February 24-28

-No School Thursday or Friday this week for students
-Thursday- Parent Teacher Conferences- if needed, have you sent back your conference slip? 
-The Scholastic Book Fair is arriving this week and will be open starting Wednesday. 

ISATs are coming up the week of March 3. The schedule is below, in a previous post. 

Thanks for the hard work with your kids at home on their inventions- they were AWESOME! The kids were proud of their products, and we had a good time viewing each others. 

This week:

5H Math: On Monday and part of Tuesday we will finish up learning about making line plots and interpreting the data. Tuesday kids will start the unit test and will finish on Wednesday. 

Skills on the test:

-converting within the metric and customary measurement systems (story problems included)-making line plots and interpreting them (using the line plot data to answer questions)-rounding decimals
I'm offering optional study sessions Monday during lunch and/or recess and after school Monday until 4:15.

Language Arts: 

This week we continue two writing projects we've been working on. 

Students will have time to work on their short stories Monday and Tuesday, and will need to finish their rough drafts Tuesday night for homework if they have not finished them during school. We have been referring to a few short stories as examples, and have focused on starting with an interesting event, having a plan for events that will unfold naturally, using dialogue to serve a purpose (move the plot along and/or help us learn more about the characters). We have also discuss and looked at examples of description of events and settings. 

For our research writing pieces, we will have a few lessons on how to write an introduction (main idea and preview the content of the paper) as well as how to organize the rest of our research into paragraphs that make sense. Kids will make outlines for how to organize their papers and then have time to type up their invention/inventor research. 

For some of our Language Arts time this week, we will also do a bit of ISAT prep. The purpose for this "prep" is to familiarize kids with the layout and types of questions on the ISAT...we are not trying to cram! :) We will talk about test taking strategies and I will review the types of problems kids can expect to see on the test: multiple choice, short answer and extended response. We will go over what is expected for each type of answer. 

Word Study: This week we're working with homophones. These homophones will have syllable types that we've learned about so far. Kids will have a quiz on Monday, March 3rd over these homophones. Kids will need to correctly spell and mark each word. 

Social Studies:

We will have a final quiz regarding the American Revolution this Wednesday. Students need to know:

-important people involved in the Revolution

-the view points of Patriots and Loyalists

-the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence

-what the beginnings of government were like in the colonies (House of Burgesses, Continental Congress, what role to Great Britain play in colonial government?)

We will review tomorrow, Monday. Kids have a notes packet they've been filling out throughout the unit to refer to. 

February 18-21

Conference notes will come home tomorrow (Tuesday). 

The Invention Convention is this Friday! Kids should bring their inventions to school Friday. Kids will have some time in school Thursday to complete the writing portion that goes along with their invention. They may complete this part at home if they choose, though. 

This week:

5H Math: 

This week we'll continue our study of converting within the standard/customary system. Last week we worked with customary length and liquid volume. This week we'll convert weight measurements. Then we'll work on word problems; kids will come up with steps they use to solve conversion story problems. 

Toward the end of the week, we'll work with line plots. Kids should have some experience with line plots from 4th grade, but this year kids will need to be able to create and interpret a line plot with fractional units. 

We will take the unit test next Tuesday (2/25). 

Language Arts:

We are currently working on a couple writing projects. For narrative writing, we are working on short stories. We've read a few examples, parts of the stories have given us ideas of what to do and parts of some have given us ideas of what not to do. Last week, most kids got their plan written for their story. We will be writing rough drafts this week, after I check in with kids on their plans. 

We will keep referring back to the short stories we've read together to focus on different writing skills. First, we'll look back and see if we can take tips from writers on how they introduce characters and the narrator of the story. In short stories, events happen quickly, but still need to have an ease of flow. Another lesson we'll do this week is determine how authors use dialogue to develop the experiences and events in their stories. 

Kids are also working on a short research project relating to inventions or inventors. Kids will have one more day to research(Tuesday) and will need to finish their research for homework Tuesday night. Kids are working on taking notes by summarizing information and writing brief notes in their own words. Kids are also required to keep track of the sources in which they find their information. Kids need to use at least three sources. 

On Wednesday, we will work together to decide how they should organize their information into a logical sequence, and begin drafting. 

Word Study: I apologize for the delay of the vowel team quiz, but it will be this Wednesday. We will review in class tomorrow. Words are listed on last week's post. 

Social Studies: We are finishing up learning about the American Revolution by reviewing the important people we've come across and what role they played in the events before and during the war. Next, we'll be learning about how our government was formed after the colonies gained independence. We'll start with the Articles of Confederation, the goals of the document and why it wasn't successful.  

ISAT schedule

 GRADE 5

TUESDAY, MARCH 4

Session I                               Reading                    45-55 minutes

Session 1                             Math                           45-55 minutes

WEDNESDAY MARCH 5

Session 2                             Reading                    45-55 minutes

Session 2                             Math                           45-55 minutes

THURSDAY, MARCH 6

Session 3                             Reading                    45-55 minutes         

Session 3                             Math                           45-55 minutes

Invention Convention!

Invention Convention details:

1. The invention should solve a problem or improve something (make something more efficient)

2. Create either a model or a diagram of the invention (it does not have to work)

3. Name the invention

4. Write a description of what problem the invention solves and how it works

5. Use household materials; kids should not go out and ask to spend a bunch of money! They need to use materials they find at home.

Our Invention Convention will be February 21st. Kids need to have their invention and description ready on this day. Kids will get to visit other classrooms, view and read about inventions. They will also get a chance to vote for the best invention in each room.

February 10-14

Friday is Valentine's Day! This is our last classroom party of the year- wow! As a reminder, kids should not bring in treats to share, but if they'd like to bring valentine cards, they should bring one for everyone. I sent home a class list this past Friday. Also, if we have indoor recess this week, kids are welcome to bring shoe boxes to decorate boxes to collect their valentine cards. 

Also, kids will bring home envelopes this Friday with their CBM scores. 

5H Math: On Monday and Tuesday, we will continue to build kids' understanding of the metric system. Currently, I am trying to help kids understand when you move from a large unit to a small unit, you multiply and when you move from a small unit to a larger unit you divide. This is a confusing concept, so we will go back to measuring objects in the classroom; we will measure the same object using different units, so students can understand why when you measure with a smaller unit (mm) the number will be larger than if measuring in meters.  

Students will have a quiz on metric conversion on Wednesday. Students should be able to convert between metric units (liters, meters, and grams). Students should also be able to explain why their answer makes sense (example: 100 mm is equal to 10 cm because centimeters are 10 times larger than millimeters, so it takes 10 times fewer centimeters to measure the same length.) 

Later in the week, we will begin converting within the standard or customary measurement system (feet, inches...). 

Language Arts: Last week, while discussing topic and theme in literature, we read a short story from a book that is a collection of short stories by different authors. Kids asked if we could write our own book of short stories...so of course that is what we'll do! We'll start this week, by reading a few more short stories and analyzing character introduction and development, as well as plot development. Once we have a good handle on how authors develop their stories, kids will plan their own short stories. As we work through the writing process, we will refer to the professional short stories to work on different skills. The goal for this week though, is to make a plan that includes a clear sequence of events that flow naturally. 

We will also be performing some research on students' chosen inventor or invention. We will come up with a list of requirements as a class midweek. 

Word Study: We will continue with "vowel teams" this week, by learning about a few more vowels that work together to create a different sound: oi, oy, au, aw, eu, ui, and ew. Students will have a quiz on some of the words from the list below. 

rejoin
invoice
rejoice
employ
foyer
enjoyment
exhaust
authority
awning
fraudulent
mildew
askew
shrewdly
pursuit
bruise
suitcase
feud
eulogy
eureka

Social Studies: Kids worked on a mini-presentation Friday, on an important event that occurred during the American Revolution. On Monday, kids will finish their posters and present. This Thursday, kids will take a quiz asking them to describe at least 3 events that lead to the American Revolution and at least 3 important events that occurred during the war. This is not the end of the unit, I'm just assessing these essential questions through the quiz. Kids will continue to add to their unit organizers about significant individuals and we will spend time analyzing the Declaration of Independence- what are the basic principles of the document? 

Current Events: Students need to present their current event by the end of the quarter (March 21). I encourage kids to present an event from the Olympics. As a reminder, kids should have a main source, but also do additional research about their event so they can speak knowledgeably about their topic. 

Word Study

Kids will have a word study quiz this Friday. Our new vowel pattern is "vowel teams". We are working on the vowel teams "ai", "ay", "ee", "ey", "oe", "oa" and "ue". Kids need to study the words below, some of them will be on the test (12-15). We will practice "marking them", breaking them into syllables and marking the vowels in class. We will also have some in class time to study.

complaint

trait

faithful

betray

display

portray

disagree

referee

sneer

hockey

jockey

doe

mistletoe

foe

charcoal

coach

cocoa

continue

Tuesday

barbeque

February 3-7

Not many special reminders for the week, but we do have an assembly on Wednesday. The Naperville Reads program is bringing in authors for a special assembly for fourth and fifth graders. 

 Here are our plans for the week:

5H Math: We will continue learning about converting measurements this week. We spent part of our short week last week practicing estimating and measuring using the metric system. Last week kids learned that in order to convert between measurements in the metric system, all you really have to do is move the decimal in the number, because the metric system uses the base-ten system. This is more of a "trick" and this week we will work on better understanding why this works. We will spend a couple days in the beginning of the week converting in the metric system (linear measurements), and then we will move into standard or customary measurement conversions toward the end of the week. We do not have math Wednesday because of the assembly. We will probably have a converting quiz (both metric and standard units) next week. As a reminder, we won't be converting from metric to standard or standard to metric, only converting within each measurement system. 

Language Arts:

We did not get into our new theme (At a Crossroads) as planned last week, so we will do so tomorrow. Throughout the unit we will refer to Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken". We will take some time with this poem tomorrow thinking about and discussing what it could literally mean and what the possible figurative meanings are. Our focus, though, will be determining the topic and theme of the poem and explaining our reasoning. 

Throughout this unit, we will discuss how characters in books make decisions and how their decisions affect what follows. The American Revolution is also a perfect topic to discuss a time of change and the decisions that were made. 

During our language arts time, we will spend some time reading texts related to the American Revolution. One of which is a great book, George vs George (George Washington vs. King George III). It lays out a lot of information about the two leaders in an interesting format.

As part of the theme, we will also be learning about inventions late in the week. Kids will learn the reasons for inventions, and ultimately will work toward creating their own invention based on an identified need or problem. This will be an ongoing project for a few weeks, but we are starting this week by learning about inventions old and new, the inventing process including the reasons for inventions. 

Word Study: This week we'll be learning about a new syllable type, the "vowel team". We will study words with the vowel teams of: ai, ay, ee, ey, oe, oa & ue. Vowel team syllables are marked with "vv" under each syllable. Kids will have a quiz on Friday of words that contain each of these vowel pairs. 

Social Studies: Early this week we will discuss a few more reasons for the tension between the colonies and Great Britain that would eventually cause the American Revolution. For this unit, I've given the kids each a packet that has the essential questions for the unit listed, and different organizers for taking notes. 

Then we will move into important events during the war...starting of course at the beginning with Paul Revere and the battles at Lexington and Concord. We will be using our social studies texts, additional books I've gotten from the library, America: The Story of Us (History Channel video), and primary documents (speeches and documents) from the time.