A couple days of learning

Hi everyone!
Well, I missed you all. For the last two days, I was at a class with Mrs. Eaton on how to be an even better teacher. We learned some new strategies and activities to use during our Literacy Block. We can't wait to show them to you. THe exciting thing was that some of the things the instructors were sharing with the whole group were things we are already doing with you. I hope you all had a good 2 days without me and I am looking forward to seeing how many letters you earned in GAME DAY. Feel free to email me this weekend to let me know how things went while I was gone and what you have planned for the long weekend (christi_grezlik@ipsd.org).

Here is what you should be working on this weekend:
Spelling list 8 was hopefully handed out yesterday-Pretest will be on Tuesday.
(we have a short week next week so only 2 activities will be due next Friday)
Culture Dolls - these are due on Wednesday so we can put them up for Open House (Thursday - 6:30 - 8:00p.m. BOOK FAIR TOO!)
Do you have any kid friendly magazines at home that we could have? They would be cut up, so don't send any if you want them back!! We will use them to add to another project we are working on. Thank you!

See you Tuesday! Remember - no school Monday for Columbus Day and early dismissal (12:00) on Wednesday for Staff Inservice.

Where's 5G?

Today, we began our geography study. This is something we will be studying and reviewing for the rest of the year. We are starting off with basic information:
What city, state, and country do you live in?
What countries are north and south of the U.S.?
WHat are the 7 continents? The 4 oceans?
What are lines of latitude? longitude?
What is a hemisphere? What is the equator?

We have started reading the beginning geography lesson in the Social Studies book. Students are responsible for the questions above and the information on pages G4 -
G11. in the book. Please help them with this information. We will study it in class, but the book will come home for additional study. I will lookonline for sites that can help with this study aswell.

5th grade had the math test passed out today. Before I handed it out, I had the students write a reflection on how they feel they did and how prepared they were. After looking over the test, they wrote how they felt about their performance. Please go over the test with your child. Thank you for any support you give at home on these skills. Today we talked about problem solving strategies and writing about math. Math boxes were assigned and they are due Friday.

Remember that the following are also assigned:
Spelling - 3 activities due Friday
Fluency - bring signed on Friday (should have been read multiple times - both sides)
Culture Doll (see halfsheet that came home on Tuesday)

Remember - NO SCHOOL on Monday!

Homework

Here is our work from today:

Spelling and Fluency (see post from yesterday)
Math boxes from unit 2 - only do boxes from what we have studied in unit 2
Interested in Student Council? Permission slips due tomorrow
Cultural Dolls due next Wed., Oct. 14 (see half slip in the home folder

TOMORROW is walk to school day!!

Going Back in History

TOday we started talking about our new story, Dear Mrs. Parks, a story about Rosa Parks. We built some background on this woman and her story by watching a re-enactment of an interview with her and looking at some realia from this time in history. We saw a picture of the real bus Rosa Parks rode on and watched a short video from the Discovery Channel about what really happened that day she was arrested. We talked as a class about the laws in our country and why we are asked to follow them. We did a "value line" activity where we demonstrated how we feel about following the laws. It was a great activity and the students were very engaged in the lesson. This could be a great discussion to continue at home.

The 5th grade is taking the OLSAT test today. It is a test that is given in 2nd and 5th grade. It will be taken during our literacy time.

Our homework for this week is:
FLUENCY - STudents are to read this nightly, it will take just a couple minutes to read. Part of the fluency homework is to look at the back at the tips for reading and look at the questions so they know what to do on the day we do the questions. Some kids are obviously reading this one time only and not even looking at the back where the actual lesson is that would help them answer the questions correctly. Yesterday, we completed the page about Bill Cosby. The tip side gave information about how to use specific text features to help understand words. Please look for this to come home, graded, and talk to your child about how to do better on these assignments. Fluency is what we are building, but I want them to be able to answer the questions as well. THank you for your support in this..

Spelling - Unit 7 list3 activities - due Friday - please remind your child to look at the list words every day.

Math - 5th grade will have math boxes assigned today and will have time to work on them in class. These are graded, so please have your child use their SRB to help.

6th grade Math had 2.8 due today.

DOn't forget to look at the events over in the right hand margin! TOday is Homework CLub after school.

Weekend things

We have finished up our studies of Yang the Third and her Impossible Family. The students have been issued a new challenge (optional) for our next story. It should be in their home folder. The questions from it are written below. They must be written, not just told:

Why are laws important? What is the reason for laws?
Is it ever okay to break laws? If so, for what reason? Be specific and detailed.
What should people do if a particular law is unfair?

Due by Tuesday.

Other work includes:
5th grade math - study guide problems (Unit 2)1-12 (use your SRB if you do not understand partial sums) PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THIS STUDY GUIDE PACKET AND DON"T RIP IT APART.

I forgot to hand out the spelling list for Monday. Here are the words:
Unit 7
charged
spied
moving
trying
practicing
injured
carrying
tasted
receiving
becoming
lying
dying
realized
provided
fried
created
tallied
carried
revising
wearing

Finally, we are going to be creating "Culture Dolls" this week. Ask your child what this means. A note will come home on Monday.

Thank you!

TODAY

Homework:
All from yesterday (see yesterday's blog)

DId you bring you artifacts for writing?

Math - 5th grade - create 5 numbers with 10 digits (only repeat digits one time)
continue to practice multiplication (traditional with two digits, add
some decimals, work on estimating) TEST ON TUESDAY NEXT WEEK!
6th - 2.5 link