We are off to great start this week.  Check out what is happening in 5C!

In reading, we are beginning to discuss character motives.  Character motives are discovered through a character’s traits, thoughts, and actions.  We will be looking into a variety of different texts and characters in order to focus in on this skill.  These texts include a story from our Harcourt series, Chang and the Bamboo Flute , our class’s read aloud Maniac Magee, and our independent reading books.

In Language Arts, we will be publishing our “I Am” poems and posting them to our blogs soon.  We are continuing to learn about different types of sentences focusing on exclamatory and imperative sentences.  We will also be writing an entry in our Writer’s Notebook and sharing that with our classmates, too.

In math, we are transitioning from our conversations about factors and multiples into different multiplication strategies.  We will be discussing clustering, the standard distributive property, arrays, and the US algorithm which are all different ways to solve multi- digit multiplication problems.

We are wrapping up our study on economic and political systems in Social Studies.  Students will be presenting their power points to the class on Tuesday and teaching us all about their specific system.

We will be beginning Science this week, too.  For the next three weeks our focus will be the Scientific Method.

MAP testing is this week and next week.  Our class will be taking the Reading MAP test this Friday, September 16th at 9:30 and the Math MAP next Friday, September 23.

That is all for now!  Check back next week to see what is happening in 5C!

Greetings!  We have a four day week and are busy, busy, busy!  Check out what is happening in 5C!

It is a vocabulary week this week.  Students have 16 vocabulary words that target the affixes, -e,-ex and – in.  Students will work to sort these words and incorporate them into their vocabulary in order to prepare for Friday’s assessment.

We will also be taking our first Reading benchmark of the year.  This is used as one of the tools to assess student reading levels so that we can target instruction.  I will also be reading with each student individually and assessing their reading level as another indicator of both independent and instructional reading levels.

In Social Studies, we are talking about producers, consumers, and services.  This will lead into a discussion about different economic and political systems around the world which will be a great lead into our Social Studies curriculum this year.  Students will be divided into groups and learning a system and will be responsible for teaching the class about their system.

Other news in 5th grade, this Thursday evening from 6-7 is Tech Night.  5th grade parents are invited to come in and get a tutorial on their child’s lap top so they can begin to familiarize themselves with some of the on goings of the 5th grade lap top program.  If you are planning on attending, please RSVP to an email that will be sent out so that we can keep track of who is coming.

Also, this Thursday is the first Breakfast with Books!  We will be discussing, “There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom” this Thursday morning beginning at 7:30 in Ms. Tramontin’s room.  Students and parents are invited to bring their breakfast, their books, and their thoughts in order to have a discussion around this book.  It is a great way to get involved with your child’s reading and the discussions are always excellent!

That is all for now!  Check back next week to see what is happening in 5C!

Happy first full week of school!

We have a week full of learning and getting to know classroom routines, rules, procedures, as well as delving right into our curriculum!.  We will be very busy!

In Reading, we are working on building independent reading stamina.  We are also reading our first story from the Harcourt series, Storytown.  The story is “Rope Burn” and I will be assessing student’s basic comprehension within texts.  We will also be reading individually with each student and assessing their reading levels.  This will help us guide instruction and gear lessons toward the specific needs of our class.

We will also be beginning working in our Writer’s Notebooks this week.  The students each have a writer’s notebook that they will use throughout the entire school year as a place to write about anything and everything that they want.  Some of these writing pieces will be formal and others will be informal.  It is a great outlet for the kids to get their gears turning and explore different topics to write about.

Students are also working on their first published piece of writing this year which is their “I am” poem.  This is a way for me to get to know the students as they tell me about themselves in this poem.  They will be publishing their poems on their blogs so stay tuned for that!

We have already finished our first read aloud, “Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days” by Stephen Manes.  There were lessons to be learned in this story and it was a great book to start a the year with a class discussion on the idea of being or not being perfect.  Our next read aloud is one of my all time favorites, “Maniac Magee”.  I can’t wait to bring that to class!

In Math, we are starting a unit on Multiplication and Division strategies.  Students will be exploring different methods and strategies to solve a variety of number puzzles and problems.

That is all for now!  Check back next week to see what is happening in 5C!

Greetings!

Welcome back to school.  We are so excited to being a new school year with all of you.  It is sure to be a year of learning and growing.  5th grade is a special year.  You are the oldest students in the school and get to be role models and leaders for all the other students at Avoca West.

Check here on Mondays for weekly updates about “What’s Happening in 5C?”

We look forward to a fabulous year!

Here is the link to the 5th grade farewell photo montage.  Enjoy!

Click here!

Greetings!  Now that Science Fair is over, we are switching gears into our last Social Studies unit on the Great Migration.

In Reading, we have begun a novel, “Color Me Dark; The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North”. It is a historical fiction novel that tells a family’s story of their journey north in 1919.  For this novel, we have divided the class into literature circle groups and will be discussing different aspects of the novel through different literature circle jobs.

Students will also be studying folk art that represents this time period.  Mrs. Fulks is having the students bring in a picture of an important figure or role model in their lives.  She is then coming in and teaching the students about folk art and working on a folk art portrait project with these pictures.  I am very excited about this activity.

In Social Studies, we will be concentrating on learning the different aspects of the Great Migration.  Once we have a foundation of this migration movement, students will then be working on taking a different perspective of this time period and writing a persuasive essay from their different perspective.  More details to come on this.

Be sure to check out the students blogs with their Science Fair projects.  I am sure you will be impressed!

Two words… SCIENCE FAIR!

Our classroom is in full Science Fair mode.  We are editing, revising, cutting, pasting, making graphs, putting together our display boards, and writing our speeches for the big day.  The students are very excited to present their findings on Thursday.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Also, novel groups are ending this week.  Assessments will be on Wednesday.

That is all for now.  Have a good week!

Here is what is happening in our classroom this week-

In reading, we are continuing are novel studies.  Students are doing a wonderful job discussing their books, discussing the development of characters, and building their vocabulary.  I love hearing the conversations and watching students build their reading comprehension skills.

The 5th grade Science Fair is next week!  Students are busy, busy, busy working on completing their projects, getting materials ready for their display boards, and writing their conclusions.  The big event is next Thursday, May 12.

Art in Action is Tuesday!  Students have the extraordinary opportunity to explore different types of art and work with different volunteers to explore their creativity.  This is always highlight to the year.

That is all for now!  Check back next week to see what is happening in 5C!

Greetings!  I hope everyone enjoyed their 3 day weekend… Now it’s back to work!

Novel groups have started.  All of the 5th graders are separated into groups and working with one of the 5th grade teachers on various novels.  The novels that we are reading are How to Eat Fried Worms, Because of Winn Dixie, Tuck Everlasting, Each Little Bird that Sings, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Black Duck. We are focusing on vocabulary, character development, and inferencing in our groups.

Also, we are continuing our Opium War studies.  Students are grouped up take either the British perspective or the Chinese perspective on various aspects of the Opium War.  Students will be voicing their perspectives in VoiceThread.

The test on the Opium War is this Friday, April 29.  Students should be studying their vocabulary and Opium War packets that were distributed in class.

Students should also be continuing to work on their Science Fair project.  The Science Fair is Thursday, May 12.

That is all for now!  Check back next week for the happenings in 5C!

Happy Spring!  Here is what is happening in our classroom this week:

We just wrapped up our poetry unit and I am VERY impressed with all of the students.  They are truly poets and that was evident in our Poetry Slam on Friday.  Students recited a poem of their own, an author’s poem of their choice, and a poem they wrote with a peer.  They did a remarkable job and the Poetry Slam was quite a class accomplishment. The students are currently working on posting some of these poems to their student blogs.  Be sure to check them out.

This week in reading, we will be working on Reader’s Theater plays.  Students will be divided into three groups and work with Mrs. LePine, Mr. Paynter or myself on these plays.  Performances will be on Friday.

In Social Studies, we are studying China’s Opium War.  Students are illustrating a story book of the Opium War. They will be taking these illustrations and putting them on a Voicethread for other students to comment on.  Stay tuned for details on that project.

This week, I will be conferencing with each student on their science fair experiment.  As soon as students have gotten my stamp of approval, they may begin their experiment and begin collecting data.  Reminder, the 5th grade Science Fair is on Thursday, May 12 at 6:30 in the south gym.

Spring MAP testing is here!  On Friday, April 15, our class will be taking the Reading MAP test at 9:30.  Next week, students will be taking the Math MAP test on Tuesday, April 19 at 9:30.  I am excited to see the students’ growth and progress.