Updates and announcements

I hope everyone had a relaxing 3-day weekend! I spent mine finishing up a long-time quilting project (more out of procrastination than labor intensive), and am on to making bowl-fitted pot holders with my extra batting.

This week we start Lyceum. We have six different groups that will be working on everything from decoding to fluency to reading comprehension. Once we have our minds wrapped around this new intervention, we can ask for some parent volunteers in the second quarter to help out.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Eureka!”

Students will learn about the roots theos, deus, divinus, and homo on Wednesday. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday, plus a surprise one from a previous week. They should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots. Students will also receive their Quarter 1 Roots Study Guide. This will be due on 9/25, and the test over the first 25 roots will be on 10/2.

Students will learned about the poem “Some Opposites” on Wednesday, 9/11, and recite it on Wednesday, 9/25.

In Literature, we will read through chapter 14 in “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, working on vocabulary and summarizing every chapter. Students will also work through discussion questions in groups. 

In Grammar, students will do a short activity on descriptive writing. Students will practice showing, not telling. Students will also get to draw a mystical made-up creature, describe that creature, then have another student try to draw the creature from their description.

This week in science, we are diving into our study of chemistry. We will begin by studying what constitutes matter and elements. Students will then learn the basic structure of an atom as well as what happens when a chemical bond is formed. Students received their study guides on Friday and will have a small portion to do each night for homework. Study guides will be due on October 1st, and the unit test will be on October 3rd.

This week in History we will continue with Unit 3: The Renaissance. Students will learn about the cities of Rome and Venice, as well as the figures of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and their role in the Renaissance. Students will also discuss the Popes and their role during this cultural shift in the West. We will finish on Friday by studying the artist, Leonardo da Vinci. There will be no U.S. Geography on Wednesday.

In math, students will finish working on our unit on Whole Numbers, focusing on dividing large numbers and practicing concepts learned in Units 1 and 2. Students will have their unit test on Thursday, 9/19, and start our large unit on Fractions on Friday. To keep work neat, students are encouraged to use graph paper to ensure their columns are accurate while dealing with large numbers. When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day. We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook assignments are half of every type of problem. Please keep in mind that students may do test corrections on any math quiz for partial credit (fill in the blank sheets, not multiple choice homework sheets). Math groups will continue this Wednesday, 9/18, 8:35-9:45. Please let me know if you are able to attend and I’ll make sure to have enough keys.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Eleventh Hour”.

Students will learn about the roots arcus, circum, kyklos, and peri on Wednesday. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday, plus a surprise one from a previous week. They should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

Students learned about “The Tyger” on Wednesday 8/23, and recite it on Wednesday, 9/11. Students will learn about the poem “Some Opposites” on Wednesday, 9/11, and recite it on Wednesday, 9/25.

In Literature, we will read through chapter 12 in “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, working on vocabulary and summarizing every chapter. Students will also work through discussion questions in groups. 

In Grammar, students will practice classifying and diagramming sentences with adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases this week, gradually adding in more words and phrases and creating longer sentences. There will be a grammar quiz on Wednesday, 9/11. Students will practice sentence scrambles on Thursday and Friday, then creating ad-lib type sentences using classifications. There will be practice quizzes going home for homework. The questions on those are very similar to the test.

This week in science, we are concluding our study of Scientific Inquiry. Monday students will turn in the study guide and go over answers in class, and Tuesday they will play a review game. Thursday, they will take their tests. On Friday, we will begin our study of Chemistry that will take up the rest of second quarter by studying the periodic table and how it is arranged.

This week in history we will begin Unit 3: The Renaissance. Study guides will be handed out this week, and homework each evening will be to answer questions corresponding to that day’s lesson. We will discuss the transition from the Medieval Period to the Renaissance, including the invention of the printing press. We will also learn about the cities of Florence, Rome, and Venice and their role in the Renaissance. On Wednesday for U.S. Geography we will be discussing the states in the Great Plains: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

In math, students will continue working on our unit on Whole Numbers, focusing on multiplying and dividing by 2 digit numbers, word problems, and bar models. To keep work neat, students are encouraged to use graph paper to ensure their columns are accurate while dealing with large numbers. When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day. We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook assignments are half of every type of problem. Please keep in mind that students may do test corrections on any math quiz for partial credit (fill in the blank sheets, not multiple choice homework sheets). Math groups will continue this Wednesday, 9/11, 8:35-9:45. Please let me know if you are able to attend and I’ll make sure to have enough keys.

Updates and announcements

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I discovered a new love in the sweet cream pumpkin cold brew from Starbucks, worked on a large queen sized quilt for myself, cuddled my cats, and got materials for a kid’s quilt for a coworker.

We are starting to have students call home to inform parents of missing homework assignments. Please note (as it was stated in the procedures packet at the beginning of the year and Curriculum Night), parents are not expected to do anything regarding the call. The student is only informing parents that there is an assignment missing and this is NOT a call to have parents bring the assignment in to school. Students will call home if they have an assignment missing that was due the previous day.

Math groups are in full swing! More information is in the Math section down below. Please let me know if you are able to volunteer.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Eat crow”.

Students will learn about the roots eu, malus, ex, and archos on Wednesday. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday, plus a surprise one from a previous week. They should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

Students learned about “The Tyger” on Wednesday 8/23, and recite it on Wednesday, 9/11.

In Literature, we will read through chapter 10 in “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, working on vocabulary and summarizing every chapter. Students will also work through discussion questions in groups. 

In Grammar, students will practice classifying and diagramming sentences with adjectives and adverbs, adding in prepositional phrases this week. There will be a grammar quiz on Friday, 9/6. There will be practice quizzes going home for homework. The questions on those are very similar to the test.

We are approaching the end of our unit on Scientific Inquiry. This week, students will review how to make a good hypothesis, how to correctly identify variables in an experiment  ,and how to draw conclusions like a scientist. Students will receive their study guides on Tuesday, September 3rd, and they will be due on Monday, September 8th. The scientific inquiry test will be on Thursday, September 12th. For this assessment, students will need to know major vocabulary terms and be able to correctly analyze a simple experiment to find the hypothesis, variables, and draw a correct conclusion.

This week in history we will finish Unit 2: The Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations. Study guides are due on Thursday, when we will review the entire unit, and our test will be on Friday. For U.S. Geography on Wednesday, we will learn about the states in the Midwest. Students will be quizzed on the location of all the states in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the South. This is a states’ location quiz over 23 states, and students should be proactive about studying for it – encourage them to get a blank map of the U.S. and fill in as much as they can, repeating this until they know all the states they will be quizzed on.

In math, students will continue working on our unit on Whole Numbers, focusing on word problems and bar models. We will work through a foldable with 8 steps on how to solve a word problem. When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day. We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook assignments are half of every type of problem. Please keep in mind that students may do test corrections on any math quiz for partial credit (fill in the blank sheets, not multiple choice homework sheets). Math groups will continue this Wednesday, 8/28, 8:35-9:45. Please let me know if you are able to attend and I’ll make sure to have enough keys.

Updates and announcements

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! I finished up a quilt top that I’ve been working on for a while! I’m excited to start pinning and quilting it in the coming weeks.

Math groups start this week. We had so much interest that I am putting out a blanket reminder for volunteers. Math groups will take place on Wednesdays, 8:35-9:45 and parents will take a group of students to help work through an assignment. If you are interested and able to help this week, please email me. Updates for whether math groups are happening will be in the math section of the blog every week.

Curriculum Night is this week! I hope to see you all at this parent-only event on Wednesday, 8/28, 6:00-7:30. This is one of my favorite days of the year where I get to teach you about what we do in the classroom.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Count your blessings”.

Students will learn about the roots grex, omnis, amphi, and ambi on Wednesday. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday, plus a surprise one from a previous week. They should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

Students will recite “The Eagle” on Wednesday, 8/23. Students will learn about “The Tyger” on Wednesday 8/23, and recite it on Wednesday, 9/11.

In Literature, we will read through chapter 8 in “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, working on vocabulary and summarizing every chapter. Students will also learn about flat, round, static, and dynamic characters. 

In Grammar, students will practice classifying and diagramming sentences with adjectives and adverbs. There will be a grammar test on Thursday, 8/29. There will be practice quizzes going home for homework. The questions on those are very similar to the test.

This week in science, students will learn about Thomas Edison and his inventions. As a class, we will continue our study of the scientific method by testing which type of tape is the stickiest! We will use this experiment to help study how to make a materials list and how to present data in a bar graph. 

This week we will continue Unit 2: Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations. Our focus will shift to the Aztec civilization on Monday and Tuesday, including conversations about the city of Tenochtitlan which later became Mexico City, and its ruler Montezuma II. On Thursday and Friday, we will learn about the Inca civilization, including their early engineering in roadwork, and its conquest by the Spanish. For U.S. Geography on Wednesday, we will learn about the states in the South.

In math, students will continue working on our unit on Whole Numbers, focusing on order of operations, distributive property, and mental math. When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day. We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook assignments are half of every type of problem. Please keep in mind that students may do test corrections on any math quiz for partial credit (fill in the blank sheets, not multiple choice homework sheets). Math groups will start this Wednesday, 8/28, 8:35-9:45.

Updates and announcements

Happy week 3! Our students are catching on to our classroom procedures beautifully. I hope everyone had a restful weekend.

Prime Factorization is a tough concept for fifth grade and usually takes a couple lessons for students to get the hang of it. We will be reteaching and re-quizzing this week on that concept.

Tutoring starts this week. Please wait until 3:35 on Monday and Tuesday, and 2:35 on Wednesday to get into the pickup line. This will help traffic run smoothly for students who are not in tutoring. Students must be picked up by 3:45 on Monday and Tuesday, and 2:45 on Wednesdays.

Grammar/Spalding: Monday-3:05-3:40

Math: Tuesday-3:05-3:40

Math: Wednesday-2:05-2:40

Curriculum Night is next week! I look forward to seeing you all at this parent-only event. I love getting the opportunity to share about our classroom and getting to teach math, grammar, and spalding lessons.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Chip on your shoulder”.

Students will learn about the roots porcus, ornis, and avis on Wednesday. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday, plus a surprise one from a previous week. They should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will read through chapter 6 in “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, working on vocabulary and summarizing every chapter. Please send “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” in with your students this week. 

In Grammar, we will review diagramming subject nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. There will be a grammar test on Thursday, 8/29. There will be practice quizzes going home for homework. The questions on those are very similar to the test.

This week in science, students will continue their glider experiment as we dive deep into independent variables. Students will have a chance to assemble their own gliders in groups, and then test three different changes to see if they make their plane fly further. It is sure to be an exciting week! We will then practice calculating percent change to help analyze the results. Students will turn in their lab sheets for a grade. They will also take another short quiz on Friday to practice identifying independent and dependent variables.

This week in history we will continue studying Unit 2: The Maya, Inca, and Aztec Civilizations, focusing on the Mayan civilization. Discussion will include the major theories of what caused the Mayan disappearance. On Friday students will play a Mayan game, pok-ta-pok. Students will also begin a journal, imagining themselves to be part of these ancient civilizations on a near-daily basis. Our Wednesday lessons on U.S. Geography will this week be focused on the Mid-Atlantic region.

In math, students will continue working on our unit on Whole Numbers, focusing on dividing numbers by 10s, 100s, and 1000s, and take their unit test on Thursday, 8/22. We will begin another unit on Whole Numbers on Friday, starting with order of operations. When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day. We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook assignments are half of every type of problem. We will begin math groups in a few weeks-after we get our feet on the ground. Please keep in mind that students may do test corrections on any math quiz for partial credit (fill in the blank sheets, not multiple choice homework sheets).

Updates and announcements

We are off to a strong start this school year! I hope everyone’s weekend was restful.

Students will receive their graded work from the week every Friday in a “signed folder”. Students are not to open the folder until they get home and are able to go through it with a parent. Once this is done, the student and parent are supposed to sign the sheet on the inside of the folder and the student will turn the folder in at the beginning of the following week (usually Monday, sometimes Tuesdays).

Tutoring will begin next week. Tutoring will look a little different for fifth grade than it looked in fourth grade. The three lead teachers will share tutoring amongst the 90 students. Any student may attend any tutoring they need. We will reassess as the school year progresses and make changes as needed. Students must be picked up by 3:45 on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 2:45 on Wednesdays. Please do not enter the traffic line before 3:35 or 2:35, as it can congest the flow of traffic for students who are not in tutoring. If the line is backed up, the teacher will wait with the student past 3:45. The schedule is below:

Spalding/Grammar/Sentence Diagramming-Monday 3:05-3:40-Mrs. Lynch

Math-Tuesday 3:05-3:40-Ms. White

Math-Wednesday 2:05-2:40-Mr. Giammalva

Students get to start doing the morning announcements this week! Students will be chosen on a first come-first serve basis, and will not be able to go a second time until all the students in the class have been able to read the announcements. I must send the student downstairs by 7:42 at the latest, so students must be on time if they wish to participate. The announcement duty will rotate between the three classes by week. After this week, our next week for announcements will be the week of September 12^th.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Bite the hand that feeds you”.

Students will learn about the roots equus, caballus, and hippos on Wednesday. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday, plus a surprise one from a previous week. They should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will read through chapter 3 in “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, working on vocabulary and summarizing every chapter. Please send “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” in with your students this week. 

In Grammar, we will review punctuation rules and review for a short quiz (Friday) on punctuation and capitalization rules.

In week 2, students will continue learning about the scientific method and how to apply it to their own experiments. On Monday, students will be introduced to experimental and control variables and their importance to an experiment. We will go through several “dry runs” of different experiments as a class as we prepare for hands on experiments in the coming weeks. On Friday, students will take a short quiz over what constitutes a good hypothesis and the point of an experimental variable and a control variable. Students should use their notebooks to help them study for this quiz. 

This week in history students will finish their first unit on world lakes. They will have a quiz on Tuesday on the location of the lakes of Eurasia. The Unit 1: World Lakes test will occur on Thursday (students were given a study guide on 8/8). There is a correction: study guides will be due on Tuesday, August 13th. students will have time to work on these in class. On Wednesdays going forward, we will be studying U.S. Geography, this week covering New England. On Friday, we will begin Unit 2: The Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations.

In math, students will continue working on our unit on Whole Numbers, focusing on approximation, estimation, factors, multiples, prime factors, prime factorization, and multiplying by tens, hundreds, and thousands. When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day. We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook assignments are half of every type of problem. We will begin math groups in a few weeks-after we get our feet on the ground.

Updates and announcements

First blog post of the year! I hope everyone had a lovely summer. My cats are sad to see me go to work every day, but I am excited to get the year started.

A routines and expectations packet will go home with your child this week. Please review the contents of the package and send back the signed last sheet with your student. It contains some important information on snacks, birthday treat policy, our homework and grading policy, and our classroom rules. 

If you have not filled out and given me the contact sheet from Meet the Teacher Night, please send that in with your student as soon as possible. Additionally, please be sure to fill out this google form about your child if you have not already.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Birthday Suit”.

Students will learn about the roots canis, feles, and leon on Wednesday. Students will be quizzed over these roots next Wednesday. They should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will review Prince Caspian and begin reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Please send Voyage of the Dawn Treader in with your students this week. 

In Grammar, we will set up their notebooks and review parts of a sentence and rules of capitalization.

This week in science, students will begin their study of the scientific method. We will set up our science notebooks, which students will use throughout the year to take notes in, and discuss the importance of scientists and the nature of scientific inquiry. We will read about Gaileo as a model of what a scientist looks like and practice our discussion skills. Students will also learn what makes a good hypothesis in preparation for the Floating Egg Demonstration on Friday.

This week in history and geography students will be reintroduced to basic world geography (7 continents and 5 oceans) and will begin studying the major lakes of the world. The students will have 3 brief quizzes on world lakes. n.b. These will only assess their ability to identify the location and names of the lakes on a given map. On Wednesday, students will be quizzed on the location and names of major lakes of Africa, on Thursday the major lakes of South America, on Friday the major lakes of North America. On Thursday, students will be given a study guide for their Unit 1: World Lakes test, which will be administered on Thursday, August 15^th.

In math, students will take a 4th grade test for teacher use (no grades given). Students will start our first unit on Whole Numbers on Wednesday. Students will work with standard and expanded form, rounding and estimating. We will begin math groups in a few weeks-after we get our feet on the ground.