!!!

LANGUAGE ARTS:
VOCAB- We continued our focus upon practicing the concept of dividing and conquering vocabulary words through prefixes and bases and/ or suffixes using our word bank.  Students worked with partners to conquer word meanings.
HOMEWORK: vocabulary pages posted to Edmodo (link at top of blog under header!) due by Friday (usually I will assign certain days but groups have not been completely set up yet in Edmodo with codes and such so I wanted to provide adequate time)
WRITING- We discussed the methods, routines, and rituals of writer's workshop.  Students practiced listening skills, created a list of possible writing topics, and continued with oral language development while also looking at the three components that comprise a writer's workshop (mini-lesson, writing time, sharing time) and what makes up each, as well as the rules for writing time and the tools students use when writing.  Students then met with partners to discuss their writing topic lists and narrow them down from 10 topics to 2 or 3.

READING- Students and I discussed how and why to abandon books within a Reader's Workshop session.  Sometimes this is a more than necessary step!

HOMEWORK: log reading minutes.  LOSER questions made up by 5S or 5T due Wednesday.

MATH:
MATH #1
LEARNING TARGET: I CAN compare and order decimals.
Students learned the art of comparing and ordering decimals by lining them up vertically and then comparing the numbers digit by digit.

rearranging digits based on Mrs. Thomas's stipulations :)

they were SO engaged with this, it was GREAT!

HOMEWORK: WORKBOOK pages 4 &5; Simple Solutions #s 9, 10 & 11 due by Wed., 12 &13 due Friday.
Math #2
LEARNING TARGET: I CAN round whole numbers, decimals, and money to the nearest or greatest place-value.
We reviewed the concept of rounding and learned about rounding when a decimal is involved.
Rounding Video 1; Rounding Video 2

HOMEWORK: WORKBOOK page 6; Simple Solutions #s 9, 10, & 11 due by Wed., 12 & 13 due Friday.  There WILL most likely be a quiz over these concepts on Wednesday (hint, hint) :)

SCIENCE:
Students worked on their conclusion for their experiment
HOMEWORK: finish conclusion

SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students went over notes for early peoples and Beringia.
HOMEWORK: finish definitions

RELIGION:
Students went over maps for the old testament.
HOMEWORK: none

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

WE ARE GETTING A CLASS PET!  Riley is generously purchasing a BUNNY for us to have as a pet!!!  We are ALL responsible for his love and care and each week a student will be accountable for taking him home and caring for him over the weekend (Riley will take him home over extended breaks and the summer).  Thus, it must be noted before he arrives, do we have any serious allergies that we need to be aware of before his arrival?  Our students' health comes first!  Please let me know asap if this is an issue for you or your child.  And please do NOT feel obligated to take him home if you do not wish to do so!

About him...

Name: Tribble (after the Star Trek episode) 
Species: Lionhead Rabbit
Food Preference: It depends on the age of your rabbit. Young lionheads should receive be fed twice per day. Make sure you don’t feed your rabbit too much. This goes especially for fruits, if they eat too many fruit this could lead to diabetes.  After 7 months you just have to make sure that they have an unlimited supply of fresh water and hay. Yogurt treats are prohibited, they are very unhealthy and could lead to serious health concerns. Do not ever feed them lettuce as well as potatoes. There is a misunderstanding that rabbits seem to love lettuce which is in fact not the case. Please be extra careful with vegetables. Also make sure that your rabbit has no access to eating flowers in your garden. If you want to give them a little treat you could give them a small carrot. 

Meet Mr. Tribble :)

LOADS of Additional Information can be found at lionheadrabbit.com

Kate is our class Blogger this week.  Her first post can be found HERE.

Molly M. is our Paparazzi this week, but she was absent, so I just took pictures during our commercial break at the end of the day (by the time the kids are back with me for Language Arts instruction, it has been literal HOURS since they've had a break, so I play a quick song and let them get a little energy out before we're back on task).  Thus, our third week of paparazzi pics begin HERE.

Have a magnificent Monday!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

P.S., Did you know our sweet Lexi's mom got married this weekend?!?  Lexi was a junior bridesmaid and she was BEAUTIFUL!!!!  Here are some pics her mom sent me.  We missed you SO much, Lex, and can't wait to have you back tomorrow!!!!!