5th Grade Rocks
Happy New Year
Thank You
Thank you so much for the wonderful holiday presents. I am so grateful for this class, and appreciate your gratitude. Know that I love your kiddos to death, and I'm always working to better myself and make 5th grade a fabulous year.
Literacy
We have finished our Human Rights unit and are on to rain forests. This unit concentrates on understanding different types of nonfiction text, summarizing, text features, fluency, and determining unknown vocabulary. The students are so excited about this unit. This unit ends with students writing a field journal like a scientists. I am hoping to see a little more writing in this unit.
Sebastian's explanatory paragraph about the rainforest gallery walk we did! Amazing! Don't worry parents...I can't even write this well, but so cool to witness.
Writing
Writing is definite an area of weakness in all of 5th grade. I sent home a writing assignment today that is due on Friday. Students can either do it in one night or spread it out for the whole week, but the the final paragraph is due on Friday. They can either handwrite it on the packet in their best handwriting or type it on GoogleClassroom. There is some writing within the rainforest unit too. I had to hold some students in for recess today for not doing their best work. If you see a 2 on any writing assignment, most likely your child was held in during recess to rework or rewrite their essay. The key to writing is to write a lot and try your best, so that is what we are working on to help students be proficient 5th grade writers.
Vocabulary
A reminder about vocabulary...students need to do one activity a night and they will have some time during the day as well. I also told students to study at least 3-4 words a day (all meanings) to get ready for the test on Friday. Notecards are a great way to practice and remember multiple meanings. They could use StudyBlue if it is working properly or just do 4 column vocabulary which is word, synonym, definition, and picture. Notecards are my favorite strategy though.
PARCC
PARCC results are out and located on your Parent Portal. I have gone over these results individually with students, and we've come up with some goals. Scores were higher than we expected although there are always some surprises. I think having 1:1 computers this year will definitely help a little bit, and we're beginning to work on on-demand writing using their computers which will also help.
Super Citizen...Sadie
Oliver is Super Citizen
Luke, Tanner, and 2nd Grade Buddies make a paper tower.
Book Club
Thank you to Avery Hicks for hosting December book club. This month's book club is hosted by Campbell O'Neal on Thursday, January 28th from 6:00-7:00 pm. The book is called Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. There were not many kiddos able to go in my AM class, so I also invited the PM class. Great book choice Campbell. We'll have lots to talk about.
MISC
I'm sure that I'm forgetting something at this late hour after watching Clemson lose to Alabama, but you can always email or call, check the Shutterfly site, or your child's GoogleClassroom for more information. Happy New Year!