December 22, 2016

We have had an awesome week planning our school on MARS. Take a look at our final products:

5C News              

December 16

We are learning about:

• Three ways to utilize a remainder: ignore, report as a fraction, round up
• Dividing with zeros
• two digit divisors
• Language used in different text structures to help identify the text structure being read
• Taking notes from complex text and recording on computer documents
• Researching Roanoke, Jamestown and Plimoth
• Discerning implicit main ideas
• How morphology can help with specialized vocabulary

Some activities we did:

• Began a 5th grade MARs project where we research and design a school on Mars
• Got our scooter licences
• Read about animal defenses and found text structure of each chapter
• Worked on our Movie Math project

Notes and Reminders:

• MARS project 12/21 1:30
• Vacation 12/26-1/3

Dear Families,

The fifth grade has taken on the challenge to build a school on Mars. We are sharing out with the school next Wednesday at 1:30. Today we discovered a miscommunication on our team about inviting parents. So, I am sorry this is so late; please come and join us to view the MARS schools with the rest of SMS on Wednesday at 1:30.

Time Flies by in 5C. We have been very busy reading, writing, solving problems, learning and creating. Take a peek:

Words

• completed all the syllable principals
• looking at prefixes and suffixes to encode words

Multiplication

• estimating
• using estimates to find reasonable answers in multiplication
• multiplying multi-digit numbers
• multiplying by decimals
• learning to read, solve and explain word problems with multiplication

Science

• Why does the sun rise and set?
• Who set the first clocks?
• Why do stars change with the seasons?

History

• 5 themes of geography
• What was happening in Europe, Africa and the Americas prior to 1490's
• How the three continents engaged with each other
• The Columbian Exchange and the impact it had/has on Europe, Africa and the Americas

Reading

• Finished Pax and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
• defined theme
• learned how to develop new ideas from multiple plots
• took quality notes to generate new ideas, explore and develop themes
• expanded these ideas in writing supported with evidence from the text
• participated in two book groups

Writing

• wrote two personal narratives
• wrote 1 fiction story
• developed ideas using
• snapshots
• thoughtshots
• flashbacks
• shrinking time
• exploding the moment
• dialogue
• figurative language
• worked on the conventions of
• paragraphing
• commas
• using quotations in dialogue

Other

• innovation day
• First Festive Friday

October 24th

We have been so busy! We:

• learned the continents and oceans
• continue measuring our shadows
• are creating experiments about the rotation of the Earth and sun
• learned two principals of syllables
• are adding, subtracting, comparing and ordering decimals
• explored the powers of 10
• worked on problem solving skills in math
• followed ideas and tracked them with evidence through our reading
• supported our ideas from reading in writing
• reviewed the elements of a story
• developed a story idea using story elements
• are working on personal narratives showing growth mindset
• have been reading Pax  and noting similarities to The Honest Truth
• had a great day at Stratham Hill Park building community and our mindsets (the best building of a shelter ever!)

Here are some picture of developing our ideas with evidence:

See you at conferences.

September 29th

It has been a whirlwind here in 5C. So what have we been up to?

Setting Learning Goals in Thinking, Listening, Speaking and Behaving
Some examples:

• Push your thinking deeper
• think clearly with a growth mindset
• listen attentively and take time to process what is being said
• choose words that make sense
• think of others' feelings
• don't goof off in class

Math

• reviewed all the multiples 2-9 up to the 10th multiple
• learned to write numbers in standard, expanded and word form
• worked with place value from the millions to the thousandths
• worked on rounding from the millions to the thousandths

Science

• working on the idea that shadows get longer as the days grow shorter
• designing an experiment to test our theories

Language Arts

• reviewing blends and consonants that go together to make new sounds (Ch, Th...)
• finished reading The Honest Truth
• hash-tagging at the end of every chapter to synthesize the importance points
• finding evidence of growth mindsets in the characters from the books we're reading
• assessing beginning of the year reading skills
• assessing beginning of the year writing skills
• learning the reading and writing workshop format

Other

• Resilience- bouncing back and recovering from setbacks
• empathy- put oneself in another's heart/shoes
• Dot Day- celebrating our mark in the world

September 9, 2016

     It was nice to see so many of you last night at Open House! Green Folders are going home today. Please read the note on the left hand side, take papers out and send it back on Monday. 

     We have completed eight days. So what have we been up to?

Math

• multiples of 2, 5, 3

Science/Community Building

• Save Fred
• Card Towers
• Float your Boat
• Popsicle Stick Bridges
• Army Man Launch

LA/Mindset

• Optimism- putting aside fear and resistance to learn something new- We read Going Places, Thundercakes
• Flexibility- trying different ways to find a solution- We read The Most Magnificent Thing, Courage, Mr. Lincoln's Way
• Persistence- keeping at it even when the task is hard- We read If You Want To See A Whale, My Rotten Readheaded Older Brother

Other: We are/have

•  working on our Learning Agreement
• focusing on our goal: How does talk help us understand better?
• learning the classroom expectations
• discovering our classmates interests and how to work together
• signed a Chromebook use agreement
• reviewing cursive letters
•  begun our digital portfolios
• Artifact share with the whole fifth grade

Army Man Launch

August 3, 2016

Welcome to a new year in 5C. I am so excited to get to meet my new class and have some fun on August 29th. If you are a student looking to take the survey click here: student survey.