Summer Math Enrichment

Dear parents,

this post relates to families of students in my 5th grade math class.

The amazing math program that we have started using this year, Think Through Math, has been a helpful support for students. Each student has personalized lessons and practice using the online learning system, and it’s highly engaging for them as they receive points and often have the chance to play games as they progress through lessons.

This summer, ACPS is asking that students continue their math learning on Think Through Math, and has partnered with the public libraries and other organizations to provide outlets for students to access TTM if they do not have Internet access on a computer at home.

Please let me know if you would like me to send you your child’s login information for Think Through Math! 

In an effort to encourage students to continue to strengthen their math skills and prepare to be a top thinker in the fall, all students will be enrolled in the Think Through Math Summer Math Splash Student Think Challenge.

All students who work on Think Through Math between June 13th and August 4th will have the opportunity to win, see below for prizes.

From the TTM Website: 

Weekly Beat the Heat Challenge
Each week, students that pass at least 3 math lessons will be entered into a random drawing for an Amazon.com e-gift card valued at $25.

All you need to do is complete and PASS at least 3 math lessons during the week (Monday through Thursday) and you will be eligible for the Weekly Beat the Heat Challenge prize.

*Ten winners will be announced each Friday and can locate their winning e-Gift Card code in the Message Center of their student page.

TTM National Big Kahuna Grand Prize
Each week that you pass three (3) TTM math lessons, you will receive one automatic entry into a random drawing for the TTM National Big Kahuna Grand Prize consisting of a solar powered backpack, a Fire 7″, 8 GB Tablet, a journal, pencils, and a TTM t-shirt.

The more weeks that you PASS 3 math lessons, the more entries you will earn to go back to school in style with the coolest technology. There will be 10 National Big Kahuna Grand Prize winners!

*National Big Kahuna Grand Prize winners will be announced at the conclusion of the contest and the prize pack will be hand delivered by a TTM Representative to the students 2016-17 attending school.

 

Summer Reading Recommendations

Dear parents,

in reading class today, my students made their summer reading wish lists. Tomorrow, they will receive information about their summer required reading project from ACPS middle schools, which will be sent home in their report card envelope at the end of the year.

I just wanted to give you all some of the resources I shared with students today so you can be prepared in case over the summer there is ever a dull moment when your child does not have an inspiring book to read!

Goodreads has tons of recommended books lists. I would recommend using caution with any of their lists labeled “teen” or “YA” as many of the topics are of a nature that may be inappropriate for kids their age. This link takes you to a series of Goodreads lists of books for “tweens” that many were interested in today.

Also, the American Library Association has published this list of recommended reading for “tweens” this summer. 

Not that it’s goodbye yet! Happy book shopping/library hunting 🙂

5th Grade Math: SOL test begins tomorrow!

This post relates to any students in 5th grade math.
Part one of the Math SOL is tomorrow, Thursday, June 2. This section is the shorter section but is computation-heavy. No calculators are used for this section.  Homework tonight is to get some exercise, get a good night’s sleep, and have a good breakfast. Time to rock the test!

The second and final portion of the test will be on Friday, June 3.

All students in 6th grade math will be taking their SOL test in one sitting, on Friday, June 3.

Thank you!

TAG and 5th Writing: Big news!

Dear parents,

this post relates to all students who have me as their writing teacher, TAG 4th/5th AND 5th grade writing 4th block.

As of today, students have just been introduced to and have logged in for the first time to their very own learning blog! They are beginning to customize their blogs by changing the theme. As the rest of the year progresses (and into next year, for 4th graders) they will be able to use their blog as a public place to post their writing and reflections of their learning.

You can find your child’s blog by going to this website and finding your child’s name along the right hand side. Their name links to their blog!

I encourage you to have your child show you how to log in to their blog and what they anticipate using it for. Please, as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Math 5 Update

Dear families,

I hope this weather finds you well! This post relates to my 3rd block math class.

Our class has just started using Think Through Math, a personalized online supplemental math program. All students began by taking a “placement test”, an adaptive test that determined what areas of strength students have as well as any gaps or challenges in all the strands of math.

The program then will take them through a series of lessons with practices designed to build up their background knowledge and help them take on more challenging problems. Games, points and badges are built into the program for motivation, and students can even donate their points to a charity to give back to the world!

I have attached a copy of the parent letter that went home today. Your child has a unique login with username and password that he/she should have written on your letter. Please ask your child about it and have them show you how it works!

One way to support your child’s math development at home would be to encourage him/her to work on TTM (Think Through Math) at least one afternoon/evening per week at home for 15-20 minutes. Thank you for your support!

Think Through Math Parent Letter

Writing 5 Update

Dear families,

this post relates to my 4th block 5th grade writing class.

Students are busily planning their research paper drafts! They have gathered and organized information with a note-taking technology called Google Keep, and they are currently writing outlines to plan the organization of each of the sections of their research papers.

Due to scheduling constraints, for the weeks of April 11-15 and 18-22 we will have to pause on our writing projects to use our writing time to review some math, so that all students have time to be adequately prepared for their math SOL. During that time, I’ll encourage students to continue writing on their own each day. I’ll be giving them more information and getting back in touch as this week ends.

Presently, we are in the middle of a word study unit, and students are really thinking through the parts of the words and the meanings of the roots that are in them! We have our word study test this Friday, April 8. We will have word study homework today (Monday) and Wednesday, April 6.

As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns.

TAG 4/5 Writing Update

Dear families,

this post relates to the 2nd block 4th/5th grade TAG Writing class.

This week students are beginning to build drafts of their research essays. Due to scheduling constraints, for the weeks of April 11-15 and 18-22 our class time will be used for math review to help all students prepare for their math SOL tests. This means that we will be pausing on our research projects for those two weeks. Please encourage your child to continue writing on his/her own for those two weeks. More info and ideas will be forthcoming at the end of the week.

Ms. Brannigan came today, and she has given the students a few assignments that will be due on Tuesday, April 26, and they are described below.

  1. Create 7 Wordles, one for each of the terms below.
    1. There should be a wordle for each of: subject, predicate, noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, preposition
    2. Each wordle should have:
      1. A definition for that term, with each word separated by hyphens (-)
      2. 15-20 examples of that term
  2. Write 6 sentences from your reading each week.
    1. I will provide students a template that they can use to write the sentences from their reading (they don’t have it yet but I’ll give it to them tomorrow)
    2. Separate and label the subject and predicate in each sentence
    3. Identify the part of speech that each word in the sentence is (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection)

She also asked the students to think about a grammar story that she’ll have them write after the 26th. Students will be writing a story using the different parts of speech as the “characters”, so she has asked the students to start brainstorming for the theme they would like to use for their stories.

Thank you for all your support! As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

TAG 5 Reading Update

Dear families,

This post relates to the 5th grade TAG Reading class, first block of the day.

We have begun a new book! We are reading the book  A Long Way from Chicago as an entire class this week and next week, and we are doing some exciting projects with it. Today we created tableaus of the first few chapters of the book. In the coming days students will rewrite the lyrics to the traditional song “Camptown Races” to reflect the main events of each chapter of the song. Maybe your child will sing their new song for you when it’s finished..!

Below are the page deadlines for the book. Please note that we are moving through it quickly because it’s a pretty short book!

 

Pages and chapter title: Be finished before class on…
1-16: Shotgun Cheatham’s Last Night Above Ground Tuesday, March 29
17-35: The Mouse in the Milk Tuesday, March 29
37-59: One-Woman Crime Wave Tuesday, March 29
61-78: The Day of Judgment Wednesday, March 30
79-99: The Phantom Brakeman Thursday, March 31
101-120: Things with Wings Friday, April 1
121-148: Centennial Summer and The Troop Train (end of the book) Monday, April 4

Exciting Writing Opportunities

Hi families,

This post is for any and all of my students!

There are a few writing opportunities of which I have recently been made aware that I have been meaning to share with you. I apologize for not sending this out much sooner!

  • ACPS poetry contest! Students are encouraged to participate in the ACPS poetry contest – they may write a poem in any form, but may only write on one side of the page that they use. Students should turn submissions in to me by Wednesday, March 16
  • Northern VA Writing Project Saturday Workshops: There have been a few that I neglected to write to you about in time, but there is one coming up on Saturday, April 2 at the GMU Fairfax Campus. 9:00a-1:00p; $70 for new students, $65 for returning. More info/register online
  •  Northern VA Writing Project Summer Institute: July 11-22 (M-F only), 9:00a-1:00 p at GMU Fairfax Campus. Application deadline March 30. More info/apply online

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks to Ms. Sangare for the heads-up about the Northern VA Writing Project events!

TAG Reading 5 Update

Dear families,

this post relates to my first block TAG Reading 5th grade class.

We are diving in to short nonfiction reading! Students are practicing some important skills as we read shorter articles in preparation for research reading coming up:

  • identifying text features
  • finding main ideas and details
  • identifying and analyzing text structures
  • distinguishing between fact and opinion
  • starting to pick out bias
  • identifying author’s tone
  • summarizing and paraphrasing

Please encourage your child to continue reading a meal book every day on his or her own at home all month, as we do not have assigned books right now.

February has all but ended – please discuss with your child whether or not he/she met his/her reading goal and why! We will be making new reading goals for the month of March in the coming week in class.

Students just took the test on Wordly Wise Unit 7 on Friday, February 26, and that is coming home to be signed. Some students need to re-take the test this coming Friday, March 4 as they scored below 70%. If this is your child, please encourage him/her to study throughout the week as we will not spend class time on the words from that lesson. This week we have just begun lesson 8, on which we will have our test on Friday, March 11.