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. 

Week of January 29th

Open House is tomorrow! Open House is Wednesday 6:30-7:30. We will be doing our best to prepare for you tomorrow. 

Also this Friday, students will have the "Robert Crown Follow-Up". This takes about an hour, and happens at school. 

Hill registration forms are due by this Friday! 

Here are our plans for the shortened week:

5H Math: Students will get their Unit 5 Tests back tomorrow. We will be starting Unit 6, which is mostly about measurement and conversions. I'll start tomorrow by seeing how much students remember about the units of measurement and their relation to one another. We will spend the rest of the week understanding how to convert measurements within a system of measurement (inches to feet or centimeters to meters). The links for this unit are updated in the math tab. 

Language Arts: We will be starting a new theme this week, "At a Crossroads". We will tie this theme into our studies across subjects. We will read "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost and discuss subject and theme in pieces of writing. We will practice this skill with other poems and writing pieces as well. 

We will continue to review common grammatical errors this week. 

Social Studies: This week we are starting our Revolution Unit- one of my favorites! We will begin this week by trying to understand the causes of the American Revolution. Students' homework Thursday night will be to go through a PowerPoint I created and take notes on the events that lead up to the Revolution. I will be posting this either on Edline or through Googledocs for them. 

Kids should also start thinking about what they will do for their next current event presentation. 

January 21-24

I hope everyone's enjoying their weekends. Here are the plans for the week:

-Interim Assessments take place this week. Kids will take 2 Math tests and 2 Language Arts tests. These will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. These tests are to measure the changes we're making in our curriculum as we implement the Common Core Standards. 

-The Robert Crown field trip is this Friday, January 24th. 

-Please remember to turn in the Hill Middle School class designation form at your earliest convenience. 

5H Math: We will take the Unit 5 test this Wednesday. There are optional study sessions Tuesday during lunch and/or recess as well as after school until 4:10. Tuesday we will work on adding and subtracting mixed numbers in story problems and review comparing decimals. Students have several handouts as well as notes that will be helpful in studying. They can also refer to the unit 5 links in the math tab. 

Language Arts:

This week we'll finish up Red Kayak, one of our read aloud books. The main character has been struggling with a tough decision which has led us to some discussions about courage and decision making. We will finish up our courage unit this week by returning to our original definitions of courage and revising them as necessary. Students will reflect on all the topics we've connected to courage and determine what they believe to be the best example of courage (could be from a read aloud, independent book, current event, personal experience, etc.). Students will explain why they believe this example shows courage by connecting it to their definition.  

Word Study: Kids will take a quiz on words that contain suffixes this Thursday. The words are the same as I emailed you last week. Kids will need to spell the words correctly, as well as circle the suffix and underline the base word. 

examine
masculine
feminine
chlorine
routine
college
privilege
voltage 
proposal
denial
personality
equity

Science: On Tuesday, we will focus on circuits. Students will learn what a circuit is, and the difference between a parallel and series circuit. Wednesday, we will review what we've learned in this unit. We will take our Magnet and Electricity test this Friday. Students should focus on the concepts below.

• The basic parts of an atom and how they relate to magnetism and electricity
• Properties of magnets
• Circuit electricity: parallel and series circuits (what is a circuit? what is the difference between these two types?)   
• The 2 types of electricity (static and current) and their similarities and differences
• The relationship between magnets and electricity- how can electricity magnetize another object? (electromagnet) 

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Young Authors

The Young Authors information went out on our website before break, but many families have not gotten the word. Here are the specifics:

-Be in by the deadline 2/14/14. (Late manuscripts will not be eligible for awards.)

-Include a rough draft. (Handwritten or typed. The final copy should reflect revisions.)

-Have a cover with pages securely attached.

- Have a detachable title page including the child's name, grade, and title of the book. (This page will be removed for anonymous judging.)

-Writing must be done by the student. The final manuscript should reflect the student’s writing ability and developmental stage. (For example, an excellent kindergarten submission may use very basic language and may have some grammatical errors.) PARENT INPUT SHOULD BE MINIMAL

Letters of intent to participate were supposed to be in Friday, but Mrs. May has extended the deadline. You can find the Intent to Participate form in an email from me!