Important meeting announcement

A parent meeting on Standards Based Reporting will be held on October 6, 2011 from 6:00-7:00 pm in the cafeteria.

Thursday, September 29th

Math -- Students corrected their Term 2 pre-test and their homework.  


Math Mania -- My group of students worked with writing whole numbers in standard and word form and rounding decimals to the tenth and hundredth place.  


Reading -- Ms. Bowden worked with a small group of students while I worked with a small group of students on their vocabulary and other students read silently.


Homework -- Study vocabulary words, the 3 domains and 6 kingdoms, and the causes of the U.S. Civil War.  


Tomorrow is picture day!

Wednesday, September 28th

Reading - students read silently and returned library books.

Social Studies - Students took notes on the causes of the Civil War and reviewed for Friday's quiz

Math - Mr. Wither's taught a lesson and lead an activity on multiplying and dividing decimals

Announcements - Friday is picture day.  The Social Studies, Math, Vocabulary and Science quizzes are on Friday.  Homework is due tomorrow (Thursday).

Vocabulary Words (students received the words on Monday - they must know the spelling and meaning)
Root Word:  A/An -- Not, Without
Achromatic, Anarchy, Anonymous, Apathetic, 
Abyss, Anemia, Atypical, Anesthesia, Asymmetrical, Amoral 

Tuesday, September 27th

We spent the majority of the day at the Atlanta History Museum learning about military and civilian life of certain individuals during the Civil War.  After the field trip students had Spanish and Math.  During math students continued to work with decimals, rounding, and place values.


Homework -- Study for the social studies, math, and science quizzes.  The homework packet and vocabulary sentences are both due on Thursday.

Monday, September 26th

Reading -- Mrs. Bowden taught a lesson on identifying the elements of a non-fiction text.


Science -- Students reviewed the characteristics of living things and learned about the 3 Domains and 6 Kingdoms.


Social Studies -- Students watched short videos and completed short answer worksheets on Slavery and the Underground Railroad.


Math -- Students worked with rounding and comparing the values of decimals.


Homework - Homework packets went home today and they are due on Thursday.  Students received their vocabulary words - they should study the spelling and definition of each word.  Additionally, students filled out a science study sheet on the 3 Domains and 6 Kingdoms.  They should study that each night as well.


Announcements - The red communication folders were EXTREMELY full. Please go through everything.  Students' progress reports and MAP scores went home in the folders as well.

Parent/Teacher Conference Times

This week I had several parents drop in unannounced for conferences.  Since I never expressed any guidelines about drop-ins I will clarify things now.


I will not meet with a parent unless he/she has a scheduled and confirmed conference.  If you are in the building and want to pop in to say hello that is perfectly fine.  However, as a teacher, there is no "free time" in my day.  I have worked in a number of other professions and teaching, by far, is the most time-consuming and the one that requires the most preparation.


When a parent stops by unannounced and expects to talk I am not prepared to discuss their concerns and I am distracted from doing what I need to do for ALL of my students.  


The revised conference times are listed on the sidebar.  If you would like a conference time, please email me.  Thank you.

Friday, September 23rd

Social Studies - Students watched short videos and completed two worksheets about Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.


Math - Students continued to work on decimals, place values and intervals.  After discussing how to calculate intervals in a set of data students worked (either individually or with assistance from me) on problems from the math book.  After the LINKS students returned students took a quiz on place values and decimals.


Reading - Library day


Science - Students took a quiz on living things.


Explorations - Students went to their exploration.  I am teaching yoga for mine.  It was an enjoyable and relaxing end to a hectic week.


Announcements
--Students received their graded classwork and assessments and filed them in their binders.  
--Grades and MAP scores (along with handouts to explain how to interpret grades and MAP scores) will be going home Monday in the red communication folders.
--If you have

• read over the explanation handouts
• looked over your child's work, and 
• talked to your child about why he/she earned the grade they did,

and you still have questions or concerns about your child's grades please email me. If necessary, we can schedule a discussion time. 

Thursday, September 22nd

Dr. Root, our school counselor, talked to students today about bullying.  During Math Mania students continued to work with rounding and they worked with place values on IXL.com.  During Reading students read silently.

Wednesday, September 21st

Reading - Students read silently.


Social Studies -  Students completed their Union/Confederate/Border States map and they worked on a competitive group activity where they matched personal bios with unlabeled pictures.  Some of the notable historical figures included Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, Harriet Tubman, and Jefferson Davis.

Math - Students finished their term 2 pre-test.  Students practiced writing numbers in the appropriate place value in words and standard form (Ex:  Four thousand, seven hundred sixteen and fifty nine thousandths // 4,716.059).  Lastly, students received their workbooks.  Students who consistently perform at a level 4 worked individually while other students were split up to work with me and Mr. Withers (one of the Title I Math teachers) on the same worksheet.


Announcements
--Homework is due tomorrow.
--Sign and return the Atlanta History Center field trip permission form ASAP.

Tuesday, September 20th

Writing - We discussed how to be descriptive writers.  Students watched a BrainPop video on how to strengthen their sentences and students also received a handout on descriptive words.  Additionally, students practiced changing short, boring and non-descriptive sentences into more dynamic sentences.  Students who are at (or approaching) a level 4 for writing (exceeds standards) had the option to edit a paragraph about John Brown.


Science - Students reviewed the information they learned yesterday about the characteristics of living things and we watched a short introductory video on the history of classification.  Students took notes on the 6 different classifications under kingdom (animal, plant, fungus, protist, bacteria, and archea).


Reading - We discussed some tips about how to be good readers and afterwards students read silently.


Math Mania - My group worked on rounding numbers to the nearest one, ten, hundred, and thousand.  My group includes about 10 students from my class and 10 from Ms. Reeves class.


Math - Students took the Unit 2 pre-test


Homework - The strengthening sentences worksheet is due with the other homework on Thursday.

Abolitionist. Insurrectionist. Terrorist. Martyr. Revolutionary.
...John Brown...

Monday, September 19th

Science -- Students took notes and worked on a group activity where they sorted various objects and tried to categorize whether they were living or non-living.  Some items, including a coffee filter, book, and salt were all a little tricky but students were able to figure out if they were living or non-living based on the criteria.

Math -- Students discussed and completed classwork relating to decimals and their place in a base-ten system.

Reading -- Students read and had the opportunity to return library books.

Social Studies -- Students watched two BrainPop videos, one on War and the other on the causes of the Civil War.  They worked on a KWL worksheet (K=Know, W=Want to know, L=Learned) before, during and after the Civil War video.  

Homework -- Students received a homework packet and it is due on Thursday.  Students who took home their weekly reading folders need to return them on Tuesday.

I hope everyone is having a great fall break.  I have been busy grading work, shuttling my children to their various activities, meeting parents, rearranging the classroom, planning for term 2, and today, I'm attending an ActivBoard training.  See you on Monday!

Friday, September 9th

Students completed their summative Response to Literature assessments.  They also turned in their Term 1 Social Studies assessments.  During Reading students took their Sentence Type Assessment and during Science students completed their Cell Parts assessment.


During Explorations students were able to listen to the Term 2 explorations choices and they chose which one they wanted to do.  I will be teaching the Yoga exploration and I'm looking forward to teaching and practicing the basics of this ancient form of spiritual exercise.  


Homework:  Have a great fall break; please contact me if you would like to meet next Wednesday.  

Thursday, September 8th

Math - We got a head start on Term 2 Math.   Students learned the source of the base-ten number system and they worked on decimal problems.

Math Mania - Students completed multiplication math problems and we played Around the World (a competitive multiplication math game).

Reading/Writing - I finished going over the summative Social Studies assessment and students continued to work on their summative writing assessments.

Homework

-Study sentence types -- homework is due and the summative assessment will be given on Friday.

-Study cell organelles -- the summative cell parts assessment is Friday.

-Keep working on the Response to Literature -- students will have an hour to finish their final draft in class on Friday.

Wednesday, September 7th

Reading - Students had the option of reading silently, working on their writing assessment, or listening to me read A Tale Dark & Grimm.


Writing - Students paired up and did peer reviews of their Response to Literature assessments.  They have tomorrow and Friday to complete their papers.


Social Studies - I distributed the term 1 Social Studies assessment.  I will go over the instructions in detail on Thursday and students will have class time and time at home to finish the assessment.


Math - Students took the term 1 math assessment.


Homework/Announcements
-Study for the science and sentence type assessments
-Please sign and send in the forms that were sent home yesterday
-Thank you to the parents who made donations for the class IXL membership

Fall Football

Tuesday, September 6th

Writing - Students worked on their Response to Literature assessment


Science - Students compared animal and plant cell organelles.  They will have an assessment on plant and animal organelles on Friday.  


Social Studies - Students watched a BrainPop video on supply and demand and answered basic questions about economics.


Homework
-Math classwork (due Wednesday)
-Signed behavior/expectations paper (due Wednesday)
-Sentence type worksheet (due Friday)
-Study the venn diagram of animal and plant cell parts

Friday, September 2nd

Today... in pictures...

 Dan Gidwitz, author of A Tale Dark & Grimm, came to visit the 5th graders.  He took student questions (he answered our questions first!) and told two colorful & gruesome stories.  We all got to meet him after the story-telling and students who ordered their signed books will receive them on Tuesday.

 Sassy helps us clean up before the weekend.

Students working... during Science they labeled animal and plant cell parts while I called small groups over to view cells in the microscopes.  During Writing students continued to work on their Response to Literature summative assessment.

Homework - Students who did not finish labeling their plant/animal cell parts need to complete it as homework this weekend.  They should have the two worksheets and the front and back copy of the textbook pages we used to identify the cell parts.

Thursday, September 1st

Math -- Students made double and triple bar graphs from the outdoor data they collected last week.  Students will be able to finish their graphs tomorrow.

Math Mania -- Students worked with data, charts, and graphs on IXL. 

Reading -- After a mini-lesson about the story elements of setting, characterization, and conflict in plot, students took notes while I read from A Tale Dark & Grimm.

Announcements

-Email me if you would like to meet during the fall break.  I'll be meeting parents at the downtown Decatur Starbucks on Wednesday, September 14th, 12pm-7pm.  I will send home a paper newsletter on Tuesday as a reminder.

Fall Break Conference Times

I will meet with parents and students at the Starbucks in Decatur Square on Wednesday, September 14th between the times of 12pm and 7pm.  Please make a comment or email me with your top two preferred times.  


Thanks!