December 17-21

The kids have filled our marble jar!! They have voted on a variety of things for our celebration.  The kids would like to have an electronic/talent/gum day.  To split this up a bit, I will set some time aside this Thursday for electronics and this Friday for kids that would like to share a talent.  Thursday will also be the gum day.  

Spelling: No spelling this week! 

5H Math:  We continue to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers. Toward the end of the week we will work on comparing and ordering fractions. 

 

Reading/Writing: We are continuing many things from last week.  Students have started typing their final drafts of their stories.  They did a wonderful job revising and editing with one another. Final drafts should be finished before the week is over. We will continue answering open-ended questions in an organized writing piece.  These have been short writing responses.  This week we will also work on planning out multi-paragraph responses using the 4 square. 

We had a great discussion last week about how books and movies are often very similar.  For example, they often have similar plots, problems, "happy endings", and themes.  The kids did a great job identifying themes in texts.  Now we will work on finding the connections between different texts based on these themes. It creates fun conversations between kids about their books, and it requires them to state evidence for their opinion.  

Grammar:  Nouns will start out our week again. We need to think about the rules of plural and possessive nouns and how to correctly show plural and possessive words in our writing.  Then we will move on to pronouns. 

 

 

Science: This week we will review the parts of an atom, and learn about where we can find elements in our world. 

December 10-14

Spelling: Unit 13 this week. Words are uploaded in spelling tab. The base list words are many of the commonly misspelled words that kids should work hard to use correctly in their writing!

5H Math:  Thank you for going over the unit 4 math test with your child and sending them back to school. I am recording what types of problems students need more practice with, and will send them home again once I'm finished.

 

This week we are spending a lot of time adding and subtracting fractions.  Students did very well today adding and subtracting when the denominators were the same.  When we had to find a common denominator, kids were having a harder time. We will continue working on this, as well as adding and subtracting mixed numbers and changing improper fractions to proper fractions.

Reading/Writing: Well, as usual it has taken longer than expected to finish writing our stories.  Kids have known since last week that rough drafts are due Tuesday AM, so hopefully this will not result in a late night for any students. We worked on creating a rubric and I shared the final rubric with the kids today.  They will have this as well as revising and editing checklists to use when perfecting their stories. After revising and editing, we will be typing the final drafts of our stories. 

 

This week we are also working on answering open-ended questions in an organized written response.  Students will also have the opportunity to write their own open ended questions for others to answer. We are working on planning our writing (pre-writing) before responding in sentences using a graphic organizer.

 

We will be looking for common themes in reading this week. Using our read aloud, independent reading books, Time for Kids magazines, and other sources we will think about these common themes (good vs. evil, love and friendship, man vs. nature) and the similarities between these various texts.

 

Grammar:  This week we are studying some common Latin word parts (pre-, in-, sub-, etc.). We are starting a a study of the 8 parts of speech and are beginning by reviewing the types of nouns: common, proper, singular, plural, abstract, concrete, collective, and possessive. Did you know there were that many types of nouns?? This is a review, and we will move into pronouns next. 

 

 

Science: This week we will begin to learn about elements, atoms, and subatomic particles. The class is going to be working with an online interactive periodic table of elements to do a short research project on four different atoms.

December 3-7

Spelling: Unit 12 this week. Words will be uploaded after school Monday. 

5H Math:  On Monday, students will get their unit 4 tests back.  Their homework for the night will be to review the test with someone at home, particularly problems they missed. Students should look through their work and try to solve the problems they missed.  Students need to bring their tests back to me on Tuesday with a parent signature. 

On Monday, we will also complete a "transfer task" which is a multi-step problem that incorporates skills we have learned this year. Students will complete this task independently, but will have the opportunity to discuss their problem solving process with each other. This week we will define vocabulary needed to understand the content in unit 5: fraction, numerator, denominator, "whole", equivalent.  We will practice showing fractions of whole numbers with manipulatives, ordering and comparing fractions, and finding equivalent fractions. 

Reading/Writing: We will spend more time sharing reading response letters this week. We will read a story from our Harcourt anthology: Across the Wide Dark Sea.  The kids will take the comprehension quiz Thursday.  This story is a historical fiction piece about the journey of the Mayflower.  We will be making connections to social studies as well as reading this story as a writer.  Since students are writing their own historical fiction stories, we will be able to look at the methods of the author in this story.

My hope is that students will have their rough drafts done by Wednesday on their historical fiction stories.  We have been learning about uses of commas, and kids will take a quiz Tuesday.  Then we will review the use of quotations to show speech to aid in students' story writing. 

Social Studies: This week we will learn about the Spanish and French exploring North America as well as the French and Indian War.  Kids should get their social studies tests back on Thursday! 

November 26-30

Kids will take the Gates test this Wednesday. For more information, check with your child for a letter that was sent home. 

We will also have an Art Awareness presentation this Friday, our first one of the year-great! 

Spelling: Unit 11 this week! Words will be uploaded after school Monday. 

5H Math:  On Monday our focus will be  division, particularly showing a remainder as a decimal. Tuesday we will review converting within measurement systems. We will have our Unit 4 test on Thursday.  The test will probably take more than one class period, so time will be set aside on Friday to finish the test. 

Students may come to study sessions Wednesday during lunch and/or recess as well as after school Wednesday from 3:35-4:05. 

Reading/Writing: We continue to work on writing concise summaries and will practice throughout the week.  I will model writing thoughtful and thorough reading response letters as well as share some good examples from the kids (with their permission of course :)) to help us all understand what types of things to share in our letters. Our goal is always to share thoughts, strategies, questions, etc. to show an understanding of the text. 

Last week, we looked at how authors' describe characters in their books.  This week we will look closely at historical fiction books, as the kids begin to research the information needed to write their own historical fiction story.  We will talk about facts versus opinions, how much factual information to include in a story, and what types of facts to include.  Tomorrow kids will attempt to decide on a time period or event that they would like to base their story around (some have already done this).  Then we will brainstorm a list of important information to research. There will be many steps in this process, but it will be fun as well as challenging. 

Of course we will continue to have independent reading time every day, I will continue to meet with kids for conferences, and we will continue our read aloud, Found.

Social Studies: On Monday, kids can ask any questions they have about the study guide for the social studies test, and then we will play a study game as a class. The colony test is Tuesday. This week kids will also work with their table groups to determine another important event to add to our ongoing collaborative timeline.  They will write about the event as well as illustrate. We will then begin learning about the American Revolution. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Safe travels to those of you headed out to visit family and friends!  Enjoy the holiday.

Kids, here's a link to some Thanksgiving videos if interested...The First Thanksgiving

November 19-20

Spelling: None for this short week!

5H Math:  Kids will get their division quizzes back on Monday.  This short week we are finishing up learning about divisibility rules and solving division story problems. The week after Thanksgiving break, we will have our unit 4 test. I will update you on the exact date as well as study sessions as soon as I can. We still need to review converting measurements before the test. 

Reading: We will finish up some reading in our social studies text about slavery.  Students will compare and contrast slavery in the north and south.              

Writing: We are finishing up our colony opinion writing pieces this week as well as finishing a Thanksgiving writing project.  We will also look at some excerpts from novels to see how authors introduce and describe their characters.

Social Studies: On Monday, kids will finish comparing and contrasting the geography, economy, and natural resources of the different colonial regions. On Tuesday, we will discuss what kids need to study for the colony test.  The test will be Tuesday, November 27th.  

November 12-16

It was great seeing everyone this past week for conferences! 

Spelling: Unit 10 Spelling Words will be uploaded Monday. Make sure studying occurs throughout the week!  

5H Math:  We continue a focus on division this week.  We will review dividing by a two-digit number (2,308 divided by 12), division with a number with a decimal as the dividend (12.14 divided by 3), determine what to do with the remainder, as well as learning divisibility rules. Lots to do...division quiz Friday.  

Reading: This week we will continue several skills from last week.  We worked on determining what was important versus interesting in our social studies text, and taking notes on important information.  From this "important information" we are working on writing concise summaries that focus on the main idea and give a "big picture".  We will also discuss how to write a summary including quotes from the selection.      

We finished "Because of Mr. Terupt" last week, so we will begin a new read aloud this week. I'm on the search for a great science fiction book...                      

Writing: Last week kids decided whether they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with this statement: Fifth grade students should get weekly allowance. Kids defined reasons for their opinion and then met with others with similar opinions.  Each group then wrote an opinion piece: stating their opinion, describing their reasons, and restating their opinion. Tomorrow, everyone will share their opinion piece. This week, after reading, discussing, and watching videos about colony life, kids will answer the prompt, "In your opinion was colony life enjoyable?"

Social Studies: Last week we learned a great deal about the 13 original colonies...who founded each colony, why it was founded, the year in which it was founded, etc. We will continue reading and taking notes from our social studies text this week. Everyday life in the colonies and slavery will be reading topics this week. 

Citizenship:  After our discussions about empathy and the need for empathy, we will begin discussions about bullying. Defining bullying and what to do when in a bully situation will be topics discussed. 

November 5-9

I look forward to seeing you all this week for conferences! 

Spelling: Unit 9 Spelling Words will be uploaded Monday. Make sure studying occurs throughout the week!  

5H Math:  This week students will get their unit 3 tests back.  We will begin unit 4 by discussing what division means and the vocabulary we need to know to discuss division. We will practice basic computing as well as solving division story problems. New unit 4 links have been added under the "math" tab. 

Reading: We've been practicing a lot of comprehension strategies, and this week we will also practice an accuracy strategy that will help kids correctly read words: triple checking: does it look right? does it sound right? does it make sense?. We will be reading from our social studies text and determining main ideas in order to summarize the section. We will also discuss how to write a summary including quotes from the selection.                            

Writing: Kids have been reading each others' persuasive writing pieces in order to determine whose is the most persuasive and why. This week we will be doing a variety of weeks with opinion/argument writing. I will model this for the kids and give the opportunities to orally discuss opinion in groups as well as write their own opinion/argument. 

Social Studies: We finished our first social studies unit "exploration", and as a fifth grade team we've decided to begin the second quarter with our second social studies unit instead of switching back to science; science will come second this quarter.  This week we are learning about the founding of the 13 colonies as well as everyday life in the colonies.  Throughout the week I will be asking the kids to keep the question "Is living in the English  colonies enjoyable?" in their minds; we will be incorporating opinion/argument writing into our social studies learning. Later in this unit, we will be focused on the Revolutionary War. 

Citizenship:  We began discussions last week about empathy and will continue this week.  The kids had such thoughtful things to say. It was a great conversation about how to treat each other, how to determine others' feelings and how to problem solve in different situations. 

October 29- November 2

*The Halloween Parade and Party is Wednesday beginning at 2:00. 

*Report cards go home Friday. 

Spelling: Unit 8 Spelling Words are uploaded to the spelling tab. Make sure studying occurs throughout the week!  

5H Math:  Our Unit 4 math test is this Friday.  Optional study sessions will be Thursday during lunch and/or Thursday after school 3:35-4:10. This week we are using geometric shapes to design a floor tile and then describing the tile using geometric properties/attributes.  We are also talking about how to write equations that require multiple operations; e.g. 3 + (4 x 12). Right now we are focusing on setting up equations based on a story problem, but not actually solving them. 

Reading/Writing: Almost all of the groups have presented on their "change the world" project.  I'm most impressed with how kids have worked together cooperating and sharing responsibilities in completing their writing piece and presentation.  Their presenting skills are improving- kids are speaking loudly enough, giving eye contact, and referring to their PowerPoint only as reference (not reading off the board!). 

We learned that in persuasive writing you need to state your opinion clearly, have multiple supporting reasons, and conclude your paper by restating your opinion in a persuasive manner. We looked at persuasive writing pieces to determine what kind of word choice we should use in our papers. We will continue learning about persuasive writing this week in a fun Halloween persuasive piece...

Well, we are 1/4 through our school year, so is your child 1/4 through their reading goal of 40 books?  Check in with your child on what they are reading and how they are doing toward meeting their goal!  I know we can do it! 
Social Studies: We are finishing up colony projects and will present by Thursday (no social studies Wednesday, so pushed back to Thursday). 

The debate last week was fun- ask your kids who they think "won" and why. Mr. Vaid and Mr. LeCrone both had good arguments! 

October 22-26

Spelling: Unit 7 Spelling Words will be uploaded Monday after school. 

5H Math:  This week we will be using our vocab sheets to discuss how polygons can have multiple names and talk about the similar properties between polygons. We'll make a quadrilateral "family tree" to show how the shapes are "related". We will also begin talking about how to write equations that require multiple operations; e.g. 3 + (4 x 12). Right now we are focusing on setting up equations based on a story problem, but not actually solving them. We will go over making line plots with decimals this week- a standard that we did not get to in the first unit. 

Reading/Writing: This week we will continue our group  research project that will positively change the world. Each group will write a proposal and give a presentation in order to try to earn 1 billion dollars to carry out their plan. Students will present by Thursday.   

Social Studies: We started a time-line project last week, so we didn't start our colony project yet.  As a way to summarize our first unit, students chose an event they feel is important and are describing and illustrating the event to add to an ongoing timeline. Students will begin their colony project this week. Students will plan where their colony will be located, what the government will be like, and how they will earn money.  Students will also research the climate and geography for their colony location. It will be fun! 

In the spirit of debates...Mr. Vaid and Mr. LeCrone will oppose each other in a debate. They will debate the topic of year-round school. To prepare, we will debate the topic of cell-phones in schools with the use of our Time for Kids magazines. We will also go over persuasive writing techniques. 
*Students all got a "Current Events" handout explaining how they will present a current event to the class by Oct. 25. I added student friendly news web sites for them to visit in the Social Studies tab.

October 15-19

Spelling: Unit 6 Spelling Words will be uploaded Monday after school. 

5H Math:  This week we will begin by defining a lot of important vocabulary words that will help us understand and be able to talk about geometry.  Students will have a couple vocabulary sheets that we will work on for a couple days.  Then we will learn about the types of triangles and begin defining the properties or attributes of polygons.  I added a link that has a lot of good information on it.  We will use it in class, and it is a good reference for kids at home as well. 

Reading: Reading, writing, and social studies are very much intertwined this week!  We are reading about colonies in our social studies text and using researching and writing skills to develop a colony (more info below).  Last week we began a group project in which kids have decided upon an idea that will positively change the world. Each group will write a proposal and give a presentation in order to try to earn 1 billion dollars to carry out their plan. 

Writing: The kids worked so hard on their first writing pieces of the year and they are wonderful!  They have enjoyed reading each others pieces and giving each other feedback. 

Social Studies: We will finish discussing Roanoke and Jamestown early this week before students begin a group project in which they will plan the establishment of their own colony. Students will plan where their colony will be located, what the government will be like, and how they will earn money.  Students will also research the climate and geography for their colony location. It will be fun! 

*Students all got a "Current Events" handout explaining how they will present a current event to the class by Oct. 25. I added student friendly news web sites for them to visit in the Social Studies tab.

Hill Family Reading Night 

An invitation

To 5^th GRADE families

to THRILL MIDDLE  SCHOOL’S

 evening of Thrills, Chills, Mystery, and Magic

Monday, October 29 6 – 8 p.m.

Wear your costume! (optional)

Thrilling and chilling activities

Dazzling magic from jonathan kamm

Scary stories and more…..

hill middle school

Monday, October 29 6 – 8 p.m.

be there!

October 9-12

This week we have Interim Assessments Tuesday through Friday from 9:30-10:30.  Math has been moved to 10:35-11:35. For more information on the assessments, ask your child for the letter they got in their mailboxes.  

Spelling: This week we will be making up a spelling list using adjectives.

5H Math:  This week students will get their tests back and we will go over any questions.  We will begin Unit 3: Geometry.  We will begin by talking about what vocabulary kids know that refers to geometry and begin talking about the properties of polygons.   

Reading: The kids are enjoying our read aloud, Mr. Terupt.  It is told from the point of view of 7 very different fifth grade students. We will be reading more Time for Kids magazines this week and continuing to use the strategy "scan and run".  One of the best parts of this strategy is that students should preview the selection and ask themselves questions based on the title and headings.  This helps kids set a purpose for reading.

Writing: Student writing pieces are due Wednesday morning.  We will have some time on Tuesday to work on the pieces, and if they are not finished should be taken home to be completed (the kids know this).

Social Studies: I was very impressed how many kids watched the first presidential debate! We discussed who we thought "won" the debate giving evidence for our point of view and what we thought of the debate process. The kids did a really wonderful job listening to each others' points of view. This week we will begin learning about some of the original settlements in the United States: St. Augustine, Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth.

*Students all got a "Current Events" handout last week explaining how they will present a current event to the class by Oct. 25. I added student friendly news web sites for them to visit in the Social Studies tab.

October 1-5

Spelling:  Unit 5 pretest Monday and unit 5 spelling test on Friday.  

5H Math:  This week we will go over how to construct a line plot as well as learn about expanded notation and multiplying by powers of 10. We'll continue working on multiplication and making estimates.  Also, I added a game under the math tab for practicing computational facts.

*We continue to work on our study guide for the upcoming test on October 4th and 5th (that's THIS Thursday and Friday).  All of the kids have this "practice test". Optional study sessions will take place Wednesday during lunch or after school (3:35-4:10): students should come knowing what they need more practice on. 

Reading:  This week we will be starting a new read aloud: Because of Mr. Terupt. Also, we will be using the reading strategy "scan and run" which will help students when reading nonfiction text.  This will be helpful with our social studies reading this week! 

Writing:  Many students are finished with their rough drafts.  We will look at each others pieces and determine what steps we need to take in order to revise and edit.  Our goal is to have published pieces by Friday. 

Grammar:  Since we are revising in writing, we will need to discuss good word choice.  It's a great time to talk about synonyms and antonyms. 

Social Studies: Last week we discussed the upcoming election a bit.  Students learned what a political party is, as well as the two main political parties in our country, and who the presidential and vice presidential candidates are in the upcoming election.  Soon we will be learning about the actual election process in our country.  This week we will look at Christopher Columbus through the view point of our text book as well as through the eyes of Native Americans. 

*Students all got a "Current Events" handout last week explaining how they will present a current event to the class by Oct. 25.  I added student friendly news web sites for them to visit in the Social Studies tab.  

September 24-28

This week all fifth graders in District 204 will be taking the CogAT on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. This is a standardized test that is used to measure school abilities and is used for placement in a variety of district programs.  

I'm looking forward to learning about severe weather this week from 5H students who chose to do the optional presentations!  I'm sure they'll be great! 

Spelling:  Unit 4 pretest Monday and unit 4 spelling test on Friday.  

5H Math: Last week we reviewed how to convert within the metric system (meters to millimeters, etc.).  If you'd like to see the video I showed in class, visit the math tab.  We will continue working on this in the coming week.  We will work on converting measurements within the standard system as well (feet to inches, etc.).  We will work on making line plots and multiplication as well.  It would be great practice to begin going over multiplication at home! 

*We have started working on a study guide in class as well.  All of the kids have a "practice test" that we are working on as we go so that they will have this practice test to use as a study guide.  I told the kids we will probably be having our first test the week of October 1. 

Reading:  So far this year we've learned about the reading strategies check for understanding, using context clues to determine word meaning, visualizing, and making inferences.  This week we will continue to utilize these strategies in our discussions about read alouds and talk about how these strategies help us as readers.  The kids will also get to make "book hooks" this week. Students will write a phrase that "hooks" the attention of prospective readers and persuade them to read the book.  We will work on these in the computer lab, typing and inserting a picture of their book. 

Writing: This week students will continue with their writing piece.  By Thursday or Friday students should be ready to write their final drafts.  Ask your child what they chose to write for their first piece.  There are many creative ideas!  We will further discuss this week what it means to revise and edit.  

Grammar: Last week we talked about the many types of nouns, and this week we will get into verbs.  We will also discuss synonyms and antonyms. 

Science:  We are finishing up our first science unit of weather.  The test will be Wednesday.  On Friday, we began going through our notes and handouts determining what is important to study.  On Monday we will finish making our study guide.  

Social Studies: We will begin our first Social Studies unit on Thursday discussing Christopher Columbus.  We will look at Columbus through the view point of our text book as well as through the eyes of Native Americans.  

September 17-21

It was great to see, as well as, meet some of you at Curriculum Night.  Thank you for taking some time to come in and learn about the school year.  If you were not able to make it, I understand we all have a lot of commitments in our lives, and I hope to see you throughout the year. If I have not said it enough, thank you all for your support and I am thankful to work with you and your wonderful children this year. 

This week..

Spelling: The unit 3 pretest will be given on Monday. The assignment and list will be posted under the spelling tab after school tomorrow. 

5H Math:  we will be working on rounding to specific place value throughout the week.  We are returning to converting measurements within the metric system as well as within the standard measurement system. Toward the end of the week we will be learning about line plots and making magnitude estimates for multiplication problems.

Reading: During reading this week we will be learning about making inferences using a variety of texts.  We make inferences by using clues from the text as well as our background knowledge (schema) to make conclusions. We will be reading a story from our Harcourt books to support this and will take a comprehension test for the story during the week. We have also started using our Time for Kids. 

Writing: Last week the kids made an awesome list of ways that writers write.  Kids have now chosen what type of writing they will do for their first piece.  Some of the choices we listed were: magazine articles, book reviews, fantasy stories, etc. The kids will be working on this piece this week and I will be teaching lessons on maintaining focus and support using student samples of writing.

Grammar: What is a noun? What are the types of nouns? What is a verb? 

Science: We did not begin clouds and the water cycle last week so we will begin with that this week. The kids will learn what the three main types of clouds are, what they look like, and what type of weather they indicate. We will compare weather forecasts to the actual weather of the day. We will learn about cold and warm fronts and what creates severe weather. 

Also, many students have shown interest in the optional weather research activity- I am so glad the kids are excited about this!  This week I will call kids over to make appointments with them so they know when they will present (sometime the week of Sept. 24th).  This is an optional activity so students will need to do most of the work at home.  

Citizenship: This week we will begin talking about the need for classroom problem solving between classmates when conflicts arise. 

September 10-14

I hope everyone enjoyed the wonderful weather this weekend! Here's a look at what's coming up this week: 


Spelling: students will take the Unit 2 pre-test on Monday, and the assignment and list will be posted after school on Monday in the spelling tab of the blog. 

5H Math: we will continue working on adding and subtracting decimals as well as: what steps to use when solving word problems, ordering decimals, converting metric and standard measurements, and making line plots from data.

Reading: this week students will work on answering open ended questions about our read aloud book.  During independent reading time, students will continue to read their selected novels and write reading responses based on the strategy of visualization. 

Writing: this week we will finish our "Fortunately" stories. We will also discuss all of the ways in which writers write and begin drafting a writer's workshop piece.

Science: We will begin the week by reviewing the states of matter and the behavior of the molecules in each state. Then we will be learning about air and answering the questions: Does air take up space? Does air have weight? We will also determine what happens to air with temperature change.  The water cycle and clouds will begin toward the end of the week. 

Citizenship:  This week we will be talking about what it means to be responsible in the classroom and around the school...maybe even at home :) 

Remember, this Thursday is Curriculum Night.  I will be sharing about fifth grade curriculum from 6:30 to 6:55 and again from 7:25 to 8:00; you may choose whichever session works for you this year.  There will be a whole school session on what math instruction will look like this year as we have adopted new standards in Illinois called The Common Core.  This math session will be in the gym from 7:05 to 7:25 and is for all grade levels. 

September 5-7

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! 

Reading: This week we will finish defining the remaining genres we will be reading this year.  On Friday there will be a genre quiz in which each student will have to determine the genre of two novels as well as explain their reasoning for their choice. I will begin meeting with every child to have reading conferences based on their current novel. Students will also begin to write reading response letters in their reading notebooks.  These letters encourage students to pay attention to their thoughts while reading and help me to guide them as readers.    

Spelling: Because of the short week, we won't have a spelling list this week.

Writing: We will be working through the writing process using the picture book Fortunately as inspiration to write our own picture books. 

Math: The kids in 5H math will begin learning about adding and subtracting decimals and how this skill is used in the real world.  

Science: We will continue to learn about weather and weather forecasting.  We will learn about the tools Meteorologists use and build our own.  We will also begin to talk about the composition of air. 

**Please make sure your child is checking and sharing their assignment notebook with you every night! 

August 27-31

It was great to meet many of you at Meet and Greet! We had a great first two days in 5H getting to know each other.  

Below you will find information about what we will be doing and learning in the upcoming week.  Each weekend I will post information about the upcoming week.  Tomorrow we will begin spelling, and the first spelling test will be Friday. This past Friday, I explained the "Me: in a bag" assignment.  Tomorrow I will model for the students what this looks like with my own bag of objects.  They should be gathering their five objects that help to describe them as well as what they'd like to say about each object so they are ready to present Wednesday.     

Thank you to many of you for sending back your parent surveys.  I hope to see you all at the Ice Cream Social, Monday night at 6:00. 

Reading: This week we will investigate the different genres of books we will be reading all year long.  We will discuss and determine what characteristics are specific to each genre. We will learn about poetry, realistic fiction, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery, biography and autobiography, memoir, traditional literature, and informational texts.  Once we have developed a list of what makes each category unique, we will develop a class definition of each genre to post in the room.  Students will also be learning that this year we (the students and I) will each have the goal of reading 40 books by the end of the school year.  Yes, this is a lot of books, but I believe we can all meet this goal...one book at a time!  There will be time given daily to read in class and we will go to the LMC each Tuesday to look for books; as well as when needed. Reading nightly will be an expectation, but it is my sincere hope that the kids will actually WANT to read as a result of what we will be doing in the classroom.

Writing:  We will begin learning about what writing time will look this year, and we will be writing two different stories. The class is going to make a book titled What I've Learned So Far all about an event in their life that taught them a lesson. Every student will also begin a picture book about a journey that will follow a pattern laid out in a book I will share with the class titled Fortunately.  

Science: Our first unit of the year is about weather. As a result of the weather in the gulf, we are going to begin learning about hurricanes and what causes extreme weather.  The class will begin to learn about weather collecting instruments, the scientific method, the water cycle, layers of the atmosphere, and we will explore background knowledge to see what we already know about weather. 

Citizenship: This week will will continue to review expectations for student behavior in different parts of the building.  There are several stations that the class will visit to review the expectations for all the places kids go while they are at school.  Because of the timing of the stations, math class will not begin until Wednesday. 

Math: The kids will be placed in their math classes on Wednesday.  All of the kids in 5th grade math from 5H will stay with me, but the accelerated students will either be in Mr. Vaid's class or Mrs. Bennick's class.  The kids in 5H math will begin the year by exploring estimation using standard and metric measurements.  The class will use real life situations and problem solving skills to estimate distances around the world. Links to Mr. Vaid's blog and Mrs. Bennick's blog can be found on the right side of the blog. 

Back to School!

Welcome to 5th grade! I am very excited for the year to come, and look forward to working with 5H students and parents. Throughout the year, I hope kids and parents will refer to this blog as a resource for information about our classroom and school. Welcome to the 2012 school year!