Monday, October 31st

During Reading students wrote down this week's vocabulary words and they read silently.  During Science they wrote their Bacteria Everywhere lab observations and took their Term 2 Science Assessment.  After taking the Science Assessment students completed the Civil War Essay re-test and then spent the remainder of the day finishing their projects.


--Homework packets went home today; they are due on Friday.
--The Gallery Walk is on Wednesday, November 2nd - 4-530pm!  Come see your child's project work.

Friday, October 28th

During the morning students took their Math and Reconstruction Social Studies Assessments.  During the afternoon we walked to Adair Park for the DeKalb Heritage Festival.  While there students enjoyed stories about Mary Gay and her actions during the Civil War, Black soldiers and their role in various American wars, and education during Reconstruction.  Additionally they learned how yarn is created from wool with a spinning wheel and they observed how a woman would have cooked using cast iron pots and a hearth fire.

On our way to Adair Park

Thursday, October 27th

Students worked on their projects today during Reading and Math.


Announcements -
-I still need 2-3 parent volunteers to accompany us on tomorrow's field trip.  We will leave the school at 11:30am.  Please email me if you can help out.
-Based on how the students have been pacing themselves I'm extending the project deadline to Monday, October 31st.

Wednesday, October 26th

**Announcement**

I need 2-3 more parents to accompany us on our field trip this Friday.  Please contact me via email if you would like to come with us.

Math - We reviewed for the Term 2 Math Assessment.

Science - Dr. Hammer brought some of his graduate assistants and he discussed beneficial and harmful bacteria.  After the lesson he and his students assisted us with starting bacterial cultures.  Students brought them home and after they grow for a few days they should glow in the dark.

Schedule of Assessments
Friday, October 28th -- Math, Social Studies (Reconstruction)
Monday, October 31st -- Science, Social Studies (essay re-take)

Microbes Rule the World!

Dr. Hammer came to talk to us about microbes.  He also brought his grad students who assisted us with a science experiment.

Tuesday, October 26th

Reading/Writing - Students took notes on Adjectives, Conjunctions, and Prepositions.  After they finished taking notes students continued to work on their projects. 


Social Studies/Math - We played Sharecrop-opoly - a simulation where students can understand the system of sharecropping from an economic and social perspective.  After the simulation we had a short discussion about the differences between sharecropping and slavery (there aren't many) and how debt enslaves people. 


Reminder:  Projects are due this Friday with the exception of the Parts of Speech project which is now due on Monday, October 31st.  

Monday, October 24th

Reading  - During Reading Ms. Bowden taught a lesson on Adverbs.

Math - We continued to work on Baseball Math and when students finished they worked on their projects.

Social Studies - We discussed the essay questions that were included on the first two segments of this term's Social Studies assessments.  Later this week I will give students the opportunity to re-take the essay portions of those tests.

Science - We started a new experiment titled "Bacteria are Everywhere."  Students will be making daily scientific observations for the next week.

Thursday, October 20th

Math -- We continued with Baseball Math since the students need additional practice with long division and dividing decimals.


Math Mania -- Students took their weekly multiplication speed test and many of their results improved.  We then watched a BrainPop quiz and took the accompanying review quiz.  Lastly, students started a work packet of division work.


Reading -- I taught a lesson about verbs.  Students took notes on, and practiced identifying, action, linking, and helping verbs.

How many verbs can you identify in this video?  We came up with over two dozen.

Reminder:  Part 2 of the Social Studies assessment is tomorrow.  

Wednesday, October 19th

During Reading students worked on their projects and during Writing we discussed how to write effective topic sentences.  The results were amazing.  No longer will students be starting their papers  with, "Hi, my name is _____ and I'm going to tell you all about decimals!" or "Okay, let's talk about microorganisms."


During Social Studies we reviewed for this Friday's assessment on Civil War battles and people.  Lastly, during Math Mr. Withers taught long division with decimals using baseball statistics.

We love it when Mr. Wither's comes on Wednesdays.

Recess/Weather Reminder

We have not missed one recess yet this year and we will go outside unless it is raining or snowing heavily.    Please make sure your child has something warm to wear outside for recess.

Tuesday, October 18th

Science - Students reviewed the 3 Domains and 6 Kingdoms and we discussed where microorganisms might be categorized and why.  We then watched BrainPop videos on Bacteria and Protists and students completed the accompanying quizzes.


During Reading & Writing students continued to work on their projects and during Math we talked about and practiced the different methods of dividing decimals. 

Monday, October 17th

Reading:  Ms. Bowden and I gave a lesson on pronouns and students put their Paper Outlines in their ELA notebooks.  While students are working on their papers they are allowed to take their notebooks home as long as they bring it back to school each day.

Math: We practiced multiplying decimals and writing numbers in exponent and expanded form.

Science:  We talked about the next category under Kingdom (Phylum) and we discussed the different types of Vertebrates (phylum: Chordata).  Students also compared/contrasted vertebrates and invertebrates.

Social Studies:  Students worked on their Reconstruction organizers.  They are due on Friday and the information on the organizer will be assessed on Friday, October 28th.


Announcements:
-There's no homework packet this week; however, students have been told to study their Civil War organizers (battles & people).  Students will be VERY busy with their projects and classwork so I thought it was best to forgo the packet.

-I sent home a letter today about the term 2 projects.  I also attached the project details for your review.

-Pictures went home today.  

-Things were very hectic last week so I didn't make blog postings for Thursday and Friday.  However, here are some pictures with our science experiment... the results were revealing...

Wednesday, October 12th

Reading -- Students read silently for 20 minutes, studied their vocabulary words, and finished their Social Studies organizers.

Social Studies --  Students corrected their quizzes and we discussed what will be on Friday's Social Studies assessment.  There are 5 parts to the Social Studies assessment and I'm going to start giving it in parts between now and the end of the term.


BioBus -- Students had the second part of the BioBus lesson.  They were able to view live microscopic organisms and they extracted DNA from peas.  

 

Math - Mr. Withers taught a lesson on multiplying decimals - it was quite enlightening.


Homework is due on Friday.

Tuesday, October 11th

Reading -- I finished reading John Brown and students completed their Reader's Responses.  Then I taught a short lesson about Proper and Common nouns and students analyzed whether certain words were Common Nouns, Proper Nouns, neither or a noun and something else (like the word "run").  After that students read silently.


Science - We had a video review on classification and plant parts.  We also watched a video on invertebrates and vertebrates.  Students took and shared notes on each video.  Students also recorded the observations for the lab they set up on Monday. 


Math - Students finished up the High Roller math activity and got to work on math games on the iPads.  Most students worked on multiplication facts while others worked on fractions.


Writing / Social Studies - Students continued to work on their Social Studies organizers and we went over this week's vocabulary words.  


Reminder:  Homework is due on Friday.

Monday, October 10

Reading - Students listened while I read John Brown:  His fight for freedom, by John Hendrix.  While I read students filled out a reader's response form where they had to identify the topic sentence and supporting details of selected paragraphs.

Writing/Social Studies - Students continued to work on their Civil War Battle & People organizers.  Students who finished both of those worked on their weekly reading questions.

Science - We corrected last week's Science homework and discussed Vascular/Non-Vascular plants.  After students took notes about vascular and non-vascular plants they started a lab using romaine lettuce, blue-colored control water, and green-colored variable water (it also contained liquid Miracle-Gro).  Students will be making daily observations about the changes (if any).

Math -- We discussed place value and decimal/fraction equivalents.  Then students did an activity called "High Roller."

Homework went home today and it is due on FRIDAY.  The packet contains more work so I want students to have enough time to complete everything and study their words.

Friday, October 7th

Social Studies / Writing -- Students worked on their battle and important people worksheets.


Science -- The BioBus was here and students participated in the first part of a special science activity.


Reading -- Students had their weekly library visit and took a vocabulary quiz.


Announcements -- The math quizzes from last Friday have been graded and recorded.  Your child will bring it home this weekend for you to review, sign, and send back.  As a reminder, this was a formative quiz and it does not count towards your child's grade.  I will continue to go over the standards students are required to learn and I fully expect that all students will progress towards meeting the standard (if they are not already there yet).

desperate plea....

We really need tissues... we're down to using paper towels and it's not a pleasant experience.  Oh, and we need more hand sanitizer too... 

Thursday, October 6th

Math -- We worked with base-ten blocks and graph paper to multiply and divide decimals.  


Math Mania -- We worked with Divisibility Rules (2,3 & 4) and took a multiplication speed test.


Reading -- Students read silently and received a short tutorial on this week's vocabulary words.  After that, we finished Jake & Minn.


Homework -- Study vocabulary - the quiz will be tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 5th

Reading - Students read silently and returned library books.

Social Studies - Students used their textbooks to find information to complete their Civil War battle organizers.  They also colored a map that showed the Union, Border, and Confederate states in addition to important battle locations.

Math - Mr. Withers taught a lesson about how to divide decimals using base-ten block arrays.  

Homework -- Homework is due tomorrow.  If you have not reviewed and/or signed the paperwork in your child's red communication folder please do so as soon as possible.

Announcements
--We desperately need facial tissues; many of us are quite sniffily.  
--Please return the field trip permission slip.

Tuesday, October 4th

Reading - Students finished up their "Nonfiction Feature Find" activity with Mrs. Bowden.

Science - During Science students reviewed plant parts.  They arranged certain items on paper plates and labeled the parts and their functions.  I brought in spinach to represent leaves (it wasn't in the best condition), carrots to represent roots, grapes to represent fruit, and popcorn colonels to represent seeds.  I forgot the lettuce at home so students drew their own stems and flowers.

Writing - I taught a brief lesson on writing topic sentences.  We discussed the things effective sentences should have (proper spelling/grammar, first letter of the first word capitalized, and focused details).

Math - During Math Mrs. Dennis gave students an introduction to the new iPads.  After the tutorial on how to use them properly students played multiplication math games.

A note about homework.... I attempted to do an impromptu vocabulary check at the end of the day and was slightly dismayed that none of my students knew the words.  Vocabulary should be studied every night.  The words are challenging; however, if a student does at least 10 minutes of vocab work every night they should do well on the vocabulary quiz. 

Monday, October 3rd

Reading -- Students wrote down their weekly vocabulary words (the words are listed in the previous post) and they read silently.


Science - Students reviewed the parts of a plant cell and received an introduction on the parts of a plant.  We concluded science by watching a BrainPop video on how plants grow and students took a short quiz related to the video.


Social Studies -- Students worked in their textbooks to answer questions about the start of the Civil War.


Writing -- Students worked on their weekly reading questions.  I also distributed a worksheet titled "The 100 most commonly misspelled words."  


Math -- Students worked with their 10x10 workmats and in groups with base-ten blocks.  They are learning how to multiply decimals using grids and making connections with the information they learned about fractions and percents last term.


Homework -- Packets and vocabulary worksheets went home today (both are due on Thursday).  Students should work on vocabulary every day this week.  They have sentences to write, words to sort, and they should practice re-writing the words so they can get used to spelling them correctly.  Learning root words is challenging; however, the long-term benefits are invaluable.

This Week's Vocabulary Words

Root Word - scrib, script = write

Describe (v)

Inscription (n)

Manuscript (n)

Postscript (n)

Prescription (n)

Scribble (n) (v)

Scribe (n)

Script (n)

Subscription (n)

Transcribe (v)

Friday, September 30th

Students took vocabulary, science, math, and social studies quizzes today.  We had our weekly library visit and students took their individual pictures outside.  At the end of the day students went to their explorations.